PhD Academy: Preserving and safeguarding the beauty of cultural heritage – Venice – November 6-10, 2023 – Deadline for applications on August 27, 2023

Heritage objects represent a fragile and non-renewable resource of human legacy, many of which have been irreversibly lost over the past centuries. This has undeniably called upon heritage professionals to look for proper and effective measures of safeguarding and protection based on solid scientific and historical foundations. Safeguarding and learning more about heritage, in fact, means preserving not only its physical nature but also the values and meanings it carries.

This PhD Academy, which will be held on November 6-10, 2023 at the Venice International University, aims at providing a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art analytical methodologies and diagnostic tools currently used within the heritage science domain, with a focus on pioneering methods exploiting optical, X-rays, lasers and particle probes (i.e., electrons, muons, protons, neutrons) generated by novel and/or conventional devices and accelerators along with their more recent applications to different kinds of heritage items (e.g. papyri, fossils, metals, glass, ceramics, manuscripts, paintings).

This PhD Academy will be led by:

– University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy

– CNR ISPC, Italy

– CNR SCITEC, Italy

– Tor Vergata University of Rome, Italy

– Duke University, USA

 

The program will concentrate on the transversality of the challenges in the interdisciplinary domain of heritage science, by emphasizing the benefits of working with heritage items to the developments of sciences and technology and their effective contribution to human sciences.

To this aim, the PhD Academy will draw together experienced and emerging scholars from both hard sciences (e.g., physics, chemistry, engineering, material sciences, computer science…) and arts and humanities (archaeology, art history, art conservation and restoration). The program will also include a parallel training program in a range of Transversal Skills for developing participants’ academic careers and poster sessions to present their research projects.

This international PhD Academy is offered to PhD students, post-docs, and junior researchers with a background in material sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, geology, engineering, computer science, heritage science, archaeology, palaeontology, art history, art conservation and restoration. Open to candidates from all the VIU Member Institutions; applications from excellent candidates from non-member institutions will also be considered and evaluated.

Students from the VIU member institutions will pay no participation fees. Grant support is also available to support, partially or fully, the costs of international travel; accommodation on campus, in shared rooms, will be offered. External candidates admitted to the PhD Academy will pay fees (further information is available in the brochure). VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.

Applicants must submit (1) an application form, (2) a letter of motivation – which should include a short bio and a brief description of the candidate’s research project, (3) a curriculum vitae and (4) a photo.

For further information, please download the brochure and the program (available soon) or write to: phdacademy@univiu.org

 

The deadline for application is on August 27, 2023