PhD Course in Life Course Research

The Ph.D. program in Life Course Research fosters the study of life courses and the significant events that shape them from a holistic and transdisciplinary perspective. The program establishes an alliance among scholars from the biomedical, psychological, and socio-demographic fields.

​The PhD program in Life Course Research will train a new generation of highly skilled scholars relying on an evidence-based approach, with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and data analysis.

​Unique features of the Ph.D. program in Life Course Research:

• Thematic rather than disciplinary identity
• Super-departmental and super-regional nature of the Consortium to overcome the fragmentation of local approaches
• Multilevel teaching structure fueled by a large Scientific Consortium

The theoretical premises of the PhD program

The life course perspective allows for a comprehensive study of how events that mark individuals’ lives in their key phases of development and decline manifest and change over time and space.

​Three principles provide the foundation of our holistic approach to the study of the life course:

• ​Cumulative contingencies: previous experiences (including those in the womb) shape a person’s current status in different life domains (health, geographic mobility, family, work, and socioeconomic position);
• Linked lives: events in one life domain (illness, job loss, divorce) can influence all other domains;
• Historical period and context: the period and the context in which individuals live influence the probability, the timing, and the sequencing of key life course transitions.

​An individual’s life course should not be considered an arbitrary chain of events. Rather, as experiences follow one another, people are increasingly directed into certain trajectories, and other options decrease in probability or become closed off entirely. Micro-level (individuals), meso-level (e.g., households, care providers, volunteering organizations, and firms) and macro-level (society, institutions) factors are all pivotal.

​We ensure synergies by design as the PhD Program in Life Course Research incorporates transdisciplinary perspectives that merge the biomedical, psychological, and sociodemographic. The PhD Program in Life Course Research will train a new generation of students able to triangulate concepts and methods from these different approaches to untangle life course dynamics.

The PhD Program in Life Course Research will be based on and implement an evidence-based approach with a strong emphasis on quantitative methods and data analysis. In addition, qualitative approaches can reveal important insights into the opportunities and challenges individuals face.

What it offers

• 3-year scholarships
• A multilevel teaching structure with online and in-presence courses at the University of Florence and the host Universities
• 30 credits of disciplinary and transdisciplinary teaching
• Dedicated Winter and Summer Schools
• Up to 12 months of a research period abroad

The University of Florence dates back to the Studium Generale set up by the Florentine Republic in 1321. It has had very famous scholars (Galileo Galilei) and professors as well as the two most recent Italian Prime Ministers (Giuseppe Conte and Mario Draghi). Only in 1923 however, the University acquired its actual name and was transformed into a modern comprehensive university, with its 21 Departments and 10 Schools.

The Unifi offers 127 Bachelor's Degrees 57 Masters's Degrees, 9 Long-cycle degrees, 24 PhD Programs and over 50 specialization schools. Amongst those programmes, over 40 are international: 10 taught in English and 31 with double or joint degrees. Within most degree programs, courses in English are offered.

Unifi is one of the most popular Universities for Erasmus students (over 900 incoming a year) and is part of EUniWell, a European Universities Alliance. The network has identified four key areas for research and teaching, closely linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The University of Florence is one of the most important Italian public universities and has a strong international vocation. It fosters cooperation with academic and research institutions all over the world and welcomes foreign teaching staff, researchers and students to promote cultural and scientific internationalization. To this end, through its Departments and Schools, the University promotes the hospitality of highly qualified guests from all over the world.

Moreover, it traditionally devotes particular attention to the development of collaborative relationships with foreign universities and to the process of internationalization, which has become a strategic and dominant aspect of the life of the university in research, teaching, the organization of study programmes, mobility of teachers, researchers and students.

For these reasons, the University of Florence qualifies itself as one of the privileged destinations for international guests.

Welcome Service

The Welcome Service helps international students, PhD students, fellows, researchers and professors hosted by the University of Florence within specific European or International projects to find suitable accommodation in town.

The Welcome Service can book the guests in the university residences and other local accommodation facilities and provides information on online platforms for finding accommodation.

Studying in Florence

One hundred and forty-six degree courses (first and second level and single-cycle) of which 15 are in English, organised into 10 Schools, a total population of around fifty-one thousand enrolled, a quarter of whom come from outside the region. The University of Florence is a large university, with a very wide range of courses spanning all subject areas. There are over nine thousand graduates every year in Florence. Moreover, the percentage of Florentine graduates in work one year after graduating is above the national average, according to Almalaurea data.