New book publications

In the past months, four new books have been published, based on USIAS Fellowship research projects:

• Nicolas Beaupré - In times of war (1914-1918) (Presses universitaires de France, 2023) - in French
• David Pritchard - The funeral oration in Athens: after Nicole Loraux (Cambridge University Press, 2024)
• Élisabeth Lambert - Taking the right to healthy and sustainable food seriously (Peter Lang, 2024) - in French
• Petros Stangos - The making of European social jurisprudence (Larcier-Intersentia, 2024) - in French

In times of war (1914-1918) – Nicolas Beaupré

In October 2023, In times of war (1914-1918) by Nicolas Beaupré (2015 USIAS Fellow, now at ENSSIB/University of Lyon) was released by Presses universitaires de France. Against a backdrop of renewed interest in historicity and temporality, Nicolas Beaupré offers an original re-reading of the experiences of the First World War through the prism of time. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the book examines the experiences of time and their perception, representation and narration. It looks at the upheaval in the way in which social actors experience cyclical time (alternation of day and night, calendar time), linear time (articulation between past and present and projections into the future) and, more broadly, history. The foundation of the content for this book was developed during his USIAS Fellowship in 2015-2016. 

The Athenian Funeral Oration: After Nicole Loraux - David Pritchard

In January 2024, the volume The Athenian Funeral Oration: After Nicole Loraux, edited by David Pritchard (2017 USIAS Fellow), was published by Cambridge University Press.

In classical Athens, a funeral speech was delivered for dead combatants almost every year. The seminal book The Invention of Athens (1981) by Nicole Loraux showed how each speech helped Athenians to maintain the same self-identity for two centuries. This new book brings together top-ranked experts to answer the important questions about the numerous surviving funeral speeches that were still open, showing that these had a much greater political impact than previously thought, putting the study of war in Athenian culture on a completely new footing. David Pritchard is professor of Greek history at the University of Queensland, Australia and organised a conference on the Athenian funeral oration during his USIAS project.

The right to healthy and sustainable food - Élisabeth Lambert

In April 2024, the new book of Élisabeth Lambert (2020 USIAS Fellow and CNRS research director at Nantes University, France), entitled Taking the right to healthy and sustainable food seriously: A comparative analysis of contemporary history and legal prospects (Peter Lang) was published. The book offers a socio-political and legal analysis of recent attempts in European countries to recognise the right to healthy and sustainable food. The theoretical framework is based on the fundamental rights approach, which enables individuals to assert positive and/or negative obligations in this area against States and private players, and which helps to renew the thinking on this subject. A substantial part of the work for the book was done in the context of the USIAS Fellowship.

Élisabeth Lambert is also leading a large project that kicked off in April 2024: ComMEATted - Committed to the responsible development of meat replacement products and practices: comparing multidimensional barriers and potentials in European countries [JPI HDHL "FOODRETEC"] that will examine possible paths for a dietary transition towards reduced meat consumption, from an interdisciplinary perspective and across five countries (France, Ireland, Norway, Austria, Romania).

The Making of European Social Jurisprudence – Petros Stangos

Spring 2024 saw the publication of a volume by Petros Stangos (2020 USIAS Fellow), entitled The Making of European Social Jurisprudence: Decisions on Collective Complaints by the European Committee of Social Rights (Larcier-Intersentia). Petros Stangos is emeritus professor in Law at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, and a former vice-president of the European Committee of Social Rights (ECSR). In Europe, national legal systems treat social rights as the 'poor relations' of civil and political rights, facing many more obstacles. The book documents how the ECSR, the transnational body responsible for applying the European Social Charter, has worked to overcome this. The ECSR has managed to make the Charter not only a living instrument which helps ensuring the autonomy of the individual in the social sphere, but also a means of enabling States to take politically legitimate decisions on social policy and industrial relations.

The book, which was the direct result of the USIAS project of Professor Stangos, was presented at the Council of Europe in a special launch event on 14 May 2024.