On 6 November, at the closing of a three-day event hosted at the EUI, Columbia University Professor Peter Bearman addressed the room and expressed "the European University Institute is a university I’ve always wanted to come to – it’s a very special place. You are so fortunate to be here. Enjoy it!”
This event was part of a rich programme of academic events hosted at the EUI last week as the EUI hosted the 2025 Kohli awards. These awards, established by the Kohli Foundation for Sociology, serve as a recognition of both pioneering academic achievements and the infrastructures that shape the future of sociological research. Over three days of reflection, discussion, and celebration, the EUI became a lively meeting ground for dialogue between generations of scholars.
On 4 November, the series opened with a public lecture discussing the vital role that academics play in building trust between science and society, and the ways in which openness and transparency are not only research values, but democratic ones.
The award ceremony on 5 November, held at the EUI’s Badia Fiesolana, formed the centrepiece of the week. The Kohli Prize for Sociology was presented to Professor Peter S. Bearman for his pioneering research that has bridged historical sociology, network analysis, and the sociology of health and science.
Professor Bettina Hollstein, Chair of the Kohli Foundation Board of Trustees, highlighted Bearman’s “distinctive combination of theoretical insight, empirical innovation, and creativity,” during her laudatory speech, noting that his work “profoundly shaped our understanding of social structure and human behaviour.”
The Infrastructure Prize for Sociology was awarded to SocArXiv, the open-access platform for sharing sociological research, represented by its founder, Professor Philip N. Cohen. In his acceptance remarks, Cohen reflected on the cultural and institutional challenges of open science: “What we’ve built with SocArXiv shows that in scholarly communication and in our academic communities a better world is indeed possible if we work together.”
The celebrations concluded on 6 November with a Max Weber Programme masterclass by Professor Bearman, entitled 'Revisiting Heuristics for Discovery.' Drawing on nearly three decades of teaching the course 'Designs of Social Research' at Columbia University, Bearman invited participants to reflect on how sociologists identify meaningful research questions; those that “reveal things we haven’t seen before” and “matter to the world we live in.”
Professor Juho Härkönen, Professor of Sociology at the EUI Department of Political and Social Sciences, emphasised the value of the partnership with the Kohli Foundation: “These awards not only honour outstanding scholarship but also affirm sociology’s capacity to engage with the major questions of our time – from civic trust to scientific openness.”