Italian Studies Doctoral Track

The PhD track in Italian Studies emphasizing Italian literature and culture from a solid historical and theoretical perspective. Our program takes advantage of five regular-rank professors of Italian from the Department of Romance Studies, and of the affiliated faculty in departments and programs such as Art History, Cultural Anthropology, English, Film/Video/Digital Studies, History, International Comparative Area Studies, Literature, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Religious Studies, Women’s Studies and Theater Studies.  Flexible in design, a student's individual course of study is developed in close and regular consultation with members of the faculty in order to provide a meaningful curriculum that responds to a student's particular interests and strengths, while preparing the student in all the relevant and necessary fields of Italian Studies.

The Duke Difference

The Duke Department of Romance Studies has a nationally and internationally recognized faculty of specialists in many fields and critical methods. The Duke learning environment  includes exceptional library and computer facilities in the humanities, including the Franklin Humanities Institute and the nearby National Humanities Center, which organize many events of relevance for scholars of Italian Studies. Perkins Library, one of the nation's major research libraries, houses among others the Guido Mazzoni Collection, which comprises over 49,000 rare and hard-to-find Italian pamphlets, newspapers, clippings, small volumes, librettos, epithalamia, and broadsides from the late Sixteenth century to 1943. Also regularly accessible to our students are the resources of, as well as the classes offered by, the nearby Italian Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, listed here, and those available at our affiliated program at the University of Bologna.