Human Rights Section Award Recipients
More on the Human Rights section
Best Book Award
Best Dissertation Award
Best Paper Award
Distinguished Scholar Award
Best Book Award
The competition is open to all books on human rights that were written by a political scientist and published in the previous two years.
| 2025 | Phillip M. Ayoub, University College London Kristina Stoeckl, Luiss University The Global Fight Against LGBTI Rights: How Transnational Conservative Networks Target Sexual and Gender Minorities. NYU Press, 2024. |
| 2025 | Ezgi Yildiz, California State University, Long Beach Between Forbearance and Audacity: The European Court of Human Rights and the Norm against Torture. Cambridge University Press, 2024. |
| 2024 | Janice Gallagher, Rutgers University Bookstrap Justice: The Search for Mexico’s Disappeared. Oxford University Press, 2023. |
| 2024 | Tricia Olsen, University of Denver Seeking Justice: Access to Remedy for Corporate Human Rights Abuse. Cambridge University Press, 2023. |
| 2023 | Lynette Ong, University of Toronto Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China. Oxford University Press, 2022. |
| 2021 | Adam Chilton, University of Chicago How Constitutional Rights Matter. Oxford University Press, 2020. |
| 2021 | Mila Versteeg, University of Virginia How Constitutional Rights Matter. Oxford University Press, 2020. |
| 2020 | Rauna Kuokkanen, University of Lapland Restructuring Relations: Indigenous Self-Determination, Governance, and Gender. Oxford University Press, 2019. |
| 2019 | Andrea Vilán, Princeton University |
| 2018 | Manfred Nowak, University of Vienna Human Rights or Global Capitalism. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017. |
| 2017 | Onur Bakiner, Seattle University Truth Commissions: Memory, Power, and Legitimacy. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016. |
| 2015 | Lisa Baldez Defying Convention: US Resistance to the UN Treaty on Women’s Rights (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2014) |
| 2014 | Jeffrey Hilgert Hazard or Hardship: Crafting Global Norms on the Right to Refuse Unsafe Work (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2013) |
| 2014 | Jo Becker Campaigning for Justice: Human Rights and Advocacy in Practice (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2013) |
| 2013 | Jacqui True, University of Auckland The Political Economy of Violence Against Women (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012) |
| 2012 | Richard Price Rainforest Warriors: Human Rights on Trial (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011) |
| 2011 | Karen Engle, University of Texas Austin The Elusive Promise of Indigenous Development: Rights, Culture and Strategy |
| 2010 | Richard P. Hiskes The Human Rights to a Green Future: Environmental Rights and Intergenerational Justice (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009) |
| 2010 | Shadi Mokhtari After Abu Ghraib: Exploring Human Rights in the Americas and the Middle East (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009) |
| 2009 | Barbara Bennett Woodhouse Hidden in Plain Sight: The Tragedy of Children’s Rights from Ben Franklin to Lionel Tate (Princeton University Press, 2008) |
| 2007 | Stephen Hopgood, University of London Keepers of the Flame: Understanding Amnesty International |
| 2006 | Eric Stover, University of California, Berkeley The Witnesses: War Crimes and the Promise of Justice in the Hague (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005) |
| 2004 | Rhoda Howard-Hassmann FRSC, Wilfrid Laurier University Compassionate Canadians: Civic Leaders Discuss Human Rights (University of Toronto Press, 2003) |
| 2003 | Richard Claude, University of Maryland Science in the Service of Human Rights (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002) |
Best Dissertation Award
Political Science dissertations that focus on human rights and completed and accepted in the previous two calendar years are eligible for the award competition.
| 2025 | Isabel G. Laterzo, University of Texas at Austin “From Campaigns to Policy: Politicians, Law Enforcement, and Citizen Insecurity in Latin America.” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2024. |
| 2024 | Gabriella Levy, Duke University “Variation in Individuals’ Responses to Violence Against Civilians.” |
| 2023 | Sumin Lee, Rutgers University |
| 2022 | Kelebogile Zvobgo, College of William and Mary “Governing Truth: NGOs and the Politics of Transitional Justice,” Dissertation at USC. |
| 2021 | Anthony DeMattee, Indiana University |
| 2020 | Francesca Keiko Teraoka Parente, University of California, Los Angeles |
| 2019 | Andrea Vilán, University of California, Los Angeles |
| 2018 | Suparna Chaudhry, Yale University “The Assault on Democracy Assistance: Explaining State Repression of NGOs.” |
| 2015 | Peter Haschke, University of North Carolina “Democracy and the Human Right to the Physical Integrity of the Person” |
| 2012 | Kali Wright-Smith, Purdue University The Decision to Comply: Patterns of compliance with the Inter-American Court of Human Rights |
| 2010 | Andreas von Staden, Princeton University Shaping Human Rights Policy in Liberal Democracies: Assessing and Explaining Compliance with the Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights |
| 2009 | Hun Joon Kim, University of Minnesota “Expansion of Transitional Justice Measures: A Comparative Analysis of Its Causes” |
| 2007 | Daniel Whelan, University of Denver Interdependent, Indivisible and Interrelated Human Rights: A Political and Historical Investigation |
| 2006 | Matthew Price, Harvard University “Political Conception of Asylum” |
| 2005 | Leslie Wirpsa, University of Southern California and Stanford University “Oil and Indigenous Rights in Colombia/Andes” |
| 2004 | Emilie Hafner-Burton, University of Wisconsin, Madison “Globalizing Human Rights? How International Trade Agreements Shape Government Repression” |
| 2003 | Claudio Fuentes, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill “Contesting the Iron Fist: Advocacy Networks and Police Violence in Democratic Argentina and Chile” |
Best Paper Award
The APSA Best Paper Award recognizes the “best paper” presented on a Human Rights Section Panel at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting
| 2025 | Emily Hencken Ritter, Vanderbilt University Katerina Tertytchnaya, Oxford University “Functionaries of Repression: Autocratic Control through Bureaucratic Supervision in Russia”. |
| 2024 | Yuan Zhou, Kobe University Ghasia Kiyani, Western Illinois University Charles Crabtree, Dartmouth College “Does Naming and Shaming Improve Women’s Rights?” Journal of Human Rights, 2023. |
| 2023 | Yehonaton Abramson, Hebrew University of Jerusalem “Whose Critique Matters? The Effects of Critic Identity and Audience on Public Opinion” |
| 2023 | Abil Menon, Cornell University “Whose Critique Matters? The Effects of Critic Identity and Audience on Public Opinion” |
| 2023 | Abir Gitlin, Hebrew University of Jerusalem “Whose Critique Matters? The Effects of Critic Identity and Audience on Public Opinion” |
| 2021 | Xinyuan Dai, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign “New Democracies, Sovereignty Costs, and Commitment to Human Rights Treaties.” Paper presented at the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting. |
| 2021 | Alexandros Tokhi, WBZ Berlin Social Science Center “New Democracies, Sovereignty Costs, and Commitment to Human Rights Treaties.” Paper presented at the 2020 APSA Annual Meeting |
| 2020 | Kate Cronin-Furman, University College London “Human Rights Half-Measures: Avoiding Accountability in Post-War Sri Lanka.” |
| 2019 | Kelebogile Zvobgo, University of Southern California “Reserving Rights: Examining Human Rights Treaty Reservations.” |
| 2019 | Wayne Sandholz, University of Southern California |
| 2009 | Manoj Mate, University of California, Berkeley “State Security and Elite Capture: The Implementation of Ant-Terrorist Legislation in India” |
| 2009 | Adnan Naseemullah, University of California, Berkeley “State Security and Elite Capture: The Implementation of Anti-Terrorist Legislation in India |
Distinguished Human Rights Scholar Award
This Award recognizes an individual who has worked in the field of Human Rights and made an exceptional contribution to the field through research, teaching and mentorship.
| 2025 | Shareen Hertel, University of Connecticut |
| 2022 | Richard P. Hiskes, Grand Valley State University |
| 2014 | Claude Welch, University of Buffalo |
| 2011 | Mark Gibney, University of North Carolina-Asheville |
| 2010 | Zehra F. Kabasakal Arat, Purchase College, SUNY |
| 2009 | Rhoda Howard-Hassmann FRSC, Wilfrid Laurier University |
| 2009 | Jack Donnelly, University of Denver |