Italian Studies at Liverpool is a rapidly growing subject and is now available as a Single Honours, Major, Joint or Minor subject. As Major, Joint or Minor subject, Italian can be studied in combination with both linguistic and non-language subjects to offer you the benefits and enhanced employability that language skills and intercultural awareness provide.

The Italian language carries an unparalleled cultural capital. Whilst according to UNESCO over 60% of the world’s art treasures are found in Italy, around the world the long history of Italian migration underlies food, arts, sport, fashion, tourism and heritage industries in millions of local enterprises and ventures. Italian culture is truly global and testifies to the human passion for learning and making art, beauty and history.

Italian at Liverpool has a distinctive approach to help you become highly proficient in Italian and critically understand its history and culture: one that develops the ability of students to engage confidently with Italian language, history and culture inside and outside Italy, in the Italian peninsula as well as in the context in which students live and study.

By learning about history, sociolinguistics, film and literature through the lens of Italian, our students develop a crucial set of linguistic and cultural skills to navigate the transcultural processes of the of the world in which they live.

In close association with staff’s research expertise and interests, modules explore Italian language – including translation and interpreting – linguistics, cultural history, cinema, contemporary fiction, popular culture, post-colonial and transcultural studies. Extracurricular activities include film screenings and social activities as well as an annual Italian themed public event, the Lucrezia Zaina Bequest Lecture, which brings to Liverpool inspiring contemporary figures associated with Italian culture from around the world.

The Italian subject group at Liverpool consists predominantly of tutors and language assistants with Italian as their first language. We continue to work on the expansion of both academic and business links with Italy to assist during the Year Abroad.

We are justifiably proud of our excellent record on graduate employment. Our graduates go on to careers in all sectors worldwide. These include the media, industry and commerce, finance, local and central government, administration, translation, interpreting and teaching in schools and universities.

Many of our students also undertake postgraduate study, either in our own department or for example, on a PGCE translation or law conversion course. All students have the opportunity to gain employability skills and work experience and we work closely with Careers & Employability to ensure that the curriculum delivers the skills that graduate employers are looking for.