Semester Courses  


Deaf Studies

This course is offered through the Siena Art Institute's partner institution, The Siena School for Liberal Arts.  (availability depends on semester schedule)
SIG101-102 - LIS (Italian Sign Language) & Deaf Culture (Semester Course)
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.

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 Schools 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 can go to get tutored in school subjects in 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 tools that allow them to understand and reflect on the Deaf way of life and the historical evolution of the Italian Deaf Community