"Man is by nature a political animal. And therefore, men, even when they do not require one another's help, desire to live together."
Aristotle Politics III, 6-8

Give your academic work a new texture and meaning. The aim of our Social Science courses is to take what is done in the classroom out into the community and vice versa.

Siena is and has become over the years a stage for many fascinating intercultural meetings; our Social Science courses aim to shed light on some of the most interesting social and cultural dynamics within the city. Our students become researchers of the urban space in which they live and explore how different groups of people experience the same territory in very different ways.

Our Cultural Anthropology course focuses on issues of migration, which have become of immense importance in contemporary Italian society. Siena has grown to include minorities from Latin America, Albania, Africa and Eastern Europe, most of whom struggle with their different identities, old and new.

Our Education and Linguistics course is unique in providing access to the world of the Italian deaf community, and related socio-cultural issues. Under the guidance of two amazing teachers, one of them deaf the other hearing, students will explore Siena in a totally new way, understanding firsthand how the country faces certain challenges in its education system, and how difference is conceptualized and experienced both from the side of those who are 'different' and of those who are 'normal'.

Education and Linguistics
Italian Sign Language and Deaf culture
Anthropology
The Anthropology of Migration and Transnationalism in Contemporary Societies