From Timisoara to Ceaușescu: a Master’s thesis nourished by UNITA
Thanks to UNITA mobility, Émeric Charpentier, an Art History master’s student at UPPA, has found his calling. His Master’s thesis topic: propaganda posters under Ceaușescu’s dictatorship in Romania. Un BIP comme déclencheur de vocation Tout commence par une opportunité saisie presque par hasard. En Licence 3 d’Histoire de l’art et Archéologie à l’UPPA, Émeric entend parler d’un Blended Intensive Program (BIP) organisé à l’université de Timisoara, en Roumanie. Sur les conseils d’un ami, il décide d’y participer. Ce programme européen, intitulé Intercomprehension for Language for Specific Purposes (LSP), réunit des étudiants de plusieurs universités partenaires autour de la thématique de l’intercompréhension – une approche plurilingue favorisant la compréhension entre locuteurs de langues romanes. Ce premier séjour lui laisse un souvenir marquant : « une super ambiance, des rencontres enrichissantes, des profs investis et une belle découverte de la ville ». Surtout, il en revient avec une nouvelle idée : pourquoi ne pas consacrer son mémoire de master à la Roumanie ? Le fil rouge roumain De retour à l’UPPA, il poursuit son cursus en Master 1 Histoire, Civilisations, Patrimoine. Art. et affine son projet de recherche. Passionné depuis le début de ses études par l’histoire des Balkans, Émeric choisit d’analyser un corpus d’affiches de propagande produites sous la dictature de Ceaușescu, entre 1965 et 1989. Le sujet est peu exploré : la majorité des documents qu’il rassemble sont mal datés, rarement signés, et encore largement absents des travaux universitaires. Sa démarche est à la croisée des disciplines : histoire politique, esthétique visuelle, analyse symbolique. Il s’intéresse à l’évolution graphique des affiches, à l’émergence du culte de la personnalité dans les années 70, et au particularisme roumain face aux canons soviétiques, tout en posant un regard transversal sur d’autres productions visuelles, comme les affiches de cinéma. L’intercompréhension comme outil et moteur Déterminé, Émeric commence à apprendre le roumain dès sa L3, bien avant d’envisager une mobilité longue. Grâce à UNITA, il bénéficie d’une mobilité virtuelle dédiée à l’apprentissage du roumain, qui lui permet de progresser sans avoir à quitter la France. Aujourd’hui, il évalue son niveau à A2/B1. Pas encore assez confiant pour un Erasmus, il décide néanmoins de repartir en mars 2025 à Timisoara pour suivre une deuxième fois le même BIP. L’objectif est double : approfondir les notions linguistiques et revoir les enseignants locaux, mais aussi amorcer un travail d’enquête sur place. Il commence à consulter sur place des archives d’affiches de propagande sous la dictature Ceaușescu et prépare un nouveau séjour pour renforcer son corpus. Un projet de recherche ancré dans l’expérience L’enthousiasme d’Émeric est communicatif. Son projet de mémoire, à la fois original et personnel, s’est construit naturellement grâce aux mobilités offertes par l’alliance UNITA. Sans lien personnel avec la Roumanie, Émeric est l’exemple d’un étudiant dont le parcours s’est transformé grâce aux mobilités européennes. Un bel exemple de curiosité, d’autonomie, et de décloisonnement des disciplines.
Towards a Joint European Degree: Council Sets Roadmap for Higher Education Integration
In a significant move for the future of higher education in Europe, the Council of the European Union has adopted a recommendation and a resolution aimed at laying the groundwork for a joint European degree label. These steps mark progress toward the potential introduction of a fully-fledged joint European degree by 2029. According to Andrzej Szeptycki, Polish Deputy Minister for Science and Higher Education, this initiative is central to boosting the global competitiveness and attractiveness of European universities. The two approved texts articulate a shared vision among EU member states and provide a practical roadmap to realise it. The resolution presents a strategic three-phase timeline leading up to 2029, while the recommendation defines the criteria for awarding the joint degree label. The label will be granted to joint academic programmes established through transnational collaboration involving at least two EU countries. This initiative builds on the Bologna Process and follows the European Commission’s March 2024 policy package aimed at strengthening cooperation within the EU’s higher education sector. It represents a critical step toward harmonising academic standards and fostering deeper integration across Europe’s universities. Read the full article: https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2025/05/12/council-takes-steps-towards-a-new-joint-european-degree-label/
UNITA GEIE is Hiring: Administration Responsible
Total Budget Available: 130.200€Number of Starting TT Grants: 18 Maximum Funding per Grant: 7.233,33€ Implementation Timeline: Projects must be implemented between July 2025 and March 2026,with a maximum duration of 9 months. Application deadline:Friday 6th June 2025. You can join the information webinar to be held on 21 May at 14:00 CET, on this link , to find out moreabout the call and the application process.(https://datacloud.univ-unita.eu/index.php/apps/bbb/b/4XS6PsLYxZxg4tXF) UNITA GEIE (European Economic Interest Grouping) is seeking an Administration Responsible tojoin its team in Torino, Italy.The selected candidate will oversee financial management, budgetcontrol, economic reporting, and supplier contracts within the UNITA European University framework.The ideal profile includes a degree in economics, law, or related fields;, 2 years ofrelevant experience, fluency in Italian and English.This is a two-year fixed-term contract (20hours/week).📌 Apply by June 6th, 2025, 11.30 PM CET: Send your CV and motivation letter to unita.geie@gmail.com Full call in English Full call in Italian
Cultural heritage: UniBs is hosting the second stop of the exibition “I primi custodi della memoria. Le sepolture del Paleolitico.”
The exibition “I primi custodi della memoria. Le sepolture del Paleolitico.”, showcasing the collection of casts of Paleolithic burials from the Museum of Human Anatomy at UniTO, is open at Palazzo Bettoni (Piazza Bruno Boni, Brescia) from the 30th of April to the 21st of June. This exhibition represents an outstanding collaboration between the universities of the Alliance. The casts of the Paleolithic era provide valuable insights into how populations of that time approached the death of a fellow human. Funerary practices offer a unique opportunity to explore the deeper elements of human thought during a period preceding the emergence of artistic expression. The death rituals of the Paleolithic era were not driven by material necessities but by concerns of a different nature, often reflecting beliefs about the fate of an individual—or their body—after death. For this reason, they represent a significant milestone in the social history of humanity, shedding light on the life of the deceased and their community. The inauguration took place on Wednesday, April 30th, in the presence of the Rector of the University of Brescia, Professor Francesco Castelli; the Rector of the University of Turin, Professor Stefano Geuna; Professor Giacomo Giacobini, Curator of the exhibition and Emeritus Professor at the University of Turin; Professor Angelo Mazzù, Project Coordinator and Full Professor of Mechanical Design and Machine Construction at the University of Brescia; and Associate Professor Irene Giustina, Professor of Architectural History at the University of Brescia and representative of the UNITA Cultural Heritage working group (hub). The exhibition was first hosted by the University of Turin from January 16 to April 26, 2025. During this period, it welcomed over 6,400 visitors, averaging 75 attendees per day. The final day, Saturday, April 26, saw the highest attendance, with 508 visitors. As a traveling exhibition, it will be hosted in turn by several universities within the UNITA Alliance, further strengthening collaboration and fostering shared cultural engagement among partner institutions. The exhibition at the University of Brescia can be visited until June 21, 2025, from Monday to Friday, from 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM and from 2:30 PM to 4:30 PM.
International PhD in Digital Humanities between Turin, Genoa, and Pau: an excellent achievement within the UNITA Alliance
Titled From Basque to Francoprovençal: promoting regional or minority languages through the design of a European digital museum, the doctoral dissertation by Marie Domengès received top honors in a joint supervision program between the Université de Pau et des Pays de l’Adour (UPPA), the University of Turin, and the University of Genoa. The research was conducted as part of the PhD program in Digital Humanities – Digital Technologies, Arts, Languages, Cultures, and Communication. In particular, the research explored how museums — often overlooked in the efforts to safeguard regional or minority languages — can highlight multilingualism and contribute to the preservation, promotion, and transmission of less-used local languages, which are often at risk of extinction. In her work, supervised by Professors Laurence Roussillon Constanty (UPPA) and Silvia Pireddu (University of Turin), Dr. Domengès carried out a study on 26 museums in France and Italy, especially in cross-border areas, to observe early multilingual approaches within these cultural institutions and identify attempts to promote regional or minority languages. She further delved into the subject through a four-month case study in two museums: the Musée Basque et de l’histoire de Bayonne in the French Basque Country, in Bayonne, France and the Museo dell’Artigianato Valdostano di tradizione in Fénis, Italy. The goal was to understand how these institutions work to safeguard the Basque and Francoprovençal languages. Dr. Domengès proposed best practices for the creation of multilingual and educational materials that could be used to inclusively and accessibly promote and enhance linguistic and cultural heritage. This research not only contributes to the recognition and promotion of regional and minority languages but also perfectly aligns with the founding principles of the UNITA Alliance, which fosters cooperation among European universities to address global cultural, educational, and scientific challenges. The PhD program in Digital Humanities, combining digital technologies, arts, languages, cultures, and communication, enabled Marie Domengès to engage with the challenges and opportunities of a multilingual approach to cultural heritage communication. This international doctoral initiative, involving several European universities, once again highlights the importance of academic cooperation in a global context and represents another step forward in the integration and strengthening of international collaboration within the UNITA Alliance.
Call for Proposals: UNITA Grants for Innovation in Teaching & Learning
Are you an academic affiliated to one of the UNITA European Alliance partner universities? Are youready to reshape the future of teaching and learning in the area of higher education? Isinternational cooperation one of your interests? The UNITA Teaching & Learning Network invites applications for grants up to €15,000 for projectsthat innovate, internationalize, and improve accessibility in higher education. Priority Areas Include, but are Not Limited to: Competence-Based & Student-Centered Learning Inclusive & International Teaching Practices Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Full call here 🔗 Apply Now: Application Link 🗓 Deadline: June 13, 2025 💬 Info Session: May 12, 2025,16:00 CET Join Webinar Let’s innovate together across borders.
15 projects selected for the UNITA Starting Grants on Cultural Heritage and Green Energies
15 projects have been selected in the framework of the UNITA Starting Grants for Research on cultural heritage and green energy for a sustainable future, involving faculty members and researchers from ten partner universities within the UNITA Alliance. These initiatives bring together international research groups composed of scholars, post-docs, and PhD students, focusing on Cultural Heritage and Green Energies. The goal is to strengthen transnational academic collaboration and promote innovation. The call, launched to encourage the creation of new projects or the consolidation of existing collaborations, requires participation from at least three UNITA universities per proposal and has a maximum duration of 12 months. Ten projects have been selected within the Cultural Heritage field, addressing topics such as the enhancement of intangible heritage, multilingual rural literature (Literature about/in the village), the use of digital tools for sustainable tourism (Smart Rural Heritage), and the historical memory of conflicts (Sharing historical interpretations of rural heritage). Five projects have been approved in the Green Energies category, focusing on innovative themes such as bioelectrochemical systems for sustainable hydrogen production (BIOHYDROMILL), energy self-sufficiency for isolated rural activities (IDEA-ERA), and energy-conscious communities in mountainous regions (Redefining sobriety in mountainous areas). These projects mark a significant step forward in building a shared research network among European universities in the UNITA Alliance, with a strong impact on local communities and the challenges of ecological and cultural transition. A new edition of the UNITA Starting Grants for Research is open until May 12, 2025, for projects in: All details are available on the UNITA website
UNITA PHOTO CONTEST 2025
The UNITA photo competition offers to UNITA university members the possibility toshare experiences and visions of Europeanidentity and citizenship. The UNITA Photo Contest is open to all UNITA students, teaching staff, researchers, andadministrative/services staff. Photographs must have been taken or produced by the person submitting the work, must be originaland must not have been previously exhibited or submitted to any other competition. Each participant may submit only one work, either a single piece or a photographicessay/series(Maximum 7 images related to each other) Deadline for submissions: 31st May 2025. Contest call »
UNITA Blended Intensive Program: the “One Step Beyond” international entrepreneurship course in Turin
More than 30 participants including doctoral students, master’s students, researchers and professors from different UNITA alliance universities gathered in Turin to participate in the Blended Intensive Program “One Step Beyond: an entrepreneurial course within the UNITA alliance.” The program, created to promote entrepreneurship within international academic contexts, kicked off with an initial online training phase, during which lecturers from partner universities delivered introductory lectures and activities. The course then got into full swing in Turin, with an intensive in-presence workshop that led to the emergence of five interdisciplinary and international teams, composed in a balanced way – including from a gender perspective – of participants from different universities in the alliance. Guided by mentors and experts, the teams combined skills and creativity to develop innovative entrepreneurial projects, with the goal of turning promising ideas into concrete, sustainable and high-impact solutions. At the end of the course, five innovative projects were developed on social and environmental issues, specifically: sustainable agriculture, rural tourism, housing for seasonal workers, digital nomadism, and cervical cancer prevention. The experience concluded at the “Campus Luigi Einaudi” with a final event open to the public, during which the teams presented their pitches to a jury of experts from the academic and corporate worlds. The three most deserving projects awarded for originality, feasibility and innovative potential were: The initiative – promoted by in the framework of the UNITA action “Inter-territorial Interfaces for Innovation” – represented a unique opportunity to foster collaboration among European universities, promote entrepreneurial spirit among young people, and strengthen the link between research, teaching, and the world of work.
Great Participation in the UNITA Annual Conference on Fascism and Authoritarianism
A heterogeneous audience of 130 attendees, including university professors, administrative and technical staff, university students, and high school students from Turin, followed the discussions of the UNITA-Universitas Montium Annual Conference, titled “Fascism, Authoritarianism, Military Regimes, and European Integration: Histories, Interpretations, Perspectives.”, that took place in the Aula Magna of the Cavallerizza Reale in Turin and featured distinguished national and international scholars. Organized as part of UNITA’s “European Citizenship Initiative”, in collaboration with all the universities of the Alliance, Polo del ‘900, and Europe Direct Torino, the conference opened with institutional greetings from the Rector of the University of Turin, Stefano Geuna, and Matteo Bagnasco, representing Polo del ‘900. A highlight of the day was the Lectio Magistralis delivered by Professor Anne-Sophie Nardelli-Malgrand from Université Savoie Mont Blanc, who analyzed fascism, neo-fascism, and post-fascism from a transnational perspective, covering the period from 1932 to the present day. The first session, titled “Democracy and Authoritarianism: Assessing the Past and Risks for the Future,” featured experts from various European universities. Among the most appreciated contributions was that of Professor Mauro Forno from the University of Turin, who examined Italian fascism as the first authoritarian experiment in Europe. Dr. Amaia Álvarez Berastegi from Universidad Pública de Navarra illustrated Spain’s long transition from dictatorship to democracy. Other key interventions included Professor Andreea Verteș-Olteanu from Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara, discussing Romania’s transition from authoritarianism to European integration, and Professor Nuno Amaral Jerónimo from Universidade de Beira Interior, analyzing Portugal’s transformation from an intercontinental empire to a European democracy. After a lunch break, the conference resumed with the second session, titled “A Broader Perspective: Common Problems and Prospects.” Among the speakers, Federico Trocini from the University of Bergamo examined the evolution of political language in authoritarian regimes between the 20th and 21st centuries, while Martina Coli from the University of Florence discussed the role of EU law as a potential safeguard against emerging authoritarianisms. The conference concluded with remarks by Professor Anna Mastromarino from the University of Turin, emphasizing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in understanding both past and present authoritarian tendencies. The event sparked extensive debate among participants, confirming the relevance and urgency of the topic. The success of the conference further strengthens UNITA-Universitas Montium’s role as a key academic forum for international discussions on major historical and political issues. Want to stay updated on UNITA’s initiatives? Follow @universitasmontium on Instagram.