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Harold D. Lasswell Award 

Nominations for the 2024 APSA Awards have closed.



The Lasswell Award honors the best doctoral dissertation in the field of public policy.

The award, co-supported by the Policy Studies Organization and the APSA Organized Section on Public Policy, is presented at the APSA Annual Meeting and carries a cash prize of $1,000.



Nomination Information

  • Eligibility: Nominees do not have to be members of APSA, affiliated with an institution in the United States, or an American citizen in order to be considered for an award.

    Dissertations must have been successfully defended within the previous two calendar years (dissertations for the 2024 award must be defended in 2022 or 2023).

    Self-nominations are accepted. Nominations from non-PhD departments and institutions are also welcome if the nominee is currently employed there.

    APSA will accept up to two nominations for the Lasswell Award per school or political science department.

Harold D. Lasswell Award Committee


Chair: Mr. John Boswell
University of Southampton
j.c.boswell@soton.ac.uk

Daniel Fiorino
American University
dfiorino@american.edu

Dr. Carolyn Hendriks
Australian National University
carolyn.hendriks@anu.edu.au


Year Author Dissertation Submitted by

2023

Michael Lerner

Green Catalysts? The Impact of Transnational Advocacy on Environmental Policy Leadership

University of Michigan

2022

Margaret Brower

How She Reconfigures the State: Intersectional Advocacy & The movement to End Violence

University of Chicago

2021

Guillermo Toral

The Political Logics of Patronage: Uses and Abuses of Government Jobs in Brazil

MIT

2020

Shiran Victoria Shen

Political Pollution Cycle: An Inconvenient Truth and How to Break It

Stanford University

2019

Natália S. Bueno

The Distributive Politics of Non-State Welfare Provision

Yale University

2018   

Jonathan Mummolo

Modern Police Tactics, Police-Citizen Interactions, and the Prospects for Reform

Princeton University

2017

Alexander Hertel-Fernandez

Whose Bills? Corporate Interests and Conservative Mobilization Across the States

Harvard University

2016

Brian Palmer-Rubin

Evading the Patronage Trap: Interest Organizations and Policymaking in Mexico

University of California, Berkeley

2015

Michael Hartney

Turning Out Teachers: The Causes and Consequences of Teacher Political Activism in the Postwar United States

University of Notre Dame

2014

Sarah Anzia

Election Timing and the Political Influence of the Organized

Stanford University

2013

Nicholas Carnes

By the Upper Class, For the Upper Class? Representational Inequality and Economic Policymaking in the United States

Princeton University

2012

Christopher G. Faricy

The Politics of Public Versus Private Social Welfare

University of North Carolina

2011

Jennifer Kavanagh

The Dynamics of Protracted Terror Campaigns: Domestic Politics, 
Terrorist Violence, and Counterterror Responses

University of Michigan

2010

Karen Long Jusko

The Political Representation of the Poor

University of Michigan

2009

Michael Schoon

Building Robustness to Disturbance: Governance in Southern African Peace Parks

Indiana University

2008

Christian Breuing

Institutions, Attention Shifts, and Changes within National Budgets

University of Washington

2007

Vanda Felbab-Brown

Shooting Up: The Impact of Illicit Economies on Military Conflict

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

2006

Jonathan Ari Laurence

Managing Transnational Religion: Muslims and the State in Western Europe (1974-2004)

Boston College

2005

Esther N. Mwangi

Institutional Change and Politics: The Transformation of Property Rights in Kenya's Maasailand

International Food Policy Research Institute

2005

Thad Williamson

Sprawl, Justice, and Citizenship: A Philosophical and Empirical Inquiry

Harvard University

2004

Suzanne Christine Nielsen

Preparing for War: The Dynamics of Peacetime Military Reform

Harvard University

2003

Kristin Anne Goss

Disarmed: The Real American Gun Control Paradox

Harvard University