Section awards are presented during the APSA annual meeting awards ceremony. To learn more about any award listed, contact the award committee. Submissions for the 2026 awards are now open and due March 27, 2026.
Best Education Politics and Policy Paper
Recognizes the best paper on education politics and/or education policy presented at the previous year’s APSA Annual Meeting (2024). All nominations must be submitted using this link.
Deadline for nominations: March 27, 2026
| Name | Affiliation | |
| Mirya Holman | University of Houston | mrholman@central.uh.edu |
| Tyler Simko | University of Michigan | tsimko@umich.edu |
Best Education Politics and Policy Dissertation
Recognizes the best dissertation on education politics and/or education policy completed in the previous two calendar years (2024 or 2025). All nominations must be submitted using this link.
Deadline for nominations: March 27, 2026
| Name | Affiliation | |
| Julia Coyoli-Smith | University of Strathclyde | julia.coyoli@strath.ac.uk |
| Paul Manna | William & Mary | pmanna@wm.edu |
| Rebecca Jacobsen | Michigan State University | rjacobs@msu.edu |
Jeffrey R. Henig Best Book on Education Politics and Policy
Recognizes the best book on education politics and/or education policy published in the previous two years (2024 or 2025). To submit a nomination, email all the members of the award committee. Copies of the nominated books must be received by all committee members by the deadline for nominations.
| Name | Affiliation | |
| R. Shep Melnick | Boston College | r.shep.melnick@bc.edu |
| J. Celeste Lay | Tulane University | jlay@tulane.edu |
2025 Award Winners
Jeffrey R. Henig Best Book Award:
R. Shep Melnick (Boston College), for The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality. University of Chicago Press, 2023
Honorable Mention: Agustina S. Paglayan (UCSD), for Raised to Obey: The Rise and Spread of Mass Education. Princeton University Press, 2024.
Education Politics and Policy Best Paper Award:
Mirya Holman (University of Houston), Rebecca Johnson (Georgetown University), and Tyler Simko (Princeton University), for Measuring Conflict in Local Politics
Honorable Mention: Andreas Jensen (Aarhus University), for What You Study Affects Political Participation: Political Socialization and Resource Accumulation Across College Fields of Study
Education Politics and Policy Best Dissertation Award:
Julia Smith Coyoli (Harvard University), for How Unions Bring About Policy Implementation: Education Reform, Teachers’ Unions, and Subnational Politics in Mexico
PAST WINNERS:
Education Politics & Policy Best Book Award:
2021: Ursula Hackett for America’s Voucher Politics: How Elites Learned to Hide the State (CUP)
2022: Marius Busemeyer, Julian Garritzmann, and Erik Neimanns for A Loud But Noisy Signal? Public Opinion and Education Reform in Western Europe (CUP)
2023: Daniel Moak for From the New Deal to the War on Schools: Race, Inequality, and the Rise of the Punitive Education State (UNC Press)
2024: Michael Hartney for How Policies Make Interest Groups: Government, Unions, and American Education Policy (University of Chicago Press)
Education Politics & Policy Best Paper Award:
2021: David Lopez for ‘The Informational Foundations of Mass Education: State Formation, Legibility, and Centralization Since the 19th Century’
2022: Elizabeth Sharrow and James Druckman for ‘Legacies of Title IX: The Impact of Segregation on Policy Coalitions’
2023: Jared Clemons for ‘Education as Human Capital’ and Roland Kappe for ‘The Causal Effect of Foreign Language Learning on Political Attitudes’
2024: Elizabeth K. Parker-Magyar for ‘Workplace Networks and Civil Society in Autocracies: Evidence from Jordan’
Education Politics & Policy Best Dissertation Award:
2021: Matthew Nelsen for ‘Educating for Empowerment: Race, Socialization, and Reimagining Civic Education’
2022: Suzanne Garritzmann for ‘Education Systems and Political Inequality: How Educational Institutions Shape Turnout Gaps’
2023: Emily Dunlop for ‘Education Access and Perceived Inequality After War: Continuity and Change in Post-War Burundi’
2024: Zhamilya Mukasheva for ‘The Politics of Cost Sharing in Higher Education in OECD Countries’