The doctoral programme aims to train researchers in the various performing arts, with specific skills in the analysis and interpretation of the texts, objects and discourses of one or more specific languages in this broad field: theatre, dance, cinema, photography, television, the new digital media, and music, both so-called Wester "art" music and popular or folk repertories. Particular attention is given to the interaction among these languages, as well as to the artistic, cultural, social, political and ideological contexts within which they operate, and to which they contribute. The doctoral programme comprises two curricula, "History and Analysis of Musical Cultures" and "Studies on Theatre, Performing Arts, Film and Digital Performance". Even if the two curricula organize mostly separate seminars, all the doctoral students are warmly encouraged to take part in the activities of both curricula, in order to promote an eminently inderdisciplinary education. In fact, a crucial tenet of the doctoral programme is a sustained methodological and theoretical dialogue among the various sub-fields, as well as with other disciplines, such as history, anthropology, and the history of art and literature.