Italian Science Fund (FIS 2) Starting Grant

University of Padua is advertising two PhD scholarships in Sociology within the PersoNa – Personal Narratives in Climate Litigation project, funded by the Italian Science Fund (FIS 2) Starting Grant scheme.

The two topics are: (1) A socio-anthropologic study of the emersion of “Personal Narratives” in climate litigation and (2) A socio-legal analysis through Text Mining of the manifestation of “Personal Narratives” in climate litigation. The project sits at the intersection of sociology, law, anthropology, environmental law, climate litigation, and text mining, and is hosted at the Department of Philosophy, Sociology, Education and Applied Psychology (FISPPA), University of Padua.

Applicants are expected to prepare a research proposal using the official PhD Research Proposal template. The proposal should be clearly related to the scholarship topic, coherent with the PhD in Social Sciences, Curriculum Sociology, and aligned with the research line Science, Technology, Innovation and Media Studies. It should present the research questions, background, objectives, methods, expected results, bibliography, motivation, and originality, and must be focused and feasible.

The project explores how personal narratives and lived climate impacts enter court cases, how they are used as evidence, and how they affect judges, lawyers, and broader societal engagement with climate litigation. The research is interdisciplinary and globally oriented, with empirical work across multiple locations.

Funding: the scholarships are funded through the FIS 2 Starting Grant PersoNa project; no stipend amount is stated in the post excerpt provided.

Deadline: May 20, 2026.

For more information, see the linked application pages and project pages provided in the post.