34 Best Humanities Master's Degree Programs in Italy for 2024

The FIFA Master - International MA in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport was recently ranked as the #1 Postgraduate Sport Management course in Europe for a record eleventh time in the influential 2023 SportBusiness Postgraduate rankings. The FIFA Master combines a truly international and multi-disciplinary approach.

The Master’s Degree in Languages, Literatures and Digital Culture (LM 37) aims to provide students with a highly qualified theoretical and applied formation in two languages and literatures chosen among those taught in the programme: English, French, German, Russian, and Spanish. The study of languages and literatures is implemented, for students opting for the Languages and Literatures curriculum, with language teaching skills in a practical approach and, for students opting for the Digital Culture curriculum, with digital labs and project works focussed on digital humanities. In addition to common courses of linguistics, history of the language, foreign and Italian literatures, and philology, training activities include humanistic subjects like extra-European and postcolonial literatures or computer and juridical subjects in respective curricula. This Master’s Degree qualifies as a highly internationally oriented programme opening out to the world and promoting the enrolment of non-Italian speaking students. Common courses are taught in English and literature and language courses are taught in the related languages. Students also have the opportunity to take a binary programme for the conferral of a double degree awarded both by the University of Verona and by the University A Coruña (Spain). The course is therefore meant to open up to worldwide cooperation in the fields of formation, research, and cultural enterprise.

The Master’s degree program in Linguistics at the University of Verona provides students with advanced knowledge of linguistics, in both its theoretical and applied aspects. This program entirely taught in English (in the case of the English and German modules) and other languages depending on the modules chosen by the students (French, Spanish, Russian, and Italian), is a comprehensive international program with a specific focus on the European context. The program is enhanced through international lectures and modules held by guest lecturers and professors as part of an interdepartmental initiative with a strong interdisciplinary approach. Upon completion of the program, graduates will have gained a wide range of skills for the continuation of their studies, such as undertaking a Ph.D., and will be eligible to apply for professional master's (master di II. livello). Graduates will also have gained the necessary language teaching skills to teach Italian as a second language or foreign languages in private and public schools.

The Executive Master in Management of Art and Cultural Heritage is designed to provide in-depth training and the essential skills to undertake and consolidate a career in the artistic and cultural business sector; all within one of the capitals with the richest and most varied artistic and cultural heritage: Rome.

The Master in Sacred Art aims at offering theoretical and practical training in the field of sacred and religious art. This sector, deeply rooted in Italian culture and tradition constitutes a significant percentage of the Italian artistic heritage. The three specializations to choose from for the Master are Painting, Sculpture, and Goldsmithing.

ARCHMAT aims is to provide students with specialized skills in archaeology and analytical characterization of materials from prehistory(Megalithic) to classical times (Greek and Roman). The study and conservation of Cultural Heritage materials is a research area with a strong multidisciplinary connotation and requires skills that span across the Humanities and Science research fields. ARCHMAT provides a common, integrated platform for excellent students coming from either Science or Humanities educational backgrounds to understand the advanced scientific methods used to investigate archaeological materials and aims to form highly specialized professional experts in the emerging field of Archaeometry, i.e Physico-Chemical Sciences applied to the study of Archaeological and Cultural Heritage materials.

The Master in Industrial and Employment Relations in a fast-changing environment (political, economic, social, cultural, technological) in which governments, workers’ organizations employers, and business membership organizations have to adapt their strategies continuously, a better understanding of the contemporary trends and challenges of different industrial and employment relations in the world is a compelling need.

Language Sciences and Cultural Studies for Special Needs is a second-level degree (Laurea Magistrale) in Linguistics (LM39-Linguistica), taught entirely in English, offered by the Department of Humanities, Social Sciences and Cultural Industries of the University of Parma. It devotes specific attention to aspects related to language learning and teaching, with particular reference to Special Educational Needs affecting communication and language, such as developmental language disorders, learning disorders and sensory disabilities. A strength of the course is the acquisition of competences in the field of inclusive language education. It is a two-year course and on successful completion, graduates are awarded the “Laurea Magistrale” (second cycle degree certificate). Language Sciences and Cultural Studies for Special Needs is designed for candidates from different academic backgrounds and aims to provide a thorough grounding and advanced linguistic and cultural competencies in English and in a second foreign language (including Italian as an FL/L2), and research skills in the field of Language Sciences, in particular Educational linguistics. The course dedicates specific attention to aspects related to language learning and teaching, mainly as regards educational contexts which include learners with special needs, such as language impairments and disadvantages, learning disorders, or sensory disabilities.

This two-year English Language Master's Degree in the Ancient Mediterranean World (History Archaeology and Art) was recognized as a Department of Excellence by the Italian Ministry of Education for 2018-2022 and ranked top 30 in the 2018 QS World Ranking for the subject Classics & Ancient History.

The master’s degree in Architecture covers the topics related to interventions on the existing architectural and environmental heritage. The specific objective of the master’s degree is the achievement of a peculiar sensibility and ability related to the modalities of intervention on pre-existing architectural and environmental heritage, and to the quality design of new architecture, considering the relationships with the pre-existent and the historical city.

The Master’s program in Mediterranean Archaeology offers a diachronic, comprehensive overview of the deep history of the Mediterranean through a thematic approach. Historic trajectories from Prehistory and Protohistory to Classical and Medieval worlds will be analyzed embracing a perspective that opens up towards Contemporaneity. The course highly benefits from the location in the city of Rome, at the core of the Mediterranean area.

The Master's degree course 'Cultural Heritage in the Near and Middle East, and Africa' offers a unique training opportunity for those wishing to specialize in both the study of history and the conservation of cultural heritage of western Asia and northern and eastern Africa. Our teaching methods are designed to give a solid theoretical and methodological grounding as well as practical experience and combine classes and seminars with thematic workshops and specialized hands-on practical training.

The two-year Master's course in Science and Technology for the Conservation of Cultural Heritage aims to train experts in the field of cultural heritage conservation and archaeometry. At the end of the course, they will be able to detect deterioration processes, characterize materials, and assess conservation protocols for all kinds of cultural heritage thanks to the knowledge of the physical, chemical, biological, and structural properties of materials.

The M.A. Cultural Heritage: Sustainability & Community program at AUR equips the next generation of heritage professionals to meet the challenges of preserving our vast patrimony of art, history, and culture. Graduates from this program gain the skills for careers in practical heritage protection and project development, along with equally important soft skills in intercultural communication.

Upon successful completion of the study program students receive an international private Master of Arts (MA) in Liberal Studies degree awarded by the school's main campus in Zurich, Switzerland, based on the recommendation of the faculty of the local campuses where credits were earned, and upon the recommendation of the school's Academic Council.

The Joint Master in European Cultural Governance (EUCULTURE) is offered by CIFE and the School of Government at Luiss Guido Carli. Live in Rome, Berlin, and Nice and learn how the intrinsic relationship of Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Digital Transition can contribute to a constructive transformation of 21st-century society.

This program is available for Russian professional artist practicing in the field, aiming to improve their technical level further and broaden their expertise. There are partial and full scholarships distributed according to the yearly competition.

Specialization Biennium, for the attainment of Licentiate in Philosophy (Master of Arts, MA). It constitutes an in-depth cycle, divided into two directions: “History of philosophy and religious thought”, characterized, in addition to an in-depth study of the fundamental philosophical disciplines, by courses dedicated to Jewish, Islamic, African thought, the phenomenology of religion, as well as courses on the main and current authors of the history of philosophy. “Ontology and ethics of scientific thought”, characterized not only by an in-depth study of the fundamental philosophical disciplines, but also by courses in logic and formal ontology, history and philosophy of science, cosmology, neuroscience, computer science, bioethics, social ontology, and social epistemology.

All those who have obtained an Ecclesiastical Baccalaureate in Philosophy and who wish to obtain the degree of Licentiate must attend the second cycle which has a duration of two years (120 credits). For students who do not have preparation equivalent to the Baccalaureate level, it is expected to include a greater number of courses in their study plan. The second cycle was conceived specifically to allow students to reach specialization through the in-depth study of the philosophical thought of St. Thomas Aquinas (including its application to contemporary philosophical debates), of its historical roots and influences, which underlie the philosophical teaching of the Faculty. In order to have a better approach to the original writings of St. Thomas, to his philosophical sources, and to the subsequent Thomistic tradition, students of the second cycle must necessarily have a good knowledge of Latin. In addition to the courses, for the attainment of the degree of Licentiate, it is also necessary to write a paper of at least 50 pages, to be drawn up under the direction of a professor of the Faculty.

The Superior Institute of Religious Sciences Mater Ecclesiae, connected to the Faculty of Theology of the PUST, is a school of theological training where one trains to think about faith, to exercise believing reason. Since the commitment to think, to love, to hope is necessarily exercised in harmony with the places and times in which believers live the human and religious experience, the Mater Ecclesiae Institute is attentive to the need to give a universal breath to the activity of Training; this is guaranteed by the international character of the staff of the Institute's teachers and students. The Mater Ecclesiae is interested in current or frontier religious and cultural issues, in order to foster mutual understanding between Christians, between them and those belonging to other religions, between believers and people who are in search of the truth. Therefore, in addition to the courses provided for the formation of men and women religious, catechists, pastoral workers, courses of ongoing formation and/or theological-pastoral updating, or of an intercultural or interreligious nature, are offered.