Chair: Ann Marie Clark, Purdue University
Vice Chair: Alison Dundes Renteln, University of Southern California
Vice-Chair Elect: Cher Weixia Chen, George Mason University
Annual Meeting Division Chairs: Alison Dundes Renteln, University of Southern California and Cher Weixia Chen, George Mason University
Secretary: Robert Tanner Bivens, Eastern Illinois University
Treasurer: Ñusta Carranza Ko, University of Baltimore

Section awards are presented during the APSA annual meeting awards ceremony. To learn more about any award listed, contact the award committee chair for the award.

All section 36. Human Rights awards to-date »

The Human Rights Section offers annual awards for Best Paper, Best Dissertation, Best Book, and Distinguished Scholar in Human Rights. Nominations for all awards should be submitted to all members of a committee by January 31, 2025. Supporting material may be attached in electronic form for best paper and distinguished scholar, electronic or hard copy for best dissertation and best book although best book committee members may prefer a hard copy.  

Best Book Award

The competition is open to books on human rights that were written by a political scientist.  To be eligible, a book must have been published within the two calendar years prior to the year in which the award is given.  The copyright date of the book will establish the relevant year. 

Nomination instructions: One copy of the nominated work, along with a cover letter, should be sent to each member of the award committee.  Please email committee members directly to determine which form of the book they prefer to receive – pdf or hard copy. A qualifying book can be submitted for consideration only once.  Self-nominations are welcome.

Call Made: December 1, 2025

Deadline for nominations: February 16, 2026

Award Committee

Name	Affiliation	Email
Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch (Chair)	Suffolk University	mben-josefhirsch@suffolk.edu
Ezgi Yildiz	Bowdoin College	e.yildiz@bowdoin.edu
Phillip M. Ayoub	University College London	p.ayoub@ucl.ac.uk
Kristina Stoeckl	LUISS (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi)	kstoeckl@luiss.it
Petra Hendrickson	Northern Michigan University	pehendri@nmu.edu

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Distinguished Human Rights Scholar Award

Given every three years to a section member who has made a major contribution to the advancement of human rights scholarship and to our community through their research, teaching, mentoring of others, creation of opportunities for exchange and collaboration among scholars, or other means. 
Distinguished scholars will: 
(1)    Have records of scholarly excellence, as demonstrated in their publications, grants, pedagogical accomplishments, and/or outreach and engagement efforts; 
(2)    Have been active participants in the section, now or in the past, and have contributed to the maintenance of our scholarly community in some meaningful way (e.g., in a leadership or mentoring role, as an active panel or workshop participant, etc.); 
(3)    Be at least 10 years from the date of their Ph.D. degrees.
Nomination procedure. Nomination packages should include a letter of nomination describing how the nominee meets the award criteria, a copy of the nominee’s full cv, and letters from up to four people in support of the nomination. Self-nominations are not accepted. The committee will consider all nominations but reserves the right not to make an award if no nominees fulfill the criteria.  The committee acknowledges that the division of academic labor remains deeply gendered, racialized, and hierarchical, including with respect to institutional type and type of academic appointment or affiliation. We therefore especially invite nominations of scholars and scholar-activists who have made significant contributions to our field and profession in ways that work to challenge and eradicate these forms of domination.

Call Made: Not awarded in 2026.

Deadline for nominations: Not awarded in 2026.

Award Committee

Name	Affiliation	Email

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Best Dissertation Award

The competition is open to political science dissertations that focus on human rights.  To be eligible, a dissertation must have been completed and accepted within the two calendar years prior to the year in which the award is given.  The date the dissertation was filed will establish the relevant year. 

Nomination Instructions: A full pdf copy of the filed dissertation, along with a letter of support from the nominee’s dissertation chair, should be sent to each member of the award committee by email.  The letter should specify the contribution of the work to the field of human rights in 1000 words or less.  A qualifying dissertation can be submitted for consideration only once. 

Call Made: December 1, 2025

Deadline for nominations: February 16, 2026

Award Committee

Name	Affiliation	Email
Eugene Richard Sensenig (Chair)	Notre Dame University, Zouk Mosbeh Campus	eugensensenig@gmail.com
Gino Pauselli	University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign	pauselli@illinois.edu
Isabel G. Laterzo	University of Texas at Austin	isabel.laterzo@austin.utexas.edu
Ñusta Carranza Ko	University of Baltimore	nustako@gmail.com
Robyn Linde	Rhode Island College	rlinde@ric.edu

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Best Paper Award

The competition is open to papers presented on an APSA panel sponsored by the Human Rights section at the most recent American Political Science Association Annual Meeting. 

Nomination Instructions.  Please send a full pdf copy of the paper, along with a cover letter indicating the APSA panel on which it was presented and the name of the panel chair, to each member of the award committee.  Self-nominations are welcome. 

Call Made: December 1, 2025

Deadline for nominations: February 16, 2026

Award Committee

Name	Affiliation	Email
Pelekeh Tapang (Chair)	York University	pelekeh@gmail.com
Audrey Comstock	Arizona State University	audrey.comstock@asu.edu
Bi Zhao	Gonzaga University	zhaob@gonzaga.edu
Emily Hencken Ritter	Vanderbilt University	emily.h.ritter@vanderbilt.edu
Katerina Tertytchnaya	Oxford University	katerina.tertytchnaya@politics.ox.ac.uk