The PhD program in Transcultural Studies in Humanities offers a three-year interdisciplinary training and research program with a strong international vocation, conceived to combine a high degree of specialization in specific humanities sectors with the need to cross boundaries between different cultures and disciplines, promoted on a European level through projects such as ERC and Horizon, with a view to overcome separations between humanistic and scientific cultures. Particular attention will be thus focused on researches, which allow to examine the historical and theoretical relations, intersections and overlapping between intercultural contexts and processes, the arts and sciences, both in terms of natural sciences and humanities.

The PhD program involves the Departments of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures, together with Letters, Philosophy, Communication and Human and Social Sciences, and is articulated into three scientific areas, consistent with the different disciplines and knowledge belonging to the work teams which concur to the scientific and didactic activities:

1. Storytelling, translations, cultural production
2. Theory and Analysis of Artistic and Literary Processes
3. Culture and knowledge: Sciences, Philosophies and Cultures.

In consistency with the interdisciplinary approach, the didactic program is developed through a transversal training path, cutting across all disciplines in the three different areas of PhD, while focusing on one specific topic: Knowledge and intercultural production. This shared topic will be developed through its potential cross-cultural references and in its most professionally relevant aspects.

The training path includes a preliminary phase focusing on methodologies, bibliographical sources and the fundamentals for each of the three scientific areas. Seminars and specific didactic activities will then introduce the candidates to independent research in the relevant sector, allowing them to complete and elaborate their training in at least two areas. A period of at least six months research abroad is also expected. Integrating the course will also be a part of training on IT tools belonging to the area of digital humanities in collaboration with the Centro di Arti Visive (Visual Arts Centre) and the University libraries. With a view to increase the students’ language skills, some of the didactic activities and seminars will be held in one or more EU languages. Furthermore, there will be specific language training activities to improve students’ academic or institutional communication skills in a foreign language, both written and oral.

The aim of the PhD program is to train researchers and professionals for the academic world, for activities in national and international foundations and institutions, for conservation and valorization of artistic and documentary heritage, for digital management and communication of museums and cultural heritage, for scientific communication, for specialized artistic and scientific publishing, and for co-funded national and international cultural projects.