LIS (Italian Sign Language)

The aim of the course, taught only in LIS, is to introduce the students to a visual-gestural language that uses sight, hands, facial expressions, and the entire body in order to communicate, and to understand and produce basic sentences of everyday conversation. The course is based on the learning LIS and on the knowledge of basic grammar and fundamental vocabulary.

Italian Deaf Culture

This course examines the History, Culture and Education of the Italian Deaf Community from a multidisciplinary perspective. The course will explore the sociological meanings of culture and community and their application to the Deaf community in general. We will focus on the history and the educational experience of deaf people in Italy and in Siena where there is one of the oldest Residential School for the Deaf, founded in 1828 by priest Tommaso Pendola. It is a school recognized by all the Italian Deaf Community. Now it is no more a school but it is used as place where deaf students could go to get tutored in school subjects during the afternoon. The Education of the Deaf in Italy is strongly related to the development of the Italian Sign Language (LIS), students will receive the sociological and cultural tolls that allow them to understand and reflect on the Deaf way of life and the historical evolution of the Italian Deaf Community and Culture.