The activities carried out during A.Y. 2022/2023 fully corresponded to the educational program of the Doctoral Program in Communication, Social Research and Marketing, both in the parts specifically dedicated to each year of the course and in the general in-depth thematic part intended for all students of the Course and carried out through seminars.
Below is the basic structure of activities, divided into didactis and research.
1. Didactics
Students' engagement in doctoral didactics is concentrated in the first year of the course, and consists of:
- one month of intensive didactics common to all three curricula;
- two months of curricular didactics, structured in such a way that students in each Curriculum are able to attend lectures of their own interest organized by the other Curricula;
- an intensive "R" course, divided into a basic and an advanced part designed for textual analysis;
- an English language course specifically designed for the preparation and presentation of abstracts at scientific conferences.
During the second year of the Ph.D. program, students are given the option of building a personalized advanced training course, taking advantage of activities internal to the Department of Communication and Social Research (e.g., training courses in the use of data analysis software offered by CorisLab) and external to it (e.g., Summer Schools organized by the Methodology Section of the Italian Sociology Association or the Italian Society of Management). Also planned are:
- seminar activities related to the presence of Visiting Professors or otherwise international guests of the Department;
- a second course in English, specifically designed for the writing of scientific articles.
From a didactic point of view, the third year of the Ph.D. provides the opportunity to participate in specific activities of interest to the individual student, and the requirement for "horizontal socialization" of the skills learned through meetings with first-year students.
2. Research
In the course of the first year, the engagement of students in advanced lectures on the methodology and technique of social research, and on the fundamental topics of communication and marketing sciences is matched by a gradual increase in individual study and research activities. The latter consist on the one hand in the in-depth study of assigned study topics and the writing of papers related to them, and on the other hand in the refinement of the research project to be conducted in the following two years.
The second year of the doctoral program involves periodic advancement of the study and research activities inherent in the respective doctoral dissertation projects, both with the mentors assigned by the College of Teachers and with the College itself. It is in this year that it is recommended to plan and carry out a period of study and research abroad.
The third year of the Ph.D. program is entirely devoted to completing the empirical phase of each student's thesis work, and writing the final version of the work, with a view to external evaluation and then discussion.