The Department of Comparative Literature has expanded and formalized its Italian doctoral specialization. Since Spring 1995, students have been able to follow a course of study that enables them to develop specific competence in all periods of Italian literature and in Italian linguistics. At the same time it stresses the importance of a comparative basis of inquiry and analysis. Graduates of this program are trained to study and teach Italian within an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective: to situate authors and movements vis-a-vis parallel histories and cultural institutions; to be familiar with rhetorical conventions that transcend national cultures; and to be conversant in traditional and contemporary theory and critical methods. Also, they are trained, with the careful supervision of colleagues in the CUNY college system, to teach Italian at elementary and intermediate levels. We believe that such an approach will produce graduates particularly well equipped to meet the demands of today's academic market and to further the study of the Italian language and literature in North America. The Italian Faculty includes Professors Peter Carravetta (Italian poetry and philosophy), Clare Carroll (Renaissance literature), William Coleman (Boccaccio, Textual Scholarship, 14th Century Italian and English Literature), Giuseppe Di Scipio (Dante and the 14th Century), Paolo Fasoli (16th and 17th Italian Literature), Hermann Haller (Italian linguistics and dialectology), Giancarlo Lombardi (19th and 20th century Italian, French, English, and American Literature; Italian Film and Cultural Studies; Film Theory; Literary Theory; Gender Studies) and Eugenia Paulicelli (Italian literature and the visual arts, gender studies, cultural studies). For information regarding application deadlines, scholarship opportunities, and specific requirements, contact: Prof. Hermann W. Haller, Head, Doctoral Specialization in Italian Ph.D. Program in Comparative Literature CUNY Graduate Center 365 Fifth Ave. New York, NY 10016 (212) 817-8165