Donatella della Porta

Donatella della Porta is Professor of Political Science, Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, and Director of the PhD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence, where she also heads up the Centre on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos).

Prof. della Porta is the author or editor of 100 books, 171 journal articles, and 161 contributions in edited volumes. The main topics of her research include social movements, political violence, terrorism, corruption, the police, and protest policing. She directed a major European Research Council (ERC) project on civil society participation in democratization processes in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, entitled Mobilizing for Democracy.

In 2011, Prof. della Porta was awarded the Mattei Dogan Prize for distinguished achievements in the field of political sociology, and in 2021 she received the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s Research Award in recognition of her career-long research activities. In 2022, she was nominated International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2023, she was appointed a member of the Accademia dei Lincei. In 2024, Prof. della Porta was awarded the John D. McCarthy Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Scholarship of Social Movements and Collective Behavior. She holds honorary doctorates from the following universities: the University of Lausanne, the University of Bucharest, the University of Gothenburg, the University of Jyvaskyla, the University of Cyprus, and the University of Peloponnese.