PhD Program in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Cultures

The PhD Program in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Cultures expresses the international and interdisciplinary nature of the university at the highest level, constituting itself as a program which foresees in its Council the presence of international professors from many universities around the world representing the multiplicity of approaches to the topics covered by the program.

Italian Teachers:

International Teachers:

DR_394_22_Nomination of the Doctoral Admissions Committee_ ENG (1)

Paolo Bosca

Biography: Paolo Bosca was born in Asti in 1996. He lived in Venice, where he graduated first in Philosophy and then in Philosophical Sciences at the Ca ‘Foscari University with a thesis entitled “Utopian languages ​​and spaces”. It deals with space and places both from a theoretical point of view, through philosophy and geography, and from a practical perspective through gastronomy and agriculture. He writes for CookInc Mag, Il Tascabile, Antinomie, DudeMag and has collaborated with the MACRO Museum in Rome.

Project: An investigation into the relationship between food and space with interdisciplinary tools ranging from geography to philosophy. For the area of ​​relevance: humanities, perception and languages

Chiara Chirilli

Biography: Chiara Chirilli, in 2019, graduated “cum laude” at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Piacenza in Food Science and Technology. From 2020 to 2022 he collaborated as a research fellow at the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo on the PRIME project – Innovative processes and products of green chemistry. Since October 2022 he has been a research fellow for the FEAST project – Food systems that support transitions towards healthy and sustainable diets.

Project: Investigation of the effect of the Thermal Taster Status on sensory perception and food preferences. Food Science, Biodiversity, and Sustainability teaching area

Andrea Devecchi

Biography: Andrea Devecchi graduated with honors in Medicine and Surgery in 2015 and specialized with honors in Food Science in 2020, at the University of Turin. Recently he has mainly collaborated on an innovative training course with the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo on issues related to food, health and sustainability aimed at the hospital staff of the Michele and Pietro Ferrero Hospital in Verduno. He is a member of the Italian Society of Human Nutrition.

Project: evaluation of sensory alterations and better nutritional and gastronomic approaches in women with breast cancer. Food, health and human nutrition sector.

Elena Gosso

Biography: Elena Gosso is26 years old and lives in Bagnolo P.te. She studied Biological Sciences in Turin where she became passionate about the agri-food sector. Elena obtained a master’s degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition, during which she acquired laboratory skills in food analysis. The experience at the ISPA CNR in Turin has broadened my knowledge in the field of proteomics and developed a greater critical sense, working in the field of food allergies. This PhD will give her the opportunity to continue her path in the Food field.

Project: The project, in the context of Animal Sciences, focuses on the characterization of eggs from a nutritional point of view and as an element of poultry biodiversity. The area of ​​relevance of my project is Food Science, Biodiversity, and Sustainability.

Evelyn Leveghi

Biography: After having trained in the design disciplines (L and LS in Design at the Politecnico di Milano, post-graduate course in participatory local action and sustainable urban development at the IUAV, master in Relational Design by ABADIR), she embarked on a path in the field of Food Studies, first in UniBo, attending the master in History and culture of food, investigating the phenomenon of food rioting, and recently in Pollenzo as a recent PhD student in Ecogastronomy, science and culture of food

Project:
Scope: Food policies, social systems and food sovereignty [Environment]
Title: “Over (food supplies) control: socio-political disputes around food”
Abstract: Study of the correlations between food riots, policies and development models in the agri-food sector

Sara Marano

Biography: Sara obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in History from the University of Turin, with a thesis on political culture and historical memories in the social movements of the 1960s in Italy. At the same University, she graduated in Master’s degree in Philosophy. Her final work investigated Karl Marx’s theory of history by inserting itself into the debate on plural temporalities. The critique of a stage-evolutionary vision of history has led her, in recent years, to broaden her research interests to political ecology.

Project: The PhD project consists of an environmental history of nutritionism (Food policies, social systems and food sovereignty).

Pietro Pagella

Biography: Graduated in cultural anthropology at the University of Turin, Master in Tourism Economics, Food Studies and Agri-food Markets Law, he deals with International Cooperation at the Municipality of Turin.

Project: The research project adopts the contribution of the knowledge of the Gastronomic Sciences in the processes of international cooperation on the issues of food and nutrition, with an anthropological approach. The research analyzes some specific experiences of decentralized cooperation between local autonomies aimed at the implementation of urban food policies, focusing in particular on the legal and political-social aspects.

Guido Pugliese

Biography: Guido was born in Taranto and in 2015 he enrolled in the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Milan, graduating in 2020 with a thesis entitled: “Animals and Humans denial, emotion and morals”. He then attended two advanced courses entitled “Environment, animals and society: scientific approaches and forensic aspects” and “Critical Theory of Society”, integrating his philosophical knowledge with notions on the most important debates in the veterinary / legal and historical-structural fields.

Project: The research project investigates the invention of meat as an economic-cultural object. Teaching area: “Food and perception, food languages ​​and cultures”.

1. Food policies, social systems, and food sovereignty

The course will develop with a specific annual transversal focus that every year will (re) articulate the modules in an original way, especially regarding the case studies and the problems and perspectives of scientific innovation that these open.

Module 1: Food biodiversity and climate change
The course aims to deal with the dynamic nature of biodiversity in its three levels (genetic, species, and ecosystem), with particular regard to its fragility in relation to the climate change in progress and its effects on the food supply chains.

Module 2: Green Agriculture
The course will address the topic of the sustainability of agricultural systems and primary productions and agroecology, with a particular emphasis on food sovereignty in internal and peripheral areas of the world.

Module 3: Ethnobiology and citizen science
The course will focus on the interrelationships between biosystems and cultural and social systems. It will also focus on the role that these deep interrelations that are the quintessence of the world’s gastronomy (traditional knowledge, landscapes, and food heritage) have in forging a new science of citizens.

Module 4: Food quality and innovation
The course will address the complex issue of food quality in the field of food sciences and technologies (including food chemistry and microbiology) and sensory sciences.

Each year, annual transversal focuses will insist on these keywords: mobility (biota, people, goods); interfaces / borders; inclusion.

2. Food and perception, food languages, and cultures

The course explores the themes of multi- and trans-sensorial perception of food, synesthesia, and the relationship between food, memory, imagination, emotion, and cognition, and can be expressed both from a philosophical point of view (aesthetic, ethical, epistemological, and ontological) and under the historical-cultural profile (languages, communication models, anthropologies and sociologies of food). Particular attention will be paid to ecologies and geographies of taste and gastronomy.

3. Food, human health, and nutrition

The course is centered on human nutrition, as a potential source of health for the human body, but also the origin of pathologies, whenever it is quantitatively and/or qualitatively incorrect. Human eating habits will be taken into consideration, from the dawn of civilization to the present ones, describing the changes and consequent effects on well-being, lifestyle, the onset of diseases, aging, and survival. Attitudes, orientations, and most common past and present beliefs towards food also will be discussed. Both physiological and pathological attitudes towards nutrition will be addressed.
This analysis, starting from the most rigorous scientific evidence, will provide the base for the students in order to:

– know the main recommendations relating to proper nutrition,
– understand the healthiness of the most common nutritional schemes,
– identify the most common fake news and false myths regarding nutrition,
– learn the relationships between food and human health (physical and mental), broaden the concept of nutrition to the more general one of lifestyle, in a holistic vision that cannot ignore the personal, cultural, ethical and religious values of each individual.

4. Food sciences, biodiversity, and sustainability

This course will address the concept of biodiversity and will analyze the interests and demand of consumers / co-producers, oriented towards the rediscovery of local foods and the enhancement of spontaneous species, plant cultivars, and local and/or indigenous animal breeds. In particular:

1. Documentation of food biodiversity, historical ecological stratifications, and related knowledge;

2. Analysis of the effect of climate change on biodiversity and the resilience of local communities;

3. Analysis of the sustainability of agroecological and food systems;

4. The analysis of possible socio-environmental variables that affect food biodiversity and ecological networks;

5. New educational and citizen science perspectives capable of mitigating the effects of climate change and other drivers of global change.

Finally, new guidelines will be studied, such as the circular economy (with research for the reduction of residues and additives in food, the reduction of waste and packaging, and the development of sustainable materials for the same);l the study of complex ecological networks, the biodiversity of spontaneous products and old cultivars, the soil microbiome (for the balance of the soil microflora, the reduction of the use of pesticides and water consumption); the conservation of rustic breeds (with less forced productions to ensure adequate animal welfare); the One Health approach (to promote a state of global health); and consumer perceptions of the quality of food products in the context of sensory sciences (to understand the genetic, psychological and cultural dynamics underlying in food preferences).

The PhD Program will officially start on October 5, 2022.

The annual amount of the scholaprship is 17.500 € gross

The online application process for the selection ended on 22/07/2022.

To apply for admission to the PhD program the prospective candidate must go through the following procedure:

• register on Unisg Portal
• fill in the application form (fillable pdf form)
• pay the admissions fee of 50 Euros via bank wire transfer
• upload the attachements in pdf format indicated in the announcement to the Unisg Portal

Note

• Before proceeding with the online application process, please read through the Admission Application
• The attachments referenced in the Admission Application for the PhD Program in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Cultures  can be found in the application procedure on the UNISG portal.
• Furthermore, candidates who are citizens from low-income countries (according to the World Bank of Economies) are not required to pay the 50€ admission fee as indicated in art. 3 of the announcement.

Summary guide to the application for admission to the PhD Program >

Announcement for the public selection To the Ph.D. course in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences, and Cultures XXXVIII Cycle >

Minutes_1_Evaluation_Criteria_Ph.D. course

Minutes_2_Evaluation of qualifications and publications_Ph.D course

Ranking of those admitted to the second phase and testing schedule

DR_398_22-Decreto Approvazione atti Bando Corso di Dottorato

Minutes 4 – Interview Evaluation and compilation of the final ranking

Final ranking update_Ph.D course_14-09-2022

The deadline for submitting an application to participate in the selection expires on 1/03/2023.

To apply for admission to the PhD program the prospective candidate must go through the following procedure:

• register on Unisg Portal
• fill in the application form (fillable pdf form)
• pay the admissions fee of 50 Euros via bank wire transfer
• upload the attachements in pdf format indicated in the announcement to the Unisg Portal

Note

• Before proceeding with the online application process, please read through the Admission Application
• The attachments referenced in the Admission Application for the PhD Program in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Cultures  can be found in the application procedure on the UNISG portal.
• Furthermore, candidates who are citizens from low-income countries (according to the World Bank of Economies) are not required to pay the 50€ admission fee as indicated in art. 3 of the announcement.

Summary guide to the application for admission to the PhD Program >

DR_447_23_Announcement for the public selection PHD in Ecogastronomy Food Sciences and Cultures >

DR_453_23_Nomination of the Doctoral Admissions Committee >

• PhD Program in Ecogastronomy, Food Sciences and Cultures is an inter-university course, organized in agreement with the University of Turin, one of the most prestigious Italian academic institutions. The scholarships are provided both by the University of Gastronomic Sciences of Pollenzo and by the University of Turin.
• Access to the PhD Program takes place through an open competitive examination, which is accessed by qualifications, publications, and research project.
• In order to compete for admission to the PhD program, it is necessary to have obtained a Graduate Degree made up of 120 ECTS (University educational credits), obtained either in an Italian University or in any recognized international Universities. (The 90 ECTS Master’s degree is not sufficient to access admission to the PhD Program).
• The PhD Program includes an exclusive full-time commitment lasting 3 years, dedicated to research.
• The open competitive examination for the access to the PhD program is governed by specific legislation. Until the outcome of the selection, candidates are required not to interact with the members of the Faculty Council.