Posted 05 May 2010
UCD graduate short-listed for best political science thesis
in EU
Paul Gill, a PhD graduate from the UCD School of Politics and International Relations, has been short-listed for the 2010 Jean Blondel Prize for the best Political Science thesis in the EU.
His doctoral thesis entitled "The Dynamics of Suicide Bombing in Campaigns of Political Violence" examined the underlying individual and organisational motivations behind suicide bombing and why constituencies of people give support to the perpetrators.
The Jean Blondel Prize is judged by a committee drawn from the editorial board of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR). The Consortium is an independent, scholarly association with approximately 350 European institutional members and associate members in over 40 countries. Together, the members form a network of thousands of individual political scientists, international relations and European studies specialists.
The award is given to the thesis that the Committee believes will make the best research monograph in a politics book series. The criterion for this prize is that, with suitable amendments, the thesis would make an outstanding book, addressing central themes in the relevant subfield(s) of the discipline, and hence would be suitable for inclusion in the ECPR's Monographs series, published in English.
Paul Gill completed his doctoral thesis in 2009 under the supervision of Dr Tobias Theiler, UCD School of Politics and International Relations, University College Dublin. The work was funded by the Irish Research Council for Humanities and Social Sciences (IRCHSS).
He is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the International Center for the Study of Terrorism (ICST) at Pennsylvania State University and is the project manager of ICST’s research on the human and social dynamics of IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices). He is currently working on a manuscript entitled: “Marketing Martyrdom”.
According to the European Consortium for Political Research, they received a record number of entrants of exceptionally high quality for the 2010 Jean Blondel Prize.
The final short-list for the 2010 Jean Blondel Prize includes:
- Paul Gill, University College Dublin
- Amandine Bled Orsini, Universite de Bordeaux (Sciences Po Bordeaux)
- Francesco Giumelli, Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane
- Laura Valentini, University College London
- Martino Maggetti, Université de Lausanne
The judging committee is chaired by Dr Dario Castiglione, Department of Politics, University of Exeter, the co-editor of the European Consortium for Political Research Press.
A final decision on the winner will be made by the end of July 2010 and announced as soon as possible after that.
(Produced by UCD University Relations)
