News Archive
Dr Maya Tudor receives APSA's 2010 Gabriel A Almond prize
Dr Tudor’s dissertation, entitled ‘Twin Births, Divergent Democracies: The Social and Institutional Origins of Regime Outcomes in India and Pakistan,’ was recently awarded the 2010 Gabriel A. Almond prize for Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics.
The American Political Science Association awards the prize annually for the best dissertation in the field of comparative politics, such dissertations being nominated by respective departments. Her dissertation also received an Honourable Mention for APSA’s 2010 Walter Burnham Award for the best dissertation in Politics and History.
In her dissertation, Dr Tudor posed the question of why India and Pakistan embarked upon divergent regime trajectories in the decade after their twin independences in 1947. By 1958, India had established itself as a constitutional democracy while Pakistan had descended into autocratic instability. She argues that the respective independence movements in each country were founded by different social classes who were motivated to create relatively stronger (India) and weaker (Pakistan) political parties. The core argument advanced is that respective party strength critically explains regime stability while respective class interests and their associated ideologies critically explain regime type.
Currently, Maya is editing her thesis into a book manuscript and drafting related articles for journal publication.
Maya Tudor is a Post Doctoral Research Fellow at the Oxford Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy and Nuffield College, Oxford.
Posted: 04/08/2010
New OCSID affiliation with the Global Network on Inequality
Supported by the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, the Global Network on Inequality consists of 25 institutes and university departments across Western Europe, Japan, Brazil, India,South Africa, China, Korea, Chile, and Israel with more countries planned for the future.
OCSID's membership in this group enables Oxford faculty to travel to Princeton periodically for conferences and individual seminars in exchange for hosting Princeton doctoral students in the social sciences with interests in questions of inequality.
Posted: 16/04/2009
OCSID joins Network of Democracy Research Institutes (NDRI)
Network members include independent institutions, university-based study centres, and research institutes affiliated with other organisations, all of which share the goal of promoting frequent and fruitful interaction among democracy scholars and activists.
A profile of OCSID will be published on the NDRI website, and the new OCSID membership will be announced in the next issue of Democracy Research News. The NDRI newsletter will include notices of OCSID publications and activities.
Please see www.wmd.org/ndri/ndri.html for full information about the Network.
Posted: 12/01/2009
Vacancy: Post-doctoral Researcher, Oxford Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy
Salary scale: £28,839 - £30,594 per annum
The post-holder will be expected to spend half their time on conducting and publishing research on some aspect of the interaction between inequality and democracy, and half time on tasks directly related to the development of the Centre, including developing project proposals, arranging events, and providing assistance with the administration of the Centre.
The successful candidate will hold a completed doctorate (or evidence of imminent completion) in a relevant field, with a proven ability to undertake research in an area directly related to inequality and democracy. The ability to work independently and to meet deadlines is essential, as are good team-working, communication and IT skills, and a readiness to embrace an interdisciplinary approach. A knowledge of at least one language other than English, and some experience of fund-raising would be advantageous.
The duties and skills required are described in more detail in the further particulars, which also contain details on how to apply. These are available from our website at www.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/vacancies or from our Personnel Office (Email: vacancies@politics.ox.ac.uk, Tel: 01865 278700), Department of Politics and International Relations, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ. The closing date for applications is noon on Friday 5th December 2008. Please quote reference number CT08027 on all correspondence and state where you saw the post advertised.
Oxford University is an Equal Opportunities Employer.
Posted: 24/11/2008
OCSID awarded funding from John Fell OUP Research Fund
The Oxford Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy (OCSID) has recently been awarded nearly £100,000 from the John Fell OUP Research Fund for future activities
The award will contribute towards the recruitment of a post-doctoral researcher and fund lunchtime workshops, public lectures and a conference in Hilary Term 2010. The project commenced on 1 October 2008 and will run for 26 months.
The Director of the Centre for the Oxford Study of Inequality and Democracy is Professor Nancy Bermeo, Nuffield Chair of Comparative Politics.
Posted: 14/10/2008
Call for Applications for Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellowships
The Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the Washington, D.C.-based National Endowment for Democracy invites applications for fellowships in 2009-2010. Established in 2001, the program enables democracy activists, practitioners, scholars, and journalists from around the world to deepen their understanding of democracy and to enhance their ability to promote democratic change. The program is intended primarily to support activists, practitioners, and scholars from new and aspiring democracies; distinguished scholars from the United States and other established democracies are also eligible to apply. Projects may focus on the political, social, economic, legal, and cultural aspects of democratic development and may include a range of methodologies and approaches. A working knowledge of English is required. The application deadline for fellowships in 2009-2010 has been extended until Monday, November 10, 2008. For more information and application materials, please visit www.ned.org/forum/reagan-fascell.html.
Posted: 14/10/2008
Audio recording now available for Council for European Studies conference, Chicago, March 2008
An audio recording is now available online of the International Conference held at the Council for European Studies at Columbia University, 6-8 March 2008.
The conference was chaired by Professor Nancy Bermeo, Nuffield Chair of Comparative Politics, University of Oxford, and Director, Oxford Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy (OCSID).
Conference participants included:
- Leonardo Morlino, University of Florence
- Kalypso Nicolaïdis, University of Oxford
- Gwendolyn Sasse, University of Oxford
- Laurence Whitehead, University of Oxford
- Ivelin Sardamov, American University in Bulgaria
For further information on OCSID please visit http://ocsid.politics.ox.ac.uk/
Posted: 06/08/2008
Programme now online for OCSID inaugural conference
The conference is titled 'Old questions, new agendas', and takes place on Friday 16 May 2008 at Manor Road.
Old questions, new agendas'Most people agree that democracy, despite its many meanings, implies some type of formal political equality. Yet, the association between democracy and inequality remains hotly contested. This is, in part, because inequality takes so many different forms: it has material and non-material dimensions and it exacerbates differences of varied sorts, including those based on class, ethnicity, gender, region and religion. The contested nature of the democracy/inequality association is also rooted in its reciprocal quality: democracy is thought to affect inequality but it is thought to be profoundly affected by inequality as well.
Under what conditions does the formal political equality embodied in the democratic notion of "one citizen-- one vote" actually mitigate inequalities of power and material resources? Under what conditions does democracy leave inequalities unchanged, worsened or simply masked? Alternatively, how do various inequalities prevent the emergence of democracy in the first place? How and when do inequalities hamper the consolidation and the deepening of democracy after its formal institutions have been established?
These are old questions, but their contemporary relevance makes them an ideal focus for the inaugural conference of the Oxford Centre for the Study of Inequality and Democracy (OCSID).
The launch event brings together internationally recognized scholars from several social science disciplines, to ponder how existing democracies have affected inequalities, how inequalities have affected the process of democratization, and how future scholarly and political agendas should be shaped by our answers to these questions.
The conference is sponsored by the Department of Politics and International Relations and Nuffield College.
Posted: 15/04/2008