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Ralph J. Bunche Award 

Nominations for the 2024 APSA Awards have closed.


The Bunche Award honors the best book in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism. 

The award is presented at the APSA Annual Meeting and carries a cash prize of $1,000.

Nomination Information

  • Eligibility: Nominees do not have to be members of APSA, affiliated with an institution in the United States, or an American citizen in order to be considered for an award.  It is not compulsory that authors be political scientists.

    Books must have been published in the previous calendar year to be eligible for the current awards cycle (books for a 2024 award must be published in 2023). Many books contain both a publication date and a copyright date, and these may differ. Eligibility is determined by the earlier of these dates that is printed with the publication information at the front of the book. Edited books are ineligible for nomination.

  • Individuals: Please contact the publisher and ask for either an eBook to submit via the online application portal or to have a physical copy of the nominated book mailed directly to each award committee member.

    Self-nominations are accepted.  If you nominate yourself for a book award, you assume responsibility for contacting your publisher and having copies of your book sent to the award committee either virtually or via mail.

  • Publishers: Please submit your nomination online through the APSA application portal.  You have the option to either submit an eBook via the portal or mail a hard copy of the nominated book directly to each member of the award committee.

Ralph J. Bunche Award Committee


Dr. Niambi M. Carter
University of Maryland
niambicarter@gmail.com

Dr. Lauren D. Davenport
Stanford University
ldd@stanford.edu

Jeremy Ferwerda
Dartmouth College
jeremy.a.ferwerda@dartmouth.edu

Dr. Noora Anwar Lori
Boston University
nooralori@gmail.com


Year Recipient Title Affiliation

2023

Sally A. Nuamah

Closed for Democracy: How Mass School Closure Undermines the Citizenship of Black Americans

Northwestern University

2022

Nadia E. Brown and Danielle Casarez Lemi

Mark Fathi Massoud

Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Elites

Shari’a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics

Georgetown University, Southern Methodist University, University of California, Santa Cruz

2021

LaFleur Stephens-Dougan

Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics

University of Chicago Press

2020 Davin Phoenix

The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics

Cambridge University Press
2019 Michael G. Hanchard

The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy

Princeton University Press
2018 Juliet Hooker

Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos

Brown University
2018 Chris Zepeda-Millán

Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism

University of California
2017 Vaughn Raspberry

Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination

Harvard University Press
2016 Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal

White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics

Oxford University Press
2015 Megan Ming Francis

Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State

Cambridge University Press
2014 Tracie Burch

Trading Democracy for Justice: Criminal Convictions and the Decline of Neighborhood Political Participation

University of Chicago Press
2014 Natalie Masuoka and Jane Junn

The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion, and Immigration

University of Chicago Press
2013 Otto Santa Ana

Juan in a Hundred: Representations of Latinos on the Network News

University of Texas Press
2013 Lisa Garcia Bedolla and Melissa Michelson

Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the Vote Campaigns

Yale University Press
2012 Charlton D. Mcllwain and Stephen M. Caliendo

Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns

Temple University Press
2011 Cristina Beltrán

The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity

Oxford University Press
2010 Christopher S. Parker

Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South

Princeton University Press
2009 Richard Iton

In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era

Oxford University Press
2009 Julie Novkov

Racial Union: Law, Intimacy, and the White State in Alabama

University of Michigan Press
2008 Sarah Song

Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism

Cambridge University Press
2008 Victoria Hattam

In The Shadow of Race: Jews, Latinos, and Immigrant Politics in the United States

University of Chicago Press
2007 Fredrick C. Harris, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, and Brian D. McKenzie

Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994

Cambridge University Press
2007 Mark Q. Sawyer

Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba

Cambridge University Press
2006 Lisa Garcia Bedolla

Fluid Borders: Latino Power, Identity, and Politics in Los Angeles

University of California Press
2005 Richard M. Valelly

The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement

University of Chicago Press
2005 Seyla Benhabib

The Rights of Others

Cambridge University Press
2004 Robert O. Self

American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oklahoma

Princeton University Press
2003 Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza

Black Pride and Black Prejudice

Princeton University Press
2002 Michael Dawson

Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies

University of Chicago Press
2001 Claire Jean Kim

Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City

Yale University Press
2000 J. Morgan Kousser

Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction

University of North Carolina Press
2000 Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup

The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention

M.E. Sharpe
1999 Anthony W. Marx

Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States, South Africa, and Brazil

Cambridge University Press
1999 Matthew F. Jacobson

Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race

Harvard University Press
1998 Rogers M. Smith

Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History

Yale University Press
1997 Amy Gutmann and K. Anthony Appiah

Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race

Princeton University Press
1996 Will Kymlicka

Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights

Oxford University Press
1995 William H. Tucker

The Science and Politics of Racial Research

University of Illinois Press
1994 Raphael J. Sonenshein

Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles

Princeton University Press
1993 Rodney E. Hero

Latinos and the U.S. Political System: Two-tiered Pluralism

Temple University Press
1992 Donald L. Horowitz

A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society

University of California Press
1991 Frank R. Parker

Black Votes Count

University of North Carolina Press
1990 Clarence N. Stone

Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988

University Press of Kansas
1989 Ronald Walters

Black Presidential Politics

State University of New York Press
1988 Earl and Merel Black

Politics and Society in the South

Harvard University Press
1987 D. Garth Taylor

Public Opinion and Collective Action: The Boston School Desegregation Conflict

University of Chicago Press
1987 Rasma Karklins

Ethnic Relations in the USSR: The Perspective from Below

Allen & Unwin
1986 Paul R. Dimond

Beyond Busing: Inside the Challenge to Urban Segregation

University of Michigan Press
1985 Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb

Protest Is Not Enough: The Struggle of Blacks and Hispanics for Equality in Urban Politics

University of California Press
1984 Mark Naison

Communists in Harlem During the Depression

University of Illinois Press
1983 John A. Armstrong

Nations Before Nationalism

University of North Carolina Press
1983 Orlando Patterson

Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study

Harvard University Press
1982 No award given

1981 Marguerite Ross Barnett

The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India

Princeton University Press
1980 Mario Barrera

Race and Class in the Southwest: A Theory of Racial Inequality

University of Notre Dame Press
1979 Arend Lijphart

Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Approach

Yale University Press
1979 M. Crawford Young

The Politics of Cultural Pluralism

University of Wisconsin Press
1978 Irving Howe

World of Our Fathers

Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich