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Major · Area, Ethnic & Gender Studies

Study Italy, the Italian diaspora, and the arts and ideas it produced

Italian Studies examines the history, politics, culture, and economics of modern Italy and its historical predecessors on the Italian Peninsula, including the overseas migrations of Italian peoples. About 26 bachelor's degrees are awarded annually across 37 colleges, with strong concentrations at Bucknell, Dickinson, and Loyola Chicago.

Schools offering
37
Annual completions
26
Typical degree level
Bachelor's
Median earnings (5yr)
$59k

About this major

Italian Studies focuses on the history, society, politics, culture, and economics of modern Italy and its predecessors on the Italian Peninsula, including the overseas migrations of Italian peoples. The curriculum blends advanced Italian-language work with seminars on Italian art and architecture, literature and film, history from the Roman period through the present, and contemporary political and economic issues. A typical semester might pair a reading course in Calvino or Dante with a course on Renaissance art, a seminar on Italian cinema, and study abroad in Florence, Rome, or Bologna. Art history and cultural-heritage courses are prominent because Italian artistic tradition is central to how the discipline defines itself.

This is a small major. About 26 bachelor's degrees are awarded annually across 37 colleges, with Bucknell, Dickinson, and Loyola Chicago leading in recent completions at 4 graduates each. The institutional profile skews toward liberal-arts colleges, Jesuit universities, and research universities with strong Italian departments — Wesleyan, Bowdoin, Wellesley, and UT Austin also appear in the top ten. Students are typically committed language learners who want a humanities major grounded in a specific cultural tradition rather than either a broad European studies track or a literature-only focus. Bachelor's completers in the broader 05.01 area-studies family report five-year median earnings around $58,500.

The one career directly mapped to this CIP code is area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary, an $84,290 median wage role with a doctoral degree as typical entry. Real-world destinations are wider: museum and cultural-heritage work, art history, translation, international business in Italy or with Italian partners, the Italian cultural-goods sector (fashion, design, food and wine, tourism), law, and graduate study in art history, comparative literature, or Italian. The degree is distinctively positioned for work in cultural institutions and in the commercial ecosystem that surrounds Italian heritage and design.

Section 3 · Careers

Where this major leads

Occupations most often associated with this major, from the federal BLS+O*NET crosswalk. Job-growth projections and median wages are national.

Occupation Median wage Job growth Typical education
Area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary $84k +2.4% Doctoral or professional degree
Section 4 · Earnings

Earnings at a glance

Median graduate earnings from the federal College Scorecard, 5 and 10 years out.

Median 5-year earnings

$59k

Who this major is for

You may thrive here if you want serious Italian-language proficiency combined with deep engagement with Italian art, history, and culture, if the prospect of study abroad in Italy genuinely excites you and you'll treat it as central to the program, if museum and cultural-heritage work, art history, or the Italian design and hospitality sectors sound like destinations you'd seek out, and if you enjoy moving between literary analysis, historical research, and art criticism in the same semester. A specific research interest — Renaissance painting, postwar Italian cinema, fascist-era politics — is a strong signal that the major will reward you.

Think twice if you want a major with a direct job pipeline at a strong starting wage. The one mapped occupation, postsecondary teaching, requires a doctorate, and most non-academic paths work best with a master's layered on top. Think twice also if the small program footprint is a concern — 37 colleges and roughly 26 annual completions means the program's quality depends heavily on specific faculty and departmental strength at your institution. And think twice if your interest in Italy is mainly experiential — food, travel, lifestyle — without an academic center of gravity. The curriculum is language-demanding and textually rigorous in exactly the areas where students without that orientation tend to lose motivation.

Section 6 · Where to study

Top colleges for Italian Studies

Ranked by annual completions at the associate's or bachelor's level — a proxy for program scale.

College Location Assoc. Bach. Total
Bucknell University Lewisburg, PA 0 4 4
Dickinson College Carlisle, PA 0 4 4
Loyola University Chicago Chicago, IL 0 4 4
The University of Texas at Austin Austin, TX 0 3 3
Connecticut College New London, CT 0 2 2
Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME 0 2 2
Wellesley College Wellesley, MA 0 1 1
University of California-Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, CA 0 1 1
College of Staten Island CUNY Staten Island, NY 0 1 1
Wesleyan University Middletown, CT 0 1 1
Section 7 · Explore sideways

Related majors to explore

American/United States Studies/Civilization

721 completions/yr

Area Studies, Other

451 completions/yr

Asian Studies/Civilization

433 completions/yr

East Asian Studies

220 completions/yr

Latin American Studies

130 completions/yr

Near and Middle Eastern Studies

97 completions/yr

African Studies

80 completions/yr

French Studies

52 completions/yr
Section 9 · Frequently asked

Common questions

What do Italian Studies majors actually study day-to-day?
The major combines advanced Italian language with interdisciplinary coursework on Italian history, art, literature, film, political institutions, and contemporary society. Students read Dante, Calvino, and modern Italian fiction; analyze Renaissance and modern Italian art; and work through courses on the Roman and early-modern periods, unification, fascism, and postwar politics. Most programs require study abroad — often in Florence, Rome, or Bologna — and strong language proficiency is typically an end-of-program expectation.
How common is this major?
Small. About 26 bachelor's completions are reported annually across 37 colleges — typically one or two graduates per program per year. Top producers include Bucknell, Dickinson, and Loyola Chicago at 4 completions each. The major is most often found at liberal-arts colleges, Jesuit institutions, and research universities with historical Italian-department strength.
What careers do Italian Studies majors go into?
The only career directly mapped to this CIP is area, ethnic, and cultural studies teachers, postsecondary — an $84,290 median wage role that requires a doctoral degree. In practice, graduates move into careers in international business, museum and cultural-heritage work, art history and curation, translation, hospitality and luxury goods (fashion, wine, tourism), and graduate study in art history, comparative literature, or Italian. Bachelor's completers in the broader area-studies family report five-year median earnings around $58,500.
Do I need a graduate degree?
For academic careers, yes — a doctorate is typical for postsecondary teaching. For museum or curatorial work, a master's in art history or museum studies is often expected. For careers in translation, international business, or the Italian cultural-goods sector (fashion, wine, hospitality), the bachelor's with strong language proficiency is typically sufficient, though many students add a targeted master's. The degree functions as a serious humanities credential, not a vocational one.
Should I study Italian language instead?
Depends on what you want. A pure Italian language/literature major concentrates on linguistics, literary criticism, and language proficiency. Italian Studies is interdisciplinary — history, art, politics, economics — with language as a tool rather than the object of study. If your center of gravity is literary Italian or comparative literature, the language major fits. If you want to understand Italy as a place — its art, its politics, its place in Europe — the area-studies track is the better match.