Italian and Russian

Italian and Russian are two of the richest literary languages in the European tradition, each the vehicle for bodies of poetry, fiction, drama and thought that have shaped how the modern world understands itself. Italian opens the works of Dante, Petrarch, Leopardi and Calvino, the art and culture of the Renaissance, and the contemporary culture of one of Europe's most significant economies. Russian opens Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Pushkin, Chekhov and Akhmatova, the turbulent history of twentieth-century Russia, and the geopolitical questions that make Russian one of the most important languages a student can study today.

Learning both is an ambitious undertaking, and doing so at Oxford means doing it within one of the finest language teaching environments in the world.

This four-year programme at the University of Oxford develops your proficiency in both Italian and Russian to an advanced level, building your abilities in reading, writing, speaking and listening alongside deep engagement with the literary and cultural traditions of both countries. You will read major texts in the original, developing close reading skills and the critical vocabulary to argue precisely about what you encounter. The tutorial system means your work is scrutinised and challenged by scholars who are active researchers in the fields you are studying, providing an intellectually demanding environment that is difficult to replicate elsewhere.

As your languages develop, the programme draws you deeper into the histories, cultures and intellectual traditions that they carry.

Graduates go on to work in diplomacy, international organisations, translation and interpreting, publishing, journalism, cultural institutions, international business, the civil service and academic research. The combination of Italian and Russian reflects serious intellectual range, and it marks you out to employers and graduate programmes as someone with unusual linguistic breadth and commitment. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in one or both traditions, or in translation, cultural history or international relations.