Antonian receives Colin Bell Award 2026

Prof Dr Cristina Blanco Sío-López (Santander Senior Fellow, Iberian and European Studies, 2017), has received the 2026 Colin Bell Award in Contemporary History. The award is given by Churchill College and the Churchill Archives Centre at the University of Cambridge.

Blanco Sío-López is a Tenured Associate Professor in Sociology and History at the University of La Coruña (UDC), Spain. She specialises in contemporary European history and the European integration process. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, an Affiliate at Cambridge Digital Humanities and a Life Member at Clare Hall, University of Cambridge. In 2024, she received the María Moliner Spanish National Research Award in the Humanities.

The Colin Bell Award recognises outstanding original research in contemporary history. Blanco Sío-López has been honoured for her project, ‘Factors of sustainable peace: art informing policy-making in European integration and cooperation from the interwar period to the present’. Her research draws on the Philip Noel-Baker papers at the Churchill Archives Centre, particularly collections relating to ‘Peace and Disarmament, 1908–1980’, as well as wider debates on peace, science, education and human rights across the 20th century.

Her work explores how artistic and cultural practices have contributed to policy-making and processes of European integration. By identifying ‘factors of sustainable peace’, she proposes new ways of understanding peace-building beyond traditional strategic and geopolitical approaches, using historical analysis to inform contemporary policy debate.

The College warmly congratulates Prof Dr Cristina Blanco Sío-López on this achievement.