Flavia Laviosa

Flavia Laviosa is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Italian Studies at Wellesley College since 1992. She teaches and coordinates language courses, and teaches a culture course ITAS 211 Introduction to Italian Cultural Studies as well as a film course ITAS 212 Italian Women Directors. She is also responsible for study abroad programs in Italy. She directs the Wintersession program in Rome and the Summer program in Lecce. She was the Director of the Eastern College Consortium (E.C.CO.) in Bologna for the 2000/2001 academic year.

Flavia Laviosa holds a Ph.D. in Foreign Language Education and studied for her Master's Degree in Humanities at SUNY Buffalo. She also studied for a Master's Degree in European Film Studies and Criticism at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. She completed her Italian Laurea in Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University of Bari. Her training of foreign language teachers in the USA, Europe, Mexico, the Republic of South Africa, and the People's Republic of China has helped her to earn international recognition as a Teacher Educator, Supervisor, and Curriculum Consultant. She has elaborated an approach which combines Humanistic and Cognitive theories with Communicative principles of foreign language pedagogy. She develops instructional, multimedia, and interdisciplinary materials for Italian language and culture courses that have been adopted in schools and universities in the USA and abroad. Furthermore, she has been active as an internationally certified Italian Oral Proficiency Trainer and Tester for the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), and Test Developer for the Italian SAT II. Flavia Laviosa is active in presenting and publishing on various pedagogical aspects of foreign language teaching, on the history of the Italian feminist movement, the cinema of Liliana Cavani, Cristina Comencini, Francesca Archibugi, Roberto Benigni, and film directors from the region Puglia.

She was awarded the 1998 Gold Medal by the Federation of Abruzzi Association in the USA for her commitment in academic research and her contribution to the development of Italian culture. Flavia Laviosa is a well-known figure in the Italian-American community in Massachusetts for her dedication to promote the Italian language and culture among the various generations of Italian immigrants in the USA.

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Last Modified: March 9, 2006