The research fields that characterize the PhD will be developed in a variety of areas, such as but not limited to those related to:
- Study of theoretical, historical and epistemological paradigms of human and social sciences research as a significant analytical window to reflect on the transformation of identities, the circulation of political experiences and practices, and to understand the complexity of historical and contemporary scenarios;
- Promoting the health and well-being of individuals, groups, communities, and organizations; promoting the development of people, with a focus on the promotion of well-being, with attention also to the latest psychobiological modeling, governance models of welfare systems, social policies, and health promotion;
- Analysis of contemporary social and cultural transformations and the educational and training dimensions of the person: transformations of the world of school, university, educational services and the world of work, psychological and pedagogical aspects of teaching and learning processes; educational technologies (teacher training, school-to-work transitions, education, training, education); innovation and design of inclusion, disabilities, and special educational needs, assistive and inclusive technologies;
- Analysis of the environmental and cultural context, through the knowledge proper to the human and social sciences in dialogue with physical, political, and cultural space; accessibility and sustainability of physical and natural environments; study of the relationship between space and education; education for citizenship and participation; motor and sports education in social, educational and historical perspective, also about play-motor contexts and urban environments;
- Analysis of new social needs to which the humanities and social sciences have responded throughout history, in comparison of past and contemporary, assessing whether new needs and transformations in collective priorities have emerged, including transnational migration, intercultural education, and new citizenships, government, and local systems; study of emerging forms of disease, exclusion, social injustice, school dropout, and educational poverty;
- Study of research methodologies in the human and social sciences; study of interpersonal relationships, educational and training relationships, caring relationships, interactions in groups and social networks and their symbolic contents; analysis of innovative research tools in the humanities and social sciences. A focus is devoted to the interaction between human and social sciences and natural and mathematical sciences (physics, biology, chemistry, computer and data sciences).