The Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures has a multidisciplinary, multicultural and multilingual vocation, and promotes advanced and critical training in the fields of foreign languages, literatures and cultures. With a consistently international and innovation-oriented outlook, the Department addresses the complexity of the present by engaging with linguistic, literary, cultural, symbolic and creative heritage. It operates within the University’s three institutional missions—teaching, research and third mission/knowledge dissemination—responding to the challenges of today’s multicultural and multilingual societies and positioning itself as a hub for dialogue among bodies of knowledge, territories and national and international scholarly communities.
In the five-year period 2018–2022, the Department was one of the 140 Departments of Excellence recognized by the Ministry of Universities and Research. During this time, it developed studies that have become increasingly transversal and interdisciplinary, opening up to innovative, multicultural and sustainability-oriented teaching and research paths. The members of the Department, who share a vision centered on the value of linguistic and cultural otherness, have developed collaborative, digital and transmedia learning and interpretive methodologies that have strengthened a teaching and research approach attentive to social justice, inclusion and sustainability. This has enhanced the role of the DLLCS as a point of reference for the local, national and international academic community.
The Department fosters dialogue among cultures, languages, identities, genders, bodies of knowledge and skills through a consistently interdisciplinary and transmedia approach, with the aim of:
generating and supporting cultural and creative industries;
promoting the dissemination of a culture of innovation, including through knowledge transfer and valorization;
developing updated theoretical, critical and educational tools, including in the digital sphere.
From this perspective, the Department coordinates advanced training pathways and research projects dedicated to linguistic, landscape and cultural heritage, as well as to their preservation, archiving and enhancement. Reflection on heritage—material and immaterial, written and oral—is closely connected to themes of memory, translation, archival policies, and cultural and linguistic mediation.
The Department positions itself as a strategic partner within the integrated training ecosystem in the linguistic, literary and intercultural fields, with particular attention to translation, linguistic and cultural mediation, transmediality, international cooperation, tourism, and the digital humanities.
It promotes research and experimental initiatives aimed at:
innovating the teaching of languages, literatures and cultures (including through digital, blended and internationalized teaching methods);
developing advanced professional skills in the linguistic, translation, publishing, tourism, cultural, and geo-urban fields;
supporting the training of language and culture teachers, in synergy with qualification pathways and the needs of the school system.
Training is conceived in a transdisciplinary way, in line with emerging “frontier professions” that require integrated competences (linguistic, cultural, digital, project-based and communication skills) and solid sustainability literacy.
The Department promotes training and professional models oriented toward job quality, equal opportunities, generational renewal and social responsibility. It maintains ongoing reflection on:
human rights, international cooperation and active citizenship,
participatory territorial development and geo-mapping,
the social and cultural impacts of the digital and ecological transition.
It develops and strengthens disciplinary areas that address environmental studies from theoretical, cultural and historical perspectives, and promotes projects that disseminate a culture of sustainability in linguistic, literary, cultural and territorial terms.
The Department’s innovative interdisciplinary frameworks make it possible to analyze the implications of sustainability and the digital and “green” transition within socio-cultural issues (eco-criticism, environmental humanities, landscape policies, sustainable tourism, archive policies, and narrative practices related to place and territory).
The Department’s vision aims to cultivate creativity and dialogue across fields of knowledge, fostering exchange among languages, literatures, cultures, territories and societies in order to address the challenges of a multicultural, multilingual and constantly evolving world. Aware of the centrality of the values of equity, inclusion, and responsibility toward the planet and communities, the Department shapes its activities in alignment with the University’s thematic strategic guidelines.
The Department’s vision aims to cultivate creativity and dialogue across fields of knowledge, fostering exchange among languages, literatures, cultures, territories and societies in order to address the challenges of a multicultural, multilingual and constantly evolving world. Aware of the central importance of the values of equity, inclusion, and responsibility toward the planet and its communities, the Department shapes its actions in alignment with the University’s thematic strategic guidelines.
The Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures promotes creativity, interdisciplinary dialogue and critical awareness in both teaching and research, providing knowledge and skills to address the complexity of the present and contribute to a sustainable, inclusive and multicultural society.
Its educational offering is marked by a strong international and multidisciplinary vocation and is structured as a complete pathway across the three levels of university education:
1 three-year Bachelor’s degree (Class L-11), organized into five curricula;
4 Master’s degrees (LM-37, LM-38, LM-49, and the interclass LM-48/80), three of which have a strong international focus;
2 PhD programmes based within the Department, along with participation in a third PhD programme in the philological–linguistic area.
Each of the three levels is characterized by specific pathways and areas of specialization:
The Department offers the three-year Bachelor’s program in Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures (L-11), which allows students to study five European languages (French, English, Russian, Spanish and German) and three Asian languages (Arabic, Chinese and Japanese). The programme is organized into five curricula:
Oriental Languages and Cultures
Linguistic, Philological and Literary Studies
Intercultural and Transmedia Studies
Tourism Studies and Territorial Systems
Linguistic Mediation for Business and the Third Sector
The programme offers numerous courses taught in foreign languages, a wide range of opportunities for international mobility (with more than one hundred partner universities worldwide), and the possibility of obtaining a double degree with the Licence Langues, Littératures et Civilisation Étrangères et Régionales at the Université de Franche-Comté (Besançon).
The Department’s Master’s-level offering is articulated and diverse, building on the three-year undergraduate program:
Intercultural Studies in Languages and Literatures (LM-37)
An international, multilingual programme dedicated to the study of literatures, cultures, philologies, and cultural and literary criticism, with a strong focus on intercultural, transmedial and comparative perspectives.
Modern Languages for Communication and International Cooperation (LM-38)
A programme centred on foreign languages and the specialized languages of business, institutions and international organizations, with pathways dedicated to linguistic mediation for business and institutional contexts, and to international cooperation.
Planning and Management of Tourism Systems (LM-49)
An international programme with curricula taught entirely in English, dedicated to the planning and management of tourism systems with a sustainable, digital and territorial approach.
Geourban studies. Territorial, Urban and Environmental Analysis and Planning, and Landscape Enhancement (interclass LM-80 / LM-48)
An interdepartmental programme combining geographical and urban studies, with particular attention to cultural landscapes, sustainable networks and territorial policies.
All of the Department’s Master’s programmes are strongly internationalized, and many offer the opportunity to obtain double degrees with partner universities in Europe and beyond (e.g., Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Université de Poitiers, Universidad de Valencia, Hochschule Stralsund, Farleigh Dickinson University, etc.).
Across all of the Department’s degree programmes, students benefit from numerous complementary activities: Blended Intensive Programmes (BIP), innovative and international teaching initiatives, Summer/Winter/Spring Schools, International Schools, workshops, internships and activities in the local area. Through these opportunities, the Department cultivates new and experimental teaching methods, encouraging curiosity, global awareness, teamwork, and interdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue.
The Department is the administrative home of two University PhD programmes:
Transcultural Humanities Studies
Landscape Studies for Global and Local Challenges
and it actively participates in the activities of the PhD programme in Philological and Linguistic Studies on Written and Oral Heritage. In this way, the Department ensures a complete and coherent educational pathway, from the Bachelor’s degree to research training.
The PhD programmes benefit from international collaborations and co-tutelle arrangements with foreign universities, and they are part of research networks such as the PhD Network “Literature and Cultural Studies”, which involves universities including Giessen, Graz, Stockholm, Helsinki, Lisbon and Warwick. This strengthens the international dimension of research training and consolidates the Department’s role as a key centre for contemporary linguistic, literary, cultural and territorial studies.