Several PhD candidates from CRIS are reaching the end of their studies in Fall 2025. Their dissertation topics illustrate the diversity of approaches and methods used within the center to analyze social inequalities.

• Camille Gillet, Defense on October 13th, 2025 at Sciences Po.
  Governing Gender Equality in Higher Education Institutions: Origines and Implementation of a Public policy 
  Jury: Jérôme AUST (Sciences Po - CSO), Laure BERENI (CNRS-CMH), Sophie JACQUOT (UCLouvain), Christine MUSSELIN (Sciences Po - CSO), Anne Revillard (Sciences Po-CRIS & LIEPP, Supervisor), Elise VERLEY (Sorbonne Université - GEMASS).

In academia, the institutionalization of women’s issues generally refers to the institutionalization of gender studies as a legitimate area of research and the development of
courses on the subject. Howover this focus on research and teaching masks another related movement: the emergence of gender equality policies in the shape of “equality units.” Since 2013, French public higher education instiitutions have been required to appoint dedicated officers to oversee and implement local gender equality policies. These equality units have a cross-cutter role in combating gender based and sexual violence, promoting Professional equality, providing training and awareness-raising activities of these issues.

This thesis therefore proposes to open up the “black box” of the integrating a gender perspective into the governance of French higher education institutions. It does so using theoretical tools of the sociology of public action, social movements, universities studies, and gender. This thésis demonstrates how this particular public policy—the struggle against gender inequalities in universities — is caught between the desire to act on belhalf of women in academia and a set of constraints specific to university institutions marked by successive reforms. Based on interview survey, the analysis of a prosopographic database, and a study of French universities’ gender equality plans, this thesis contributes to the sociology of gender equality policies, while presenting an analysis of the effects of neoliberal university transformations on the challenges of the fight for gender equality.
 

• Laudine Carbuccia, Defense on November 4th, 2025 at Sciences Po. 
  Determinants of the Socioeconomic Gap in Early Childcare Access in France: A Multi-Level, Integrative Approach
  Jury: Carlo Barone (Sciences Po - CRIS, co-supervisor), Lawrence Berger (University of Wisconsin–Madison), Coralie Chevallier (INSERM / ENS-PSL, co-supervisor), Orla Doyle (University College Dublin), Daniel Nettle (CNRS / ENS-PSL), Lidia Panico (Sciences Po - CRIS), Michel Vandenbroeck (Ghent University), Wim Van Lancker (KU Leuven).

This dissertation analyzes the underlying factors behind inequalities in access to childcare (e.g., daycare). It begins with a paradox: despite a relatively available and affordable supply, France remains one of the OECD countries with the most pronounced access disparities by family socioeconomic background. 

Using an interdisciplinary and mixed-methods approach —including a systematic review of the international literature, 207 semi-structured interviews, a randomized controlled trial with 1,859 households, 52 hours of direct observation, decomposition techniques, and machine learning— it traces the mechanisms at the micro- and meso-levels that generate macro-level patterns of inequality. 

The findings reveal that the childcare system itself creates informational, administrative, and symbolic barriers that prevent vulnerable families from securing a place. While the large-scale randomized experiment shows that personalized support can help equalize the application process, it does not reduce overall inequalities in access. A realist evaluation highlights why: support reduces cognitive load and improves families’ knowledge, but an oversaturated and inadequate supply—combined with allocation criteria—continues to disadvantage vulnerable households. 

Overall, this research demonstrates that supporting applications among vulnerable families is necessary but insufficient without simultaneous supply-side reforms, such as expanding capacity, simplifying access pathways, reducing administrative burdens, and revising allocation procedures. 
Beyond childcare, it illustrates how services designed to promote equality can inadvertently reinforce stratification if their implementation does not align with the resources available to the most vulnerable populations.
 

• Andrew Zola, Defense on November 28th, 2025 at Sciences Po.  
  Public Opinion in the Political Economy of Welfare State Change: Crisis, Continuity, and Common Sense
  Jury: Emanuele Ferragina (Sciences Po - CRIS & LIEPP, Supervisor), Jane Gingrich (University of Oxford), Maria Grasso (Queen Mary, University of London), Colin HAY (Sciences Po - CEE & LIEPP), Staffan Kumlin (University of Oslo).

This thesis develops a novel perspective on welfare attitudes as a reflection of the public’s “common sense,” that is, the shared, taken-for-granted beliefs that are embedded in the political economy context. It examines attitudes longitudinally, both across generations for insight into long-run shifts and over the COVID-19 pandemic, to understand how the political economy forces that shape welfare state change may also condition individuals’ expectations of the welfare state and those who rely on it. 

Analyses are conducted on seven data sources, cover 30 countries, and introduce age-period-cohort methodologies to the social policy literature. Taken together, the findings reveal that across countries, there has been a generational realignment towards employment-oriented welfare expectations, a decline in solidarity towards certain beneficiary groups, and evidence that even severe moments of crisis do not divert public opinion away from this trajectory in the short term.

 The thesis contributes to social policy literature by offering a conceptual framework that bridges analyses of individual attitudes and macro-level debates of welfare state transformation. It demonstrates how public opinion can legitimize social policy adaptation to the fiscal constraints brought on by the postindustrial transition.

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