Italian (Research)

Doctorate-level study is an opportunity to make an original, positive contribution to research in Italian.

Italian has been studied at the University of Edinburgh since the eighteenth century. The first lectureship in the subject was established in 1919 and, today, it is a broad area of study involving a sizeable community of teaching and research staff, language tutors, and PhD students.

We founded the Edinburgh Journal of Gadda Studies in 2000 and co-ordinate the international Edinburgh Gadda Prize. To mark our centenary in 2019, we hosted the Biennial Conference of the Society for Italian Studies.

Research excellence

In the latest Research Excellence Framework (REF 2021), our research in Italian was submitted in Modern Languages and Linguistics (Panel D - Arts and Humanities; Unit of Assessment 26).

The results reaffirm Edinburgh’s position as one of the UK’s leading research universities - third in the UK.

As published in Times Higher Education's REF power ratings, this result is based on the quality and breadth of our research in the unit of assessment.

Join our interdisciplinary community and undertake your PhD under the guidance of our experienced and well-published supervisors.

Our expertise covers most areas of Italian cultural studies from the Middle Ages to the present, including:

• literary history and theory

• comparative studies

• translation

• film studies

• philology

• philosophy

• intermediality

• cultural studies

• decolonial studies

• digital humanities

• environmental humanities

• political theory

• practice-led research

Across the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) and the wider University, we are able to support PhD theses crossing boundaries between languages and/or disciplines.

Over the course of your PhD, you will be expected to complete an original body of work under the expert guidance of your supervisors leading to a dissertation of usually between 80,000 and 100,000 words.

You will be awarded your doctorate if your thesis is judged to be of an appropriate standard, and your research makes a definite contribution to knowledge.

Go beyond the books

Beyond the Books is a podcast from the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) that gives you a behind-the-scenes look at research and the people who make it happen.

Listen to a mix of PhD, early career and established researchers talk about their journey to and through academia and about their current and recent research. Guests include Dr Emanuela Patti (Series 2 - Episode 8) talking about her research at the intersection of literary, media, and cultural studies.