The Italian program offers the master of arts and PhD degrees. In most academic years, a wide array of courses and seminars is offered each semester to provide an even distribution across various literary periods. Courses typically meet two or three times a week and are broad in focus, generally exploring well-defined periods or genres. Seminars are held once a week for two hours and take up narrower topics in greater depth. Typical course offerings over a two- to three-year period cover all centuries of Italian literature and a wide variety of topics, including Italian culture, cinema, civilization, and linguistics. Strong emphasis is placed on the practice of the language; Italian is the usual language of instruction in graduate courses and seminars.<br><br>Graduate students gain a solid foundation not only in scholarship and criticism, but also in teaching. All admitted students receive guarantees of support. The standard offer to an incoming teaching assistant provides a guarantee of four or five years of support, depending on whether the student has already done graduate work elsewhere.