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The Department Culture e Società (Cultures and Societies) was created, with the initial name “Cultural Heritage-Cultural Studies”, at the University of Palermo on 1 January 2013 (Rector's Decree No. 4809 of 12/12/2012), as a result of the combination of the “Department of Historical-Archaeological, Socio-Anthropological and Geographical Cultural Heritage” and the “Department of Cultural Studies, Arts, History and Communication”.

The scientific project of the Department is based on the awareness of the need to broaden the research pathways in the "humanistic" field and to identify areas of intervention by strengthening the synergy between different disciplinary traditions. On the one hand, over the years it has developed lines of research focused on the different declinations of cultural heritage, both in a "classical" direction (archeology, antiquity sciences, art history), and in an ethno-anthropological sense (cultural anthropology, ethnology, ethnomusicology), with a strong connection to local territory and to the processes of patrimonialization, conservation and enhancement of Cultural Heritage, and with particular attention to urban geography, local development and cultural tourism, as well as to migration processes and interculture. On the other hand, it has placed at the center of its interests the expressive forms of historical realities and their representation, the reflection on 'culture' as a text, and also the reflection on languages and on the relationships between social and spatial organization. The objective, therefore, is a cognitive project aimed at the global understanding of modernity, its genesis, and the processes of its construction and representations.

Alongside the primary didactic and research functions, many of the disciplines taught in the Department have their raison d'être precisely in a close relationship with the territory, seen as a fundamental component of the educational mission, which is pursued also through the use of the most advanced technological tools available in the field of conservation, enhancement, and demarcation of cultural heritage. Following the guidelines pursued by the University of Palermo, with respect to the "knowledge grafts in society to favor its civil, cultural, social and economic development", the Department and its members are engaged in a careful dialogue with the territory, with the aim also of generating needs linked to a broad project of growth, both in the medium and long term, thus engaging in a process meant to activate a "creative and productive use of knowledge ”, attentive to the relationship between resources and society.

The areas of interest range in the following areas:

Cultural Heritage
Philological, Linguistic, Educational, Semiotic and Communication Disciplines
Human, Social and Political Sciences
Cultural Studies
Studies on the Ancient World: tradition and comparison
Historical Studies

 

Department Strategic Plans

PST | 2019-2021>

PST | 2017-2019>

 

 

 

 

Administrative Headquarters
University Campus, Viale delle Scienze, Building 15

Teachers’ Studies
University Campus, Viale delle Scienze, Buildings 15 | 12 | 2
Piazza Marina, Salita Partanna 16, Villino Partanna