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APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award 

 

 Nominations for the 2024 APSA Awards have now closed.



The Lowi Award honors the author of a first book in any field of political science that exemplifies qualities of broad ambition, high originality, and intellectual daring, showing promise of having a substantive impact on the overall discipline, regardless of method, specific focus of inquiry or approach to subject.

Throughout a prolific and influential career, Lowi developed new understandings of the relationship of public policy to politics, the influence of institutional arrangements to the exercise of power, the role of ideology in the development of political parties, the relationship of democracy to law, the relevance of concept analysis for theory building, and more.  The award carries a cash prize of $750.  APSA and IPSA fund the award in alternating years.  


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 the 2024 award must have been 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.

    Books should be single-author works to be eligible for the Lowi Award. For a book to be eligible for the Lowi Award, it must be the first book ever published by the author. If the book is the author’s first book about political science, but not the first book every published, it is not eligible.

  • Individuals: Please contact the publisher and ask to have a copy of the nominated book either be uploaded as an e-book in the application or 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 uploading the e-book or having copies of your book sent to the award committee.




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  • Publishers: After completing and submitting your nomination online through the APSA application portal, please mail a copy of the nominated book directly to each member of the award committee if you are not providing an e-book in the application. 

 

 

 

Theodore J. Lowi Award Committee


Dr. Irasema Coronado
Arizona State University
irasema.coronado@asu.edu

Henry Farrell
Johns Hopkins University
henry@henryfarrell.net

Serge Granger
Université de Sherbrooke
serge.granger@usherbrooke.ca

Dr Nazita Lajevardi
Michigan State University
nazita@msu.edu

Dr. A. Maurits van der Veen
College of William & Mary
maurits@wm.edu


Year Recipient Title Publisher
2023 Fiona Shen-Bayh Undue Process: Persecution and Punishment in Autocratic Courts The College of William and Mary
2022 Christian Dyogi Phillips Nowhere to Run: Race, Gender, and Immigration in American Elections University of Southern California
2021 Simukai Chigudu The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe Cambridge University Press
2020 Rachel Augustine Potter Bending the Rules: Procedural Politicking in the Bureaucracy University of Chicago Press
2019 Stephanie J. Rickard Spending to Win: Political Institutions, Economic Geography, and Government Subsidies Cambridge University Press
2018 Margaret Peters Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization Princeton University Press
2017 Dara Kay Cohen Rape During Civil War Cornell University Press
2016 Jennifer Rubenstein Between Samaritans and States: The Political Ethics of Humanitarian INGOs Oxford University Press