Erasmus Mundus - Industrial Techniques, Territories and Heritage (TPTI)

During the first semester, the Department of History at the Sorbonne (Paris), offers an high level program centered around the history and the anthropology of technology. During the second semester, students will move to Padua, where courses are focused on the heritage of industry. The third semester takes place in Evora and focuses on the study of cultural and technical landscapes. For the fourth semester, students return to one of the three universities, based on the focus of their research topic. Also included is the option for a research period of up to five weeks in one of the five partner universities located both inside and outside of Europe: Spain, Czech Republic, Tunisia, Mexico, or Brazil.

The richness and strength of this Master Degree lies in the interdisciplinary nature of the program. It combines history, anthropology, archeology, art history, sociology, conservation, and museum studies, as well as a diverse supervising team of both research professors and scientific practitioners connected with culture and heritage. Another important quality is to bring together institutions, scholars and students, coming from all over Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia with the goal of illuminating the variety of ways in which History of Technology, Industrial Heritage, Cultural Heritage are addressed around the globe. 

General content

The program combines three complementary approaches: 

1. The History of technology. These courses provide methodological and practical tools for understanding the major issues which science and technology pose when addressing contemporary culture and society. How are certain practices and technical objects produced ? What are the values connected with these objects and techniques: political, economic, social, and aesthetic? How is information transmitted? How does all of this fit in within a landscape or a society? Although techniques occupy an ever-increasing role in societies, they remain largely unidentified and are often considered « non-cultural ». The objective of this Master Degree is to provide the theoretical and practical knowledge for how to to identify, maintain, preserve and value of technology. 
2. The Heritage of industry. Courses relating to this theme give students both a theoretical and practical ability to describe, archive, manage, and communicate the value of the heritage of industry. This includes buildings and industrial territories, but also testimonies of physical activities. Industrial heritage is examined through its’ relationship with different historical fields (history of industry, history of architecture, history of technology, archeology of building, history of landscape, and history of art). Various case studies will present projects involving the disciplines of conservation and restoration, museum studies and museography. Communication including cultural links and the promotion of tourism will be also questioned and explored. 
3. Technical and cultural landscapes. The program focuses on the history and heritage of the landscape. It focuses on urban and rural complexes that are the result of the anthropization of the territory. The objective is to provide knowledge and tools to understand the economic and societal transformations of landscapes in order to ensure a balance between innovation, maintenance of ecological diversity and preservation of heritage and territorial identity. The approach is both theoretical (notions of natural, cultural, industrial landscape, etc.) and practical: identification of landscapes, inventories of land, surveys of buildings, collections of documents collections (writings, iconography, objects), creation of databases and specific tools to manage and enhance landscapes and cultural objects.

Consortium

The consortium is made up of three main universities that award a joint degree: the University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, the Università degli studi di Padova and the Universidade de Evora.

Six partner universities located in Europe and outside Europe offer students the opportunity to further their studies during a five-week stay: the Universities of Alicante, and Oviedo (Spain), Prague (Czech Republic), Sfax (Tunisia), Puebla (Mexico), and Parana (Brazil).

Program and Mobility

The Master offers a joint program based on a complete integration of students in the three universities awarding the degree. In order to promote exchanges, the course structure is identical: it combines theoretical teaching (history, theory, methodology) and applied teaching (field studies, workshops, teaching by the project, visits).

The interdisciplinary and intercultural nature of the training gives students the ability to develop tools for co-activity and interaction between the actors of the historical-patrimonial field necessary for the transfer of knowledge between the various sectors concerned: historians, engineers and technicians, local, regional and national management communities, academic communities, companies, organizations contributing to the drafting of common scientific, technological and ethical standards at local, regional, national and international scales (UNESCO).