Catalogue
Critical Heritage Studies
This course introduces students to the theoretical, methodological, and ethical dimensions of Critical Heritage Studies. It examines how heritage is constructed, contested, and mobilized within diverse political, social, and cultural contexts. Through case studies and critical debates, the course explores the intersections between memory, identity, space, and power, while fostering reflective and analytical engagement with contemporary heritage issues.
Heritage Futures: Concepts in a Post‑Human Era
This course explores emerging post‑ human, ecocultural, and digital paradigms shaping the future of cultural and natural heritage. It examines how climate change, technological acceleration, and shifting socio‑ political dynamics transform conservation practices, heritage governance, and public engagement. Students learn to work with futures‑ thinking methodologies, AI‑ enhanced heritage tools, and resilience‑ oriented planning, developing the capacity to envision and design adaptive, inclusive, and ethically grounded heritage futures.
Global Heritage Governance
This course explores the global governance system of cultural heritage through an examination of key conventions, international organisations, programs, lists and policy frameworks. It addresses how global heritage governance shapes the identification, protection, and management of heritage, and encourages critical reflection on power relations, inclusivity, and sustainability in heritage decision-making.
Mastering the basic concepts of Global Heritage Governance. Practical application, transfer of experience and problem-solving in the field of heritage at a global level. The course fits perfectly with the study program’s context, as it offers students the opportunity to understand better both the share of cultural heritage and the complexity of conventions, programs, and heritage lists at the global level.
Mastering the basic concepts of heritage protection, as well as global trends in these areas. At the end of the course, students must understand the methodological framework of Global Heritage Governance and apply the knowledge gained in the course to the activities of protecting and valorising cultural heritage. At the same time, they must critically analyse the situation of cultural sites and assets and develop research skills in the sustainable development of cultural heritage.
Heritage for All: Rights, Communities, Participation
This course aims to develop a critical understanding of cultural heritage as a dynamic and living system shaped by human rights, participation, and community engagement. It explores contemporary international frameworks—such as the Faro Convention, UNESCO instruments, and UNDRIP—to examine the relationship between heritage, rights, and governance. The course emphasizes living heritage as an evolving process of practice, transmission, and innovation, foregrounding ethical safeguarding, community participation, sustainability, and inclusive community economies. It also addresses emerging heritage practices through digital, educational, and wellbeing perspectives, equipping students with participatory and interdisciplinary approaches to heritage in contemporary society.
The course aligns with contemporary expectations in heritage management, particularly from:
• UNESCO and ICOM: community-based approaches and participatory governance.
• Council of Europe: rights-based heritage frameworks.
• European Union: regional branding, local economies, and social innovation.
• Cultural institutions and NGOs: digital participation, inclusivity, and wellbeing frameworks.
Ethics in Cultural Heritage: Dilemmas, Responsibilities and Community Rights
The course aims to cultivate students’ ethical competences in the field of cultural heritage by critically examining moral dilemmas, legal responsibilities, and community rights. It prepares students to navigate complex heritage contexts with integrity, applying ethical principles in conservation, research, and museum practice while promoting inclusive representation, respect for cultural diversity, and compliance with professional standards such as GDPR and scientific integrity.
The syllabus for Ethics in Cultural Heritage: Dilemmas, Responsibilities and Community Rights is coherently structured to support the progressive achievement of its intended learning outcomes. Weekly topics introduce foundational concepts such as culture, heritage, and intellectual property, directly addressing the knowledge outcomes. Seminar activities and case-based discussions are designed to develop skills in ethical analysis, stakeholder communication, and applied decision-making across conservation and museum contexts. Assessment tasks—including position papers, scenario evaluations, and group presentations—are explicitly aligned with responsibility and autonomy outcomes, encouraging students to demonstrate ethical responsibility, respect for cultural diversity, and adherence to research integrity and GDPR standards. This alignment ensures that each component of the syllabus contributes meaningfully to the development of competencies outlined in the course.
Writing as Heritage Praxis: Academic Expression and Intellectual Responsibility
The “Writing as Heritage Praxis: Academic Expression and Intellectual Responsibility”, a module of the Ethics and professional deontology: Academic Writing”, aims to move beyond viewing writing as a mere tool for communication and instead approach it as a praxis—a deliberate cycle of theory, action, and reflection. Academic expression is not viewed as a neutral skill, but as a form of cultural and intellectual heritage. Every time a source is cited, an argument is structured, or specific vocabulary chosen, a lineage of thought is being used. This course challenges students to consider their place within that lineage and the ethical weight of the contributions they leave behind. Completion of this course facilitates the refinement of technical writing abilities alongside the development of a critical consciousness regarding the scholarly role. Academic outputs — including papers, essays, and theses — are reconceptualized as ‘living documents’ that contribute to the ongoing heritage of the respective field.
Analysis and characterization of organic and inorganic materials
This course provides Cultural Heritage students with the essential foundations of general, organic, and inorganic chemistry needed to understand heritage materials, their alteration, and the logic of material characterization. The course is strongly application-oriented: it focuses on how chemical composition and structure determine behaviour, decay, and compatibility of conservation actions in movable heritage (paintings, polychrome objects, paper, textiles, metals, ceramics, glass) and immovable heritage (stone, mortars, plasters, wall paintings, architectural surfaces). Students are introduced to a problem-solving approach used in conservation science: moving from research question to sampling strategy (including non-invasive options), analytical method selection, data interpretation, and communication of results to conservators and heritage stakeholders.
Diagnostics on Restoration
This course is designed to give Master students from diverse backgrounds a rapid yet comprehensive introduction to the scientific and practical foundations of cultural heritage conservation. It provides an accessible overview of key artistic materials—painting supports, pigments, binders, adhesives, cellulose, metals, and historic mortars—along with the essential analytical techniques used in diagnostics, such as SEM, spectroscopy, chromatography, thermal analysis, XRF, and radiography. Through intensive hands‑ on sessions, students will practice chemical cleaning of polychrome surfaces, stratigraphic and microscopic analysis of painted layers, paper restoration with classical and enzymatic methods, multispectral and reflectographic imaging in museum settings, material characterization of pigments and binders, radiographic examination of wooden sculptures, and alloy identification of metal artefacts. By the end of the course, students will possess the core knowledge and practical skills needed to understand, analyze, and participate in conservation and restoration activities.
Geoarchaeology and Virtual Reconstruction of Archaeological Sites
This curricular unit combines geoarchaeological research with digital methodologies for the virtual reconstruction of the past. The aim is to provide students with both theoretical and practical tools to understand the natural and human-induced processes shaping archaeological sites, as well as to apply innovative digital technologies in the documentation, interpretation, and communication of heritage. The integration of geoarchaeology and virtual reconstruction fosters key interdisciplinary skills for safeguarding, valorizing, and disseminating cultural heritage.
Instrumental Chemical-Physical Analyses
This course aims to provide students—including BA graduates from Humanities and other disciplines—with accessible knowledge of instrumental methods for the analysis and characterization of organic and inorganic materials. Designed to accommodate diverse academic backgrounds, the course introduces key analytical principles in a clear and structured manner while progressively guiding students toward real‑ world applications and case studies. It develops the ability to select and employ appropriate techniques such as atomic spectroscopy, X‑ ray–based methods, vibrational and UV‑ Visible spectroscopy, and thermal or surface analysis to investigate structural and chemical properties of materials
Monitoring of Architectural Heritage
The discipline aims to provide students with a solid theoretical and practical foundation in monitoring techniques applied to architectural heritage, enabling them to understand structural dynamics, material behavior, and sensor technologies essential for conservation diagnostics. Through real case studies, students will gain knowledge and understanding of structural, environmental, and material‑ based monitoring approaches; apply this knowledge using instrumental, digital, and non‑ invasive tools to evaluate conservation status and deterioration; and develop the ability to design evidence‑ based preservation strategies. They will learn to critically assess the reliability of monitoring data, compare methodologies, and make informed judgments within multidisciplinary restoration contexts.
Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage
The module ‘Conservation and restoration of cultural heritage’ aims to integrate theoretical reflection on the value/significance of cultural heritage and the need for practical intervention in a real context. It is also an opportunity to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired both in the study of the materials and techniques used in the production of cultural heritage, as well as in the study of its degradation processes, from the causes of the pathologies to their extension. This entire process, the diagnostic, allows for the development and application of certain analytical techniques. These provide a better understanding of the object, from its characterisation to the definition of the best intervention methodology.
The classes will allow the students to better understand and integrate the knowledge obtained in the theoretical classes through its application in the context of conservation and restoration interventions. This practical intervention, based on the problem-based learning methodology, is fundamental, as students must understand that each case has its own particularities and intervention needs.
Material and intangible heritage: documentation, preservation and enhancement
The module ‘Material and intangible heritage: documentation, preservation and enhancement’ aims to provide an understanding of the concept of cultural heritage and its regulatory evolution. The diverse forms of cultural heritage preservation continue to change over time, and current challenges require an increasing focus on its values. International documents, both in the area of tangible and intangible heritage, contribute to its enhancement, but still require considerable reflection and the adoption of a set of good practices that are reflected in the legislation of each EU Member State. The development of new approaches to the preservation of cultural heritage, in a holistic manner, is essential to integrate some conflicting views in this scenario.
The objectives of this module include the critical analysis of new forms of cultural heritage preservation, the analysis of good practices in its preservation, and the development of a set of fundamental skills for its enhancement (identification, survey, inventory, recording, collection, preservation, and dissemination).
Students will be asked to develop their skills and autonomy in identifying and researching cultural heritage and its relevance to communities, the territory, their identity, and the local economy. The development of practical work around cultural heritage, with this holistic view, will allow students to better understand the impact of heritage enhancement on community identity and social integration.
Climate change, decay and risks on Cultural Heritage
The module ‘Climate change, decay and risks on Cultural Heritage’ provides an understanding of the risks and mechanisms of degradation and how climate change increases pressure on cultural heritage. In this module, students have the opportunity to develop and apply some of the skills acquired in other modules, namely on the processes of material degradation, its identification and monitoring, particularly through analytical techniques.
This knowledge will also be applied during the practical and field work carried out during the course. Students are encouraged to discover the relationships between the causes of heritage degradation and the development of methodologies for its mitigation. These practical case studies allow students to combine the theoretical concepts they have learned with fieldwork. This involves sample collection, material characterisation, the identification of mechanisms of material alteration and decay, and monitoring and data collection.
International Fieldwork in Cultural Heritage
This aims to integrate theoretical knowledge acquired during previous semesters with practical application in the field. Students will participate in a one-week mobility program at one of the partner universities (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Turkey), where they will work on selected cultural heritage sites. Activities include analysing historical and cultural contexts, documentation, and developing strategies for the promotion and interpretation of heritage for the public. Special emphasis will be placed on sites with complex histories, such as abandoned villages in border regions.