Academic year 2021-2022
The PhD programme in Germanic and Slavic Studies, established in the 2018-2019 academic year (34th course), has a comparative focus and includes disciplines from the Germanistics and Slavistics groups.
In May 2022, the four PhD students enrolled in the 34th course defended their theses, brilliantly passing the final exam.
Starting with the 35th cycle, under an agreement with Charles University in Prague, the PhD programme has been accredited as an international PhD program with double degree; it provides for a common study plan, jointly administered by the two universities. Except for the first year of the course, teaching is conducted mainly in English.
Each of the 10 PhD students admitted to the 37th course (at Sapienza 1 without a scholarship and 6 with scholarships, one of them with a project-based "PON" grant; at Charles University 3 with a scholarship) has been assigned a supervisor and a co-supervisor pertaining one to the admission university and the other to the partner.
In the academic year 2021-2022, teaching activities were delivered according to the planned schedule (for details of lectures and seminars see the calendar at the end of this report), with three distinct cycles of lectures: advanced lectures, aimed at third-year doctoral students (35th course); specific in-depth lectures, aimed at second-year doctoral students (36th course); and methodological lectures, aimed at first-year doctoral students (37th course).
Each lesson, both methodological and in-depth, included an active cooperation of PhD students and a subsequent review of the results by the lecturers responsible for each topic. The lecture on traditional and digital libraries and archives included a review of the PhD students' digital skills.
For the work done by each PhD student enrolled in the 37° course in relation to the lectures 39 ECTS have been assigned.
Parallel to the lectures, an interdisciplinary seminar was held during which the PhD students enrolled in the second year (36th course) presented some issues related to their research; each discussion was attended by an external discussant specialized in the different subjects and the other PhD students in addition to the supervisors. The activity corresponded to a commitment of 7 ECTS.
PhD students enrolled in the first year of the course studied a language from the other curriculum (Slavonic the Germanists, Germanic the Slavists). For this activity each PhD student was assigned 7 ECTS.
Each PhD student enrolled in the first year followed, with the assistance of his or her mentor, independently chosen educational and research activities and carried out activities preparatory to the choice of the dissertation. For these activities each PhD student was awarded 5 ECTS.
Periodic update and follow-up meetings by coordinators Annalisa Cosentino (Sapienza) and Libuše Heczková (Charles University), for 2 ECTS, completed the teaching programme.
Lectures and seminars were held in a hybrid mode, both in presence and remotely, so that doctoral students on a research mission or unable to move between the two locations could also participate.
In the Summer semester, PhD students in the 36th course attended lectures and seminars delivered by Charles University, according to the joint study plan, for 18 ECTS; to these were added 18 ECTS for lectures taken at Sapienza (see above), 20 ECTS for research activity aimed at writing the thesis, and 4 ECTS for independently chosen educational activities with the approval of supervisors.
Besides working at their dissertation, students enrolled in the 35th course followed lectures chosen by their supervisors (for details see the attached timetable).
The Young Scholars International Conference "Beyond language," organized as in previous years in cooperation with the University of Wroclaw and curated by Prof. Piotr Chruszczewski, was held remotely. The papers proposed by some Sapienza doctoral students were published in the scientific journal Academic Journal of Modern Philology (vol 15, 2022, https://ajmp.uwr.edu.pl/aktualnosci/przeczytaj/)
The end-of-three-year PhD conference, organized by the 35th course PHD students and devoted to the subject "Losing the World, Losing the Self: Reflection and Expression of Disorientation," was attended by both Sapienza PhD students and PhD students from other universities. Prof. Andrea Petö from Central European University and Prof. Andrea Gullotta (University of Palermo, Memorial Italy) were keynote speakers. A volume of conference proceedings is planned to be published.
At Charles University, in addition to the scheduled teaching of Germanistics and Slavistics, the following special conferences were held:
12. 11. 2021: Challenges in Applied Linguistics.
28. 2. 2022: Digital sources and digital humanities II
Summer term: Workshop Art and Politics (in cooperation with the University of Zurich)
It should be noted that while teaching has been delivered according to the planned schedule, however, PhD students' research activities, aimed at perfecting the research project underlying the final dissertation, have been forcibly curtailed due to the continuing restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic until at least summer 2022. Therefore, PhD students in the 35th course benefit from an extension to Jan. 31, 2023, for the delivery of the final dissertation.
Some PhD students have been authorized to carry out integrative teaching activities under Article 14 (5) of the current Regulations. This activity, guided by supervisors, was designed as a training internship.
PhD student Ivan Nagornyak requested and received a six-month suspension, later extended ex officio, due to his involvement in the ongoing war in Ukraine. PhD student Roberta Ylenia Tartaglia was granted a nine-month suspension in order to attend a teacher training course.
The interview to assess the attainment of the educational objectives, held on September 22, 2022, was satisfactory, with all but one of the enrolled PhD students, who stopped participating in the activities during the academic year due to family reasons, moving on to the next year.
For the third year in a row, the PhD program in Germanic and Slavic Studies has received an excellent evaluation by Sapienza's evaluation bodies, ranking first in the internal ranking based on specific indicators, among which the qualification of the Board and the scholarly activity of the PhD students, for example, are relevant. This result, however, unlike the previous year, was not judged sufficient for the PhD programme to be awarded an additional scholarship.