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.