A Diverse and Open Community at the Service of Society
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A Diverse and Open Community at the Service of Society

CATHERINE DE VRIES IS TAKING UP THE NEW POSITION OF DEAN FOR DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION, AIMING TO FURTHER A BOCCONI COMMUNITY WITH DIVERSE BACKGROUNDS AND VIEWPOINTS TO HELP DRIVE INNOVATION

Fostering diversity and inclusion as core principles to promote an open community that can benefit society at large. These are the aims of Catherine De Vries, full professor at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, who has just been appointed Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, a new position within the Rectoral Committee that will support Gianmario Verona in his third mandate.
 
A native of the Netherlands, she worked for almost ten years in the UK (Oxford University and University of Essex) until 2018, when she became Westerdijk Chair & Professor Political Behaviour at the Europe at Vrije Universitieit Amsterdam. In January she joined Bocconi’s Department of Social and Political Sciences, teaching European Politics and Public Opinion and Media and continuing her research work.
 
“My work focuses on European politics and the challenges facing the European continent, such as Eurosceptism, populism, political fragmentation and questions surrounding migration, such as remittances,” she explains. In June she published a book on political entrepreneurs, “who shake up politics, driving a wedge in the traditional left-right divide”, and at the end of last year she was awarded an ERC Grant for her research project LOSS (Narratives of Loss: Unravelling the Origins of Support for Socially Conservative Political Agendas) investigating the link between economic hardship and support for far-right parties.
 
“And the European angle was an important factor in choosing Bocconi. It is a great place for studying the EU with some great academics working on the topic. And generally it is a very open academic environment which strives for excellence,” she says. Though her integration in Bocconi and Milan was impacted hard by the COVID19 emergency. “Six weeks after my arrival we went into lockdown. But in times of crisis you really get to know the heart of a community and I have to say I had great support and generosity from my Bocconi colleagues and and also from people in Milan generally. A difficult but also beautiful introduction.”
 
And now the new role as Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, born also from her experience as Chair of the Diversity Committee of the European Political Science Association [EPSA) which she holds since 2018. “I have been working on increasing diversity and inclusion in the agenda of the association and its members, both in their professional experience and their academic work. The topic is close to my heart, becoming professor at Oxford aged 33 when there were not many women in such positions, and I want to give something back to the academic community, helping to make diversity and inclusion become core principles.”
 
“I believe that integrating different backgrounds and viewpoints is vital as a driver for innovation, especially in these challenging times when we need to review so many aspects of our economy, society and environment. Times in which, for example, we have to review what access minority groups have to the health system, what access underprivileged children have to a distance learning schooling system,” she says.
 
A belief that will be integral in her approach to her new role. “We want to build a campus which leverages different backgrounds to create innovation and cultivate excellence and which can help society at large. Where diversity and inclusion are not just words, but core principles. Bocconi has already done so much in being so open to international students, promoting social mobility and fostering a faculty of different backgrounds and we want to build further on this.”

by Tomaso Eridani

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