Linguistic Cultures and Communities in Europe Past and Present: Building the Eurotales Museum
Society, culture, heritage
Social Science and Humanities
Art Design and Media
The course (now in its 5th edition) invites students to collaborate in building our innovative Museum Lab EUROTALES, aimed at representing and preserving the languages spoken in Europe now and in the past in their variety and dynamic relationship with the European territory, and to acknowledge, describe and preserve the linguistic culture of Europe outside narrow national boundaries, and based on active citizenship.
Students in this CIVIS course will learn about the linguistic cultures of Europe by preparing materials for both the physical and virtual museum venues of Eurotales. Eurotales is both a Sapienza incorporated Museum Collection and a subproject of Calliope (CAsa delle Lingue e delle Letterature In OPEra).
It is also a member of the international network of language museums (ICON) and it works with AND - Ambienti Narrativi Digitali srl for digital processing, data collection, and the website. All of these entities are stakeholders in the project.
- What are the main issues in trying to describe languages, and how to address them?
- How do languages relate to people and places?
- How can the memory of orality be retrieved and preserved?
- How to account for linguistic cultures outside the canon?
- Appreciation of the multicultural and multi-layered nature of linguistic history within European territory
- Recognition of multilingualism and multiculturalism in communities and nations
- Insight on how language shapes history, identity and culture
- Knowledge of how languages live and are shaped within different geographic spaces
- Retrieval of linguistic genealogies within individuals, past and present
- Retrieval of the memory of languages in objects and places
- Investigation of the linguistic dimension of cultural heritage
- Fieldwork research methods experience
- Presenting academic knowledge to the public (outreach)
- The evaluation will be carried out by the coordinators in participating institutions and will consist of an assessment of the work submitted by students.
2026/2027
Master's
PhD candidates/ students
Bachelor's
Sapienza Università di Roma
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
University of Bucharest
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Sapienza Università di Roma
University of Glasgow
University of Sfax
English
B2
The physical section of the BIP will take place between 4-8 January 2027, in Rome.
Detailed schedule:
- Rome seminars and itineraries (20 hrs)
- discussion and presentation of the work students submitted; visit to the EUROTALES museum; seminar with curators from another European Language Museum;
- visits to sites echoing the languages of Medieval, Renaissance and contemporary Rome (e.g. Basilica of s. Clemente, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme; Pantheon and Piazza Navona; Cimitero Acattolico; Pasolini and il Pigneto);
- Multilingual Theatre workshop;
- Music concert (traditional music from across Europe).
The virtual part will take place between 2 October - 11 December 2026.
02 October, 15:00 - 17:00: Introduction and Scope of Eurotales Project and Museum - Language, Community and Place
- greetings and introductions
- EUROTALES Museum Laboratory Concept and Collections [PPT lecture]
- break
- course syllabus and Moodle platform
- Resonances Present – questionnaires
- distribute email list and create WhatsApp group for the class
- tasks: for 09 October, please complete two questionnaires on Excel; for 23 October, please complete the remaining 18 questionnaires and upload on Moodle.
09 October, 15:00 - 17:00: Field and Research Methods in sociolinguistics and history
- Traces - What are they? - template (PPT lecture)
- break
- Resonances of the Past - What are they? - Template (PPT lecture)
- discussion of First Questionnaires - Q & A
- due: two Resonances Present questionnaires.
- task: for 15 October, please identify topics for Resonances Past, Traces, and collect images and bibliography. You may pick from the lists or come up with your own proposals.
15 October, 15:00 - 18:00: The Basics: Inscriptions, Primary Sources and Bibliographies for Resonances Past and Traces - Q & A
- research and resources (Resonances Past and Traces) (PPT lecture)
- break
- discussion of choice of Resonances Past and Traces.
- due: topics for Resonances Past, Traces and images and preliminary bibliographies.
- tasks: for 23 October, please complete the remaining 18 questionnaires and upload on Moodle; for 30 October, draft the shorter label text for your Trace(s) and complete your bibliographic and image research for Traces and Resonances.
23 October, 17.00 - 18.00: Drop-in office hour
- due: Resonances Present questionnaires uploaded on Moodle in ONE excel file.
30 October, 15.00 - 18.00: Itineraries and Working Groups
- making itineraries: themes, areas, people (PPT lecture)
- break
- division into working groups on Traces and Resonances Past: discuss topics, and bibliography
- due: trace shorter label text(s), bibliographic and image research for Traces and Resonances
- tasks: for 06 November, completed draft Trace template(s), including longer text, and all required information and images; Resonances Past templates including images, information, texts, references and bibliographies.
06 November, 15.00 – 18.00
- students break up in groups and exchange their drafts of Traces. Class time is spent reading and commenting mutually on drafts
- break
- students propose and discuss Itinerary themes, possible groups
- tasks: for 20 November, Completed Resonance templates including information, texts, images, references and bibliographies
13 November, 17.00 – 18.00
- drop-in office hour
20 November, 15.00 - 18.00
- students break up in groups and exchange their drafts of Resonances. Class time is spent reading and commenting mutually on drafts
- general discussion on issues and problems in the drafts
- due: completed Resonance templates including information, texts, images, references and bibliographies
27 November, 15.00 – 18.00
- discussion of issues and problems in written work and video itineraries - Q & A
- drop-in office hours
- due: revisions (based on classmates’ feedback) of Traces and Resonances Past. These will be commented upon by the professors.
- task: for 4 December, Completed Traces and Resonances Past (revised based on classmates’ feedback). These will be commented upon by the professors.
04 December, 15.00 – 18.00
- proposals and preparations for the in-person seminars and visits
- drop-in office hours
- due: Completed Trace and Resonance Past templates including information, texts, references and bibliographies. These will be commented upon by the professors
- task: for 11 December, final versions of Resonances Past, and Traces based on professor feedback, and video itineraries
11 December, 17.00 – 18.00
- Drop-in office hour
- due: final versions of Resonances Past, and Traces
based on professor feedback, and Video Itineraries
Students will be assessed on participation in online and in-person seminars and on the quality of their research in the following percentages:
- 20% - participation in virtual and in-person seminars and workshops
- 15% - field work for Resonances present
- 45% - 3 historical Traces and/or Resonances
- 20% - collaborative linguistic itinerary project
Students are expected to participate actively in sessions, peer review each others’ work, engage on a collaborative itinerary and present the results of their individual research in both oral and written forms. We will be evaluating each of these components based on whether they have understood the goals of the different museum collections and how much effort they have put into their various research opportunities, as well as on their participation individually and collectively in seminars.
Since we accept both undergraduate and graduate students, we have differentiated evaluation criteria for the research components. Undergraduates must master basic research skills and develop their projects together with our guidance. The results must be clean on a formal level and competent in the mastery of approach and bibliography.
From graduate students we expect something beyond mastery of research skills. Graduate students must develop a new individual approach to their subjects that goes further than what is known in the research area. If students satisfy these criteria, they will pass the course, or receive an appropriate passing numerical grade if their university requires.
The programme is open to students at CIVIS member universities from all academic levels (Bachelor, Master, PhD) with an academic backround in the scientific fields of Modern Languages, Linguistics, Media and communication, Museum Studies, History, European Literatures, Medieval and Renaissance Studies, History.
A good level of English (B2 level) is also required, as the course will be conducted in English and implies active participation from all students.
Critical thinking, working in groups are highly appreciated as well.
This course is also open to students with the same academic profile, who are enrolled at a CIVIS strategic partner university in Africa. Please check here, if you can apply and if this particular course is open to applications from your university. Successful applicants will receive an Erasmus+ grant covering travel and subsistence costs during their stay. Participation is only possible if students apply parallel for a 3-month stay at SUR which overlaps with the timing of the BIP. For further information, please contact the international office of your home university!
Motivation Letter
Level of english (According to CEFR)
CV
Applications will be evaluated based on:
- interest in the project and in fieldwork
- good knowledge of English
- Giulia Fabbiano, Anthropologist, Aix-Marseille Université (France)
- Domenica Minniti Gonias, Italianist, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (Greece)
- Nadia Cannata, Romance languages and Philology, Sapienza Università di Roma (Italia), Director, Eurotales
- Lorenzo Bartoli, Renaissance Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
- Roxana Utale, University of Bucharest (Romania)
- Leila Maziane, Historian, Université Hassan II de Casablanca (Morocco)
- Salem Mokni, Historian, University of Sfax, (Tunisia)
- Maia Gahtan, Kent State University, Florence campus (co-director of EUROTALES)
- Margaret Sonmez, METU, Ankara (co-director of EUROTALES)
- Dragana Kazandjiovska, Sapienza Università di Roma (Italia)
- Riccardo Vannuccini, Artestudio, Rome - Actor and theatre director
- Francesca Ferri, musician
Our partners include linguisticians with expertise in a wide variety of languages, an anthropologist with expertise in the relations between Algeria and France, and two north African institutions.