Category Archives: Section Awards

Kenneth D. Wald Best Graduate Student Paper Award – Call for Nominations

The Kenneth D. Wald Best Graduate Student Paper Award is given annually to a conference paper studying any aspect of religion and politics presented by a Ph.D. student in political science. The conference can be affiliated with any of the US-based political science associations or a conference affiliated with another association, such as the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, the American Academy of Religion, the Middle East Studies Association, or the International Studies Association, as long as the paper was written by a student or students enrolled in a graduate program in political science and presented in 2020 or 2021. Papers written with faculty will not be considered. Papers presented at poster sessions are welcome.

The award will be announced and presented at the annual APSA conference during the business meeting. The award committee is under no obligation to make an award if no submissions merit such recognition.

Nomination Instructions: Please send nominations (self-nomination is okay) including an electronic copy of the paper and an electronic copy of the conference program listing to the committee members.

Deadline for Nominations: April 15, 2022 May 2, 2022

Award Committee:

Vineeta Yadav (Committee Chair), Penn State University (vuy2@psu.edu)
Jim Guth, Furman University (jim.guth@furman.edu)
David Barker, American University (dbarker@american.edu)

Aaron Wildavsky Best Dissertation Award – Call for Nominations

APSA Religion and Politics Section invites nominations for the Aaron Wildavsky Dissertation Award. The Aaron Wildavsky Award recognizes the best dissertation in the field of religion and politics. Eligible dissertations have been defended in the last two years (2020 or 2021), and should make a distinctive contribution to the study of religion and politics, broadly understood.

Nomination Instructions: Please send a letter of nomination (maximum 2 pages) and a copy of the dissertation to the committee members by email. Self-nominations are welcome. If you have any questions, please contact the committee chair, Kikue Hamayotsu (khamayotsu@niu.edu).

Deadline for Nominations: April 15, 2022

Award Committee:

Kikue Hamayotsu (Committee Chair), Northern Illinois University (khamayotsu@niu.edu)
Alexandra Blackman, Cornell University (adb295@cornell.edu)
Ani Sarkissian, Michigan State University (asarkiss@msu.edu)

Weber Best Paper in Religion and Politics Award – Call for Nominations

Weber Best Paper in Religion and Politics Award recognizes the best paper dealing with religion and politics presented at the previous year’s APSA Annual Meeting (2021). The paper should address a timely and relevant topic, within the discipline and beyond, in a theoretically innovative and methodologically thorough manner. All papers presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting are eligible, regardless of modality of presentation (ie. in person, virtual/synchronous, and pre-recorded paper presentations are all eligible).

Please submit nominations to all committee members by email by April 15, 2022.

Award Committee:
David Buckley (Committee Chair), University of Louisville, david.buckley@louisville.edu
Tugba Bozcaga, King’s College London (tugba.bozcaga@kcl.ac.uk)
Nazita Lajevardi, Michigan State University (nazita@msu.edu)

Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Outstanding Scholar Award – Call for Nominations

The Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Outstanding Scholar Award recognizes a scholar who has made outstanding contributions to the field of religion and politics. These contributions should be through a combination of excellent and widely influential scholarship, policy input/impact, public engagement, service, teaching, and mentorship. Although the committee highly encourages nominations of APSA members and takes service to APSA seriously, nominees do not have to be current APSA members. The nominees are expected to attend the following year’s APSA Annual Meeting and participate in the roundtable organized to celebrate their work.

The award is presented annually, following a review of applications by the committee. The winner will be honored with a plaque, a monetary award of $500, and a roundtable symposium honoring their work at the APSA Annual Meeting of the next calendar year. (The 2022 Susanne Hoeber Rudolph Awardee will be honored at the 2023 APSA Annual Meeting both during the business meeting and the roundtable).

The award is intended as an addition to, not replacement for, the practice of awarding special ‘lifetime achievement awards’ for scholars who have made substantial contributions to the Section on the event of their retirement. Instead, this is meant to reward political scientists (including those who are mid-career) who have made a substantial contribution to the field of religion and politics.

Nomination letters and the CVs of the nominees are due to the Committee Chair, Jocelyne Cesari (jcesari@hds.harvard.edu) by April 15, 2022. The nomination letter should clearly and substantially describe how the nominee fulfills the criteria described above: scholarship, teaching/mentoring, policy impact, and public engagement. Since this award is meant to reflect peer recognition, self-nominations will not be considered. One letter per candidate will be accepted, with the possibility of several signatories.

Award Committee:

Jocelyne Cesari (Committee Chair), University of Birmingham (jcesari@hds.harvard.edu)
Paul Djupe, Denison University (djupe@denison.edu)
Jonathan Fox, Bar Ilan University (Jonathan.Fox@biu.ac.il)

Hubert Morken Best Book Award – Call for Nominations

We would like to invite nominations for APSA’s 2022 Hubert Morken Best Book Award. The Hubert Morken Award is given for the best book dealing with religion and politics published within the previous year. The criteria for the award include the originality of the argument presented, quality of the research, innovative methods, readability of the text and the policy or practical implications of the scholarship.

To be eligible for the award, books must have been published in 2021. The nomination should include a brief statement (250-750 words) summarizing the book’s contributions and why it is nominated for the award. This statement can be sent by email to the committee chair, Michael Driessen (mdriessen@johncabot.edu).

As part of the nomination, publishers should send a hard copy of the nominated book to EACH member of the awards committee at the addresses below, making sure that the books arrive by the nomination deadline, April 15th, 2022.

Self-nominations are welcome. If you have any questions, please contact the committee chair, Michael Driessen (mdriessen@johncabot.edu).

Committee Members’ Contact Information:

Dr. Michael Driessen (Committee Chair)
John Cabot University
Via Della Lungara 233
00165 Rome ITALY

Dr. Alexander Thurston
211 North Ridge Drive
Oxford, OH 45056

Dr. Michele Margolis
Perelman Center for Political Science
133 S. 36th St. Room 401
Philadephia, PA 19104