On September 1st 2017, Pierre François became the head of the Doctoral School. He succeeds Jean-Marie Donegani, who is leaving this post but will continue his teaching and research activities at Sciences Po.

Pierre François is a sociologist and CNRS research director at the Center for the Sociology of Organizations (CSO). He served as director of Sciences Po’s department of sociology from 2014 to 2017. His research focuses on the dynamics of the worlds of art – particularly contemporary poetry – and on the sociology of businesses and their leaders. Pierre François teaches in Sciences Po’s masters program as well as the Collège universitaire (undergraduate level), where he teaches the introduction to sociology course. He was a professor of sociology at the École polytechnique between 2009 and 2017. Pierre François aims to enable Sciences Po’s Doctoral School to meet the twin challenges of research internationalization and of the growing scientific and methodological requirements it involves. The major priorities identified for the coming years include:

• Interdisciplinary dialogue in the humanities and social sciences,
• The funding model for doctoral research,
• The international mobility of students and junior researchers,
• The development of institutional partnerships of excellence in France and abroad,
• The professional integration of graduates and recent PhD graduates. 

“The Doctoral School of Sciences Po has a unique position in France and in the world that it is our job to make fruitful by bolstering its international openness and reinforcing the relationship between the masters and doctoral programs and between the training in, and application of research”, emphasizes Sciences Po director Frédéric Mion.