The History
The Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries was born in 2017 from the merging of the existing Department of Classics, Modern Languages, Education and Philosophy (ALEF), and the Department of Arts and Literature, History and Social Studies (LASS), both evolved from the previous Faculty of Philosophy and Letters in 2012.
The Department embraces the legacy of these two previous organisations, and, in particular, their rich and articulate methods of study and diffusion of knowledge, as well as their close relationship with both the local area and the national and international cultural context: Therefore, joining together the preservation of such strong tradition with innovation in the ever-changing fields of didactics, research, and the Department’s so-called “Third Mission” (i.e. the promotion of the direct application and enhancement of knowledge as a contribution to social, cultural and economic development).
The Department is organised into eight research and didactic units:
The Vision
The Department is the core and fundamental reference point in the University of Parma for research in the fields of humanities, social sciences and the creative arts. It bases itself on a shared cultural objective, focused on the dialogue between tradition and contemporaneity and with the aim of the continual updating of knowledge.
Within the Department, the traditional and historical subject areas of the University are now responding to the call to renew themselves in the face of the challenges posed by both the present and the future. Their common and characterising trait is the adoption and practice of a critical and epistemological approach, together with the contemplation of educational and developmental processes, and institutional dynamics, intended from both a diachronic and synchronic point of view.
The different activities carried out by the Department aim to deepen and promote, across all subjects areas, intercultural relations and exchanges: The forms and processes of communication; an attention to diversity and identity and their relative explanatory models; the representation and models of reality, as well as their transmission through documents, images, texts and translations; the critical confrontation of ideas; and the memory, narration and transmission of cultural heritage.
The Mission
The Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries fosters interaction between research, didactics and “Third Mission” activities, in order to promote the study and the transmission of cultural heritage and knowledge in the diverse subject areas and multidisciplinary fields within it. The ultimate aim is to develop a dialogue between cultures and people.
Assisted by the administrative and technical staff, the Mission of the Department also advances in harmony with quality control processes and in collaboration with partners and stakeholders both inside and outside the traditional boundaries of the University. In pursuit of continuous improvement in research, didactics and the “Third Mission”, the scope of the Department is to shape individuals with a critical eye and intellectual autonomy, able to undertake creative, organisational and relational professions, always looking towards innovation, well-being and a better quality of life.
The Mission of the Department is essentially based on the broadening and diffusion of different forms of knowledge, from past to new ideas, which has the ability to turn the individual into an aware member of national and international society, the protagonist of cultural development and its dispersion in civil society. With the aim of contributing to the progress of knowledge in the different fields of research in humanities, social science and the creativity arts, the Department has become promoter of a culture based on the value of the natural and cultural environment, of the critical confrontation of ideas, and the communication of these experiences through words and images.
All the activities of the Department aim to offer a definitive answer to the questions of culture, accurate information and the responsible use of new forms of communication, that the city, the local area and society all pose to the University.
