Call for submissions: 2026 GLOBALCIT – Rainer Bauböck Essay Award

GLOBALCIT, the Global Citizenship Observatory at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute, is soliciting submissions for the “GLOBALCIT – Rainer Bauböck Essay Award on the Global State of Citizenship”, by recent graduates with a master’s or equivalent degree, current doctoral researchers, or those within 3 years after the award of the doctorate. Early-career scholars from any academic discipline are invited to participate in the competition. Anyone currently contracted by GLOBALCIT, or who has been so in the last five years, is excluded from participation. Essays must be single-authored. 

Each year, the prize committee asks a question that the essays should try to answer. The question for the 2026 competition is: 

“How will Artificial Intelligence transform membership, rights and practices of citizenship?” 

Essays should address the impact of AI on human citizenship – not (primarily) the question of whether AI-enhanced robots might have a claim to citizenship status and rights. We invite authors to explore how both domestic and international aspects of citizenship might be affected by the future evolution and dissemination of AI. 

The selected essay will be published on the GLOBALCIT website and in the EUI’s research repository Cadmus, and will be disseminated through the EUI’s communication channels. The author of the best essay will receive a prize of 1,000 euros. 

Essays should be submitted online until 31 March 2026 at 23:59 CEST to globalcit@eui.eu. 

For more details, go to: https://globalcit.eu/2026-rainer-baubock-essay-award-on-the-global-state-of-citizenship/.