Professor Donatella Alessandrini has been awarded the 2018 Graduate School Prize for School Director of Graduate Studies.
The award, made by Kent’s Graduate School Prizes Panel, recognises Professor Alessandrini’s work in creating a supportive, stimulating and inspirational research environment for doctoral students at the Law School. She will be presented with her £500 prize at a launch event for the University’s Postgraduate Festival on Monday 18 June.
In making their award, the prize panel praised Professor Alessandrini for her “considerable contribution” to postgraduate education and research. The panel proposes to nominate her for the Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Research Degree Supervisor in 2018 and will invite her to share her expertise with other academic staff members as part of supervisor development activities within the University.
Head of Kent Law School Professor Toni Williams said: ‘We’re delighted to see Donatella’s outstanding work in leading and developing postgraduate research recognised in this way. Donatella has created new opportunities for research students to network with colleagues around the world and has enhanced student and supervisor training in ways that have greatly improved the overall postgraduate research student experience at Kent Law School.”
Professor Alessandrini is Co-Director of Postgraduate Research at Kent Law School. She is also Co-Director of the Social Critiques of Law Centre (SoCriL).
Professor Alessandrini’s research interests lie at the intersection of law and political economy, with a particular interest in development studies, critical trade and development literature, feminist political economy and political theory. Her book, Value Making in International Economic Law and Regulation (Routledge, 2016) was shortlisted for the Hart-Socio-Legal Book Prize in 2017. Her most recent book, Law and Development: A Connected Approach, is co-authored with Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris and Professor Kate Bedford (Birmingham) and is published by Bloomsbury.