2016 Joint Sessions of Workshops, Pisa

The 2016 Joint Sessions of Workshops were unique in that for the first time in the ECPR’s history the event was held across three different institutions. The University of Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore, and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna provided between them the perfect backdrop to a week’s intensive presentation, discussion and networking. Twenty four workshops took place covering a broad range of subjects; the full list, a synopsis of the Workshop and the papers presented can be found within the Academic Programme.

The workshops themselves are always complemented with an engaging plenary programme, which includes the annual Stein Rokkan Lecture. This high profile lecture was this year given by Maurizio Ferrera (Università degli Studi di Milano) on the subject ‘Heading for Collision? Economic and Social Europe in Search of Reconciliation’. Professor Ferrera’s lecture proposed a ‘post-Rokkanian’ diagnosis of the current EU predicament and identified some possible ways out while considering their political and institutional preconditions.

Two ECPR Prizes were also awarded during the welcome sessions: the 2015 Jean Blondel PhD Prize Jovana Mihajlovic Trbovc (University of Ljubljana and Peace Institute Ljubljana) and the 2015 Wildenmann Prize to Carina Schmitt (University of Bremen) – congratulations to them both.

ECPR events always provide a fantastic opportunity for a huge network of international scholars to come together in person to share ideas and make lasting connections to further their careers. This feeling of community is now also reflected in social media – Pisa saw many participants taking to Twitter in particular to share their experiences. The feed from the Pisa hashtag is below.

Without the commitment and excellent work of the three host universities the Joint Sessions would not have been such a success, so the ECPR’s thanks go to the local organisers and their teams at each institution: Luciano Bardi at the University of Pisa, Donatella Della Porta at the Scuola Normale Superiore and Yves Meny at Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.

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