Urban Affairs Review is sponsoring a $250 award for the Best Paper in Urban or Regional Politics presented at the latest American Political Science Association conference. We encourage panel chairs to nominate papers. We also welcome self-nominations.
Papers presented on any panel associated with the conference are eligible for this award.
The award will be made by a three person panel: one editor of Urban Affairs Review, one member of the UAR editorial board, and one member of the executive council of the Urban and Local Politics Section.
The award will be announced at the Urban and Local Politics Section meeting at the following APSA conference. The recipient will be invited to submit the paper to the Urban Affairs Review for fast-track review and publication.
This is an annual award. Awards may not be made every year, depending on the number and quality of submissions.
Award committee (2025):
Tim Weaver (Chair)
University at Albany, SUNY
tweaver@albany.edu
Christina Greer
Fordham University
cgreer@fordham.edu
Adrienne LeBas
American University
lebas@american.edu
Nomination Deadline: October 31, 2025
Please send papers to the chair person listed above.
Recipients:
| 2025 | Elisa Maria Wirsching (Princeton University), “Barriers to Representation: Selection Processes and Political Diversity in US Urban Bureaucracy” Honorable Mention: Joshua Ferrer (UCLA), “To Elect or Appoint? Evidence from Local Election Administration” Honorable Mention: Mirya Holman (UH), Rebecca Johnson (Georgetown) and Tyler Simko (Princeton), “Measuring Conflict in Local Politics.” |
| 2024 | Jonathan Colner (UC Davis), “Ward Against Ward? Particularism in District-Based City Councils” |
| 2023 | Alice Xu (Harvard University), “The Political Origins of Slum Growth and Segregation in Cities” Honorable Mention: Veronica Herrera (UCLA), “Citizen-led Environmental Governance: Regulating Urban Wetlands in South America” |
| 2022 | Varun Karekurve-Ramachandra (Stanford University) and Alexander Lee (University of Rochester), “Can Gender Quotas Improve Public Service Provision? Evidence from Indian Local Government” |
| 2021 | Rafaelle Bazurli (Ca’ Foscari University) and David Kaufmann (Swiss Federal Institute for Technology), “Asylum Policy-Making in European Cities” |
| 2020 | Mirya Holman, Tulane University “Weak Boards, Strong Boards: Local Appointed Boards and the Diluting of Democracy.” |
| 2019 | Peter Bucchianeri, Vanderbilt University. “There’s More than One Way to Party: Progressive Politics and Representation in Nonpartisan San Francisco.” |
| 2018 | Brian Y. An, University of Southern California, Morris E. Levy, University of Southern California, and Rodney E. Hero, Arizona State University “It’s Not Just Welfare: Racial Inequality and the Local Provision of Public Goods in the United States” |
| 2017 | Melody Crowder-Meyer, The University of the South, Shana Kushner Gadarian, Syracuse University, Jessica Trounstine, Unviersity of California, Merced, and Kau Vue, University of California, Merced “A Different Kind of Disadvantage: Candidate Race, Electoral Institutions, and Voter Choice.” |
| 2016 | Kathleen Sullivan, Ohio University, Elizabeth Pérez-Chiqués, University at Albany, State University of New York, and Patricia Strach, University at Albany, State University of New York “Trash: A Political History, 1880-1920.” |
| 2015 | Katherine Einstein, Boston University “Cities, Inequality and Redistribution: Evidence from a Survey of Mayors.” APSA Conference 2014 |
| 2015 | David Glick, Boston University “Cities, Inequality and Redistribution: Evidence from a Survey of Mayors.” APSA Conference 2014 |
| 2014 | Veronica Herrera, University of Connecticut “From Participatory Promises to Partisan Capture: Local Democratic Transitions and Citizen Water Boards in Urban Mexico.” |
| 2012 | Todd Swanstrom “Divorcing Power and Responsibility: How National Policies Have Shaped Local Policy Responses to Foreclosures” |
| 2011 | Vladimir Kogan, University of California San Diego “Who Benefits from Jurisdictional Competition?” |
| 2011 | Scott Minkoff, Barnard College “The Proximate Polity: The Spatial Context of Local Develpmental Goods Provision” |
| 2010 | Jen Nelles, University of Toronto “Cooperation and Capacity: Exploring the Sources and Limits of City-Region Governance Partnership” |
| 2009 | Margaret Reid and William Schreckhise, University of Arkansas “When Does Politics Matter? A Reexamination of the Determinants of African American and Latino Municipal Employment Patterns” |
| 2007 | Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University “Electoral Representation of New Actors in Suburbia” |
| 2006 | Dorothy Shipps, Teachers College, Columbia University “‘Sticky’ School Reform: A Path Dependent Argument about Corporate Influence and Union Weakness in 20th Century Chicago” |
| 2005 | Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University |
| 2004 | Megan Mullin, University of California, Berkeley “Specialization and Responsiveness in Local Policy Making: The Case of Water Districts” |
| 2003 | Jessica Trounstine, University of California, San Diego “Why Turnout Does Matter: The Effects of a Skewed Electorate on Minority Representation in Local Politics” |
| 2002 | Loren King, Massachusetts Institute of Technology “Democratic Hopes in the Polycentric City” |
| 2001 | Vojislava Filipcevic, Columbia University “Reclaiming the Urban Trenches” |