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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Dear Members, since times and Italian Studies students are changing, I would be interested to hear about your experiences and decisions concerning introductory courses on 20th- and 21st-century Italy for first-year students. Usually such courses have one or more of the following: * a "historical" component (which may include fascism, the Resistance, the Constitution, the South, the Mafia and the Camorra, the present state of political play); * a "social change" component (women, the family, reproduction issues, migration issues); * a "cultural studies" component (which may include fashion, design, sport, folklore, contemporary music) * a "literary" component. The inevitable questions seem to be (a) what is "essential" and what is "optional", although potentially interesting? (b) can all the components be combined into a coherent whole, or could fragmentation be "built into" the classes? (c) if a historical/ political component is to be part of the course, how to make it palatable to students who may never have had an interest in history or politics? I would very much like to hear what has worked (in terms both of positive reception and of growing interest for Italian culture in subsequent years) and what has not, for members in European countries (closer to Italy) and in the US, Canada, NZ and other countries for whose inhabitants travel to Italy is an infrequent occurrence. Thanks in advance, Mirna Cicioni -- Dr Mirna Cicioni Italian Studies Program School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics Monash University, Clayton Campus Victoria 3800, AUSTRALIA Tel. 61-3-9905-2212 Fax 61-3-9905-5437 ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join italian-studies YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave italian-studies to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies.html