João Espada
Subject studied: DPhil Social Studies, Politics
Matriculation year: 1990
Location: Portugal
João Carlos Espada is Professor and co-founder (1996) of the Institute for Political Studies at the Catholic University of Portugal, where he is University professor of Political Studies. He was previously a tenured Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon. He earned his D.Phil from the University of Oxford, under the supervision of [Lord] Ralf Dahrendorf (1990-1994), and he taught at Brown (1994-95), Stanford (1996) and Georgetown (2000) Universities in the US. From January 2011 to December 2013, he held the European Parliament/Bronislaw Geremek European Civilisation Chair at the College of Europe, campus of Natolin (Warsaw). He is the editor of the quarterly journal Nova Cidadania and president of the Portuguese section of the International Churchill Society. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Democracy. He has authored ten books and edited another ten in political theory, all in Portuguese and several in English. His latest book is The Anglo-American Tradition of Liberty: A view from Europe (Routledge, 2016; paperback edition in 2018; Hungarian translation in 2017; Brazilian edition in 2019). He has contributed regular opinion columns to the Portuguese press since 1985, presently having a weekly column at the daily digital newspaper Observador. He was political adviser to two Presidents of the Portuguese Republic, President Mário Soares (1986-1990) and President Aníbal Cavaco Silva (2006-2011). He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, of the Marine Academy and of the International Academy of Portuguese Culture, as well as of the British Historical Society of Portugal. He was (the second) President of the Portuguese Political Science Association (2002-2006). He received three awards from the Republic of Poland: The Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit, awarded by the President of the Republic (2015); The Bene Merito Distinction, awarded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2012) and The Medal of Gratitude, awarded by the European Solidarity Centre, based at Gdansk. In 1996, he was awarded the title of “Grande Oficial da Ordem do Mérito” by the President of the Republic of Portugal, Mr. Mário Soares. In 2018, he was awarded a Honorary OBE (Honorary Officer of the Civil Division of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) by HM the Queen Elizabeth the Second, in recognition of services to UK/Portugal bilateral relations.