Educational Activities

Compulsory taught courses

The compulsory taught courses require in-person attendance. This is to support the growth of the doctoral students as members of the scientific community, to provide opportunities for exchanges and debate among the doctoral students themselves and introduce participants to a national and international networks of scholars.
The courses are normally taught in English by members of the Board and high- profile Italian and international guest speakers from academic institutions, think tanks, research centers, cultural institutions and major charities. Students are also expected to attend cross-disciplinary courses (“lezioni trasversali”) which are offered to the students of all the PhD programmes of the University of Pavia within the supervision of the SAFD.

The taught courses are structured as follows.

First year (15 CFU)
Doctoral students are required to attend a total of 14 ECTS (56 hours), divided as
follows:
a) 32 hours of frontal teaching (8 CFU), focused on the methodology of historical research. These classes will focus on critical discussion of the historiographic methods specific to each disciplinary field for approaching primary sources and material, while also emphasizing shared themes within the study of history that apply across disciplinary, chronological and geographical boundaries.
b) 24 hours of university doctoral lessons (6 credits), focused primarily on dissemination, intellectual property, and issues concerning the open access to research findings. The candidates are expected to attend the course on “Academic Publishing in the Humanities”; if not offered, they should replace this course with another relevant cross-disciplinary course (“lezioni trasversali”) among those offered by the SAFD.
Doctoral students enrolled in the first year are required to submit a written paper (1 CFU) of approximately 20,000 characters. The paper should focus on one of the topics covered during the lessons; whenever possible, the topic must not duplicate the research topic of their doctoral thesis.

Second year (10 CFU)
Doctoral students are required to attend a total of 10 CFU (40 hours) divided as
follows:
a) 20 hours of taught courses. These courses will be organized in two curricula (“Questions in ancient history” / “Questions in modern and contemporary history”) each focusing on a specific theme chosen by the Board. Doctoral students are required to attend the curriculum relating to their field of study;
b) 10 hours of taught courses chosen from the curriculum not related to their field of study;
c) 10 hours of specialized seminars focused on themes related to historiographic research, such as the value of biographies as historical sources, the theory, and history of historiography, the revival of “microhistories”, cultural history, and/or the workshops of relevant academic journals.

Third year (5 CFU)

Doctoral students are required to attend taught courses or seminars for a total of 5 CFU (20 hours of lessons), to be chosen either from the compulsory doctoral teaching offer of the first and second year or among University-wide doctoral courses (“lezioni trasversali”) offered by the SAFD.

Attendance

In-person attendance of the mandatory taught courses is verified through sign-up sheets. The taught courses and seminar series are normally held in the month of February.
 

Absences

Documentable absences will be justified in the following cases: a) illness; b) unforeseeable circumstances or force majeure. In such cases, the doctoral student must agree with their supervisor and the coordinator on a plan for replace the activities that they missed.

2. Non-Italian students holding scholarships not funded by the University of
Pavia

Any non-Italian PhD students holding a scholarship that is not funded by the University of Pavia will discuss their attendance of any taught courses with their supervisor and the coordinator at the beginning of each academic year.

3. Non-compulsory educational activities
Each candidate may agree with their supervisor on other non-compulsory activities designed to assist their growth into full members of their national and international scholarly communities. These can include the participation (as attendees as well as speakers) in conferences, workshops, book launches, and training programmes – both in Italy and abroad. The website of the programme publishes relevant calls for applications that could be of interest to the candidates.
Among these non-compulsory activities, the candidates may choose to attend the international seminar course taught by the Board member prof. D’Alfonso. Based on a partnership agreement between New York University and the University of Pavia, this 42-hour graduate course is designed for students specializing in ancient studies, with a specific focus on methodological issues and case studies drawn from the Eastern Mediterranean. The course is taught in English and is also open to PhD candidates of the NYC Consortium (NYU, Columbia, CUNY, etc.) and graduate students of the MA programme “The Ancient Mediterranean World” of the University
of Pavia.

4. Other educational activities

The training of the candidates may include the planning and organization of activities by the candidates themselves – if necessary, with the support of members of the Board – of Summer  and/or Winter Schools, PhD Symposia, and Student Conferences.
To encourage the develop of a sense of community among the candidates and promote the exchange of ideas and personal experiences, the supervisors may also organize “discussion meetings” during which candidates who work on similar research topics (but who may be at different stages of their research) share their research work and findings.

5. Language skills
All candidates (both Italian and non-Italian) will be expected to master both spoken and written English.
Knowledge of the Italian language is not required upon admission. Non-Italian speakers are nevertheless encouraged to develop some basic skills in Italian (especially reading and listening) by the end of the programme.