At the Department of European Studies and Slavic Studies, students can pursue a doctorate in European Studies in English, French or German. The European Studies section offers trilingual teaching in the social sciences and humanities with a focus on Political Science and in particular on issues of European integration and democracy. Moreover, the European Studies section is part of the Swiss PhD Network in Democracy Studies (https://studies.unifr.ch/go/phd-democracy-studies), which allows PhD students to take specialist courses and participate in the annual summer school organised by the network.

PhD proposals in European Studies at the Department of European Studies and Slavic Studies are welcomed particularly in the following areas:

• Democratic processes and challenges in Europe
• Euroscepticism
• European integration and institutions
• Political behaviour in Europe
• Enlargement and foreign policy of the European Union

The European Studies section conducts theory-guided empirical research grounded in the social sciences, especially Political Science. During the academic year, the PhD students also have the opportunity to take part in the master and PhD colloquium in European Studies.

Professors who are eligible to supervise theses

• Prof. Natasha Wunsch

Areas of specialisation:
– Democratisation and democratic regression in Europe
– Enlargement and the neighbourhood policy of the EU
– Euroscepticism

Theses can be supervised in English, German and French.