Congratulations Dr Gaio!!

Congratulations to our colleague Ana Gaio who, in her ‘spare time’ whilst she has been running the MA in CPM, has been toiling away in the Brussels archives researching her PhD thesis. On Friday 17^th July she successfully defended her thesis, entitled “Policy formation in the European Community – the case of culture”. The examiners were Prof Jeremy Ahearne (Warwick) and Prof Franco Bianchini (Leeds Beckett).

Ana’s thesis investigates the origin and development of EC cultural policy through four case studies of policy formation. The four cases selected occurred in the pre-Maastricht period, 1955-1988. The first two policy experiences correspond to a pre-history of the EC´s cultural policy, the latter two resulted in authoritative policy decisions by EC institutions. The research objectives include historical understanding of this policy experience and an examination of the process of European policy formation. It draws upon archive material from the Historical Archives of the European Union.