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Social sciences honoured

13 April 2012

Professor Richard Wyn Jones, Director of the University’s Wales Governance Centre

Three University social scientists have been honoured by The Academy of Social Sciences.

Professors Paul Furlong and Richard Wyn Jones of the School of European Language, Translation and Politics and Professor Philip Thomas, Cardiff Law School, have all received the award of Academician for their outstanding contribution to the social sciences.

Professor Cary Cooper, Chair of The Academy of Social Sciences said: "The voice of the social sciences grows ever stronger by bringing together the outstanding social scientists of our time."

As Academicians they will help support the Academy’s mission of promoting social sciences for the public benefit by helping to respond to Government consultations on behalf of the social science community, organise events and seminars and sponsor a number of schemes that promote the social sciences.

Professor Paul Furlong, Professor of European Studies

Paul Furlong is Professor of European Studies based in the School of European Language, Translation and Politics. His main research interests are in Comparative European Politics, especially Italian public policy and political economy. He has written also on European integration and methodology in political science.

His research seeks to connect questions of public policy (the substance of authoritative public decisions) to questions about political representation (whose interests have a voice in political decision-making) and to connect these to the outcomes of public policy (how policy is implemented and with what effect).

Professor Richard Wyn Jones is one of Wales’ leading and best known Welsh politics experts. Director of the University’s Wales Governance Centre, Richard has written extensively on contemporary Welsh politics, devolved politics in the UK and nationalism.

He has also presented two TV series. Richard is also a regular columnist for the Welsh language current affairs magazine Barn.

In addition, he was also one of the founders of Critical Security Studies. Richard is a regular and widely respected broadcaster, commentating on Welsh politics in both Welsh and English for the BBC in Wales and across the UK.

Professor Philip Thomas

Professor Philip Thomas was conferred the title of Emeritus Professor after spending 36 years in Cardiff Law School. His research was focused in the area of socio legal studies and he is a founding member, and former executive committee member of the Socio Legal Studies Association. In addition, he is the founder and editor of the Journal of Law and Society, based at Cardiff Law School.

His many publications and books include "How to Lecture" published in 2000, and "Discriminating Lawyers" Cavendish, 2000. In 2005 "The Human Rights Act: A Success Story?" was published followed by "Effective Legal Research" in 2006. His latest article is "Legal Education: Then and Now" [Law Teacher, no. 3, 2006]. He is widely published and his work has been translated into Spanish, Japanese, French and Czech.

He has held academic positions at the universities of Yale, Dar es Salaam, and Lusaka. In addition, he has been a visiting professor in a number of law schools including, Oslo, Utrecht, Prague, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Macquarie.

The Academy of Social Sciences

School of European Language, Translation and Politics

Cardiff Law School