Kick-Off of the 2025/26 Academic Year of the “Reggio Childhood Studies” PhD Program Held in Sala del Tricolore

On 7 November 2025, the Sala del Tricolore in Reggio Emilia hosted the inauguration of the 2025/26 academic year of the industrial PhD program “Reggio Childhood Studies – from Early Childhood to Lifelong Learning”, offered by the Department of Education and Human Sciences of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia (Unimore), in partnership with Fondazione Reggio Children – Centro Loris Malaguzzi ETS.

The inaugural event was opened by Marco Massari, Mayor of Reggio Emilia, and Rita Cucchiara, Rector of Unimore, on her first public engagement in the city. Both highlighted the importance of the Reggio Emilia educational approach, inspired by the principles of Carla Rinaldi, which considers childhood as a quality of life and guides the PhD program toward interdisciplinarity, transdisciplinarity, and internationality.

"It is with great pleasure and satisfaction that we host in Sala del Tricolore the inaugural day of this PhD program, which is relaunching, strengthening the bond between the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, Unimore, and Fondazione Reggio Children,” emphasized Mayor Massari. “The Reggio Emilia educational approach has always promoted openness to multiple knowledge fields and disciplines, a dimension that places our city at the forefront in educational terms and allows it to continuously renew itself even in its most identity-defining aspects. This is a model strongly supported by Carla Rinaldi, to whom goes the first thought on this very important day, and today it is carried forward by people of great values and skills, to whom our community owes its thanks. I also take this opportunity to welcome the new Rector of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia on her first public engagement in Reggio Emilia. Best wishes, Professor Cucchiara, and best wishes to everyone.”

“Reggio Childhood Studies was born in a city that has made childhood a form of thought,” said Rector Cucchiara.
“This PhD program expresses the idea that education accompanies every act of research and every question that opens a path into reality. Studying childhood means studying the human being in its entirety, including the ability to construct languages and knowledge. Research thus becomes an act of responsibility towards the community and the time we inhabit, generating thought and future.”

After the institutional greetings, the lectio magistralis on the theme of Italian PhD programs, titled “Doctorate, Innovation, and the Humanities”, was delivered by Professor Marco Mancini, Secretary-General of the Ministry of University and Research, former Vice-Rector for Organizational Autonomy and Director of the Department of Modern Letters and Cultures at Sapienza University of Rome. During his lecture, Marco Mancini highlighted the educational and professional value of the PhD degree, emphasizing: “There are good employment opportunities for PhD holders, but a clear choice must be made between training and research. In the first case, the good news is that a bill is bringing the labor market, especially the public sector, closer to the PhD degree. For those who choose the research path, many opportunities are now opening up – excellence grants, research calls – which allow direct access to the university system and should be properly valued.”

The President of Fondazione Reggio Children, Francesco Profumo, highlighted how the PhD program represents an excellence of the city and of the Reggio Emilia educational experience, thanks to the dialogue between the University, the Foundation, and the local community. “I believe we can say that the Reggio Childhood Studies PhD represents an excellence of the Reggio Emilia educational experience itself,” added Francesco Profumo. “The role of our foundation as a participating research partner is to support the PhD program both organizationally and by promoting knowledge of the city and the Reggio educational experience, offering high-quality educational environments such as the Caffarri. It is also through relations with national and international research, and the possibility of actively participating in the projects of Fondazione Reggio Children in Reggio, Italy, and abroad, that the specific quality of this program has been built, in close dialogue with Unimore and DESU.”

The event also included contributions from Annamaria Contini, Director of the Department of Education and Human Sciences, and Cristian Fabbi, Director General of Fondazione Reggio Children. The lectio magistralis was introduced and moderated by Carla Bagnoli, PhD program coordinator, and was followed by a roundtable discussion with contributions from Rector Cucchiara and Professors Profumo and Melloni.

In Sala del Tricolore, interventions were also made by Andrea Capelli, President of Farmacie Comunali Riunite, and James Bradburne, representing the PhD program partners.

The day was also a celebration with the presentation of the new doctoral candidates of the 41st cycle and the new PhD graduates, who completed their studies on Tuesday, 28 October, with the discussion of their theses at the Caffarri.

New PhD Graduates in Reggio Childhood Studies:

• Frashia Ndungu (Kenya): Presented the research “I am happy but not so happy”, on the complex realities of young caregivers in rural Kenya through an intersectional lens, focusing on the invisibility of these children and the implications of their caregiving responsibilities for their rights, development, education, and well-being. 

• Eloisa Di Rocco (Italy): Presented the research “Listening to Matter: The Reggio Emilia Approach in the Anthropocene”, exploring how the Reggio Emilia pedagogy of listening can be extended to the non-human world, particularly to “waste matter,” to address the current ecological crisis and promote a more equitable coexistence on the planet. 

• Kayina Abudurexiti (China): Presented the research “The Raw Materials of Potential: An Investigation into Character Strengths in Early Childhood”, studying the development of competencies in children aged 3–6, aiming to understand their full potential and skills. 

These three PhD graduates join six new PhD holders who completed their program in May, for a total of 9 new PhDs in 2025.

Eight new PhD students from Italy, Japan, Portugal, and Albania

Selected through the latest call, all with scholarships, master’s degrees, and specializations obtained in Italy and abroad, and with a clear research project, the eight new doctoral candidates are: Alice Dini, Elsa Manzini, Valentina Fantini, Petra Filagrana, Alma Frangipane (Italy), Iris Ferati (Albania), Sumire Iikawa (Japan), and Gabriela Pinto (Portugal). The call received 60 applications, including 25 international candidates from 17 countries: Russia, Brazil, Portugal, UK, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Spain, Japan, USA, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Argentina, Lebanon, Serbia, Philippines, Albania.

The program currently counts 27 doctoral candidates and 25 PhD graduates since 2019, forming a residential research community with activities in Reggio Emilia, throughout Italy, and abroad, in collaboration with universities and international research centers.