Reggio Childhood Studies

Fondazione Reggio Children and University of Modena and Reggio Emilia – Department of Education and Human Sciences are the promoters of the international industrial PhD in Reggio Childhood Studies.

The PhD in Reggio Childhood Studies offers a course capable of building a library of research and knowledge that elaborates experience and addresses new challenges in the world of education.

With this international industrial PhD, the Department of Education and Human Sciences of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia and Fondazione Reggio Children-Centro Loris Malaguzzi aim to offer a postgraduate course enhanced by international partners of recognized high quality in the field of research. The PhD course is carried out within the “industrial” framework of the Foundation so as to build a research library that elaborates the experience and faces the new challenges of education. 

The approach and contents, the practice and policies, the figures and intuition, the challenges and developments of what revolves around the educational philosophy related to early childhood developed in Reggio Emilia, all represent a heritage of great international relevance. International PhD, the course in Reggio Childhood Studies is also intended as an innovation in the framework of PhD courses since it establishes a residential community where all participants share spaces and working hours in the industrial context chosen as container and content of the programme.

The XXXV cycle, activated on the occasion of the 2019/2020 academic year, saw the selection of 10 PhD fellows from Italy, New Zealand and Russia. In November 2020 began the XXXVI cycle, the 2nd for Fondazione Reggio Children, with the arrival of 11 new researchers.
In November 2021, the XXXVII cycle of the PhD in Reggio Childhood Studies began, for which 9 new PhD fellows from Italy, Saudi Arabia, China and Kenya were selected and on 3 November 2022 started the XXXVIII cycle with 7 new researchers.


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«We are taking part in a founding act of the first international PhD on education in Reggio Emilia and the first industrial PhD in Human Sciences.»

«I have been inspired by the Reggio experience since 2000. The approach and the phd do not bear the name of a person but of a city, Reggio Emilia, a place of availability, a city where listening is fundamental. And it is all linked to documentation, research and memory which is what we need to grow, from childhood.»

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