Awards

The Department of Political Science is home to faculty that are committed to providing the highest quality research and instruction to students, the community, and the wider profession. Our faculty have received many awards for their research, teaching, and academic success. 

View a list of these awards, organized by faculty member, below. 

  • University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts Mid-Career Faculty Research Award, 2023
  • Best Book Award (biennial) for Nuclear Reactions: How Nuclear-Armed States Behave, Foreign Policy Analysis section, International Studies Association, 2023
  • Center for Strategic and International Studies Project on Nuclear Issues Mid-Career Cadre, 2019-2022
  • Amos Perlmutter Prize for the Most Outstanding Essay Submitted for Publication by Junior Faculty for the Journal of Strategic Studies, 2018
  • Bridging the Gap Policy Engagement Fellowship, 2018
  • American Political Science Association Kenneth N. Waltz Award for the best dissertation in security studies, 2017
  • Benjamin E. Lippincott Professor, 2021-2024
  • Scholar of the College, Sara Evans Faculty Woman Scholar/Leader Award, 2019
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar Award, September 2004-May 2005
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 2023
  • McKnight Land-Grant Professor, 2007
  • Carnegie Scholar Award (national award given by the Carnegie Corporation of New York for excellent and policy-relevant research), 2003
  • Waldfogel Scholar of the College, 2022
  • Andrew Carnegie Fellow, “Military Medicine and the Hidden Costs of War,” 2021-2023
  • Bridging the Gap Policy Engagement Fellowship, 2019-2020
  • Best Book Award for Wars of Law: Unintended Consequences in the Regulation of Armed Conflict, International Law Section, International Studies Association, 2019
  • Ignite Award for Online Achievement in International Studies, Online Media Caucus of the International Studies Association, 2018
  • Carnegie Council for International Ethics Fellow, "The Living Legacy of the First World War," 2018
  • Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Grant for project on "Military Medicine and the Changing Costs of War" ($40,000), 2017-2018
  • Best Non-Student Paper Award, International Law Section, International Studies Association for "Rebels and Landmines: Why Do Armed Groups Commit to the Laws of War?" with Rita Konaev, 2017
  • Best Book Award for State Death: The Politics and Geography of Conquest, Occupation, and Annexation, Conflict Processes Section, American Political Science Association, 2008
  • Helen Dwight Reid Award of the American Political Science Association for the Best Dissertation in International Relations, Law, and Politics, 2002
  • Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in the Liberal Arts, 2020-2023
  • International Society of Political Psychology David O. Sears Book Award for "Open Versus Closed: Personality, Identity, and the Politics of Redistribution" with Christopher Johnston and Howard Lavine, 2018
  • International Society for Justice Research Morton Deutsch Award, 2009
  • International Society of Political Psychology Roberta Sigel Junior Scholar Paper Award, 2007
  • International Society of Political Psychology Erik Erikson Award for Early Career Achievements, 2007
  • Benjamin E. Lippincott Professor, 2020-2023
  • Life Time Achievement Award, Political Methodology Section, American Political Science Association, 2014
  • Dean’s Medal, 2009
  • Graduate Teaching Award, 2008
  • Distinguished McKnight Professor, 1996-2001
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 1992
  • Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, University of Minnesota, 1993
  • Academy of Arts & Sciences
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 2012
  • Fulbright Senior Research Grant for project, “Judging for Democracy? Spain in Comparative Perspective,“ (Madrid, Spain) January-May 2007
  • Benjamin E. Lippincott Professor, 2020-2023
  • American Political Science Association Distinguished Teaching Award, 2018
  • Institute for Humane Studies Grant, ($8,000), 2018
  • College of Liberal Arts Career Readiness Faculty Fellow, 2017-2018
  • National Science Foundation Grant, ($199,992), 2016
  • Tate Award for Undergraduate Advising, 2012
  • President’s Distinguished Faculty Mentor Program, University of Minnesota, 2010-2013
  • Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the Southern Political Science Association, 2009
  • Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, University of Minnesota, 2008
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 2007
  • National Science Foundation Grant, ($53,922), 2006
  • National Science Foundation Grant, ($226,181), 2003
  • The American Judicature Society Award for the best paper on law and courts presented at the American, Midwest, Southern, Southwestern, or Western Political Sciences Associations, 2002
  • Arleen C. Carlson Chair, 2010-2023
  • Vilas Associate Award, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Graduate Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016-2017
  • Feminist Scholars' Fellowship, Department of Gender and Women's Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2016
  • Sussex International Theory Prize, The Centre for Advanced International Theory, University of Sussex for "The Image Before the Weapon," 2012
  • Mellon Sawyer Seminar Grant: "Biopolitics: Life in Past and Present," 2011-2012
  • Helen Dwight Reid Award for best dissertation in international relations, law, and politics, American Political Science Association, 2004
  • Scholar of the College, College of Liberal Arts, 2017-2020
  • Beverly and Richard Fink Professor in the Liberal Arts, 2015-2021
  • Awards for "Narrative and the Making of US National Security" (Cambridge UP, 2015)
    • Robert L. Jervis and Paul W. Schroeder Best Book Award in International History and Politics, American Political Science Association, 2016
    • Giovanni Sartori Book Award, for the best book developing or applying qualitative methods, Qualitative and Multi-Method Research Section, American Political Science Association, 2016
    • Honorable Mention, Joseph S. Lepgold Book Prize, for an exceptional contribution to the study of international relations, Mortara Center for International Studies, Georgetown University, 2016
    • Honorable Mention, Foreign Policy Section Best Book Award, American Political Science Association, 2017
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar Award (Israel), 2012
  • McKnight Land-Grant Professor, 2006-2008
  • David O. Sears Book Award (Sponsored by the International Society of Political Psychology) for Open Versus Closed: Personality, Identity and the Politics of Redistribution (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 2018.
  • Joseph L. Bernd Best Paper Award (Southern Political Science Association), Journal of Politics, "Racial Diversity and the Dynamics of Authoritarianism," with Yamil Velez, 2018
  • Human Rights Initiative Award, University of Minnesota, $40,000, 2017
  • Robert E. Lane Book Award (Sponsored by the Political Psychology Section, for Open Versus Closed: Personality, Identity and the Politics of Redistribution, with Christopher Johnston and Christopher Parker
  • University of Minnesota College of Liberal Arts, Pilot "Pipeline" Program ($10,000), with Ron Aminzade and William Jones, 2017
  • Grant-in-Aid, University of Minnesota ($45,000), On the Psychological Underpinnings of Electoral Choice in Real Time: The 2016 Minnesota Multi-Investigator Panel Study, 2016
  • David O. Sears Book Award (Sponsored by the International Society of Political Psychology) for The Ambivalent Partisan: How Critical Loyalty Promotes Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2012), 2013
  • Robert E. Lane Book Award (Sponsored by the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association for The Ambivalent Partisan: How Critical Loyalty Promotes Democracy (Oxford University Press, 2012), 2013
  • Arleen C. Carlson Chair, 2011-2024
  • Erik H. Erikson Early Career Award for Research Achievement (International Society of Political Psychology), 2004
  • Joan Aldous Grant Diversity and Public Engagement Grant, ($5,000)
  • Chun and Jane Chiu Family Foundation Fellowship, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, History and Public Policy Program, 2023
  • Talle Faculty Research Award for "Staging the Political: Colonial Encounters in North Africa and France, 2017-2019
  • Mellon Sawyer Seminar Grant with Robert Nichols and Jean O'Brien: "The Politics of Land," 2017-2018
  • University of Minnesota Imagine Fund Award: "Négritude and Radical Politics," 2017
  • National Endowment for the Humanities- Enduring Questions Grant with Robert Nichols, 2016-2018
  • University of Minnesota Imagine Fund Award: "Archives of Infamy," 2016
  • University of Minnesota Imagine Fund Award, "Authorship and Representation," University of Minnesota, 2014
  • University of MinnesotaImagine Fund Award, "Staging the Political," University of Minnesota, 2013
  • Institute for Advanced Study Residential Fellowship, University of Minnesota, 2009
  • W.E.B. Dubois Book Award for No Longer Outsiders: Black and Latino Interest Group Advocacy on Capitol Hill, National Conference of Black Political Scientists, 2023
  • Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, University of Minnesota, 2002
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 1991
  • President's Award for Outstanding Service, 2022
  • Horace T. Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education, University of Minnesota, 2012
  • American Political Science Association's Representation and Electoral Systems George H. Hallett Award, 2023
  • Distinguished McKnight Professor, 2012
  • Benjamin E. Lippincott Professor, 2003, 2020
  • McKnight Land-Grant Professorship, 2000
  • College of Liberal Arts Career Readiness Teaching Award, 2019
  • College of Liberal Arts Red Motley Teaching Award, 2022
  • Benjamin E. Lippincott Professor, 2020-2023