Joni Lovenduski PhD Prize

Submitting a nomination

To nominate, please email a formal nomination letter from the Official Representative or Head of Department of the member institution at which the PhD dissertation was examined, to prizes@ecpr.eu.

Nominations must include, as three separate PDF files:

1. Formal nomination letter, which should emphasise the innovative and outstanding contribution of the PhD dissertation to research on Gender and Politics.
   
   
2. An expanded 15–20 page abstract, in English, outlining the main arguments of the work. The abstract should include:
   
   • The subject of the PhD dissertation and how it relates to current research on Gender and Politics;
   • Its main findings and arguments;
   • Its principal conclusions and contributions to the field of Gender and Politics;
   • The author's original contribution in case of collective work and publication (see requirements stated above regarding article-based dissertation and thesis-based dissertation).
     
     
3. The table of contents of the PhD dissertation, also in English.

Please note that, although the expanded abstract and table of contents should be written in English, the original PhD does not have to be in English.

The deadline for nominations is Friday 6 December 2024.

Eligibility

The PhD dissertation must have been examined and deemed to have passed in the two years preceding the award. However, the PhD need not have been officially conferred during this period. For the 2025 prize, all PhD dissertations that have been successfully conferred between 1 October 2022 and 30 September 2024 could be nominated.

• Only ECPR Member institutions can nominate a candidate for the prize, and the dissertation must have been submitted at that institution.
• In case of a joint PhD, the main institution nominates the candidate (in case the main institution is not an ECPR member, the second institution can make the nomination). 
• The nomination must come via the ECPR Official Representative or the Head of Department.
• The topic of the dissertation should adopt a gender and/or sexuality studies perspective within the broadly conceived fields of political science, international relations, political theory, philosophy, research methods, public policy or public administration. 
• The dissertation may not have been nominated for the Jean Blondel PhD Prize.

Thesis-based dissertations
If the thesis was funded and accomplished within the framework of a collective research project, the submission should state in an explicit and precise way the original contribution of the candidate in terms of methodological framework (data collection, data analysis), theoretical framework and empirics.

Article-based dissertations
These may be submitted under the following conditions:

1. the dissertation should comprise at least three articles. The introductory and concluding chapters of the dissertation should offer a coherent narrative stating the original contribution of the dissertation.
2. in case of co-authored piece(s), the submission should state in an explicit and precise way the contribution of the candidate to any co-authored piece(s). 

Exclusions

• Self-nominations are not accepted.
• Members of the ECPR Executive Committee, or ECPR Editors,  are not eligible for this prize.

Shortlist

The nomination materials will be used to select a shortlist of PhD dissertations (usually five candidates). The authors of the shortlisted dissertations will then be asked to provide an electronic copy of their complete dissertations.

Prize Jury

The jury comprises of six individuals: a member of the ECPR Executive Committee as non-voting Chair, a representative of the Steering Committee of the Standing Group on Gender and Politics, two members of the same group, a previous winner of this prize, and an external member.

The jury for the 2025 prize:

• Petra Guasti Charles University (Chair, non-voting)
• Niels Spierings Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen
• Shardia Briscoe-Palmer University of Nottingham
• Ayse Dursun University of Vienna
• Ashlee Christofferson York University
• Éva Fodor Central European University

Process

The jury evaluates the nominations against the following criteria:

1. Innovation (theory, approach, empirical knowledge, etc.)
2. Importance of the topic and impact on and beyond the field of gender and politics research
3. Methodological rigour and execution of the analysis
4. Quality of writing and structure
5. Explicit attention to the limitations and critical implications of the research
6. Considers implication for gender inequalities and also inequalities beyond gender.
7. Other (specifically identified by the jury)

Following the first round of evaluations, the shortlist of nominations are reconsidered against the criteria to decide a winner. The jury notifies ECPR of their chosen winner, with an outline of the process that they have taken to reach the decision. ECPR then notifies the winner and arranges the announcement.

2025 - Charlène Calderaro

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2023 - Leandra Bias and Cecilia Josefsson

The 2023 Prize has been awarded jointly to Leandra Bias of the University of Bern and Cecilia Josefsson of Uppsala University, for their two outstanding theses.

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2021 - Ashlee Christoffersen

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2019 - Cherry Miller and Orlanda Siow

The 2019 Prize has for the first time been awarded jointly, to Cherry Miller, University of Tampere and Orlanda (Orly) Siow, University College London. Much in the spirit of Joni Lovenduski's pioneering research on the representation of women in politics and public life, our prize committee found these two dissertations exceptional and worthy of the 2019 prize.

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2017 - Hila Amit

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2015 - Ana Miškovska Kajevska

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2013 - Rosalind Cavaghan

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