Julian Vierlinger, Class of 2020

>Can you tell us about your academic background?

My studies at Sciences Po began in Menton, on the university’s Middle East-Mediterranean Campus. My time on the campus was very formative, and confirmed by my ambition of studying political and social shifts in the Middle East. For my third year abroad, I chose to do an academic exchange with the American University of Beirut so as to gain a deeper knowledge of the region, both as a student and a junior researcher at the "Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship" . While there, I worked on a research project exploring the social dynamics surrounding Syrian migration to Lebanon.
I became fascinated by issues like corruption, anti-corruption and people’s movements for “clean government”. So after that I chose to continue my research by enrolling in the Master in Political Sciences at the School of Research, with a master’s thesis looking at “The Politics of Corruption: Lebanon’s Quest for Public Institutions”, brilliantly supervised by Astrid von Busekist and Stèphane Lacroix. I was honoured to present this thesis at the 2021 Conference of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
I am now completing a PhD at the European University Institute in Florence, supervised by Professor Miriam Golden. For that, I am blending different research methods to study dynamics surrounding corruption, clientelism and programmatic contestation in Lebanon. In parallel to my research, I teach political theory on the Menton Campus and work on various research projects, from Stanford University to the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

What are your memories of Sciences Po?

Sciences Po taught me to think, work and, above all, to keep an open mind and seek answers in fields that are not, strictly speaking, my own. In other words, Sciences Po taught me to be intellectually courageous and curious.
Of course, those aren’t my only memories. I loved being immersed in the multitude of activities that students at Sciences Po can get involved in: from rugby to fencing, music to dance, cookery courses to gardening. I’ve always had trouble focusing on a single pastime; I always want to try everything. At Sciences Po, I was able to…
My most cherished memories are of the friends I made, many of whom are still in my life today. It might be cliché, but at Sciences Po, I discovered a family and a sense of belonging.

Why did you choose to enrol in a PhD?

You should never ask PhD candidates why they chose to do a PhD! For the good of their mental health…
Joking aside, my decision to enrol in doctoral study was the result of an awareness that I have not yet found all the answers I was looking for. I don’t know if I want to become a researcher, or if I will move into different work in future, but I do know that for my current research, I still need to think, dig, investigate. Perhaps that is what Weber called “science as vocation”. If, in my case, that vocation turns out to be temporary, so be it; but for the moment, I know that I need to continue on this path.

Julian Vierlinger was our honorary graduate at the Graduation Ceremony for the Class of 2020 (postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic) on 16 September 2022. Read his speech

Learn more

• About Master’s in Political Science, Programme in Political Theory

=> See all the Graduates' Portraits

[ October 2022 ]