ProfessorUrsula Fanning

My teaching is driven by my passion for my subjects - for Italian literature (primarily, though not exclusively, Italian women's writing especially in the 19th and 20th centuries), for Italian culture in the broadest sense, and for the Italian language as a gateway to accessing that culture, and a rich resource for understanding cultural difference.
I am aware that different students learn in different ways, and that teaching needs to be responsive to different learning styles. Involving and engaging students as active participants in class work is central to their (and my own) learning experience. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than to see students who started out with no knowledge of Italian gradually gaining, first competency and then, mastery of the language, alongside an appreciation for and understanding of its cultural context.