The Department’s main missions are 1) to provide high quality university education, 2) to develop advanced research in all humanistic fields related to the historical, artistic, archaeological, linguistic, philological, literary, and geographical sciences. In addition, by carrying out the so-called Third Mission, the Department makes its expertise in these fields available to the community in order to support its social, cultural, and economic development. The Department pursues all these objectives through collaboration with bodies and institutions outside the University. 
The Department draws on the knowledge of the humanities tradition and its consolidated critical tools, opening itself to current demands for critical capacity and cultural flexibility, together with scientific, technical, and professional updating. 

Research areas

In a single structure, the Department brings together various areas of scientific research, united by common objects of study and methods of investigation. The Department includes scholars working in the areas of linguistics, philology and literature, geography and history, archaeology and art. They share an interdisciplinary approach to research based on common interests in the ancient age - its tradition and reception - and in the medieval, modern and contemporary ages. National and international research projects are active in these areas.

Degree Courses

The Department is responsible for three-year degree courses (Humanities, Cultural Heritage, Foreign Languages and Cultures), and master's degree courses (Italianistica e Storia Europea, Archaeology and History of Art, Civiltà Classiche, Comparative Literature and Intercultural Translation), and a PhD in History, Arts and Languages in Ancient and Modern Europe. The Department also participates in the interdepartmental degree course in Communication Studies, the administrative management of which, since 1 January 2014, has been entrusted to the Department of Political Science. The Department also includes a School of Specialisation in Beni Storico-Artistici, located in Gubbio.

Services

Students are offered an orientation and tutoring service, which maintains relations with high schools, organizes orientation days and internships in public and private, profit and non-profit organizations and institutions. Doctoral students and students on Master's degree courses also collaborate with the service (by means of tutoring contracts) to provide support for first-year students. The International Relations Service provides assistance for participation in mobility projects, and in particular in the Erasmus+ programme.

Cultural and scientific initiatives

Conferences, seminars and meetings with representatives from the academic, cultural, professional and business worlds provide other important training opportunities for students.