Teaching Activity

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Didactic activities

The teaching activity of the PhD is organised in:

• Joint training activities, aimed at providing PhD students with methodological skills, as well as the standard basic knowledge for the pursuit of the training objectives of the course;
• specific training activities aimed at providing and completing the knowledge and skills of PhD students;
• other training activities chosen by the student, with the approval of the Faculty.

In particular, the training activity is divided into:

• activities common to the PhD
• activities proposed by the Curricula
• specific activities of doctoral training programs oriented to the PhD student’s research project

PhD students will also participate in other educational activities offered by the Department of Political Studies, as well as by other public or private, national and international institutions or research bodies, approved by the Faculty.

PhD students will be able to take advantage of periods of stay abroad.

Each PhD student will have to take an intermediate test between the 18th and 21st month from the Doctorate’s beginning. This exam is the most crucial evaluation moment before the dissertation’s final discussion, and its outcome is decisive for admission to the third year of the course. Candidates will have to present a  written paper on a research topic related to the doctoral thesis. The paper needs to have the formal and substantial characteristics of a publishable research contribution. and it must be approved by the student’s supervisor. It will have to be presented to the Faculty and discussed in front of a special ad-hoc Committee.

Joint activities – YEAR 1

1. Research methodology in the political-social sciences

The course is dedicated to advanced training in interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research in the political and social sciences. It aims to provide PhD students with tools for using and comparing the most recent methodological approaches in the different research areas concerning policy. Topics that will be addressed are:

• Scientific research today;
• Comparison in the political-social sciences;
• Historical research;
• Economic research;
• Legal research;
• Anthropological-cultural research;
• Gender as an interpretative and research category;
• How digital codes and languages influence societies and cultures.

2. Primary source research

The course is dedicated to advanced training in primary source research techniques in the political-social sciences. It aims to provide PhD students with tools for using and comparing the most recent methodological approaches in crucial areas of archival, bibliographical, audio-visual research, oral sources, and digital databases. Topics that will be addressed are:

• Oral sources: interdisciplinary meeting ground?
• Visual sources: theoretical aspects, applications, examples;
• Internet, electronic tools and databases: instructions and precautions for use;
• The use of citation managers;
• The keys for accessing research: Resources and library services for PhD students.

3. Advanced skills for scientific work

The course is dedicated to advanced training on how to carry out scientific work. Students will be trained question themselves and their research methodology in a constructive way. Topics that will be addressed are:

• How to read the scientific material;
• How to prove something;
• The preparation of a scientific project;
• Publish, design, communicate: The preparation of a paper, an article, or an oral report;
• Introduction to “style manuals”;
• Research evaluation: national and international dimension.

Specific part “Government and Institutions” – YEAR 1 and 2

4. In-depth analysis of methodology and research topics of legal-political studies

The course is dedicated to advanced training on new issues and methodologies that international and national research proposes in the area of legal-political studies. It provides PhD students with interdisciplinary conceptual tools of reference. Topics that will be addressed are:

• The activity and organisation of public administrations;
• Convergences and divergences between European and global administrative systems;
• Relations between levels of government and between institutional subjects and functional autonomies;
• Environmental law and natural heritage;
• New technologies and fundamental rights;
• The relationship between Law and technology.

5. In-depth analysis of methodology and research topics of economic-political studies

The course is dedicated to advanced training on new issues and methodologies that international and national research proposes in the area of economic-political studies. It provides PhD students with interdisciplinary conceptual tools of reference. Topics that will be addressed are:

• Regionalism and globalisation;
• Stabilisation policies;
• Finance and the business cycle;
• Smart cities and solutions for sustainable mobility;
• Introduction to econometrics for time series;
• Introduction to econometrics for qualitative and longitudinal data.

Specific part for “European and International Studies” and “Gender Studies” – YEAR 1 and 2

6. Introduction to Research in International Studies

The course is dedicated to advanced training on new issues and methodologies that international research proposes in the area of international studies. It provides PhD students with interdisciplinary conceptual tools of reference. Topics that will be addressed are:

• The methodology of historical-internationalist research;
• From political history to the history of politics: Problems and perspectives;
• Globalisation, international political economy, ̧and North-South problems;
• The process of democratisation and its limitations;
• International legal studies;
• Globalisation, religion and international relations;
• The problem of interdisciplinarity from the historical-economic perspective: Problems and methods of analysis;
• Ethnography crossed by gender: for a practical-political approach on subjectivities.

7. The new frontiers of Area Studies

The course is dedicated to advanced training on new issues and methodologies that international research proposes in Area Studies, namely, the interdisciplinary field of research that concerns particular geographical, national, federal, and cultural areas. It provides PhD students with interdisciplinary conceptual reference tools. Topics that will be addressed are:

• The EU in the new century;
• The United States in the contemporary international system;
• East Asia and the interpretative categories for the history of the twentieth century;
• Between history and memory: Human rights in Latin America;
• Contemporary Africa;
• The post-communist transition in Eastern Europe.

Other teaching activities (seminars, laboratory and research activities, interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary training)

In common

• International Annual Seminary. Held by an authoritative international visiting professor, the Seminar addresses a major research issue of contemporary politics. In the interdisciplinary perspective of the Doctorate, anthropologists, economists, jurists, political scientists, sociologists, and historians are invited to participate. At the end of the Seminar, the guest teacher will evaluate the participation of the PhD students . The Seminar can be held in person or electronically.
• Permanent Seminar on research models in policy studies. The Seminar is aimed at introducing PhD students to successful research models in the area of policy studies. Scholars who have come out of the Doctorate and have continued their scientific vocation are invited to hold a meeting. They present their latest published or ongoing research. The Seminar represents not only a tool to indicate to PhD students research paths that have brought significant fruits in the area of political studies, but also to discuss research models from the point of view of the researcher’s tools in a series of methodological laboratories. The Seminar can be held in person or electronically.
• Permanent Seminar for the discussion of PhD students’ research. The Seminar offers the opportunity of a joint discussion, between the Faculty and the entire community of doctoral students, on the progress of the candidates’ research. PhD students are invited, in turn, in small groups to present the progress and problems related to their research. The Seminar favours a fruitful exchange of experiences, for a comparison of different disciplinary perspectives, for continuous updating. The Seminar can be held in person or electronically.

For each Curriculum

Seminars of interdisciplinary interest. These seminars are organised separately by each Curriculum. They are aimed at deepening both general research topics and topics of interest for the related research projects. In addition, the seminars are inspired by the logic of interaction and active participation of PhD students. Workshops can be held in person or electronically.

Language Improvement

The Centro Linguistico di Ateneo di Roma Tre offers students and PhD students the CLACSON courses, an acronym derived from CLA CourseS On the Net. Each CLACSON teaching module includes about 25 hours of activity, corresponding to a training credit. Modules are available for the English, French, Spanish, German and Italian L2 languages, structured in progressive difficulty pathways ranging from A2 level to B2 level of the Common European Framework. For the B2 level, special teaching modules deepen the specialised languages of the various academic fields. At the moment, the following sectoral modules are present on the CLACSON platform:

• English module on Economics;
• English module on Law;
• English module on Global Social Sciences;
• French for the Economy.

IT improvement

The Department of Political Science has a Computer Laboratory equipped with thirty-five workstations connected to the net, with printers, players, CD / DVD readers, and scanners. The Laboratory was born as a structure intended to support the teaching activity in three key aspects: a) basic start-up to the use of IT means; b) seminar exercises with particular regard to access to databases relating to disciplines taught in the Department; c) possibility of experiments and applications for the verification of the preparation through the use of tests. The successful completion of computer courses provides participants with a certificate.

Research and knowledge management of European and international research systems

A series of meetings are planned in collaboration with the European and International Research Office of Roma Tre University. They describe the profile of the European and international research system, the scouting of funding opportunities and the establishment of partnerships. They also help the matching between the research profiles of PhD students and the departmental ones.  Topics that will be addressed are: the prospects for international funding, the formulation of forecast budgets, the financial guidelines of European programs, the development of complex projects, the possible establishment of academic spin-offs, the legal protection of scientific work, the condemnation of plagiarism.

Exploitation and dissemination of results and Open Access to research data and products

In collaboration with the PhD Board and the National Research Office of the Roma Tre University, the problem of disseminating research data will be addressed in a series of meetings with Doctoral students. In particular, the importance, also recognised by the Conference of Rectors of Italian Universities (CRUI), of full and open access to information and data of general interest for research and scientific training, favouring and supporting the free dissemination on the net of the results of research conducted in Italy in universities and research centres, will be illustrated. PhD students will therefore be introduced to the perspective of Open Access, the achievements related to the Open Archive Initiative and the open-source software created according to the latter’s standards and adopted by many institutional archives. The OAI is the collection of full-text digital resources managed by the universities and freely accessible online by the community of scholars and readers. In particular, the IRIS Research Registry adopted by the university will be illustrated.

Fundamental principles of ethics, gender equality and integrity

In collaboration with the Ethics Commission of the Roma Tre University (of which the Coordinator of the Doctorate is one of the members) the fundamental principles will be illustrated in some meetings with the students: the correctness of behaviour among the members of the academic community, the rejection of all forms of discrimination, the condemnation of mobbing, abuse and harassment of a sexual nature,  problems related to conflict of interest, freedom of criticism, independence and autonomy of research, the use of institutional resources, the propriety of places of study and work and respect for the environment, gender equality and empowerment, as well as the principles of research integrity (dignity, responsibility, equity, fairness, diligence).