Abstract:

In 2012 Padua University celebrated its 790th birthday and thus moved closer to the eighth centenary since foundation of one of the most prestigious centres of academic and cultural learning in Europe and the world. Whilst there have been a great many studies on the university's origins and its work up to the modern day, its contemporary life has remained somewhat in the shadows. The purpose of this project, then, is to attempt an overview of Padua University's history from World War Two to the 1960s. The project's headquarters are Padua University's Department of History, Geography and the Ancient World (DiSSGeA) and it is a joint project together with Padua University History Centre (CSUP). The research group will study the university's institutional and political history, its cultural history, academic research and teaching, the history of its faculties and relationship with other Veneto cities in which de-centralised university centres were planned and set up in this period. It will also study the history of its teaching staff and the academic turnover which has occurred in recent years with special reference to its choice of departmental rectors and presidents and the circulation of internationally famous professors, the history of its students and student associations, undergraduate magazines and student unrest over the years. The intention of the project is to carry out a survey of the archive material: the deeds of the academic senate, departmental minutes, university year books, rector memories, inaugural lectures and study conferences. What is lacking to date is a collection of rector's reports and the inaugural lectures which took place at the beginning of every academic year. The outcomes of the research will include the creation of an on-line archive, an index of Padua University’s year books with the aim of highlighting the changes which have taken place in the departments in the years analysed, a collection of statistical data on student careers and their geographical origin, sourcing student material, above all, on the 'long' 1968 (1969 student and workers struggles) and the digitalisation of student manifestos and leaflets, sourcing departmental minutes and indexing them in view of historic analysis, indexing the minutes of the Academic Senate and studying them and an analysis of university events in the local press. The project proposes also to collect and index its important photographic records.

Scientific Coordinator:

Alba Lazzaretto (Università degli Studi di Padova)

Members of the Padova Research Unit:

Giovanni Focardi (Vice - Coordinator, DiSSGeA Department)
Filiberto Agostini (Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Giuridiche e Studi Internazionali)
Gianni RIccamboni (Dipartimento di Scienze Politiche, Giuridiche e Studi Internazionali)
Donatella Mazzetto (Servizio Archivio Generale di Ateneo)
Ilieva Donka Todorova (Servizio Archivio Generale di Ateneo)
Francesco Piovan (Centro per la Storia dell’Università)