We are pleased to announce that Dr. Jae-Jae Spoon and Dr. Nils Ringe have been selected for the 2020 Larry Neal Prize for Excellence in EU Scholarship for their edited volume, The European Union and Beyond: Multi-Level Governance, Institutions, and Policy-Making (Rowman & Littlefield, 2020). Dr. Spoon is a Professor of Political Science and the Director of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ringe is a Professor of Political Science, Jean Monnet Chair, and Director of the Center for European Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.  

The selection committee appreciated how this volume highlights the many contributions that Alberta Sbraiga made to the field of EU studies while advancing the field with a thoughtful collection of new studies by other authors. It marks a stage in the development of the field and the impact of one of its most important practitioners admirably well. The scholarly and written qualities of the contributions are consistently high, something that can be particularly difficult to achieve in an edited volume. The committee found the book both accessible to readers new to its arguments and likely to be very valuable to those already expert in the field.  

The Larry Neal Prize is named after the first Director of the European Union Center at the University of Illinois — one of the original ten centers in the U.S. funded by the European Commission. Larry Neal is an Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research; and Fellow at the Royal Historical Society. Under his leadership, the center focused on graduate-level programs, establishing an interdisciplinary graduate research seminar on the EU and EU-U.S. relations. Dr. Neal's recent research has covered the interplay of finance and philanthropy; emerging markets; and trade, with a focus on the EU and the U.S. He is the author of numerous monographs and edited volumes, including A Concise Economic History of the World: From Paleolithic Times to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2015) and The Cambridge History of Capitalism, Volumes 1 and 2 (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

Eligible submissions for the Larry Neal Prize include books and articles from all disciplinary fields that address current issues faced by the European Union or in transatlantic relations. To learn more about eligibility and the nomination process, see here. 

Dr. Spoon and Dr. Ringe will join Felicia Naranjo Martinez (Executive Director, Colorado European Union Center of Excellence, University of Colorado-Boulder) for a roundtable discussion titled “Next Directions for EU Studies” as part of the European Union Center’s 11th Illinois EU Studies Conference on April 15-16, 2021. The roundtable will be moderated by Jonathan Larson (Associate Director, European Union Center, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign), and it will take place on April 16, 3:30-5 P.M. CDT. Please register here to attend the roundtable.