ABOUT US
Underpinning the Department is our dual Italian and European identity, the result of the challenging, decades-long process of European unification. While acknowledging all aspects of local and national heritage, the recent entry of Central and Eastern European countries into the EU has confirmed our belief that we share a common identity and civilization from East to West, from the Urals to the Atlantic, including those countries yet to become member-states.
In this paradigm, Europe reaches out to the many linguistic and socio-cultural communities of the Americas, where its own roots are inextricably linked with those of native cultures; it comes into contact with other cultures, including those of former colonies in Africa and Asia as well as the fast-developing Far East – the site of a rich, mutual, cultural exchange for centuries.
This international dimension is all the more pertinent, given the steadily increasing flow of immigrants over the last twenty years from Central and Eastern Europe, from Asia, Africa and South America, transforming Italy into a truly multicultural and multiethnic country, as had already been the case for a number of other European countries.
Interculturalism is therefore one of the corner stones of the Department, as far as both teaching and research are concerned. The Department welcomes students from abroad alongside those from Italy and especially welcomes first and second generation immigrants. True to its founding project and the prestige of the former departments that merged to create it, over time the Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies has become a benchmark for teaching and research both within ‘Sapienza’ and Italy in general but also further afield in Europe and across the world.