Curriculum East Asia The main purpose of this curriculum is to prepare scholars of history of Far Eastern civilizations, taking the term history in its widest meaning and comprising its linguistic, literary, philosophical and religious, and art historical aspects. These scholars will reach a high level of autonomy in their researches, demonstrate capability of handling sources in original languages, and possess valid means of critical exposition. As regards literature, postgraduate students will be enabled to analyze classic or modern literary works in Chinese, Japanese and Korean, carrying out the textual and philological analysis of one or more works. An important formative goal is to enable the candidates to present their researches in international meetings and conferences, in order to confront their results with those of foreign scholars in Western and Asian countries, with the objective to introduce scientific novelties in their specific fields of study and research. Curriculum Indian Subcontinent and Central Asia This curriculum aims at preparing scholars specialized in the field of culture, history and society of the vast South Asian region, with an extension – on account of linguistic and, more generally, cultural affinities – to Central Asia, including Tibet. The aim of this curriculum is not only to create competences to be spent in the academic field, but also to form the cultural background of cadres working in the increasing number of economic and cultural copartnerships between Italy and India. The curriculum is articulated in three different formative profiles, each stemming from a common formative basis: a) cultural-linguistic (Hindi, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, and ancient Iranian languages with their respective literatures; philosophy and religion, philology and linguistic, art history) b) historical (Indian Subcontinent and Tibet ancient, modern and contemporary history) c) socio-economic (problems relating to economic growth and sustainable development, issues of inequality and socioeconomic alienation in the Indian Subcontinent. The acquisition of modern (Hindi, Bengali) or classic (Sanskrit, Tibetan, ancient Iranian languages) linguistic competences is deemed characterizing for all the three profiles. Among modern Western languages, a thorough knowledge of (spoken and written) English is required, besides practical knowledge of at least a second language (French and German); for researches to be carried out in the field of Western Central Asia, the knowledge of Russian is indispensable. Cycles of basic seminars about South Asian (classic and modern) history and culture, and various aspects of its economic development and social dynamics are foreseen, besides stages abroad in qualified research institutes, or in Italy in organizations working in the International Cooperation field. Curriculum Islamic Civilization This curriculum aims at forming highly qualified professionals in the field of Islamic studies, in their widest conception, i.e. open to traditional as well as contemporary questions. It points to continue in preparing research scholars and, at the same time, to form individuals equipped with philological and historical knowledge, and competent in confronting the changing Italian and Mediterranean conditions, with special regard to the immigration phenomenon. This massive phenomenon, in fact, makes absolutely impossible, especially in the actual international situation, any renounce or delay in the starting of an interaction-integration process, whose results will prove effective only if based on a real, deep and scientific knowledge of Islam and its history. On the other hand the curriculum purposes proceeding to be a disciplinary differentiation of what is meant as ‘Islamic’ studies, in order to produce researchers in social anthropology, art history, Islamic sciences, language and philology, besides institutional and political history. Its approach is multi-disciplinary: philological (knowledge of Arabic and other Islamic languages, such as Persian, Turkish, Urdu, etc.) and socio-anthropological (covering areas as South Asia, Central Asia, West Africa, and East Africa, besides traditional Islamic countries). In this way, its postgraduate students will be addressed towards a highly specialized academic or research career and also high profile professional careers, cultural mediation and international cooperation oriented, as required by the contemporary labour market.