Progetto formativo
The PhD in Historical Studies is a three-year program, that provides students with good abilities to think history – Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary – from an interdisciplinary perspective and beyond conventional boundaries, with a focus on interactions, connections, and comparisons both within and outside such major geo-historical spaces as the Mediterranean, the European, and other cultural regions of Eurasia and the “New World”.
The program provides a variety of research opportunities in the areas of:
– Migrations, peoples, nations, and ethnic identities.
– Social structures and economic relationships.
– Gender dimensions, cultural dynamics, and symbolic orders.
– History, sociology, and anthropology of religions.
– Institutions, sovereign powers, and governments: Theories and practices.
– “Mediation”, “remediation”, and the dynamics of communicative and cultural memory.
– Global, transnational and entangled history.
– Methodology and history of historiography.
– The humanities and the digital transition of the society: Historical sources and (big) data, research and publishing practices, hermeneutic and ecdotical methods.
Obiettivi del corso
The PhD program in Historical Studies aims to provide a third level postgraduate education, certifying that students have acquired skills, knowledge, and competencies of high scientific level in the different fields of history, with special attention to the interdisciplinary dimension of research and to the critical reflection on the multiple methodologies of human and social sciences. PhD students will devote most of their time to scholarly research for the elaboration of their final thesis. This may involve, depending on the type of work: research activities in archives, libraries and database aimed at finding sources, their critical inquiry, and the reconstruction of historiographic contexts; the analysis of multi-media and cartographic sources; knowledge of the practices of doing history by means of digitised and digital sources, of (big) data, tools and research infrastructures and technologies; theoretical reflection on historical concepts and the philological study of texts. PhD students will be encouraged to take part in scientific conferences and to project and realize seminar initiatives in their field of research in order to establish connections with the broader scientific community. In other words, the program trains students in conceptual rigour, bibliographical and archival research, critical analysis, and historical writing, and fosters their dialogue with international historiography.
The main goal is to enable doctoral students to produce an original research thesis, without neglecting the communication and dissemination dimension of research and the development by doctoral students of a series of skills that will be precious for the activities of future researchers: The ability to be involved in scientific networks, and to publish their scholarly production in excellent journals and book series; the capacity to project research for international competitive calls.
Sbocchi occupazionali e professional previsti
The interdisciplinary training of PhDs in Historical Studies will open up a wide range of professional opportunities for them. They will not only be able to carry out research in universities and research institutions, but also to hold senior positions in public administrations and cultural heritage institutions such as archives and libraries; they will also be able to work in top positions in companies and non-profit organizations operating in the cultural heritage sector and in the academic publishing market. Moreover, PhDs who have learnt how to handle historical ‘big data’ can also be employed as ‘data scientists’ in various research and development sectors. Finally, the growth of the public history sector in Italy and Europe, together with the constant presence of research and innovation funding at European level, will further increase the sector’s need for highly qualified professionals in research and data management, in the reconstruction of the historical memory of communities and territorial entities.