Main features of the programme
The Ph.D. programme in Linguistics is an international graduate programme jointly run by the Universities of Verona, Bozen/Bolzano and Marburg (Germany). The programme offers training in Linguistics for the highest cycle of the university system. It is the natural continuation of the master's degree courses in Linguistics (University of Verona) and Applied Linguistics (Free University of Bozen/Bolzano). The programme has strong ties with research institutions such as Eurac Research (which funded a grant for cycle 37 in the field of corpus linguistics), and with local administrative bodies such as the Regional School Office for Veneto (in the field of cultural heritage protection and promotion) and the Autonomous Region of Trentino-Südtirol (which funded a grant for cycle 39 in the field of Ladin language). The programme has concrete internationalization strategies for the recruitment and training of doctoral students: starting with cycle 38, an International Doctoral Track with the University of Marburg (Germany) is active, through which a double doctoral degree can be obtained. Teaching is delivered in a concentrated form during annual autumn/winter/summer schools in order to facilitate collaboration between the different universities, allow for the involvement of external partners, and help doctoral students in scheduling stays abroad without overlapping with the teaching. The programme welcomes research projects in all areas of research within the expertise of the faculty members, but it stands out from other doctoral programmes in Linguistics by a clear thematic focus on research topics shared among the three universities (Verona, Bolzano, Marburg). These topics include multilingualism, language contact, and dialectological studies, especially but not exclusively for German and Romance languages.
International students: please note that languages of instruction are English (main language), German and Italian. Hence, besides English as the main programme language basic skills in Italian or German are required for a successful application.
Programme objectives
The programme aims to provide doctoral training in all levels of linguistic analysis (phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, pragmatics, lexicon) and the following research areas: sociolinguistics, discourse and conversation analysis, typical and atypical language development, language teaching, Germanic and Romance philology, and language policy. Research interests shared by all three universities include language contact, Germanic and Romance dialects, minority languages, and multilingualism. Ph.D. students can take advantage of the methodologies, tools and databases developed in the main research projects (PRIN, DFG) directed by members of the teaching board and conducted in cooperation with research institutions active in the area. The programme aims to train professionals with a high scientific standard who have a complete mastery of the content and methods related to their research projects, but also the knowledge and skills related to all levels of linguistic analysis necessary to be able to perform basic academic tasks (e.g., teaching in bachelor's degrees) and acquire new skills independently for application in other specialist fields. As such, the Ph.D. in Linguistics is a programme that combines a clear specialized profile with more general transferable skills that after its completion situates students in an excellent position to pursue either an academic career or a career with a linguistic aspect in public administration or the private industry.
Career perspectives
The wide range of research opportunities and methodologies in the field of linguistics offered by the programme promotes the acquisition of skills that can be used in a national and international context at a high scientific level. These skills are not only necessary for the training of future researchers and university professors, but can also be applied professionally, in the field of automatic analysis and language technologies and consulting to language policy bodies for the training of teachers and health professionals (e.g., speech therapy). The employment statuses of graduated students from previous cycles show that the training provided in the Ph.D. in Linguistics guarantees excellent preparation for academic careers.
