Faculty and Staff Political and Social Sciences Department

Head of Department

Arnout van de Rijt

In 1998, Van de Rijt quit his music studies to pursue a Master's in Sociology at Utrecht University. He moved to the US to continue his graduate studies at Cornell University (2002-2007). After his PhD he worked as assistant professor (2007-2012) and tenured associate professor (2012-2015) at the State University of New York. Van de Rijt returned to his alma mater in the Netherlands where he served as Professor of Sociology and Designated Chair (2016-2019) before moving to Florence to become Chair in Sociology at EUI's SPS Department, where he has worked since (2019-). Before taking on his new role of Head of Department, Van de Rijt was SPS’ Director of Graduate Studies (2021-2024). Van de Rijt is Editor-in-Chief at Sociological Science and President of the International Network of Analytical Sociology. He received the Freeman and Boudon early career awards for his past work on social network dynamics and cumulative advantage processes. His current research focuses on chance and path dependence in life courses and careers.

Our Faculty

The SPS Department is one of Europe’s leading centres for research on comparative politics, political behaviour and political sociology, the sociology of inequality, analytic sociology, and international relations and security.

Search and Browse all professors

Director of Graduate Studies

Filip Kostelka has general responsibility for all matters related to the course of study, including supervision, seminar attendance, admission to successive years, the fulfilment of requirements such as term papers, etc.

Researchers

Successful candidates from all the EU Member States, Associate States and non-EU countries come to Florence to study for a Ph.D. in the Department of Political and Social Sciences.

Conference People Villa Schifanoia RSCAS Flickr

Department Directory

Browse and search Professors, Researchers, Fellows, and Staff members