Italian and Persian

Studying Italian and Persian at degree level places you at the meeting point of two of the world's great cultural and literary traditions. Italian carries within it the heritage of ancient Rome, the Renaissance, Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch, the foundations of European humanism, while Persian, one of the world's oldest literary languages, gave rise to Rumi, Hafez, and Ferdowsi, and remains central to the cultures of Iran, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia. Together they offer an extraordinary breadth of historical reach and geographical range.

At the University of Oxford, this four-year full-time degree gives you the opportunity to develop high-level proficiency in both languages from the ground up or to build on existing knowledge, depending on your starting point. You will engage with texts, films, and cultural artefacts from across the histories of both traditions, studying language structure and usage alongside literature, history, and cultural analysis. Oxford's tutorial system, in which much of your learning happens through close discussion with subject specialists, ensures that you develop the critical and analytical rigour expected at this level.

The programme requires commitment to genuine depth in both languages, and rewards it with a dual competence that is genuinely rare.

Graduates who have studied both Italian and Persian hold an unusual and highly valued combination of linguistic and cultural knowledge. Career paths include diplomacy, international affairs, translation and interpreting, academia, journalism, heritage and cultural work, and roles in organisations with interests in the Middle East, Central Asia, or the Mediterranean world. Many graduates continue to doctoral research in Italian studies, Persian studies, or comparative literature.

The analytical precision and cross-cultural sensitivity the degree develops are valued far beyond languages careers.