{"id":204349,"date":"2025-03-24T15:19:03","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T15:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/discipline-linguistiche-e-letterature-straniere\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T12:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T10:01:14","slug":"linguistics-foreign-literatures-and-italian-studies","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.unipi.it\/en\/education\/courses\/phd-programmes\/humanities\/linguistics-foreign-literatures-and-italian-studies\/","title":{"rendered":"Linguistics, Foreign Literatures and Italian Studies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coordinator<\/strong>
\nProf.ssa Valeria Maria Giuseppa Tocco
\ne-mail:\u00a0valeria.tocco@unipi.it<\/a><\/p>\n

Administrative seat<\/strong>
\nDepartment of Philology, Literature and Linguistics<\/p>\n

Project description<\/strong>
\nThe research activities conducted by the lecturers of the Academic Board covers the scientific-disciplinary areas represented in three curricula of the programme: \u201cGeneral, Historical, Applied, Computational, Educational Linguistics and Modern Languages\u201d (French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, German, Baltic and Slavic languages); \u201cModern and Comparative Foreign Literatures\u201d (French, English, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Slavic studies, German); and \u201cItalian Studies\u201d (literary, philological, linguistic).<\/p>\n

In the literary field, research ranges from the origins of European literatures to the present day, with attention to different forms and genres, research methodologies, history of the disciplines, and the techniques used for the transmission of knowledge. In the field of linguistics, studies focus on ancient and modern (Indo-)European languages, including the Italian language and its dialects, considering phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical structures from both synchronic and diachronic perspectives.<\/p>\n

In philology, the PhD programme investigates the formal, material and historical-literary aspects of texts written in the cultural languages of Western Europe (including Latin and Greek, as well as the vernaculars), and texts produced in Italy or related to Italian culture. Studies in literary criticism and comparative literature address, on a theoretical and hermeneutic level\u2014also through a contrastive approach\u2014the general issues of literature, literary genres, textual production, dissemination, and evaluation.<\/p>\n

Course objectives<\/strong>
\nThe PhD in Linguistics, Foreign Literatures and Italian Studies aims to provide advanced specialised training in linguistic, philological (medieval, humanistic, and modern), and literary studies. By the end of the programme, each candidate will have acquired the specific expertise outlined in their chosen curriculum.<\/p>\n

In particular, the \u201cGeneral, Historical, Applied, Computational, Educational Linguistics and Modern Languages\u201d curriculum develops knowledge of theoretical models of linguistic analysis and their applications, covering both ancient and modern languages in synchronic and diachronic perspectives. The \u201cModern and Comparative Foreign Literatures\u201d curriculum is designed to provide in-depth knowledge in the history and dynamics of the major European literatures, as well as the theories and methods of text analysis across continental traditions.<\/p>\n

For the \u201cItalian Studies\u201d curriculum (literary, philological, linguistic), the training is aimed at preparing students to undertake high-level research activities\u2014within universities, public bodies, or private institutions\u2014on topics related to Italian studies (literary, philological, historical-linguistic, and medieval\/humanistic), and to train students in the field of Digital Humanities<\/em> (e.g. digital editions, corpus creation and management).<\/p>\n

Curricula<\/strong><\/p>\n