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Major Representatives

The major representatives, commonly called major reps, are chosen each year by the Chair of the Transnational Italian Studies Department. These students officially represent the majors to the department faculty and other students. They are available to talk with students informally about the Italian major and to serve as a resource for declared majors as they complete work in the major. Representatives may bring issues to the department on behalf of majors. They also help organize department events. On the occasion of a search for a faculty member or the case of a reappointment, tenure, or promotion of a faculty member of the department, the major representatives assist the department and the College in soliciting and evaluating student views about the candidates or the case.

• 2024-25 ITAL Major Representatives 

  • Eleanor Tylor '25
  • Lilian Belzer '25

See  l'archivio storico 2013-2022 dell' (by the Italianiste di ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø) to discover the recent history of Italian Studies at ²ÝÁñ³ÉÈËÉçÇø.

On the major/minor experience

• Matthew Reichwein HC '20 on his ITAL thesis.. 
• MJ Johnson '16 on her ITAL minor.
• Sofia Bella Vitale Gilles '13 on ITAL major. 

Study Abroad in Italy (Junior Year)

• Matthew Reichwein, HC '20:  "Il mio tempo in Sorrento Italia è stato meraviglioso (2018) – le classi, i viaggi dappertutto, e le interazioni con tutti gli italiani, particolarmente la famiglia con cui vivevo e i parenti che ho incontrato in Calabria! Non vedo l’ora di tornare in Italia. Il video vi dà tutti i highlights del mio tempo, ma spero di raccontarvi tutto in più dettagli quando ritornerò nell’autunno." 

Scholarships and Awards

• Sankeerthna Vedamtam '24: "I was very fortunate to receive the Bimonte Family Italian Scholarship from the Coccia Foundation at the end of my junior year (spring of 2023). I ended up using the funds to purchase several primary-language source materials. Specifically, I indulged, so to speak, in obtaining the original editions of "L’amore rubato" and "Bagheria," both written by Dacia Maraini. Several aspects combined to make these the two texts I was so interested in analyzing. For one, there was the incredible deep dive into Maraini’s works that the Italian 102 class had taken in Spring 2022 (much love to my classmates). In the second place, my training in cultural psychology made me uniquely excited to examine the author's oeuvre through these interdisciplinary lenses. In short, this scholarship provided me with the pathway to start independent post-graduate research by facilitating access to the literature in question. It was a fantastic aid, and I would highly recommend more people apply."

Honor Theses and Research Projects (Senior Year)

Senior honors Theses and Senior Research ProJects in Italian 

The SITE Teaching Program in Italy (Post Graduation)

• Laura Silla '14, now MD in Neurology. . And read more about her 
• ​Allegra Flechter '12: "After graduation, I spent two incredible years of my life in Milan, in northern Italy, with the SITE Program. Once past the initial culture shock and homesickness, I found myself right at home in this simultaneously busy and laid-back city. I had to decide to push past my comfort zone in many areas, and the resulting personal growth was more than worth it. Italy takes a combination of diligent preparation and winging it, and you have to be okay with things not going as planned. I became a natural at lazy strolls, ice-cream in hand of course, marveling again and again at the incredible architecture and landscaping around me. I met friends who have become family, I tried incredible cuisine, I am now a bit of a fashionista, and I have a repertoire of wonderful experiences I love telling my students of Italian. Nothing worth anything comes easy, but considering how incredible Milan was, my time there just might be the exception."
• Cindy Columbus '14: "I worked at a high school called Istituto Salvador Allende in Milan. My job was to encourage speaking as much as possible in the classroom with dialogues, debates, games, discussions, etc. I think the best lesson I did was one in which I brought in a bunch of clothing and had the students create and act out dialogues as if they were at a store shopping. Outside of the classroom, I found that one challenging aspect of participating in SITE was building up my social life. Starting off, the only person my age that I knew was the other American teaching assistant at my school, and my only commitment was the 12 hours of teaching required each week by the program. Some of the things that I did to change this were: 1) Joining a local gym. 2) Seeking out opportunities for giving private lessons. 3) Contacting and meeting up with other SITE assistants placed in Milan. 4) Looking for and attending events to meet locals. (Every Thursday, I went to a popular English-speaking happy hour at a bar and always met lots of Italians there.) There are plenty of ways to build a community in the city you're placed in. You just have to put in the effort! Overall, I really enjoyed my year in Milan and would be happy to answer any questions people have about my experience." Click here for more! 

Stories by Alumnae

• Lilian Belzer '25 and Sofia Cirone '25 translated the book "The Titulus Crucis on Michelangelo's Crucifix" by Marco Zini from Italian into English under the supervision of Prof. Stefano Baldassarri, Director at ISI Florence. Click Here To Read!
• Sankeerthna Vedamtam '24 opened up a free and open website in which she recommends, presents, and analyzes a range of international movies, including Italian and Indian films.  
• Lake Sanchez '24 and Renata del Vecchio '25 authored a podcast on Dacia Maraini's "Marina è caduta per le scale". 
• Alani Hicks-Bartlett '05, Ph.D. UC Berkeley 2016, Assistant Professor at Brown University, was awarded the Huntington Library Fellowship with a project titled Topic: Writing the Disabled Self in Early Modern Literature: Petrarch, Montaigne, Cervantes.
• Rebecca Fisher '18 co-founded "Beyond the Bell Tours", a company which offers historical tours of Philadelphia centered around women, people of color and the LGBTQ+ community, a company that offers historical tours of Philadelphia centered around women, people of color, and the LGBTQ+ community.  
• Hallie Novak '19 is an ELL Teacher. .
• Emilia Otte '18 is Deputy Editor at The Connecticut Examiner. 
• Laura Silla '14 is MD in Neurology. “I translated rare and ancient Italian medical and scientific texts into English for worldwide access while obtaining insight into international and historical medicine, patient care, and scientific scholarship abroad from Università degli Studi di Firenze Biblioteca Biomedica". .
• Allegra Flechter '12 published a book of poems, "Daisy Chains": "At the core, this is meant to be a coming together. Like a wild daisy field. Less an orderly working out of the frayed and frazzled edges of the tapestry of my psyche, and more a celebration of what emerges when I am ok letting the edges settle as they will".  
• Jessi Harvey '09 is a freelance composer and music teacher. Their compositions take inspiration from science and nature, and integrate social curiosity, humor, and a love of knowledge." .