Humanities
PHD

The Ph.D. in Humanities aims to train students in original and innovative basic and field scientific research, to prepare professionals for careers in research, teaching at the university level, covering leadership roles in social policy development and implementation, and new professions related to the multiple aspects that define the human.

During the Ph.D. program the student is expected to:

- acquire high-level skills through the in-depth study of one of the research areas included in the curricular program;
- acquire research and data analysis methodologies and techniques useful to their field of study
- design and carry out original research;
- engage in activities to communicate their results (e.g. through presentations at conferences and symposia and through scientific publications);
- write a thesis and discuss it orally at the end of the three years.

The Ph.D. also offers the opportunity to acquire specific knowledge and skills in advanced areas of research, combining the proposed teaching activities with the direct involvement of Ph.D. students in the development of project ideas and in the conduct and realization of research activities.

The Ph.D. program provides for the acquisition of transversal skills that facilitate the application, development and transfer of scientific knowledge of the specific course of study, so as to be functional both for research activity and for entry into the world of work.
The goal of internationalization, inbound and outbound, is ensured by a stay abroad of at least three months, training oriented to provide skills to facilitate the international circulation of research results, the seminar activity of visiting professors invited annually, the possibility of co-tutels with foreign universities and through the incentive to participate in summer/winter schools.

Co-tutels are currently active for XXXVIII cycle with Universidade São Paulo and Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon.

Curricula

1. COMMUNICATION SCIENCES AND DIGITAL CULTURE

The aim of the Communication Sciences and Digital Culture curriculum is to offer advanced training in the study of contemporary cultural and communication processes, focusing in particular on new digital cultures and technologies.
The curriculum proposes to provide Ph.D. students with theoretical and interdisciplinary research skills combining media and communication studies, internet studies, cultural studies also from a comparative perspective, performance studies, semiotic studies, cinema and television studies, and gender studies.
The Ph.D. students will acquire qualitative and quantitative methodological tools and will deal with innovative research methods oriented toward the changes in the digital society.
The course thus aims to prepare highly specialized figures in the analysis of audiences, media industries, media texts, consumer practices and imaginaries, public communication, and information, who are able to develop and enhance research work in academic, institutional, and corporate settings.

2. CLASSICAL STUDIES

The Sciences of Ancient Text curriculum focuses on the study of literary texts in poetry and prose from ancient Greece, as well as on the study of the society and civilization that over time fostered and stimulated their production. Complementary to the supervised research work and to the cross-curricular teaching, the course provides disciplinary and specialized training that aims to develop and deepen the philological, linguistic, translating, metrical, and other technical skills of the doctoral student, as well as skills in the most recent trends and methods of literary criticism and close reading in relation to the ancient text. At the end of the course, students will be able to deal with the elaboration of a critical-literary essay, a historical-literary survey, or a proper critical edition with methodological rigor, adequate technical preparation, and awareness of the studies in the field.

3. HISTORICAL SCIENCES IN THE CONTEMPORARY AGE

The curriculum in Contemporary History develops the analysis of historical phenomena of medium and long duration on a national and international scale, through the categories of political, cultural, social, economic, and institutional history.
The aim of the Ph.D. program is to develop an aptitude for historical research, favoring research into contemporary history in its various aspects: global history, political and social history of Italy, Europe, and non-European countries; history of the Italian and European political system; history of political movements and parties; cultural history. Doctoral students will have to demonstrate that they have mastered the historical and historiographical debate and are able to develop research, including comparative research, through the in-depth study of significant case studies. By means of a specific background (bibliography, archive sources, printed sources, parliamentary sources, etc.) doctoral students will arrive at the end of the course with the draft of a final paper, capable of demonstrating the ability to move critically and consciously in the understanding of historical events, with the prospect of acquiring the tools to interpret even the complexity of the present time.

4. HUMAN SCIENCES

The curriculum in Human Sciences is characterized by a multidisciplinary approach that allows the experience of the individual to be analyzed from a threefold philosophical, pedagogical, and psychological perspective. The main objective of the curriculum concerns advanced theoretical and methodological training in research (basic, applied, and conceptual) with particular emphasis on the development of autonomous research skills and the possible applicative spin-offs declined according to the disciplinary contexts of reference.
The Ph.D. students must demonstrate a critical capacity in relation to the main methodological issues inherent to the subject area of the research project, but also to be able to contextualize the same critical issues in interdisciplinary terms.
The students' research project although anchored to the specificities (of objectives methodological and content) of a single discipline must therefore maintain an interdisciplinary and wide-ranging from the point of view of its framing and reflection with respect to the results achieved.

The Ph.D. program includes activities common to all curricula where doctoral students are called upon to compare and work together. These educational workshops include: perfecting English language for the humanities, humanities informatics, research dissemination and exploitation, and principles of inclusiveness and gender equality in universities.

In addition to these joint training opportunities, there are cross-curricular seminars with national and international speakers and further training on open science issues organized by the Italian Reproducibility Network (to which the doctoral program adheres), and periodic seminars in which faculty and doctoral students discuss current research.

Activities are organized over the three years as follows:

-The first year is devoted to defining the research project and obtaining the skills preparatory to carrying out the dissertation course; training activities, especially transversal and methodological training, are concentrated in this year;

-The activities of the second year are aimed at mentoring individual research work, facilitating group research work with experienced researchers, and fostering the mobility and internationalization of doctoral students; internationalization is promoted by having doctoral students spend a period of at least 3 months at a foreign university or research institute and through a special 10 CFU module in which doctoral students are assisted in writing a paper in English to be presented at an international conference or journal.

-The third year is devoted to thesis writing and dissemination activities; therefore, PhD activities will focus on opportunities for presentation and discussion related to the latest advances.

The updating and monitoring of the Ph.D. program makes use of internal annual periodic evaluation procedures that poll students and former Ph.D. students and the Board of Advisors composed of:

-    Douglas S. Olson, Professor of Classical & Near Eastern Religions & Cultures, University of Minnesota
-    Jesús de la Villa, Presidente International Federation of Associations of Classical Studies (FIEC)
-    Andra Siibak, Professor of Media Studies, Institute of Social Studies, University of Tartu
-    Andrea Fagnoni, Chief Client Officer IPSOS
-    Xavier Tabet, professore ordinario Département d’études italiennes dell’Université Vincennes-Saint-Denis (Paris 8)
-    Roberto Giulianelli, Istituto Storia Marche di Ancona
-    Dr. Giorgio A. Tasca, C.Psych. Research Chair in Psychotherapy Research, University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital. -Director of Research, Regional Centre for the Treatment of Eating Disorders, The Ottawa Hospital. Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Clinical Professor in Psychology, University of Ottawa.
-    Prof. Antonella Sorace - Linguistics and English Language School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences University of Edinburgh

TRAINING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES OF THE PH.D. PROGRAMME IN HUMANITIES

The teaching activities involve a commitment of at least 60 CFUs, equivalent to at least 120 hours of training. In order to facilitate the flexibility of doctoral students' training and research paths, the CFUs to be achieved are divided into 25 CFUs mandatory for transversal activities, 30 CFUs for specific curricular training, and 5 CFUs that can be chosen from the training activities of other curricula, other doctoral programs of the University or any consortium universities.

PhDs in Humanities will be able to enter the fields of highly specialised intellectual and scientific professions, general management of the state administration and humanitarian, cultural and scientific organisations of national and supranational interest, in particular in the fields of academic research, education, publishing, public and corporate communication.

In particular, on the basis of the skills learnt in the various curricula, they will be able to find professional outlets in the area of learning processes, the development and management of publishing projects or programmes, cultural activities, communication activities with specialisation on the Internet, and activities more specifically linked to cultural and multimedia journalism, to the educational sphere in the perspective of learning in the different ages of life (lifelong learning), to theoretical-empirical research on social, historical, philosophical problems, to empirical research in the field of clinical, developmental and neuroscientific psychology, and finally to the establishment of professionals who can work in the cultural heritage sector in museums, public and private institutions, foundations and associations.