To mark the ECPR’s 50th Anniversary we have produced a short film exploring how and why the organisation came to be created in 1970; how it has developed and grown over the past half century; and whether its original mission is still relevant today. The film was first shown during the welcome address of the Virtual General Conference on 24 August 2020.
To do this we spoke to a group of people who have been involved with the organisation in a range of roles over the past 50 years. Several of these interviews were collected at Harbour House in January before the COVID-19 pandemic; the remainder were conducted online in June. The full-length interviews therefore, particularly reflect how much the world and our academic and personal lives have changed in 2020.
Our ‘cast’
We are grateful to the following cast of colleagues for their time, anecdotes, thoughts and hopes for the ECPR at 50:
Alasdair Blair
Alasdair has been co-editor of European Political Science (EPS) since 2015 with a specific remit to cover teaching and learning related issues and is active within the Teaching and Learning Standing Group.
Jean Blondel
Along with Stein Rokkan, Jean lead the creation of the ECPR in 1969. He served as the organisation’s first Executive Director 1970–79, and then as a member of the Executive Committee 1979–1988.
Martin Bull
Martin began his involvement with ECPR in 1989 as editor of European Political Science (EPS); he then served on the Executive Committee 2003–06, standing down after one term in order to be appointed Academic Director. Martin then served as Director until September 2019. He is currently co-editor of our new blog, The Loop.
Kris Deschouwer
Kris was elected to the Executive Committee in 2015 and is Chair 2018–21. Prior to this, Kris was editor of the European Journal of Political Research (EJPR) 2004–10.
Isabelle Engeli
Isabelle was appointed editor of the European Journal of Political Research (EJPR) in 2019; she was also Convenor of the Standing Group on Gender and Politics 2011–19.
Petra Guasti
Petra has been Chair of the Steering Committee of the Standing Group on Central and East European Politics since 2008.
Tanja Munro
Tanja was appointed as the ECPR's Director in 2019.
Simona Piattoni
Simona was elected to the Executive Committee in 2009 and served as its Chair 2012–15, making her the first female Chair of the EC.
Richard Rose
Richard was one of the founders of the ECPR and served on the founding Executive Committee 1970–76.
Susan Scarrow
Susan was appointed as editor of the Comparative Politics book series in 2015.
Daniel Stockemer
Daniel has been editor of European Political Science (EPS), since 2015.
