Academic Degree: Doctorate (Ph.D.)
Study Mode: On-site (in-person)
Language: Portuguese (PT) | English (EN)
Scientific Area: Sociology and Other Studies | Political Science
Duration: 4 years
ECTS: 240
Accreditation: A3ES | July 31, 2019, to July 31, 2025
Annual Tuition Fee: €2000
Presentation
The Doctoral Program in Democracy in the 21st Century equips students with the theoretical and methodological tools required to conduct advanced research in both academic and professional settings.
Grounded in the theoretical paradigms of Sociology and Political Science, the curriculum fosters a nuanced understanding of the interplay between socioeconomic structures and political processes.
The program’s curriculum includes thematic and methodological seminars spanning three semesters. The first and second semester seminars analyze the functioning and evolution of political institutions (local, national, and supranational) and explore the main challenges facing contemporary democracies. This training is structured around four thematic axes: Citizenship, Equality, and Diversity; Democratic Innovation and Participatory Governance; Social Movements and Collective Action; and Political Ecology.
The third semester comprises methodological seminars that provide tools for research design, data collection, and analysis. With its emphasis on scientific rigor and personalized support in formulating the thesis project, the program enhances students’ prospects for securing funding to conduct fieldwork in diverse territorial and sociopolitical contexts.
The faculty consists of professors and researchers from the University of Coimbra with distinguished records in research and project management at the national and international levels. Classes also feature the participation of invited experts from prestigious Portuguese and foreign universities.
The collaboration between the Faculty of Economics (FEUC) and the Centre for Social Studies (CES) strengthens the integration of teaching and research, offering students concrete opportunities to participate in ongoing research projects. Additionally, the program’s tradition of co-supervision agreements with renowned international universities provides students with valuable international experience.
Graduates work across a range of sectors, from academia and research to government and civil society, contributing to the evaluation and development of innovative solutions to the challenges faced by contemporary democracies.
Testimonies
Having a considerable number of collaborators and guest lecturers from various fields, the program offers both a strong theoretical background in a vast area of subjects, as well as a better comprehension of the latest debates in social sciences.
This PhD gave me the opportunity to expand my knowledge (from feminism to participatory democracy, passing through ecology and anti-racism) and provided the necessary frameworks to study the state of current democracies. CES is the ideal place to critically analyze societies, democracy and power.
CES is a pole of concentration of critical and diverse thinking. As an activist, CES provided me an intellectually stimulant environment to develop my ideas, discuss them and learn with academic-activists, students, researchers and professors from across the world.