Brno, 18 September 2014 – Dr. Elodie Bordat from Sciences Po Aix-en-Provence in France was announced as the winner of the 2014 ENCATC Cultural Policy and Cultural Management Research Award for her outstanding PhD Thesis “The Dynamics of Changes in Public Policy. A Comparative Historical Analysis of Mexican and Argentine Cultural Policies.”
The ceremony to bestow the ENCATC Award for the best recent PhD Thesis on comparative cultural policies or management topics presented by a young researcher was held in Brno, Czech Republic and organised in the framework of the 22nd ENCATC Annual Conference “New Challenges for Arts and Culture: Is it just about money?” (17-19 September 2014). In attendance were the Award’s international jury and two members of the Award’s Steering Committee: Anupama Sekhar, Acting/Deputy Director of the Culture Department at the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF), and Alan Salzenstein, President of the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE). Also in the audience were researchers, academics, arts and culture professionals, policy makers, artists and students from Europe, North and South America, and Asia.
On behalf of the Award’s international jury Annick Schramme, President of ENCATC and President of the ENCATC Award jury said: “The jury selected the winning PhD Thesis for its solid theoretical approach and methodological awareness, strong comparative perspective, and original topic. Furthermore, the jury believes Elodie Bordat’s unique and interesting research will contribute to new cultural policy orientations and be applicable for both practitioners and scholars.”
The Award was given by, Mgr. Miroslav Rovenský, vice-minister, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and Ing. Michaela Šojdrová, vice-chair Committee on Culture and Education of the European Parliament, both extremely committed to supporting excellence in cultural policy and cultural management research.
The winner was extremely honoured and appreciative of the jury’s recognition: “It is an honour for me to receive the ENCATC Cultural Policy and Cultural Management Research Award. I would like to sincerely thank ENCATC and members of the Award’s international jury for this incredible recognition and opportunity to have my PhD Thesis published by Peter Lang for an international audience. I would also like to express my gratitude to everyone who contributed to my research, especially all the cultural professionals and other stakeholders who so kindly accepted to answer my questions,” said Elodie Bordat.
“The relevance of the Elodie Bordat’s PhD thesis encompasses policy, practical and political aspects. This work is extremely important for advancing the debate in the field of heritage cultural policy in Latin America and it offers future researchers and academics an impressive bibliography on cultural policy and beyond,” said ENCATC Secretary General, GiannaLia Cogliandro Beyens.
Alongside the 2014 ENCATC Award winner were two shortlisted finalists: Emma Blomkamp representing Australia and New Zealand for her PhD thesis “Meaning and Measures of Urban Cultural Policy: Art, Local Government and Community Wellbeing” and Luisa Fernanda Gutierrez-Navratil from Spain for her PhD thesis “Competition in the Movie Industry: Releasing Dates and Theatre Allocations as Strategic Variables”.
The ENCATC Award exists to stimulate academic research in the field of cultural policy and management to explore, through comparative and cross-cultural research, issues at stake in contemporary Europe, Asia and the Americas, and possibly anticipate new cultural policy orientations. Moreover, it will to contribute to the process of creating an “infrastructure”, a network of scholars who are competent in doing comparative research projects in cultural policy and management issues. The winning PhD thesis will be translated into English and published in the 2015 ENCATC Book Series produced by the international publishing house Peter Lang.