Basil Chubb Prize

The Political Studies Association of Ireland has established an annual award to recognise the best PhD thesis (produced in an Irish university) in any field of politics. The award will take the form of a cheque for €250. The PSAI is grateful to Taylor & Francis for generously sponsoring this prize.

Named after Basil Chubb, this award seeks to recognise an outstanding contribution to the research of politics undertaken in Ireland. Following a history degree and doctorate in politics at Oxford University, Basil Chubb was appointed as lecturer in politics at Trinity College Dublin in 1948. In 1960 he was appointed Professor of Political Science, and first Chair of the new Department of Political Science at TCD. He headed the department until 1991. Widely described as the doyen of Irish political science, Basil Chubb's major books included The Government and Politics of Ireland, A Source Book of Irish Government, Cabinet Government in Ireland, and The Politics of the Irish Constitution. A frequent broadcaster during Irish election campaigns, Professor Chubb is credited with the development of a popular interest in and understanding of the Irish political process. Basil Chubb died in 2002 at the age of 80, but his legacy lives on both in his writings and through his former colleagues and students.

Winner of the Basil Chubb Prize

The 2009 Basil Chubb prize for best PhD thesis at an Irish university in 2009 has been awarded to Dr. Oliver Feeney of the School of Political Science and Sociology at NUI, Galway for his thesis 'Equality of whom? A Genetic perspective on equality of Opportunity', supervised by Dr. Pete Morriss.

The thesis considers central arguments in political philosophy - justice and equality of opportunity - and gives them a new twist by exploring the implications for them of possible advances in genetic technology. If we have a society in which the genetic properties of people are under human control, the thesis asks, how would this make us rethink our core intuitions about justice and equality of opportunity? As the examiners put it, the thesis 'shows an outstanding command of a complex philosophical literature… and advances a number of original, sophisticated and thought-provoking arguments".

Previous Winners of the Basil Chubb Prize

The closing date for nominations for the 2010 prize is May 1st 2010. Nominations should be sent with all accompanying documentation to the PSAI Secretary, Dr Theresa Reidy (t.reidy@ucc.ie)

The judging process is as follows:

• Each Head of Department may make one nomination for the award each year. The nomination will consist of a letter of recommendation from the Head of Department (certifying that the candidate was awarded a PhD from that Department in the previous calendar year), along with a copy of all reports on the thesis from internal and external examiners, and with one copy of the thesis itself. (All nomination material will of course be held in absolute confidence by the PSAI save for the purposes of its internal judging process.) Following the judging process all examiners’ reports will be destroyed, and the copy of the thesis returned to the Head of Department.
• Each nomination will be assessed by a team of three judges. The judging panel will make a recommendation to the PSAI committee, which will then decide the recipient of the Basil Chubb Prize. (The PSAI reserves the right not to make any award in a particular year.)

Please note that nominees must be members of the PSAI.