Professor Donatella Della Porta from Scuola Normale Superiore and director of the Cosmos Lab is the winner of the 2024 edition of the ‘John D. McCarthy Award’, a lifetime achievement award presented by the Center for the Study of Social Movements at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. The award will be presented during a conference at the US university, and was given ‘for Professor della Porta’s influential career and her continuing and invaluable contribution to social movements research’.

The Centre for the Study of Social Movements (CSSM) brings together faculty and graduate students from the University of Notre Dame, and is dedicated to promoting understanding of social movements and social change. It organizes a number of international events each year, including the selection and celebration of the John D. McCarthy Lifetime Achievement Award, now in its 15th year, dedicated to the American sociologist John D. McCarthy as one of the greatest living experts on social movements. Previous winners include scholars such as Doug McAdam, Verta Taylor and Sidney Tarrow. Della Porta is the first Italian to receive it. The Centre is directed by Professor Rory M. McVeigh.

The John D. McCarthy Award ceremony will take place as part of a three-day Young Scholars in Social Movements conference, 17-19 October 2024.

Professor Donatella Della Porta is Professor of Political Science in the Political-Social Science Class of Florence, Director of the PhD programme in Political Science and Sociology and Director of Cosmos, Centre for Research on Social Movements. She has numerous publications to her credit including, as author or editor, 90 books, 150 journal articles and 150 contributions in edited volumes.