Research areas

Here is an overview of the fields, projects, and research groups that see the development of new ideas. Discover the research and scientific innovation activities of our researchers.

Art and Fashion

The ART AND FASHION section responds to the need to build a space dedicated to contemporary artistic phenomena in a chronological span that goes from the 19th century to the artistic fabric of a constantly evolving present. On the one hand, the main objects of study concern of art, on the other, the dialogue between art opens up with other territories of knowledge and, in particular, with the culture of fashion. The purpose of the section is to foster research in a strongly multidisciplinary field linked to the broad dimension of the cultural and creative industry of the contemporary age with a focus on Art and Fashion.

Cinema and Media Studies

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Cinema section: a) cinema philology and cinema restoration theory; b) history of silent cinema; c) history of Italian, North American and contemporary cinema; d) cinema and cultural studies; e) aesthetics and cinema theory; f) economics and marketing of audiovisual products; g) history and theory of serial products; h) pedagogy of cinema; i) history of film criticism; j) history of television and media; k) cultures of production and media distribution.

Communication

The section was created with the willingness to study the wide variety of contemporary communication phenomena with concepts and methodologies related to the disciplinary areas that have always distinguished the degree course in Communication Sciences in Bologna, since its foundation in the 1990s: semiotics, psychology, history, law, social sciences, geography (M-FIL/05, IUS/10, M-STO/08, M-PSI/01). Particular attention is devoted to mass media, from traditional to digital media, encouraging research, experimentation and teaching on the most innovative phenomena of communication, in an interdisciplinary perspective always integrated with all areas of study already present in the Department.

Drama Studies

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Drama Studies section: a) history of the actor and performance techniques; b) material culture of theater; c) relationships between visual arts and theater; d) interaction between dramatic writing and scenic writing; e) history of dance and ballet;

  1. f) methodological and epistemological questions; g) theatrical criticism; h) theaters of extra-western tradition; i) performing arts and new technologies; j) new theater and theater of social interaction; k) history and directing institutions; l) performance organization and economics.

Philosophy

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Philosophy section: a) the dialogue between ancient Western philosophy, bordering on the other disciplines of antiquity, and the contemporary philosophical debate; b) the statute and conceptual architectures of Renaissance and early modern philosophy, in dialogue with the artistic-literary, scientific and theological concepts and languages; c) the history of contemporary philosophical thought, with particular reference to the German area and the methodology of historical-conceptual research; d) aesthetics; e) analytic philosophy; f) logic and epistemology (both traditional and social).

Medieval and modern Art

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Medieval and Modern Art section: a) gothic and Renaissance art in Bologna; b) the relationship between art and instances of the Counter-reform; c) figurative art in the Baroque age in the pictorial and sculptural field; d) the development of pictorial “genres”; e) “Illuminist” Emilia; f) iconographic research; g) history of Medieval and Modern architecture.

Historical-Social Studies

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Historical-Social Studies section: contemporary history, sociology, history and theory of politics; study of contemporaneity in its historical, cultural, social and political aspects; relationship with the arts.

Music Studies

Research topics of faculty members and researchers working in the Music Studies section: a) medieval musical treatises; b) musical philosophy and aesthetics; c) musical dramaturgy; d) history of music in Emilia Romagna; e) ethnomusicology; f) organology; g) musical iconography; h) musical analysis; i) musical pedagogy and didactics; j) musical philology; k) poetry for music and librettology.