Department of Politics and International Relations
Alasia Nuti wins prestigious new Political Studies Association prize
Posted on 20 April 2017
Many congratulations to Alasia Nuti, who is the first recipient of the prestigious new Elizabeth Wiskemann Dissertation Prize for the Study of Inequality and Social Justice, awarded by the Political Studies Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Prize was established in honour of Elizabeth Wiskemann, one of the first woman Professors in the UK. It recognises and encourages research on multiple dimensions of social inequality and their intersection, and strategies for addressing these inequalities and promoting social justice.
Elizabeth Wiskemann (1899-1971) was one of the first woman professors in the UK, holding the Montague Burton Chair of International Relations at the University of Edinburgh from 1958 to 1961. Prior to her academic career, she worked as a political journalist in Berlin for the New Statesman. She warned of the dangers of Nazism and, after being expelled by the Gestapo in 1937, continued to gather intelligence from Germany and occupied Europe. She was appointed to the Edinburgh Chair in 1958, where she continued to publish on German and Italian politics and did much to boost the profile of the profession by inviting national and international experts to lead discussion groups on the issues of the day. Her later work shifted to focus on developments in post-colonial Africa.
Alasia’s dissertation, ‘Historical Structural Injustice: On the Normative Significance of the Unjust Past’, was undertaken at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Duncan Bell and Duncan Kelly. She was awarded her PhD in January 2016. The dissertation seeks to develop a normative framework which enables us to understand which past injustices are still normatively significant today in considerations of justice, and why that is so. A book arising out of the dissertation will be published by Cambridge University Press.
Alasia was awarded the Elizabeth Wiskemann Prize at the 67th Annual PSA International Conference held in Glasgow from 10-12 April.