DPIR DPhil students awarded outstanding thesis prizes

Twelve of the Department’s DPhil students have been awarded prizes for outstanding theses completed in 2023-24 and 2024-25.

Best Doctoral Thesis in Politics

Gonzalo Contreras Aguirre was awarded the 2023-4 prize for the thesis ‘Clientelistic Dynamics in Programmatic Settings. Evidence From Chile.’ This provides a framework for understanding how parties, lacking the features of party machines, can still employ clientelism as an electoral strategy by outsourcing organizational capacity and territorial control to local associations. 

In 2024-5, Lena Freiin Von Schorlemer won this prize for her thesis ‘Defying the Stigma: Radical Right Parties and Extreme Fringe Groups in Western Europe.' This examines why politics radical right parties, despite efforts to appear moderate, publicly engage with far-right, anti-democratic fringe groups that pose significant reputational risks. 

César Fuster Llamazares was also awarded this prize in 2024-25 with the thesis ‘Preferences for Redistribution in Three Spheres of Inequality.’ This revolves around the question of why people reject full equality and tolerate that some individuals are economically better off than others. 

Best Doctoral Thesis in International Relations

Guiseppe Spatafora won the 2023-4 thesis prize for 'Last Resort: When Foreign Sponsors Escalate from Indirect to Direct Support in Civil War.' This examines how states change their modes of involvement in foreign wars, with a particular focus on the transition from external supporters of warring parties to direct belligerents. 

Also in 2023-4, John de Bhal won for his thesis 'Stratified World-Making in International Relations: Stratification, Order, and Power.' This studies a range of techniques that weaker actors use to contest international hierarchies. 

In 2024-25, Sam Holcroft was awarded this prize for 'The Capitulatory Sea: Extraterritorial Relations in the Mediterranean, 996-1937.'

Gerda Raissar also received this award in this year, for her thesis 'The Prohibition on Veto Use: Formal Rules, Informal Norms, and Retaliation in European Union Sanctions Negotiations.' This studies sanctions negotiations in the European Union, specifically why member states with preferences to block specific sanctions decisions go along with the majority’s preferences and agree to their adoption. 

Additionally, Kye Allen won in 2024-5 for the thesis ‘Mythologising the Ultra-Nation, Theorising the International: Fascist International Thought and the Study of International Relations in Britain, 1922-1945.’ This explores how fascists and other fellow travellers of the extreme right engaged with the then nascent academic discipline of International Relations (IR) and the wider intellectual field of ‘expertise’ in which it was situated during the interwar decades. 

Best Doctoral Thesis in Political Theory

In 2023-24, Elsa Kugelberg won this award with her thesis ‘Just sex: A Theory of Justice for the Sexual Sphere.’ This explores the connection between politics and our most intimate relationships. 

In 2024-25, Connor Grubaugh was awarded this prize for the thesis ‘Building the Kingdom: Locke, Liberalism, and the Politics of Hope,’ which investigates concepts of hope, time, and history in liberal political theory by examining the political thought of John Locke in its historical setting. 

The Dasturzada Dr Jal Pavry Memorial Prize 

This prize is awarded for an outstanding thesis on a subject in the area of international peace and understanding.

In 2024-5, this award went to Tiril Rahn, with the thesis title ‘Access Denied: The Host-Government’s Power of Access on Local UN Peacekeeping Operations.’ This lays out how host-governments shape the local access of UN peacekeeping missions, showing that access itself is a form of political power in conflicts. 

The Bapsybanoo Marchioness of Winchester Prize 

This prize is given for a thesis on international relations, with particular reference to the area of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The 2024-25 award was given to Cecilia Corsini, with the thesis ‘Inter-organizational Competition in Humanitarian Governance.' This shows that the competition persists because donor states view specialised organisations as interchangeable, creating ongoing survival pressures for individual humanitarian internation organisations in a resource-scarce environment.