PhD in Italian

The Italian Section in Cambridge has seven full-time faculty members available to supervise doctoral research. Their research interests span a broad range of topics in the languages, literatures, visual cultures and history of the Italian peninsula, from the medieval period to the present day.

Details of individual specialisms can be found on the section’s webpages. We have a lively group of doctoral students in the section at any one time working across periods and topics, supported by careful one-on-one supervision and mentoring, in the context of a rich research culture of seminars, symposia, conferences, lectures, and postgraduate training. Visiting scholars and students from other institutions regularly contribute to the section’s research culture. Students are also free to undertake comparative work across languages and national boundaries, supported by the wide range of expertise within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Cambridge as a whole.

In British universities the PhD (Doctorate of Philosophy) is traditionally awarded solely on the basis of a thesis, a substantial piece of writing in English which reports original research into a closely defined area of enquiry. The completion of the PhD thesis generally expected to take three years, and most funding is based on this assumption. It's also possible to take a part-time route through research degrees, and the expected timeframe would be five years.

During your research, you will have the opportunity to work closely with a Supervisor who is a specialist in your research area. In addition to your supervisor, you will normally also be able to draw on the help and support of one further academic advisor and to consult other academics working in related fields. You might reasonably expect to see your supervisor fortnightly or at least three times per term.

In addition to providing specialist supervision, the Faculty runs a programme of professional training for the benefit of all research students. The programme includes seminars and workshops on library resources, giving conference papers, publishing, applications and interviews, teaching skills, specialist linguistics training, and film-making. The School of Arts and Humanities runs a central programme covering a range of topics from PhD skills training, to language training and writing and editing skills. If you wish, you are likely to be given the opportunity of gaining experience in small group teaching from colleges. There may also be opportunities to gain some experience in language teaching in the Faculty.