Abstract

This volume collects the proceedings of the PhD Symposium 2026, held on 6 February 2026 within the Doctoral Programme in Cultural Heritage in the Digital Ecosystem of the University of Bologna (Department of Classical Philology and Italian Studies, FICLIT), an interdisciplinary PhD programme that integrates digital methodologies with humanistic inquiry to advance the study, preservation, and dissemination of cultural heritage. The Symposium brought together doctoral candidates from the 39th and 40th cycles and was conceived as a critical Poster Slam, a format designed to foreground clarity, synthesis, and conceptual focus: one minute, one slide, one research problem to share within the community to create new connections. Rather than offering comprehensive presentations of ongoing doctoral projects, participants were invited to frame their research as a single, well-defined question. This constraint encouraged a shift from descriptive exposition to epistemological positioning, foregrounding the tensions, uncertainties, and open challenges that characterise contemporary research in Digital Humanities and Cultural Heritage.