The Department of Italian of the University of Cambridge has emerged from the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise with the strongest research profile of any Italian department, or indeed any other Humanities department in the UK.
The results of the Research Assessment Exercise announced on 18 December 2008 (www.rae.ac.uk), which are based on expert review, including the views of international experts in all the main subject areas, confirm the dominant position that the Cambridge Italian Department holds in international research, with a rating in the top 4* category (world-leading research) of 45% and 35% in the second highest 3* category (internationally excellent research) yielding a grade point average of 3.2. Its outstanding research profile placed the Cambridge Italian Department above all other Italian departments in the UK, and above all other UK Humanities departments in the M Panel (Russian, Slavonic and East European Studies; French; German, Dutch and Scandinavian Studies; Iberian and Latin American Languages; English Language and Literature, Celtic Studies and Linguistics), as well as those included in the L and N Panels (L Panel: American Studies and Anglophone Studies; Middle Eastern and African Studies; Asian Studies; European Studies; N Panel: Classics, Ancient History, Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies; Philosophy; Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies; History).
The representative research publications submitted for the exercise by all the Department's seven permanent members of staff covered all the major periods of Italian culture and linguistics, and were found to have substantial evidence of international excellence and word-leading quality, with significant evidence of international recognition. Research submissions ranged from monographs to book chapters, translations and critical editions of key texts, and peer-reviewed journal articles (for updated lists of individual members' publications, see the Department of Italian staff pages). The exercise also assessed the Department's research environment, and activities among lecturers, postgraduates and postdoctoral researchers. In short, the exercise found substantial evidence of world-leading and internationally excellent esteem among the Department's researchers.
For further information on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise and its findings, click on the following two links:
