Honours in Italian

What is Honours in Italian?

The Honours Course consists of a year’s study, which can be undertaken full-time in 1 year or part-time over three or four semesters. It leads to the award of the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours.

You can begin your Honours course in first semester, or in mid-year, application for which must be made in mid to late May.

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Pre-requisites

You must have a BA degree with at least 72 points at an average of 65% or above. You must have completed a major in Italian. Special approval may be granted by the Convenor of Italian in certain circumstances, if these conditions are not fully met.

The Honours Programme in Italian consists of course work (24 points) and a dissertation (24 points), for a combined total of 48 points.

You can spend time in a university overseas and credit work done there to your UWA Honours degree. UWA has agreements with many universities around the world. In Italy, we have agreements with the University of Bologna, with the Universita Cattolica of Milan and contacts with many other universities.

You can take your Honours Degree in various ways:

(i) Entirely in Italian Studies
or
(ii) Combine Italian with another subject. Various combinations are possible between the coursework and dissertation components and you should contact members of staff of the relevant departments and discuss with them what you would like to do. The main options here are:

(a) "Joint Honours", a roughly equal balance between Italian and the other subject
or
(b) Honours in Italian with the study of one unit in another subject (known officially as a cognate unit).

Staff members are interested and very keen to hear of students' plans and questions, and will offer advice on the best way of structuring an Honours course.

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Structure

The structure of the Honours degree is as follows:

ITAL7479	Hons Dissertation 1	12 pts	(sem. 1)
ITAL7480	Hons Dissertation 2	12 pts	(sem. 2)
ITAL7481	Hons Seminar 1 (language)	6 pts	(sem. 1)
ITAL7482	Hons Seminar 2 (language)	6 pts	(sem. 2)
ITAL7483	Hons Seminar 1 (cultural studies)	6 pts	(sem. 1)
ITAL7484	Hons Seminar 2 (cultural studies)	6 pts	(sem. 2)
	Total:	48 pts

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Coursework in 2009

Language

ITAL7481 (6 points)

ITAL7482 (6 points)

2 hours per week of advanced language study
1 hr per week of oral language work

Cultural Studies Seminars

ITAL7483 (6 points) - semester 1

Sociolinguistics of Modern Italy (A/Prof. J. Kinder)
or
The Literature of the Renaissance (Prof. L. Polizzotto)

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ITAL7484 (6 points) - semester 2

Italy on Screen (Dr M. Caruso)
or
History of Italian Theatre (Mr L. Pinto)

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Dissertation

The Dissertation is a long research essay of 12,000-15,000 words on a topic in Italian literature, history, cultural studies or linguistics. It is written over two semesters and counts for 24 points.

Students should approach members of Italian Studies to discuss various possibilities for their dissertation. They should not be surprised if it takes some time to narrow down the topic. However, preliminary discussions will usually begin by talking "around" various topics before a final decision is made on a topic and on the final choice of a supervisor.

Click here to view a list of recent dissertation topics in Italian Studies.

Italian Studies staff are available to supervise Honours dissertations in the following areas:

Dr Marinella Caruso - Linguistics, Italian Language acquisition, Italian language in Australia
A/Professor John Kinder - Sociolinguistics, Italian language and dialects
Mr Luciano Pinto - Dante and the Middle Ages, Italian theatre, the Settecento, modern Italian literature (narrative and poetry), opera and Italian cinema
Professor Lorenzo Polizzotto - Italian history, social and cultural issues from the Renaissance and to present day Italy.

Writing the dissertation

Your supervisor will help you to identify a topic, plan and carry out research, organize material, structure the argument and formulate findings.

In first semester your supervisor will help you to approach the task of writing a dissertation, and assist you in developing your topic and in presenting it in a scholarly way.

Meetings with your supervisor to discuss the particular problems of your dissertation take place on a regular basis (weekly or fortnightly, in most cases) from the beginning of semester one. Students and supervisors should agree on a time during the first week of semester.

The Honours dissertation is to be submitted by the end of the second teaching semester (for full-time students). It is important that work begin early and be continued throughout the year, so that submission can take place by the due date. The dissertation is examined by two academics (and not by the supervisor), and will be submitted to outside benchmarking.

If you are interested in Honours and would like further information please contact the Honours Coordinator:

Prof. Lorenzo Polizzotto
Room:    2.01
Phone:   6488 2156
Fax:       6488 2181
Email:   lpolizzo@cyllene.uwa.edu.au

Dissertation presentation

The Title page must contain this statement and follow this format:

Thesis submitted in European Languages and Studies (Italian Studies) at the University of Western Australia in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honours.

Name of Candidate:

Supervised by:

Year:

On the second page of the dissertation, before the Table of Contents, you must insert the declaration that the work contained in the dissertation is your own, and duly sign it:

"This dissertation contains no material which has been accepted for any award of any other degree or diploma in any University, and, to the best of my knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by another person, except where due reference is made in the text of the dissertation."

Download the 2009 Honours booklet