Juliette Saetre has won the 2026 Linz Rokkan Prize for the best doctoral thesis in political sociology. The prize, awarded annually by the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences, was presented at the EUI Conferring Ceremony on 19 June 2026.
"I feel very honoured to have been awarded this prize. At a time when migration is so often associated with backlash and hostility, I hope this work helps draw attention to the ways in which host communities also learn from those they receive," Saetre said.
Saetre defended her thesis 'Turning the Tide: Mobility and the Upstream Diffusion of Political Attitudes and Behaviors' at the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences in November 2025. The thesis investigates how political attitudes and behaviours spread through human mobility, asking not only how influence flows outward from institutional centres but how ordinary people can carry new political content upstream into the communities they move through.
Three empirical studies trace that process: the transnational diffusion of a Chilean feminist protest, the contrasting solidarity movements that the Chilean and Argentine dictatorships provoked in the West, and the shift in Norwegian opinion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after peacekeepers returned from Lebanon. Together, they show that mobility reshapes local politics only when the ideas it carries are reinforced through trusted social ties. Migration can drive political change, the thesis argues, but its reach depends on the networks through which it travels.
"This thesis owes much to those around me, and I would like to thank my supervisors, Jeffrey Checkel and Arnout van de Rijt, for their continuous support," Saetre added. "To Arnout especially, thank you for the nomination and, above all, for teaching me the value of parsimonious explanations. I am also grateful to the wider SPS community for creating such a stimulating and supportive intellectual environment, and to the wonderful friends who made Florence feel like home."
The Linz Rokkan Prize is awarded annually for the best EUI doctoral thesis in political sociology, engaging with a theme in the broadly defined fields of work of Juan Linz and Stein Rokkan. Instituted by the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences, it honours the memory of two leading post-war political sociologists, the late Juan Linz and the late Stein Rokkan. The prize is sponsored by Professor Richard Rose, one of the founding figures of post-war political science in Europe.
Juliette Saetre also features in our #MyEUIResearch video series, where she explains the ideas behind her research and how migration can reshape political life in receiving societies. Watch the episode here.