SDG 15 Life on Land

May 12-17, 2025

Call for applications: December 2, 2024 – January 31, 2025

The PhD Academy is led by:

- Duke University
- Exeter University
- Stellenbosch University

Rural communities are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, having long relied on farming, fishing, and the natural environment for their livelihoods. Strategies to enhance climate resilience and to support rural flourishing will need to be multi-pronged, including institutional support and investments in in-situ adaptation, ‘migration as adaptation’, and more sustainable agricultural practices and food systems. Transitioning to sustainable agri-food systems is critical to averting food insecurity and climate-driven social and ecological disasters, yet this transition requires more than technical solutions. It calls for a new vision of rural transformation and rural thriving.
This PhD Academy invites participants to learn from leading thinkers working in the fields of rural development, migration studies, climate adaptation, and sustainable food systems.
The Academy addresses three inter-related themes:
- rural transformation and sustainability transitions;
- migration, adaptation, and rural resilience;
- sustainable agri-food systems.
Participants will have the opportunity to workshop their research with peers and faculty, participate in field visits to small farms outside Venice, and benefit from faculty-led workshops strengthening transversal skills. Workshops will focus on participatory scenarios planning, measuring well-being outcomes, and visual methods (photo voice).

Faculty
Kerilyn Schewel, Duke University
Lee Miller, Duke University
Neil Adger, Exeter University
Ricardo Safra de Campos, Exeter University
Rika Preiser, Stellenbosch University

Topics
Each day will include lectures/workshops led by faculty as well as dedicated time for PhD students to workshop a question, method, or chapter.
The PhD Academy will include topics such as:
- A Research Agenda for Rural Transformation
- Systems Thinking, World Views, and Sustainability Transitions
- Migration, Adaptation, and Climate Change
- Agri-Food Systems
- A field trip

Who can apply?
This international PhD Academy is offered to PhD students, post-docs, and early career researchers working in the interdisciplinary fields of rural development, climate adaptation, sustainable food systems, and/or migration studies. This includes (but is not limited to) researchers from the natural and social sciences (e.g., geography, sociology, economics, anthropology, environmental sciences, agricultural sciences, health, regional planning among others).

Fees & grant support
Full fee waiver scholarships are available for students from VIU member institutions. In addition, grant support is available to support partially or fully the costs of international travel. Accommodation is provided free of charge.
Four fee-waiver scholarships and Erasmus+ mobility grants (international travel, accommodation, meals) are available to support the participation of doctoral students from Stellenbosch University. For further information please write to Stellenbosch University Outgoing Student Mobility: matiesabroad@sun.ac.za
The participation fee for students of non-member institutions is Euro 1,100 (incl. VAT). The fee is inclusive of tuition, course materials, accommodation, lunches, social events, and taxes.
Students from non-member institutions are not eligible for VIU grant support.
VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.

Applicants must submit the (1) application form, (2) a letter of motivation – which should include a short bio and a brief description of the candidate’s research project, (3) a curriculum vitae, and (4) a photo.

For further information please download the brochure and the program or write to: phdacademy@univiu.org

Co-funded by Erasmus+ Project 2022-1-IT02-KA131-HED-000068420 in the context of the Erasmus+ VIU Mobility Consortium 2021-2027.

International PhD Academy

February 14-18, 2022

May 23-27, 2022

This Graduate Seminar will be led by:
- IUAV University of Venice, Italy
- University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, Italy

July 7-12, 2025

Call for applications: closed

The PhD Academy is led by:

- Duke University
- Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
- University of Exeter 
- Iuav University of Venice

The performing arts contribute to the environmental humanities, foregrounding their role in understanding and tackling the environmental crisis. In this PhD Academy, this relation will be interrogated from the viewpoint of the city of Venice.
The Academy includes a program of problem-based learning activities consisting of seminars and workshops, concluding in show-and-tell and dissemination activities. As self-documentation will form part of the learning process, students will be encouraged to create archivable resources that will be available to VIU students further afield as well as future VIU students.

The seminars and workshops aim to transfer skills and methods to students from a range of disciplinary backgrounds. The broader field of study, environmental humanities, will underpin all activities which will focus on the impact of environmental crisis and climate change on the city of Venice, looking, specifically, at the role of waste in society and the ways in which theorists and artists have engaged with this concept and related labour practices in Venice and beyond.
The focus is deliberatively placed on the performing arts, though methods and scholarship will draw, characteristically for the performing arts, from a range of disciplines, empowering students to use innovative practices and explore strategies for knowledge production.

Faculty
Susanne Franco, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
Gabriella Giannachi, University of Exeter
Annalisa Sacchi, Iuav University of Venice
Katya Wesolowski, Duke University 

Invited Speakers
Ilenia Caleo, Researcher and performer
Piersandra Di Matteo, Researcher and curator
Allison Orr, Researcher and choreographer
Francesca Tarocco, Director of Niche, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice

Learning outcomes for participants
- A clear sense of the impact of environmental issues from the Venetian perspective
- A nuanced understanding of the skills and competences in environmental humanities (in theory and practice) that can help us to address the communication, mitigation, and adaptation to climate change
- An appreciation of the ways in which humanities, the performing arts in particular, can advance knowledge that addresses societal challenges.
- An understanding of how to work ethically, interdisciplinarily, collaboratively, and remotely with beneficiaries in Venice and beyond

Who can apply?
This international PhD Academy is offered to PhD students, post-docs, and junior researchers within all disciplines.
The module requires no prior knowledge or skills in ecological and environmental practice, performing arts or heritage studies and is open to anyone with an interest in addressing the challenge of climate change. It may be of particular interest to those students who are considering a career in environmental humanities. Open to candidates from all the VIU Member Institutions; applications from excellent candidates from non-member institutions will be also considered and evaluated.

Fees & grant support
Full fee waiver scholarships are available for students from VIU member institutions. In addition, grant support is available to support partially or fully the costs of international travel. Accommodation is provided free of charge.
Three fee-waiver scholarships and Erasmus+ mobility grants (international travel, accommodation, meals) are available to support the participation of doctoral students from Stellenbosch University. For further information please write to Stellenbosch University Outgoing Student Mobility: matiesabroad@sun.ac.za
The participation fee for students of non-member institutions is Euro 1,250 (incl. VAT). The fee is inclusive of tuition, course materials, accommodation, lunches, social events, and taxes.
Students from non-member institutions are not eligible for VIU grant support.
VIU Alumni are eligible for a reduced fee.

Applicants must submit the (1) application form, (2) a letter of motivation – which should include a short bio and a brief description of the candidate’s research project, (3) a curriculum vitae, and (4) a photo.

For further information please download the brochure and the program or write to: phdacademy@univiu.org

Co-funded by Erasmus+ Project 2022-1-IT02-KA131-HED-000068420 in the context of the Erasmus+ VIU Mobility Consortium 2021-2027.