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We are delighted to announce that our 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award has been bestowed jointly upon two outstanding scholars, each of whom has also had an incredible impact on our discipline – as teachers, as mentors, and as leaders.
Our Lifetime Achievement Award winners are Beate Kohler of the University of Mannheim and Jean Blondel of the University of Siena.
To celebrate their careers, we invited each of them, their nominators, and a selection of guests to our headquarters at Harbour House for a presentation ceremony. These have been recorded to share with our community as two fascinating podcasts that delve into their lives, careers, and the development of the discipline through the eyes of those best placed to discuss it.
Beate Kohler started her academic career outside university as Director of the Institute for European Politics (Bonn 1969-73). Professorships followed at Darmstadt University (1972-1990), at Mannheim University (1990-2007) and postretirement a Distinguished Professorship at the University of Bremen (2008-2012). She has been a Visiting Professor at universities and academic research institutes in many places in Europe and in China.
Apart from myriad research projects, she initiated and run interdisciplinary and international research networks, always aiming to involve junior scientists and give them visibility by inviting them as co-authors. According to Google Scholar, her work has been cited more than 13,600 times. Her most recent book Verbände mit Zukunft? (Springer, 2022) explores the organisational adaptation of business associations to changing context conditions.
Beate also served the advancement of political science by taking leading positions in academic associations. Among others she was Chairwoman of the German Political Science Association (DVPW) and in that capacity involved in the reconstruction of the social sciences in the former GDR. Also, with the support of the EU, she contributed to the establishment of European Studies Centres in China and the development of a Chinese Interdisciplinary European Studies Curriculum.
She received the THESUS Award for Outstanding Research on European Integration in 2011 and in 2009 the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University Association of Contemporary European Studies (UACES). She holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Maastricht and Oslo and is member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (BBAW).
'I never imagined that one day I would be honoured with a prize from ECPR. When in the very early years of my career I learned from Rudolf Wildenmann about the ECPR initiative I was completely thrilled by the idea. A cross-national endeavour to give political science in Europe more clout bringing together the most recognised scientists! I was so impressed by ECPR’s high ambitions that it took me years before I dared to participate myself. Later it was always a stimulating experience taking part in the ECPR Joint Sessions and Conferences.'
Jean Blondel graduated from the Institute d'Etudes Politiques of Paris in 1953 and from St Antony's College (Oxford) where he stayed from 1953 to 1955. He was a lecturer at Keele University from 1958 to 1963, went to Yale as an ACLS fellow in 1963-4 moved to the University of Essex in 1964, where he founded the Department of Government.
Having left Essex in 1984, he was appointed scholar of the Russell Sage Foundation in New York in 1984 before becoming professor of political science at the European University Institute in Florence from 1985 to 1994. Beside these more regular affiliations he has taught in many universities around the world, from Leuphana University of Luneburg to the University of Seoul.
Jean played a pivotal role in the founding of ECPR and served as its Director for the first ten years of its existence.
His publication profile stretches back so far that a complete list is unavailable, but it numbers at least 29 books. In 2004 he was awarded the Johan Skytte Prize for Lifetime Achievement in political science. In 2000 he was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the British Political Studies Association. He has been elected as member of the American Academy of Sciences, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and he has been awarded honorary doctorates from the Universities of Salford, Essex, Turku, Siena, and Catholic University of Louvain la Neuve.
We are absolutely thrilled to have been able to honour two such eminent scholars. To hear more from them, from their nominators, and from those who have worked with them closely throughout their careers, please do listen to our podcasts!
