As she sits across the table from a portrait of Lorenzo Da Ponte, the first professor of Italian at Columbia University, Barbara Faedda prepares to change the direction of the Italian department with her new seminar, Introduction to Fashion Studies.
Faedda is the executive director of the Italian Academy and an adjunct assistant professor in Columbia’s Italian department. This semester, Faedda is teaching Introduction to Fashion Studies—a seminar for undergraduate students—for the very first time. Faedda’s course is currently Columbia’s only undergraduate course dedicated entirely to the study of fashion.
