Jay Rowell ist neuer Direktor des Centre Marc Bloch

September 01 

Political scientist Jay Rowell became director of the Marc Bloch Centre on September 1st 2023, succeeding the historian Jakob Vogel--- who will be returning to Science Po Paris as a professor.

Following his studies at Duke University, Science Po Paris and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Jay Rowell obtained his PhD in political science at the EHESS in 2001 on the housing policies of the German Democratic Republic. Recruited to the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Jay Rowell began his career at the EHESS’s Centre Georg Simmel. In 2004 he joined the University of Strasbourg’s Centre for European Political Sociology, where he held lectures on European studies, the sociology of the State, social science methodology and the Welfare State. He was the head of this research center between 2007 and 2012, deputy director of the CIERA between 2006 and 2016, and became a CNRS research professor in 2013. He was also vice president in charge of the social sciences and humanities research at the University of Strasbourg as well a member of the CNRS’s national committee.

His research on the GDR capture the intersection between social history, urban sociology and the sociology of the state. He also worked on historical comparison methodology, civil society and social protection before dedicating himself to a series of studies on the sociology of European actors, public opinion and social politics. After working on the policies of higher education, he is currently working on a project on the uses “soft skills” measurement tools in recruitment practices. This project aims to study the mechanisms of social reproduction in an era of meritocracy and the democratization of higher learning institutions.

Jay Rowell : “I am thrilled  to have the opportunity to work at the Centre Marc Bloch, a truly interdisciplinary and transnational institution, whose mission is to understand essential challenges such as global warming, conflicts and globalization. Thanks to Jakob Vogel’s dedication and the presence of a solid and competent staff, the Centre Marc Bloch has solid foundations, and benefits from strong support from our French and German funding sources and the strong partnerships with academic institutions in Germany, Europe and beyond. Alongside the Vice Directors Marieke Louis and Esther Möller, who will start join us on October 1st, 2023, I hope to expand our collaborations, reaching further into central Europe, Africa and the Middle East to question the rise of authoritarianism, the transformation of identities and the challenges of social inequalities.”

Sébastien Vannier
sebastien.vannier  ( at )  helmholtz-klima.de