Human Studies

The PhD Programme in "Humanities" offers an advanced higher education pathway structured into three curricula: "Philology and Literatures of Antiquity", "Modern and Contemporary Cultures and Literatures", and "Cultural Heritage".

The programme reflects an integrated and complex vision of the humanities, understood as a set of fields of knowledge interconnected on a synchronic, diachronic, and methodological level, as well as open to new digital contexts. Indeed, advanced training in philological, literary, historical, art-historical, archaeological, and demo-ethno-anthropological disciplines is enriched by the mutual contacts between fields, ranging from antiquity to the contemporary era within a framework of innovation and digital transformation.

Furthermore, engagement with the international academic context is promoted to foster exchange and reciprocal relationships.

Specifically, the three curricula are respectively dedicated to:

1. The organic study of antiquity (Altertumswissenschaft), understood as the matrix of national and European culture, through the tools of classical philology and the evidence of Greco-Latin literature, also from the perspective of the reception of the ancient world;
2. The study of modern and contemporary European cultures and literatures, employing approaches aimed at deepening linguistic and communicative aspects, interactions between literary production and other aesthetic forms, and intercultural and intermedial relations;
3. The multidisciplinary study of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, from antiquity to the contemporary era, with a view to deepening archaeological, demo-ethno-anthropological, historical, and art-historical categories, also declined in their digital applications.

The Programme promotes co-tutelle (joint supervision) theses, offering the opportunity to spend a period of at least six months at foreign universities, a period of at least one month at other Italian universities, and—based on the specific research projects carried out—a period of at least six months within Public Administration sectors, institutions, or research centres.

The PhD programme aims to train high-level professionals on a national and international scale, capable of:

• Contextualizing the humanities in light of the interconnected dynamics between disciplines to respond to contemporary challenges within the new European and global context;
• Investigating—through innovative research methodologies and critical approaches that are also attentive to gender issues—the transmission processes of cultural forms and literary texts, from antiquity to the contemporary era, framing their genres, codes, and contexts, and deepening their philological, linguistic, and hermeneutic aspects, including the interactions between literary and extra-literary spaces (archaeological, demo-ethno-anthropological, art-historical), with reference to cultural dynamics considered in both synchronic and diachronic terms;
• Analyzing cultural heritage (archaeological, demo-ethno-anthropological, art-historical) through plural approaches and methods open to digital contributions, looking at their mutual implications and systemic relationships with literary production across tradition, preservation, renewal, and fruition, also with a view to enhancing the territorial identity of Southern Italy (Mezzogiorno) for a sustainable and circular tourism ecosystem;
• Critically engaging with methodologically updated perspectives and approaches in humanities research;
• Applying specialized disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge to projects and initiatives aimed at promoting, communicating, and disseminating humanistic knowledge, also with a view to enhancing existing and historically grounded paths of tradition, circulation, and reception of literary texts and cultural heritage;
• Promoting data dissemination and the exploitation of research results, ensuring open public access in line with the principles of Open Science and FAIR Data;
• Developing advanced training for specialists in cultures, literatures, and cultural heritage, with specific attention to the dynamics of change in cultural and intermedial forms and systems, enabling them to undertake research tasks as well as cultural management at an excellent level within the European context;
• Promoting bilateral and intercultural study pathways to achieve a double or joint degree, based on collaboration agreements already established or to be established with European universities.

• Literatures and cultural heritage: ideas, methods, and models.
• Literatures and cultural heritage: legacy, memory, tradition.
• Literatures and cultural heritage: communication and enhancement.

Other educational activities (seminars, laboratory and research activities, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, and transdisciplinary training)

• Advanced language training
• Advanced IT training
• Research management and knowledge of European and international research systems
• Exploitation and dissemination of results, intellectual property, and open access to research data and products
• Fundamental principles of ethics, gender equality, and integrity
• Seminars
• Laboratory activities

All Master's degrees (or equivalent second-cycle degrees).

The skills acquired by the PhD graduate in Humanities pave the way for career opportunities in professional activities within public and private bodies in the field of humanistic scientific research, institutions that promote and organize cultural activities, international organizations, human resource training services, personnel management contexts in public and private companies, cultural promotion and dissemination, and event organization. Other outlets concern publishing, cultural journalism, training and retraining projects, the creation of tools for language services, and cultural content for information databases. The advanced training competencies of the PhD in Humanities also allow for career opportunities in the management, analysis, re-elaboration, and production (including digital) of literary texts and, more broadly, of historical-cultural records from antiquity to the contemporary era.

Furthermore, the PhD Programme in Humanities promotes high specialization in the professional profile of expert in cultural heritage and its enhancement, in line with renewed protection and promotion strategies and the central role of the culture-tourism tandem in Italy's development plan. The specialized skills acquired are oriented towards meeting employment needs in the academic-scientific field and in the public and private sectors, both nationally and internationally: universities, superintendencies (heritage authorities), museums, archives, various units of the Ministry of Culture, centres, organizations, businesses, the third sector, and the cultural industry.

In the reference fields for the archaeological, demo-ethno-anthropological, historical, and art-historical areas, the programme aims to train operators, consultants, and freelancers who are experts in:

• The enhancement of cultural heritage;
• Urban and territorial regeneration;
• The enhancement, preservation, and enjoyment of cultural assets;
• Tourism and cultural mediation;
• Communication and cultural outreach;
• The direction and curation of museums (including ethnographic and local/territorial museums) and archaeological areas;
• The planning of sustainable territorial development based on the strategic use of cultural resources.