The Department of Cultural Heritage Sciences (DiSPaC) coordinates and promotes research and training activities concerning the knowledge and management of cultural heritage in its tangible and intangible components, with particular reference to the conservation, promotion, transmission, and interpretation of historical and cultural heritage.
The educational programme is divided into three areas: Cultural Heritage, Philosophy, Performing Arts. The last one section offers the DAViMuS degree programme (Disciplines of Visual Arts, Music and Performing Arts), which aims to produce graduates who have acquired a broad foundation of historical, theoretical and methodological knowledge in the fields of theatre, cinema, visual arts, music and communication, and who have developed appropriate skills in the production and organisational aspects of their respective artistic disciplines.
More specifically, the programme aims to provide graduates with a historical and cultural education centred on the performing arts and music, complemented by specific methods of analysis and interpretation, language and IT skills, and professional competencies (gained through projects involving meetings with representatives of the region’s leading production companies, as well as through curricular placements at external organisations). This training is geared towards the acquisition of flexible knowledge, capable of adapting to the variety and constant evolution of demands in the world of work within the fields of artistic production, communication and event promotion.
Annamaria Sapienza
She is an associate professor in Performing Arts at the University of Salerno, where she is the president of the Visual Arts, Music and Performing Arts and Performing Arts and Multimedia Production degree programmes. She is a member of the academic board of the MeM PhD programme (Methods and Methodologies of Archaeological and Art-Historical Research) at the same university. She has also been a lecturer in Theatre History at the Acting School of the National Theatre of Naples since its foundation in 2015.
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She is a member of the scientific committees of the ‘Eduardo De Filippo’ Foundation and the ‘Icra Project’ International Centre for Research on the Actor, as well as a member of the National Coordination Committee for ‘Theatre in Prison’ and the Centre for Studies on Neapolitan, Italian and European Theatre. She is co-editor of the theatre studies column “Rifrazioni” (“Sinestesieonline”) and a member of the editorial boards of class A journals including “Sinestesie”, “Mimesis Journal”, “Acting Archives” and “Mantichora”. She is also one of the founders and a member of the editorial board of “Perseo. La sfida del teatro”, the journal of the National Theatre of Neaples. She has participated, as scientific advisor, in various community theatre projects in collaboration with several organisations in the Campania region (including Nisida Prison, the Putéca Celidònia association, the f.pl. femminile plurale cooperative, the Archaeological Park of Pompeii, and the LaCorsa collective). Her work focuses primarily on Neapolitan theatre, modern and contemporary theatre, and social and community theatre, fields in which she has produced monographs and essays.
Aurora Egidio
She is Associate Professor of Performing Arts at the University of Salerno. She graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures from the University of Naples “L’Orientale” and then obtained a PhD in the History of Modern and Contemporary Theatre at the same institution. Between 1999 and 2000, she completed a postgraduate specialisation in Theatre History and Theatre Criticism at GITIS-RATI (Russian Academy of Dramatic Art) in Moscow.
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She is a member of the academic board of the MeM PhD programme (Methods and Methodologies of Archaeological and Art-Historical Research) at the University of Salerno, where she coordinates the curriculum in Musicology and Performing Arts. As Delegate to Internationalisation of the degree programmes in Visual Arts, Music and Performing Arts and in Performing Arts and Multimedia Production, she fosters relations with foreign universities and promotes staff and student exchanges.
She currently serves as scientific coordinator of the University of Salerno unit in the Erasmus BIP project “Multilingual Performances and Pedagogies”, led by the Jagiellonian University in Kraków in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam and Aarhus University, and involving students and researchers from the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She has taken part in PRIN projects (Projects of Relevant National Interest), most recently as scientific coordinator of the University of Salerno unit within the project “Transmission of Performing Knowledge in Italian Theatre Culture: History, Theory and Practices”, led by Sapienza University of Rome.
In 2015 she received an award from the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage for her translation of the Russian version of Dibbuk (Centro di Studi Ebraici, 2012). She is a member of the editorial board of “Acting Archives Review. Rivista di studi sull’attore e la recitazione”. The focus of her research is Russian avant-garde, the relationship between the Russian and Italian scene, and the history and theory of acting between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, fields in which she has published monographs and essays.
Grazia D’Arienzo
Grazia D’Arienzo is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Salerno, Italy. She has been a Visiting Researcher at the University of Zaragoza, Spain. She holds the Italian National Scientific Qualification for Associate Professorship in Performing, Musical, Cinematic and Media Arts. She is the author of Renato Carpentieri. L’attore, il regista, il dramaturg (Liguori Editore, 2018) and Rimediazioni. L’eredità beckettiana nel teatro digitale. 1995-2009 (Accademia University Press, 2024).
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The latter, in its unpublished form, was a finalist for the 2021 Opera Critica Award of the Associazione Sigismondo Malatesta. She is also the editor of Hypokritès Teatro Studio fra scena, performance e territorio (Delta 3, 2020). She was a member of the local unit at the University of Salerno of a Project of Significant National Interest funded by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) under the PRIN 2022 call, titled Actresses’ and Actors’ Writing between Italy and Europe: Art and Memory (2023-2026). She is also part of the national research group ADV-Arti Digitali dal Vivo, a critical observatory of Italian and international techno‑performative practices. She has presented papers at conferences and seminars in Italy and abroad. She serves on the editorial board of the journal Rifrazioni/Sinestesieonline and has published essays in national and international journals and edited volumes. She is a member of the Consulta Universitaria del Teatro, the Samuel Beckett Society, and the European Association for the Study of Theatre and Performance. Her research focuses on the history of actors and actresses in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the theatre of Samuel Beckett, and the intersections between performance and technology.
Maria Beatrice Russo
Maria Beatrice Russo is a Subject Matter Expert (Cultrice della materia) in Performing Arts and Sociology of Electronic Arts at the University of Salerno. She collaborates with the chairs of Classical and Digital Media and Sociology of Electronic Arts at the same institution. Her research focuses on contemporary theatre, cultural remediation processes, and new performance technologies, with a specific emphasis on gender studies.
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In 2024, she was awarded the ASAC National Grant for young graduates – Writing about Cinema, promoted by La Biennale di Venezia. She collaborates with the Tempi Moderni Cultural Association and is the editor of the volume L’atleta del cuore. Il teatro di Pasquale De Cristofaro (Edizioni FDA, 2025).