Linguistic and Literary Sciences

• Historical, theoretical and applied linguistics (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish).
• Philological-literary (Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Russian, Spanish).
• Higher Education Internationalisation and Educational Strategies and Practices (English).

Following the inspiration of the University, the Doctoral School encourages freedom of research and promotes the development of intellectual skills and inclinations of doctoral students; therefore, it does not exclude the possibility of individual study courses which, in agreement with the coordinator, the reference professors and the Doctoral Board, may complement the proposed training offer.
The aim of the doctoral programme is to build a researcher profile capable of carrying out methodologically sound and scientifically accurate research activities in the field of linguistic and literary sciences in a multilingual and multicultural perspective. During the three years of the course, PhD students will attend lectures and seminars offered by the School, under the guidance of tutors they will carry out a research project to be presented in the form of a final doctoral dissertation, which will be evaluated by two external reviewers who are experts in the discipline.
The School's educational activities include courses, seminars and workshops held by university professors and qualified Italian and foreign scholars.
The first-year courses are aimed at acquiring the fundamental scientific categories and methodologies for research in linguistic and literary disciplines. Thanks to classroom and individual work, doctoral students are able to define the status quaestionis, the plan and the bibliography of the research topic, and are initiated into the use of the tools of digital humanities and linguistic corpora, as well as the drafting of scientific texts according to the various linguistic traditions; they are also initiated into the knowledge of the disciplinary areas, themes and research perspectives that must constitute the horizon of a specialist in linguistic and literary disciplines: linguistic theories, schools of literary criticism, interaction between language, literature and culture, intertextuality, methods and schools of textual analysis, practices of translation and revision, stylistics, communication theories, language acquisition and language teaching; of digital humanities, the tradition of European literature and comparative literature.
In the second year , the knowledge of these areas and skills continues and is consolidated, favoring the lines of study proper to specific research; In this year, a period of study and research abroad is recommended.
Finally, the third year, dedicated to the writing of the dissertation, includes specialized conferences on various topics, related to the research topics of the individual doctoral students.
In addition to this basic training, there are conferences and seminars held by speakers from Italian and foreign universities, as well as courses offered by the University on scientific-academic communication (public speaking, academic English, transferable skills), tools for bibliographic research and research funding, and lectures offered by the Pastoral Centre on the Catholic identity of the University and research.
PhD students are also invited to participate in seminars and conferences, both internal and external, during which they will be able to report on the progress of their research. Every year the doctoral students will present the status of their research during the doctoral days and discuss it with the professors of the doctoral school board. During the three-year period of doctoral school, doctoral students are encouraged to produce their own scientific product published in a scientific journal or in a volume with double-blind review.
The study and research activity abroad is a fundamental moment for the construction of a network of relationships within the international scientific community, a constant point of comparison for the research of doctoral students. To this end, the Doctoral School provides the possibility of carrying out dissertations in co-supervision with foreign professors or within double degrees with foreign universities and makes available to doctoral students the numerous opportunities for exchanges with foreign universities already operating in the international mobility programs of the Faculty of Linguistic Sciences and Foreign Literatures. During the training period, the PhD student will be required to carry out a period of research activity abroad (preferably a semester) at qualified cultural institutions (universities, libraries, archives, etc.).
Each year PhD students are assessed on the basis of the presentation and discussion of their research during the doctoral day; elements for the evaluation will also be the active participation in the lessons, seminars and conferences proposed by the School (with specific evaluation by the speakers where applicable), the annual report, presented by each doctorate, the possible production of a publication and the results of 3 elective exams, which must be taken during the doctorate.

The language areas of specialization of the course are: Arabic, Chinese, French, English, Russian, Spanish, German.