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APSA Awards Program

Recognizing the Merit of our Peers

APSA awards and prizes honor the work of scholars who make outstanding contributions to political science research, teaching, and service.    

Submit Nominations for 2021


Awards Ceremony

During the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting, distinguished awardees were honored at the Awards Ceremony hosted by APSA President Janet M. Box-Steffensmeier.  Congratulations to the 2020 APSA Award and Prize recipients! 



More information on APSA Awards is available in the sections below. If you have additional questions, please contact [email protected]

 

Please note: APSA Organized Sections also present annual awards. These are separate from the APSA Awards listed below. If you do not see a particular award, it may be administered by an Organized Section. Please check with your section or contact [email protected]



Common Questions

  • When does the award nomination cycle open and close? APSA typically opens nominations for all annual meeting awards in November and closes the submission forms in February. Award recipients usually receive notification in the summer. Award applications for the biennial APSA Teaching and Learning Conference typically open in September and close in November.
  • I am having trouble logging into the submission site. What should I do? Please confirm that you have entered the username and password associated with your apsanet.org website account. If you have forgotten your password or need to register for a free account, please go to apsanet.org/Sign-In.
  • Can I start a nomination and come back to it at a later date to finish it? Yes, once a nomination has been started, it can be saved and edited as many times as needed. Once it is complete, simply click on the Save and Finalize button to officially release the nomination.
  • Can I nominate myself for an APSA award? Yes, you can submit a nomination for yourself.  If you nominate yourself for a book award, you assume responsibility for contacting your publisher and having copies of your book sent to the relevant award committee.
  • Do I need an APSA membership to submit a nomination or to receive an award? You do not need to be a member of APSA to submit a nomination or receive an award.
  • Do I have to be associated with an institution based in the United States to be eligible for an APSA Award? No, individuals at any institution from around the world are eligible for an APSA Award.
  • Do I have to be an American citizen in order to be eligible for an APSA Award? No, you do not need to be an American citizen to be eligible for an APSA Award.
  • Do I have to be a political scientist in order to be eligible for an APSA Award? This depends on the award.  Since 2014, journalists and scholars from cognate disciplines have been selected as recipients for APSA book awards.
  • Can I nominate myself for multiple APSA awards in a given year? Yes, you can submit a nomination for yourself for more than one APSA Award, although it is uncommon for any work to receive more than one award in a year.
  • If this is my first book about political science, but not the first book I have published, is it eligible for the APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi Award? No, for a book to be eligible for the Lowi Award, it must be the first book that you have ever published.
  • Is my book eligible for an APSA Award this year? Books must have been published within the previous calendar year to be eligible for the current awards cycle (books for a 2021 award must be published in 2020). 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.
  • Is my dissertation eligible for an APSA Award this year? Dissertations must have been successfully defended within the previous two calendar years to be eligible for the current awards cycle (dissertations for a 2021 award must be defended in 2020 or 2019).
  • How many dissertations will be accepted each year per school or political science department? APSA will accept up to two nominations for the Anderson, Corwin, Lasswell, and White awards. APSA will accept one nomination for the Almond, Strauss, Schattschneider, and Tate awards. Nominations from non-PhD departments and institutions are also welcome if the nominee is currently employed there.

Career 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.

Book Awards

  • APSA Best Book Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

    In 2021, APSA will present the APSA Best 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.
  • Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs.

Proposal and Dissertation Awards

  • 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.

Paper, Poster and Article Awards

Special Eligibility and Multi-Category Awards

  • 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.)

APSA Teaching and Learning Conference Awards