Congratulations to Gaia Ghirardi and Stephan Pietzner from the Department of Political and Social Sciences for receiving their doctorate in April 2025, after unanimous decisions from the jury.
On 16 May 2025, Gaia Ghirardi defended her thesis, Interaction of Family Socioeconomic Status and Genotype in the Intergenerational Transmission of Educational and Health Inequalities. The dissertation makes a significant contribution to research on the intergenerational transmission of inequality by examining how family socioeconomic environments interact with individuals’ genetic propensities to shape educational and health outcomes. Drawing on data from the US, the Netherlands, and the UK, her work shows that family socioeconomic status can compensate for, amplify, or trigger genetic associations of traits such as educational attainment, (non)cognitive skills, externalising behaviours, and body mass index. Her thesis bridges social stratification theory and sociogenomics by employing advanced research designs to address key methodological challenges in gene-environment interaction research. The thesis was supervised by Professor Fabrizio Bernardi (EUI former professor, currently UNED), and the jury included Professors Melinda C. Mills (University of Oxford), Nicola Barban (University of Bologna), and Juho Härkönen (EUI).
Read Gaia Ghirardi’s thesis in Cadmus.
On 26 May 2025, Stephan Pietzner defended her thesis, 'Nice umbrella, but let me hold it … at least a little bit, or at times too.' Explaining the security strategy of client states under the extended nuclear umbrella. This dissertation makes three main contributions. First, it introduces a new explanandum in the study of nuclear politics: the security behaviour of client states under the extended nuclear umbrella. Second, it explains variations in the policy choices of these states using a small set of key explanatory factors. Third, drawing on historical evidence, it distils actionable "rules of thumb" to inform policy-making. In an era of growing nuclear uncertainty, intensifying rivalries, and new threats, this dissertation provides foundational research with significant political relevance for providers and recipients of extended deterrence.
Read Stephan Pietzner’s thesis in Cadmus.