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APSA Awards Program: Recognizing the Merit of our Peers

One of the many important roles of the American Political Science Association (APSA) is recognizing excellence in the political science profession.  APSA makes awards for the best dissertations, papers and articles, and books in the various subfields, and for career achievement in research, teaching and service to the discipline.  APSA awards and prizes honor the work of scholars who make outstanding contributions to political science research, teaching, and service. Award nomination submissions are closed for 2024.

Each APSA Award will be presented at the APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition. This year’s awardees will be honored at the 2024 APSA Awards Reception in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the 2024 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition. If you have additional questions, please contact awards@apsanet.org.

About APSA Awards

APSA Community College Faculty Award for made exemplary contributions to advance the multi-faceted goals of community college faculty.

APSA Distinguished Teaching Award for outstanding contributions to undergraduate and/or graduate teaching of political science at a two- or four-year institution.

Frank J. Goodnow Award for distinguished service to the profession and the Association, not necessarily a career of scholarship.

John Gaus Award for a lifetime of exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.

Hubert H. Humphrey Award for notable public service by a political scientist.

Carey McWilliams Award for major journalistic contributions to our understanding of politics.

James Madison Award for an American political scientist who has made a distinguished scholarly contribution to political science.

Charles Merriam Award for an individual whose published work and career represent a significant contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research.

Ithiel de Sola Pool Award for a scholar exploring the implications of research on issues of politics in a broad range of scholarship pursued by Ithiel de Sola Pool.

Barbara Sinclair Lecture commemorates the life and scholarship of renowned scholar of legislative politics, Barbara Sinclair.

Hanes Walton, Jr. Career Award for a political scientist whose lifetime of distinguished scholarship that has made significant contributions to our understanding of racial and ethnic politics and illuminates the conditions under which diversity and intergroup tolerance thrive in democratic societies.

Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of comparative politics.

William Anderson Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the general field of federalism or intergovernmental relations, state and local politics.

Edward S. Corwin Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public law.

Harold D. Lasswell Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public politics.

Merze Tate Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of international relations, law and politics.

E.E. Schattschneider Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of American government.

Kenneth Sherrill Prize for the best doctoral dissertation proposal for an empirical study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) topics in political science.

Leo Strauss Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of political philosophy.

Leonard D. White Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public administration.

Merze Tate – Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

Beginning in 2023, APSA will present the Merze Tate–Elinor Ostrom Outstanding Book Award in lieu of the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award. In 2020, the APSA Council approved changing the name of the Wilson Award as well as the creation of an ad-hoc committee to determine the new name. The award criteria will remain the same – honoring the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.
 

Ralph J. Bunche Award for the best book on ethnic and cultural pluralism.

Gladys M. Kammerer Award for the best book in the field of U.S. national policy.

Benjamin E. Lippincott Award for exceptional work by a living political theorist that is still considered significant after a time span of at least 15 years since the original publication.

APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award for the author of a first book in any field of political science that shows promise of having a substantive impact on the discipline, regardless of method, specific focus of inquiry or approach to subject.

Victoria Schuck Award for the best book on women and politics.

Franklin L. Burdette/Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the APSA Annual Meeting.

APSA Best Poster Award for the best poster presented at the APSA Annual Meeting.

Heinz I. Eulau Award for the best articles published in Perspectives on Politics and American Political Science Review.

APSA Distinguished Award for Civic and Community Engagement for significant civic or community engagement activity by a political scientist, alone or in collaboration with others, which explicitly merges knowledge and practice and has an impact outside of the profession or the academy.

Robert A. Dahl Award for an untenured scholar who has produced scholarship of the highest quality on the subject of democracy. (Scholarship eligible for the Dahl Award includes books, papers, reports, and articles.)

The APSA-PSA International Partnerships Award honors political scientists engaged in collaborative and productive cross-national partnerships that make a significant contribution to the discipline in the areas of teaching, research, or civic engagement. The award carries a cash prize of £2,000, funded jointly by the American Political Science Association (APSA) & the Political Studies Association (PSA) of the United Kingdom.

Michael Brintnall Teaching & Learning Award supports attendance at the conference.

APSA Award for Teaching Innovation for a political scientist who has developed an effective new approach to teaching in the discipline.

List of APSA Awards

Please Note: APSA Organized Sections also present annual awards. These are separate from the APSA Awards listed above. If you do not see a particular award, it may be administered by an Organized Section. Please check with your section or contact membership@apsanet.org.