Arnout van de Rijt joined the SPS Department as Professor of Sociology in September 2019. Van de Rijt received his PhD from Cornell University in 2007 and worked as Assistant and Associate Professor at the State University of New York and later as Professor of Sociology at Utrecht University. His research focuses on path dependence and Matthew effects in life courses and careers.
"I am truly honoured that my colleagues entrusted me with this role. This is a great time at SPS. Some absolutely stellar scholars have just joined us, and our students and graduates are having tremendous impact in academia and policy. Our aim will be to cherish the conditions that enable this success," shares van de Rijt.
Professor van de Rijt succeeds Professor Elias Dinas as Head of Department.
Filip Kostelka holds the Chair in Political and Social Change in the SPS Department. He is currently on leave from the Department of Government at the University of Essex. At the EUI, he convenes the SPS Summer Academy and the Workshop on Political Behaviour in Central and Eastern Europe. He also co-leads the Working Group on Eastern Europe as Laboratory of Change, together with Monika Baar, Jelena Dzankic, and Gabor Halmai, and co-coordinates the interdisciplinary research cluster on Transnational Democracy in the 21st century, together with Kalypso Nikolaidis. His research, recently awarded the Henrik Enderlein Prize, combines observational and experimental approaches to study voting behaviour and political attitudes in Europe.
Professor Kostelka succeeds Professor van de Rijt as Director of Graduate Studies. In reacting to the appointment, he shares what he foresees in his new role, "I am thankful to my colleagues for their trust in assigning me this role. I intend to build on the work of Arnout van der Rijt by supporting colleagues, helping doctoral researchers thrive, and further developing our ambitious PhD Programme."