The curricula of this 2nd cycle degree programme produce historians with complete knowledge of the epistemological foundations of historical research, a solid command of historical method and general knowledge of world history from its origins to modern times. Graduates will have specialised knowledge of a general and European historic period (ancient world, the Middle Ages, modern or contemporary), or in the history of culturally defined areas of Asia and Africa.
The programme curricula are suitably designed to respond to these specialisations.
The course units allow students to acquire a specialist level of knowledge, the methods and practices of historical studies, allowing them to critically use the sources and historiography of their specific era of study.
The programme also provides a full command of reading, analysis and heuristic methods of different types of literary, documentary, archive, iconographic and monumental materials, also using the most recent technological applications, and an appropriate knowledge of investigation techniques performed on original sources, both individually and as part of their overall context. For the relative curricula, this also implies the study of at least one Eastern language to various levels, understood as a key to understanding the cultural world which is object of study. The competences acquired respond to the professional demands of historians wishing to specialise as curators, archivists and librarians.
The programme focuses particularly on the history of cultures and religions, territorial history and anthropology. The course units in these areas, associated to those in general and European history, political history and economic history, allow students to acquire perspectives, investigation methods and contents (e.g. social and economic history, anthropology and political history, history of the institutions, historical and anthropological studies of religions and artistic works, intellectual history and the history of ideas) which are indispensable for both interdisciplinary research and vocational training in the fields of communication, teaching and scientific dissemination.
Computer and remote computing skills are acquired in the course units on: Sources, methodologies, techniques and instruments of historical research.