2024 Jowell-Kaase Prize recipient revealed

Jule Adriaans (Bielefeld University) has been selected as the latest winner of the Jowell-Kaase Early Career Researcher Prize. 

The European Social Survey (ESS) prize recognises excellence in the field of comparative social research by a promising new researcher from any scientific discipline. 

Named after co-founders Professor Sir Roger Jowell and Professor Max Kaase, the prize is awarded to someone whose early career achievements have already made a significant academic impact. 

Adriaans currently holds a postdoctoral position in Bielefeld University’s Sociology Department having previously completed her PhD at Bielefeld University and the German Institute of Economic Research (DIW). 

Nominated by Professor Stefan Liebig (Free University Berlin) and Professor Carsten Sauer (Bielefeld University), Adriaans’ research has focused on social inequality and its determinants, drawing heavily on the data collected by the ESS.

Adriaans played a significant role as part of the questionnaire design team (QDT) who proposed the Round 9 (2018/19) rotating module on Justice and Fairness in Europe.

Working with the ESS core scientific team (CST), Adriaans helped develop the module that was fielded in 29 countries.

Adriaans also co-authored the subsequent report on the topic: Justice and Fairness in Europe: Topline results from Round 9 of the ESS.

Adriaans will be formally recognised as the latest recipient at the upcoming ESS Conference - Addressing grand societal challenges cross-nationally: Investigation, innovation and insights from 20 years of data - being held in Lisbon, Portugal, on 8-10 July 2024.

The latest winner of our Early Career Researcher prize will receive €1,000 and deliver a keynote speech at the conference.

The 5th International ESS Conference will feature more than 250 substantive and methodological research papers at ICS - University of Lisbon and ISCTE - University Institute of Lisbon later this year.

In the keynote speech on Tuesday 9 July, Adriaans is expected to discuss social inequality with a specific focus on public perceptions and evaluations of economic inequality.

Recipient of the 2024 Jowell-Kaase prize, Jule Adriaans, said:

“It is a real honour to receive the latest iteration of this prestigious prize and I look forward to presenting my research at the upcoming ESS Conference.

“Throughout my career, I have sought to understand how structural conditions - at the occupational and societal level - shape evaluations and reactions to fairness.

“In this line of inquiry, the ESS offers an invaluable source for studying European's attitudes on fairness and inequality in a variety of social contexts.”

The recipient was selected by a prize committee formed of Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and ESS Conference Organising Committee members.

The committee was particularly impressed with Adriaans’ research published in peer-reviewed journals that included extensive analysis of ESS data.

Chair of the SAB and recipient of the 2016 Jowell-Kaase Prize, Professor Carolin Rapp, added:

“We were really impressed with the volume and quality of nominations received for this year’s Jowell-Kaase Early Career Researcher Prize.

“The Committee felt that Jule Adriaans’ resume - including extensive examples of peer-reviewed published research on social inequality that analysed ESS data - was the most impressive.

“We congratulate Jule on receiving the prize and look forward to seeing research on this important topic at the ESS Conference in July.”

The prize committee was formed of: Professor Caroline Rapp (University of Copenhagen); Professor Karsten Hank (University of Cologne); Professor Hester van Herk (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam); Dr. Joost Kappelhof (SCP - The Netherlands Institute for Social Research); Dr. Michal Kotnarowski (Polish Academy of Sciences); Dr. Alice Ramos (ICS - University of Lisbon); Dr. Tom Smith (NORC at the University of Chicago); and Dr. Diana Zavala-Rojas (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).