Congratulations to Jonathan Winter, Victor Ellenbroek, Bernat Aritz Monge Nunes, Max Behrendt, and Daniel Fenandez Serrano from the Department of Political and Social Sciences, for successfully defending their doctoral theses in April 2026, after unanimous decisions from the jury.
On 1 April 2026, Jonathan Winter defended his thesis Appearances and expectations in human–AI interaction. Four empirical studies use controlled experiments and large-scale observational data to trace how people select and collaborate with human and AI partners. The thesis argues that people’s behaviour toward AI systems is substantially impacted by perceived demographic traits like gender or race. It shows that these social cues influence trust, cooperation, and partner choice in human-AI interactions, highlighting that AI systems inherit and reproduce human social dynamics.
Read Winter’s thesis in Cadmus, the EUI’s research repository.
On 22 April 2026, Victor Ellenbroek defended his thesis Changing Democratic Institutions: Case Studies on Electoral System and Franchise Reform in Germany and the Netherlands. This dissertation explores how electoral reforms and the expansion of voting rights shape political participation and parliamentary politics. Through case studies on electoral reform in Bremen and Hamburg and suffrage expansion in the Netherlands during the 1890s, it examines both the political motivations behind these reforms and their long-term consequences. The research shows that more complex voting systems can reduce voter turnout and widen participation gaps, while suffrage expansion can strengthen party cohesion, sharpen divisions between government and opposition, and contribute to the development of modern party politics. It also finds that political parties often supported electoral reform when they expected it to benefit them electorally. This thesis stands out for its combination of original archival data collection, methodological rigour, and a coherent comparative framework that bridges contemporary and historical cases.
Read Ellenbroek’s thesis in Cadmus, the EUI’s research repository.
On 22 April 2026, Bernat Aritz Monge Nunes has defended his thesis The emergence of post-liberal intergovernmentalism in the EU. Examining the case of the European Youth Guarantee during the sovereign debt crisis. Bernat’s study examines why and how Member States reached agreement on the European Youth Guarantee (EYG) and its funding vehicle, the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI). Through process tracing using semi-structured interviews, the study finds that EU Member States agreed on the European Youth Guarantee because they shared a common concern about youth unemployment, while EU institutions successfully framed the policy through the widely accepted ‘social investment’ approach. The research also shows that the programme helped countries such as Italy and Spain maintain and reform labour market policies during a period of austerity, although limited administrative capacity and uneven implementation reduced its effectiveness. Despite these limitations, the initiative accelerated policy reforms and contributed to broader support for stronger EU social solidarity, including during the COVID-19 crisis. The thesis was praised by the committee as an ambitious, well written, and well-structured theory-building project.
Read Monge Nunes’ thesis in Cadmus, the EUI’s research repository.
On 24 April 2026, Max Behrendt defended his thesis Bringing psychology back in: why families follow, resist or leave the traditional script. His dissertation addresses an important
and long-standing puzzle in the sociology of gender and family: Why do women and men in different-sex couples—despite professed commitments to equality—continue to adopt work–family arrangements that disadvantage women and limit fathers’ opportunities for close parental involvement? This is a compelling and timely research question, and the dissertation makes a valuable contribution by foregrounding the psychological and micro-level dynamics through which couples make sense of and justify their arrangements. The empirical material is rich, and the idea of focusing on individual-level factors to understand the conditions under which couples engage in traditional vs. more egalitarian childcare arrangements is ambitious and innovative. Following a lively discussion, all jury members, Juho Härkönen (EUI), Marie Evertsson (Stockholm University), Lena Hipp (WZB Berlin Social Science Center), and supervisor Ellen Immergut (EUI), unanimously agreed that this is an outstanding dissertation with high publication prospects!
Read Behrendt’s thesis in Cadmus, the EUI’s research repository.
On 27 April 2026, Daniel Fenandez Serrano defended his dissertation Administrative traditions and the Welfare State. He challenges the dominant understanding of welfare regimes as anchored on substantive policy legacies and power struggles. Effectively, reasoning from the historical incidence that education reform fundamentally precedes social security innovation across Europe, the thesis develops an alternative explanation of regime varieties and their staying power based on state traditions.
Read Daniel Fernández Serrano’s thesis in Cadmus, the EUI’s research repository.