2011 William Anderson Award

The William Anderson Award is given for the best dissertation completed and accepted during the past two calendar years in the area of intergovernmental relations, federalism, state, or local politics.

Award Committee: Barbara Norrander, Chair, University of Arizona; Lilliard E. Richardson, Jr., University of Missouri, Columbia; and Frank J. Thompson, Rutgers Center for State Health Policy

Recipient: Michael Callaghan Pisapia, Elizabethtown College

Dissertation Title: "Public Education and the Role of Women in American Political Development, 1852-1979"

Citation: The members (Barbara Norrander, Lilliard Richardson, Frank Thompson) of the William Andersen Award Committee have selected Michael Callaghan Pisapia as the 2011 winner. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the direction of John Coleman (chair), Benjamin Marquez, John White, Howard Schweber and William Reese.

Professor Pisapia's dissertation, "Public Education and the Role of Women in American Political Development, 1852-1979," traces the increasingly inter-governmental structure of American public education as the state and federal governments moved into the traditional territory of local entities. Pisapia further demonstrates how through their increasing role in education state governments expanded their fiscal and administrative authority. He also shows how women found dramatically greater opportunities for civic and political involvement in the public debates over education reform and in its implementation. Pisapia draws on variety of data sources and analytic techniques. He adroitly blends historical and quantitative methods and his arguments always include a depiction of variations across regions and states. Thus, Pisapia's has written a theoretically rich, analytically sound dissertation that casts new light on the interaction between all three levels of the federal system and the role of women in American political development.