Curriculum Overview
Cultural contexts, cultural productions and cultural heritage have highly significant impacts on and are highly impacted by the societal, political, economic and technological dynamics of contemporary societies, at the individual, collective and institutional levels. Such dynamics (and the rapid changes they undergo) require both academics and professionals to learn how to formulate complex questions in order to face complex challenges and solve complex problems. The humanities and the social sciences, with selected interactions with the hard and technological sciences, play a fundamental role in the innovative formulation or reformulation, analysis and management of such issues, by adopting both disciplinary and rigorously focused interdisciplinary methodologies and perspectives. The Ph.D. track in Analysis and Management of Cultural Heritage (AMCH) has taken up this challenge some years ago, and continues to offer the opportunity to conduct autonomous but closely supervised innovative research on the complex range of challenges that emerge from cultural processes and concern cultural heritage as well as the related individual, societal and institutional practices at the local and the global level. At the same time, the track provides its students with both a theoretical, methodological and applicative training, disciplinary as well as interdisciplinary, and a set of competencies specifically aimed at the professional practices in the fields of cultural heritage.
The research based AMCH track is highly interdisciplinary. Alongside the consolidation and development of the traditional methodologies used in the fields related to cultural heritage as well as for the analysis of past and present cultural phenomena, processes, activities, and productions (such as Archaeology, History, Art History, Museology, Philosophy, etc.), the AMCH track proposes, on the one hand, the interdisciplinary expansion and integration of the range of methodologies and tools to be adopted (such as Cultural Heritage Law, Management, Economy, Economy of Culture, etc.); on the other hand, the track proposes a grafting, on these, of management and organizational skills and tools, also oriented by innovative methodologies. 
Furthermore the Program includes innovation-oriented and interdisciplinary methodologies and tools to be integrated with traditional methods and tools for the analysis and management of cultural heritage as well as the analysis of historical phenomena and processes (such as Neuro- and Cognitive Science methodologies, IT methodologies and Artificial Intelligence applied to the analysis, fruition, enhancement and management of cultural heritage and cultural processes, Data Analytics, Machine learning, Networks Theory, Tools for impact analysis and evaluation, Digital Humanities). 
The AMCH track offers courses and research seminars in Archaeology, Art History, International Law, EU law and Domestic Law on Cultural Heritage and Landscape, History, Philosophy, Visual Studies, Aesthetics, Cognitive and neurofunctional aspects of visual perception, Visual Perception and Sensorial Modalities, Museology, Management of Cultural Heritage and Cultural Institutions, Management, Technologies applied to Cultural Heritage (related to analysis, fruition and management), Introduction to Cybersecurity, Introduction to Networks. Both research- and practice-oriented courses constitute the program, which also includes the participation of students in innovative research projects as well as in field experience and off-site lectures at close contact with objects, artworks and material culture in their institutional, curatorial and management setting. The Program aims at training both qualified professionals and experts operating in the field of cultural heritage and researchers. It promotes research and the development of innovative analytical tools and methodologies by exposing the students to different research approaches and methodologies, through case studies.

Input and Output Profiles
The track aims at providing specific know-hows to prospective academics and professionals operating in the fields of culture and cultural heritage. Prospective students should preferably have an undergraduate background in the Social Sciences, the Humanities, or ICT related to cultural heritage. This track will enable graduates to access: 

• Academic career in Archaeology, Art History, National, European and International Public and Cultural Heritage Law, Visual Studies, Philosophy,  Economy of Culture, Management of Cultural Institutions and Cultural Heritage; 
• Career in public and private Institutions, bodies and companies operating in the fields of the protection, enchancement, management and promotion of Cultural Heritage, analysis of Cultures, Cultural Productions and Cultural Heritage, promotion of Culture and Tourism, organization of cultural events, elaboration/implementation of policies for Culture and Cultural Heritage, management of innovation in the cultural sector, teaching and diffusion of research and culture.

Ph.D. candidates also have the opportunity to collaborate with other national and international institutions that work with IMT Research Units and PhD tracks.

IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca

The IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca is a Public University School for Higher Education and Research with a special statute that focuses on the analysis of economic, societal, technological and cultural systems.
The IMT School promotes the full integration of research and education.
Since its institution by ministerial decree of November 18th 2005, the School has distinguished itself thanks to the quality and innovativeness of its research and doctoral program and its interdisciplinary nature, characterized by the complementarity and discourse between methodologies drawn from economics, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, physics, archeology, art history and the analysis and management of cultural heritage. 
The fusion between art and technology is also reflected in the School state-of-the-art Campus, located principally in the newly restored San Francesco Complex. The entire campus is found within the historic city center of Lucca, which is completely surrounded by a fully-intact Renaissance-era walls. The campus includes spaces for research and laboratories, courses, and living and recreation. The campus is completed by the IMT Library, which offers a plethora of resources and offers additional working and research areas for the IMT community, and the city of Lucca in general.
The School has been under the direction of Prof. Pietro Pietrini since November of 2015.