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December 2025 |
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The Intensive Graduate Activities at Venice International University include PhD Academies, Graduate Seminars, and Summer Schools. They are an opportunity for students and professors of the member universities and research institutions to experiment with interdisciplinary approaches, to collaborate with peers from around the world, to tackle transversal topics, and to undertake scientific challenges in innovative ways.
This issue is dedicated entirely to the Calls for Application for VIU Intensive Graduate Activities in 2026.
Sign up for an upcoming info session to learn more about the programs on offer in 2026.
Info Sessions
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Effective communication of research to public and policy audiences is increasingly essential for researchers, yet many lack the experience or skills to engage beyond academia. This program equips participants with both the theory and practical tools needed to communicate research through diverse channels, while also learning to evaluate impact. Emphasizing science communication and public engagement, it helps researchers meet growing expectations from funders and policymakers for research that demonstrates clear societal impact.
Suitable for: researchers and graduate students from all research disciplines across Natural and Social sciences, Engineering and Humanities.
Application Deadline: January 15, 2026
Apply Now
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Ensuring access to safe, nutritious, and high-quality food is a pressing global challenge, particularly as climate change and pollution both result from and affect food production systems. This Graduate Seminar offers young researchers an interdisciplinary and international learning environment to tackle sustainable food issues, integrating perspectives from law, economics, social sciences, medicine, nutrition, agro-ecology, and biology. Participants will explore how scientific and technological transformations shape diets, food systems, and access worldwide, and consider policy strategies aligned with the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and the 2024 Pact for the Future to end hunger and eliminate food insecurity and malnutrition.
Suitable for: Master, PhD students and junior researchers in Legal, Social, Economic and Political Sciences including International Relations; Biotechnology and Biosciences; Medical Health Sciences and Nutrition; Agricultural and Food Sciences; Agro-ecology; Food Psychology.
Application Deadline: January 15, 2026
Apply Now
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In an era marked by the rapid spread of misinformation, disinformation, and (deep)fake news across traditional and digital media, understanding how beliefs are formed, revised, and shared has become increasingly urgent. This Graduate Seminar explores Epistemic Logic as a formal framework for analyzing knowledge and belief, examining how belief systems change in response to new information and interaction in both single-agent and multi-agent settings. Drawing on classical and contemporary approaches—including modal and propositional logic, belief revision, dynamic and inquisitive logic, and semantic models—the seminar connects formal theory with applications in artificial intelligence, computer science, cognitive psychology, and philosophy, while also addressing real-world challenges such as information exchange, public belief formation, and the societal impact of false information.
Suitable for: Master students, PhD students, and junior researchers in Logic, Epistemology, Social Sciences, Cognitive Sciences, Psychological Sciences. Open to candidates from all the VIU Member Institutions; applications from excellent candidates from non-member institutions will be also considered and evaluated.
Application Deadline: January 20, 2026
Apply Now
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The fifth edition of this Summer School explores how different cultures, traditions, and societies understand the end of life, and the ethical, medical, and spiritual frameworks that shape care in people’s final stages. Participants will engage with leading scholars, clinicians, and ethicists to examine dying, death, and bereavement from a global and multicultural perspective, gaining insights into diverse approaches and practices across continents.
Suitable for: professionals in the health care sector, PhD students, post-doc scholars, graduates and undergraduates in medicine, philosophy, political sciences, sociology, social work, economics, statistics.
Application Deadline: February 28, 2026
Apply Now
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In its tenth edition, this Summer School aims at the development of ideas that promote a more sustainable future by bringing together young scholars from all over the world to discuss their ideas on the Grand Transition of our society from the microlevel of individual decision-making to the organizational and the societal level. It gives young scholars the opportunity to discuss with eminent scholars in management theory and to test their ideas and present their work. Participants will become familiar with recent research from a broad set of disciplines. They will work on their ability to engage in the transdisciplinary discourse which is required for the development of innovative answers to grand sustainability challenges.
Suitable for: current PhD students, post-doc scholars and young researchers in Management, Strategy, Organization Theory, Finance, Economic Sociology, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, and related disciplines from universities worldwide.
Application Deadline: February 25, 2026
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For centuries, the Mediterranean has been a crossroads where peoples, ideas, and powers encountered one another. From the Crusades to World War I, the region witnessed constant interactions through trade, diplomacy, religion, law, and cultural exchange, as well as military conflict, all of which shaped political and social life across three continents. Yet Mediterranean history often remains at the margins of global and national historiographies. Global history has tended to privilege the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, while national histories have narrowly focused on the modern nation-state, isolating developments within fixed borders. This seminar challenges those boundaries and invites participants to explore how Mediterranean history, grounded in primary sources and framed through a comparative perspective, can reshape our understanding of the past and open new pathways for thinking about both global and national histories.
Suitable for: Master students, PhD students, and junior researchers in History, Cultural Studies, Political Science and International Relations, and Gender Studies, Archaeology and History.
Application Deadline: February 28, 2026
Apply Now
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This course focuses on the growing interdisciplinary field of Linguistic Landscapes (LL), which traditionally analyses the “language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings”, usually as they occur in urban spaces.
More recently, LL research has evolved beyond studying only verbal signs into the realm of semiotics, thus extending the analytical scope into the multimodal domain of images, sounds, drawings, movements, visuals, graffiti, tattoos, colours, smells as well as people.
Students will be informed about multiple aspects of modern LL research including an overview of different types of signs, their formal features as well as their functions.
Suitable for: current final year Undergraduates (finalists, BA3), MA and MPhil/PhD Students in Linguistics, Sociology, Classical Studies, Business Communication Studies, History, Cultural Studies, Political Studies, Translation Studies or any other related discipline.
Application Deadline: March 31, 2026
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This Summer School offers a multidisciplinary exploration of multiple migrations and transnationalism, moving beyond traditional focus on immigration and integration to examine complex migration patterns, including linked internal and international migration, circular migration, and multinational trajectories. Participants will investigate the social, economic, and political implications of these mobilities, considering how migrants acquire and deploy resources such as legal, educational, economic, and linguistic capital. The course integrates perspectives from law, sociology, and sociolinguistics, addressing issues like citizenship, family reunification, human rights, and European Union migration policies. Using Venice and its Bangladeshi community as a case study, participants will analyze real-world examples of multiple migration, language practices, education, and transnational experiences to gain a nuanced understanding of contemporary migration dynamics.
Suitable for: MA and PhD students in Sociology, Human Rights, Law, Cultural Studies, Sociolinguistics, Education, Migration Studies.
Application Deadline: March 5, 2026
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Amid global instability, warfare and political violence have triggered widespread displacement and deep social crises, as seen in Gaza and Ukraine, with far-reaching environmental, societal, and human rights consequences. This Summer School examines the intersection of mental health and human rights, emphasizing that well-being is inseparable from peace, equity, and justice. Participants will explore critical global mental health through transnational, feminist, and postcolonial lenses, addressing structural violence, oppression, and inequities in low- and middle-income countries. The program promotes a psychology of liberation, offering participatory theoretical and practical tools to understand and support mental health in societies affected by conflict, political turbulence, and social upheaval.
Suitable for: PhD students and practitioners working in mental health, international relations, law, gender and race studies, social work, education, psychology, psychiatry, environmental and climate studies, political science, public health, nursing, global health, and mental health. The school is also open to activist individuals and groups, policy and decision-makers, NGOs and CBOs, stakeholders and influencers seeking to strengthen their knowledge and know-how on global mental health, human rights, and allied disciplines.
Application Deadline: March 10, 2026
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The use of perverse sheaves lies at the core of Geometric Representation Theory. It has allowed mathematicians to solve hard algebraic or representation-theoretic problems by identifying suitable spaces that encode crucial information and by using them to translate the initial problem into geometric terms. The aim of this Summmer School is to introduce graduate students working in Algebraic Geometry, Representation Theory, or Topology to perverse sheaves and their categorification (perverse schobers), and some of their recent important applications. The study of perverse sheaves, perverse schobers, and their interplay with geometry, algebra, and representation theory is currently an extremely vibrant and promising area of research. The techniques involved are highly sophisticated, making it challenging for early-career researchers to familiarize themselves with this rapidly evolving field without proper guidance.
Suitable for: PhD students, early postdoctoral fellows and junior researchers, working in areas related to Algebraic Geometry, Representation Theory, and Topology.
Application Deadline: March 15, 2026
Apply Now
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This seminar explores the key enabling technologies for next-generation wireless systems, covering antennas, communications, and hardware perspectives. As mobile networks evolve from 5G to 6G, new capabilities - such as immersive experiences, massive connectivity, advanced human-machine interfaces, and high-resolution XR video systems - will rely on innovations like non-terrestrial networks, artificial intelligence, and integrated communication and sensing. Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the technologies driving 6G, including radio transceivers, antennas, and communication hardware, as well as the latest research, standardization trends, and innovations shaping the future of mobile networks.
Suitable for: advanced Master, PhD students and junior researchers in Electrical Engineering, Computer Science.
Application Deadline: May 4, 2026
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