GRADUATION TALK ▼

AS LONG AS YOUR HEART IS IN IT, IT IS THE RIGHT CHOICE

AN INTERVIEW WITH ISABEL WINNWA

?  In an interview Isabel Winnwa gives us a brief insight of the findings of her thesis, talks about her experience as an organizer for workshops at the Graduate School and her future plans after finishing her PhD.

   Can you give us a small sneak peek about the findings of your thesis?

   I.W. To summarize it in one controversial argument: failure in the EU policy-making process is strategic. The institutions, Commission, Council and Parliament, exploit controversies about the policy or the decision-making process to play a blame game, frame failure in a way that makes everyone a winner in terms of reputation - all orchestrated by the Commission. The strategic distribution of blame allows every actor a face-saving way of dealing with the failure of negotiations: the Parliament can blame the Council for intergovernmentalism and a restrictionist policy agenda, the Council blames the Parliament for activism and a lack of pragmatism and the Commission is blamed for pursuing its own strategic agenda instead of being an honest broker. The Commission does indeed pursue a strategic agenda, since it sets up this game and monitors it throughout the legislative process. My thesis provides a better understanding of how policy fails in the process, how the institutions deal with failure and how the three main legislative institutions interact with each other in policy-making - all gaps the previous literature had left open.

   What experience did you gain organizing workshops at the Graduate School?

    I.W. Honestly, it was one of the most exciting parts of my life as a doctoral student. Inviting international experts and bringing them together to discuss exciting and innovative ideas has been so rewarding. All of the workshops started as an idea and we, researchers and marketing team, turned it into a great event. I learned a lot about teamwork, event planning, funding application and management, and how much creativity and spontaneity you need to deal with all the things you did not plan for. I’m tremendously grateful for the opportunity to do all these workshops and the assistance I got. In fact, I’m so convinced by this format that two colleagues and I are currently organizing another big event that will take place in May. So "stay tuned", I guess.

   Have you already decided what you would like to do after finishing your PhD?

   I.W. My next immediate step will be to try to finish some work related to my thesis: find a publisher and prepare the publication of the book, finish a few manuscripts for articles and send them off to journals. Apart from that, I am very happy in my new job and will invest in being a valuable addition to the BAGSS management team.

Image Credits: ? Bamberg Graduate School of Social Sciences