The students of Professor Buccini’s Italian 450 class decided to use their language skills to promote the Wisconsin Idea.
Each Monday at 2:30 pm, the class met to translate Carlo Goldoni’s comedic play La famiglia dell’antiquario, which translates to The Antiquarian’s Family. The play, written in 1750, tells the story of a man who collects antiques. It specifically follows the lives of his future daughter-in-law and his wife, and the tension in their relationship.
Buccini’s class combines native English undergraduates and graduate students from Italy. The graduate students work as group leaders to help the Italian undergraduate students perfect their Italian language skills. Meeting in and out of class time, the group of students have worked for the entirety of the semester to translate the play.
Professor Buccini, who is the associate chair and the director for graduate studies for Italian, teaches the class to advanced undergraduate and graduate students entirely in Italian. Her focus area includes 17th, 18th and early 19th century Italian literature and culture. She received the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2013.