The Class & Inequality section will be awarding the following prizes at the 2026 APSA: the Best Book on Class & Inequality, the Best Paper on Class & Inequality presented at a section-sponsored panel at the 2025 APSA conference, and the Best Paper on Economic and Social Inequality presented at any panel at the 2025 conference. The best dissertation prize will be open for the 2027 conference, with the call to go out next year.
Details are below. The deadlines will all be on March 1.
We strongly encourage self-nominations. We also encourage anyone who was a discussant or panelist in 2025 and read a paper that they think would be a good fit to nominate it. Please share the call widely.
Best Book on Class & Inequality: For the best book on Class & Inequality published by Section members in the prior two calendar years. In 2026, the committee will consider books published in 2024 and 2025. (Note that nominated authors must be members of the Class & Inequality section. Authors can join the section before being nominated.) Self-nominations are encouraged.
Please send electronic copies of the manuscript to all committee members via email. Be prepared to send physical copies to any committee member who requests one.
Committee members:
James Morone (Brown University): James_Morone@brown.edu
Christine Slaughter (Boston University): csla@bu.edu
Gregory Saxton (Texas Tech University): gregory.saxton@ttu.edu
Jennifer Oser (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev): oser@post.bgu.ac.il
The deadline for submissions will be March 1.
Best Paper on Class & Inequality: For the best paper presented at a panel sponsored (or co-sponsored) by the Class and Inequality Section at the 2025 APSA annual meeting. This award is open to all APSA members, regardless of whether they are members of the Class & Inequality section. Self-nominations are encouraged. Please be sure to submit the conference version of the paper.
Please send a PDF of the paper to committee members Kristin Goss (Duke University) kgoss@duke.edu; Elizabeth Thom (Northwestern University) ethom@northwestern.edu; and Jieun Park (Concordia College) jpark2@cord.edu
The deadline for submissions will be March 1.
Best Paper on Economic and Social Inequality: For best paper among those presented on any panel at the 2025 Annual Meeting (regardless of which section sponsored the panel) that discusses the intersection of economic inequality and other social inequalities (e.g., racial, ethnic, gender, sexual orientation). This award is open to all APSA members, regardless of whether they are members of the Class & Inequality section. Self-nominations are encouraged. Please be sure to submit the conference version of the paper.
Please send a PDF of the paper to committee members Dan Galvin (Northwestern University) galvin@northwestern.edu; Anthony Grasso (Rutgers University) agrasso@camden.rutgers.edu; Erica Townsend-Bell (Oklahoma State University) etowns@okstate.edu
The deadline for submissions will be March 1.
Previous Winners
Faricy Graduate Student Travel Award
2022: Aduago Pamela Nwakanma (Harvard)
Best Book on Class and Inequality Award
2024: Charlotte Cavaille (University of Michigan)
Fair Enough? Support for Redistribution in an Age of Inequalit (Cambridge University Press)
and: Tiffany D. Barnes (University of Texas at Austin), Yann P. Kerevel (Louisiana State University), and Gregory Saxton (Texas Tech University)
Working Class Inclusion: Evaluations of Democratic Institutions in Latin American (Cambridge University Press)
Award Committee: Charles Crabtree, Ken Meier, and Patrick Flavin
2022: Andreas Wiedemann (Princeton University)
Indebted Societies: Credit and Welfare in Rich Democracies (Cambridge University Press)
Honorable Mention: Meghan Condon (Loyola University Chicago) & Amber Wichowsky (Marquette University)
The Economic Other: Inequality in the American Political Imagination (University of Chicago Press)
Award Committee: Marko Klasnja, Emma Saunders-Hastings, and Rune Stubager
Best Dissertation on Class and Inequality Award
2024: Zhihang Ruan (Hunter College, City University of New York)
“Land Regimes and the Welfare of Migrant Workers: A Comparison of China and Vietnam”
Award Committee: Charlotte Cavaille, Christopher Tyler Burks, and Mallory E. SoRelle
2023: Britta van Staaluduinen (Harvard University)
“Ethnic Inequality in the Welfare State”
Honorable Mention: Dakota E. Park-Ozee (University of Texas at Austin)
“What Does Money Mean? Frames of Wealth and Economic Identity in U.S. Politics, 1980-2020”
Award Committee: Michael Barber, Allison Hartnett, and Michael Shepherd
2022: Michael E. Shepherd Jr. (University of Texas at Austin)
“Unhealthy Democracy: How Partisan Politics is Killing Rural America”
Award Committee: Christian Breunig, Asli Cansunar, and Christina Farhart
Best Paper Award
2024: Abhit Bhandari (Vanderbilt University)
“Connections, Gender, and Access to State-Facilitated Private-Sector Development: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Senegal”
Award Committee: Alexander Sahn, Annabelle Hutchinson, and Elizabeth Mitchell Elder
2023: Ari Ray (University of Geneva)
“When Identity Trumps Class: Women, Workers, and Statistical Representation Under Low Party Gate-Keeping”
Award Committee: Elizabeth Suhay, Chenoa Yorgason, and Miguel Pereira
2022: Chenoa Yorgason (Stanford University)
“Campaign finance vouchers do not reduce donor inequality”
Award Committee: Frederick Solt, Patricia Kirkland, and Lucia Motolinia
2021: Lucia Motolinia (NYU), Marko Klašnja (Georgetown), and Simon Weschle (Syracuse), “The Political Selection Effects of Campaign Finance Rules”
Award Committee: Kris-Stella Trump, Christopher Ojeda, and Patricia Posey
2020: Alexander Sahn (Berkeley), “Why is Housing Unaffordable? The Great Migration’s Effect on Exclusionary Zoning“
Award Committee: Michael Donnelly, Adam Thal, and Natalie Giger
2019: Adam Thal, “Status Update: Social Media and the Economic Policy Preferences of Affluent Americans”
Award Committee: Marko Klašnja and Karen Long-Jusko
2018: Elizabeth Suhay, Marko Klašnja, and Gonzalo Rivero, “Ideology of Affluence: Explanations for Inequality and Political Attitudes among Rich Americans”
Award Committee: Ray La Raja and Elizabeth Rigby
2017: Brian Schaffner, Jesse Rhodes, and Ray La Raja, “Understanding Inequality and Representation in Local Politics”
Award Committee: Tali Mendelberg and Eleanor Neff Powell
2016: Tali Mendelberg, Katherine McCabe, and Adam Thal, “The Rich are Different from You and Me: How Wealthy Student Bodies Foster Economically Conservative Students”; and Eleanor Neff Powell, “Legislative Consequences of Fundraising Influence”
Award Committee: Jacob Hacker, Marty Gilens, and Peter Enns
Best Paper on Social & Economic Inequality
2024: Berfin Baydar (Duke University) and Asli Cansunar (University of Washington)
“Homogenizing the High Street: The Economic Cleansing of Minority Elites through Fiscal Discrimination”
Award Committee: Susan Kang, Cody Melchar, and Sophie Jacobson
2023: Jaewook Lee (McGill University)
“Luddite or Technophile? Policy Preference for Governing Technology-Driven Change”
Award Committee: Joshua James, Gabriele Magni, and LaGina Gause
2022: Nirvikar Jassal (Stanford University)
“Does Victim Gender Matter for Justice Delivery? Evidence from Women’s Complaints in India”
Award Committee: Kris-Stella Trump, Alice Xu, and Joshua Robison
2021: Alice Xu (Harvard), “Segregation and the Spatial Externalities of Inequality: A Theory of Collateral Cooperation for Public Goods in Cities”
Award Committee: Amber Wichowsky, Jennifer Erkulwater, and Jesse Rhodes
Best Paper on Entrepreneurship & Inclusion
2022 Kauffman Faculty Award: Allison Spencer Hartnett (University of Southern California) & Mohamed Saleh (University of Toulouse Capitole)
“Intra-Elite Conflict and Demands for Power-Sharing: Evidence from Khedival Egypt”
2022 Kauffman Graduate Student Award: Aduago Pamela Nwakanma (Harvard University)
“The Gendered Economics of Political Empowerment: Lessons from Nigeria, Africa’s Largest Economy”
Award Committee: Anita Manion, James Conran, and Abhit Bhandari
2021 Kauffman Award: James K. Conran (University of Oregon), “Work Time Regimes and the Comparative Political Economy of the Gender Pay Gap”
Award Committee: Daniel Stegmuller, Janice Fine, and Simon Weschle
2020 Kauffman Award: Tanushree Goyal (Oxford), “How Women Mobilize Women into Politics: A Natural Experiment in India“
Award Committee: Neil Malhotra, Jessica Trounstine, Dan Rubenson, Linda White, and Laura Bucci
2019 Kauffman Faculty Award: Alex Gourevitch, “Political Theory of the Entrepreneur”
2019 Kauffman Graduate Student Award: Pamela Nwakanma, “Women, Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Africa”
Award Committee: Chris Witko and David Broockman
Graduate Student Poster Session Award
2019 Best Poster on Economic Inequality: Josh McCrain, “Legislative Staff and Inequality in Representation”
2019 Best Poster on Social Inequality: Christine Slaughter, “Contextual and Persistent: Poverty, Empowerment, and Engagement among African Americans”
Award Committee: Jake Grumbach, Cecilia Mo, and Jesse Rhodes
View our blog post about the 2019 poster reception, which includes pictures from the event.
Outstanding Member Award
For a member deemed by the Section Officers to have made an exceptional contribution to the Section in the previous year.
2016: Martin Gilens
Award Committee: Nicholas Carnes, Meredith Sadin, Chris Faricey