Presentation
The Department of Human Sciences for Education “Riccardo Massa” was established in 1999 by Riccardo Massa, a distinguished educator and philosopher of education. From its inception, the Department has been characterized by its multidisciplinary approach.
Education and training, in their many forms, constitute the core focus of the Department’s research, teaching, and third mission activities. These complex phenomena require a multidisciplinary lens to ensure a nuanced understanding that avoids oversimplification. This approach integrates different disciplines, scientific traditions, and epistemological perspectives.
This complexity is reflected in the diverse research areas within the Department, spanning traditional “educational sciences” – including pedagogy, psychology, philosophy, and sociology – as well as anthropology, geography, history, Italian literature, linguistics, Arabic and Oriental languages, organizational studies, and select artistic disciplines. Here the human sciences critically engage with educational and formative phenomena, exploring their cultural, social, historical, pedagogical, material, organizational, and expressive dimensions from multiple angles.
The aim is to foster not only a multidisciplinary context but also an interdisciplinary one, as highlighted by the Excellence project 2023–2027 of the Department. The Department’s long-term goal is to enhance and support dialogue among disciplines, constructing a knowledge base “for” education and training. This knowledge serves both the professional profiles developed through the Department's academic programs and the broader community, offering critically aware research and sophisticated tools for intervention across various sectors, including schools, the third sector (e.g., associations, educational, social, and healthcare services), and businesses, at both national and international levels.
The Department's complexity is also evident in its size (as of December 2023: 100 faculty members and researchers, 18 research fellows, and 110 doctoral scholarships) and in its mission areas:
In addition, the Department offers three PhD programs:
- Cultural and Social Anthropology
- Education in Contemporary Society
- Intangible Heritage in Socio-Cultural Innovation
These are complemented by a range of other Postgraduate programmes and training activities.
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