Social Work and Personal Social Services

PhD students participate in the activities of the Relational Social Work Research Centre, where they can contribute to research in progress, with tasks that are agreed with those directly involved depending on their educational background, their time availability, the skills they have acquired and their interests (for example, they can collaborate in the collection of data, or prepare some preliminary analyses, up to intervening as co-authors in the preparation of research reports and in the subsequent actions of dissemination of the results).

The Doctorate supports the participation of PhD students in national and international initiatives aimed at young scholars of Sociology and Social Work. In particular:

• Annual Meeting of Young SPe (Sociology for the Person) of Pontignano
• SIG (Special Interest Group) Doctoral and Early Career Researchers, within the European Association of Social Work Research – ESWRA. This Group organizes various initiatives, including in particular a seminar on the occasion of the annual conference of the ESWRA.
• Online Doctoral School, organized annually by the European network TiSSA (The international 'Social Work & Society' Academy)

The PhD programme recognises the importance of the autonomous initiative of PhD students in achieving forms of mutual support, in particular through peer mentoring activities. This is a group activity managed by PhD students of all current cycles. The group meets about once a month to encourage discussion and reflection on the doctoral path: on the one hand, useful information is exchanged with respect to the organization, deadlines and administrative issues; on the other hand, it is above all a space for sharing the research activities that everyone is conducting and for in-depth study on specific topics related to Social Work research. The idea behind this activity is to dedicate a specific moment to peer exchange, with a view to receiving advice and support during the doctoral path with a view to mutual improvement, reinforcement and learning.