Delia Baldassari first recipient of the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize
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Professor Delia Baldassari at New York University is the first recipient of the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize in Sociology. She was awarded the prize at a ceremony at Museum Gustavianum in Uppsala on 29 May. In conjunction with the event, the award-winner held a lecture open to the general public.
Professor Delia Baldassari received the Hans L. Zetterberg Prize in sociology for her outstanding contributions to political sociology. She has used several different methods to improve knowledge about a number of relevant contemporary issues.
For example, Baldassari has studied voting behaviour, networks, social capital and opinions. Delia Baldassari demonstrates in her work how social action and individuals’ contributions to collective action depend on their structural positions in networks. Her work is characterised by extreme precision and intellectual openness to the use of different methods.
“Professor Delia Baldassari is already a well-established researcher, but the future truly belongs to her. For example, the European Research Council has awarded her a large ERC grant. In the sociology department, we are looking forward to the lecture with joy and gratitude, and to the attention being paid to our subject. In addition to the much-deserved focus on the recipient, it gives the department a chance for further contact with outstanding researchers. Hopefully, the award will be a source of inspiration for young sociologists,” says Patrik Aspers, department head and professor of sociology at Uppsala University, and a member of the prize jury.
The Hans L. Zetterberg Prize is awarded to “young researchers, from Sweden or elsewhere, who have advanced the research front with their academic work, preferably by fruitfully combining theory and practice”. The award shall be presented annually and considered international. The prize sum is SEK 100,000.
About the prize
The award has been made possible through a donation from Hans L. Zetterberg’s family: his wife Karin Busch Zetterberg; son Martin C. Zetterberg and daughter Anne D. Zetterberg. The donation also covers furnishing and books in the Hans L. Zetterberg Room at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University. Hans L. Zetterberg (1927–2014) studied sociology in Uppsala and was one of Torgny Segerstedt’s first students in the new subject which was first taught in Sweden in 1947. He worked at the Department of Sociology at Uppsala University for several years (Licentiate of Arts 1952).
David Naylor