SPSA2022 Award Recipients:
Malcolm Jewell Award:
The 2022 Malcolm Jewell Award recognizes the author of the Best Graduate Student Paper presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association.
“Refugees and the Radical Right.”
Anil Menon, University of Michigan
The committee citations stated, “We had a difficult job in selecting a winner among the excellent nominees. After a careful review, ‘Refugees and Radical Right’ by Anil Menon, University of Michigan, was selected. This paper examines the impact of ethnic Germans who were expelled from Eastern Europe at the end of WWII, and the enduring impact these refugees (or expellees) had on support for radical right parties in Germany. Menon finds it is the expellees, and not native German counterparts, who are driving support for the radical right in the regions where they settled. This paper stood out because of the combination of a highly relevant topic, remarkable data collection efforts, and an impressive causal identification strategy. It was also very well written, which is not a given especially when high level statistical methods are employed.”
Marian Irish Award:
The 2022 Marian Irish Award recognizes the authors of the Best Papers on Women and Politics presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association:
“Controversial Judges and Women’s Rights.”
Melissa Baker, University of California, Merced
Kayla Canelo, University of Texas at Arlington
AND
“Crediting Invisible Work (Horses): Congress and the Lawmaking Productivity Metric.”
Mandi Eatough, University of Michigan
Jessica Preece, Brigham Young University
The committee citation stated, “The Marian Irish Award Committee was thrilled to receive so many nominations for this prestigious award. All nominations were of papers presented at the 2021 annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association. The quality of the nominations was excellent, which led to the Committee awarding this honor to two papers:
“Controversial Judges and Women’s Rights”
Melissa Baker (University of California-Merced) and Kayla Canelo (University of Texas-Arlington)
AND
“Crediting Invisible Work (Horses): Congress and the Lawmaking Productivity Metric”
Mandi Eatough (University of Michigan) and Jessica Preece (Brigham Young University)
In “Controversial Judges and Women’s Rights,” Melissa and Kayla examine how the public views controversial appointments to the federal bench. In particular, they assess whether the nomination of individuals who have been accused of sexual harassment leads individuals to see those judges as threats to the rights of women. Using an experimental design, they find that women (but not men) are more likely to question an accused judge’s ability to rule fairly. Their findings have important implications for how the public evaluates the courts, including how nomination politics can color those evaluations differentially for men and women.
In “Crediting Invisible Work (Horses),” Mandi and Jessica develop a new measure of legislative productivity that takes into account behind-the-scenes lawmaking as well as traditional data about bill sponsorship, co-sponsorship, and amendments. They use this novel measure to reassess legislative productivity, finding that traditional measures understate the legislative successes of women and minorities because they are more likely to act behind-the-scenes. Their findings have important implications for understanding the legislative process, especially how gender and race shape the ways legislators choose to act.
The committee highly recommends these papers and enthusiastically congratulates both sets of authors!”
Neal Tate Award
The 2022 Neal Tate Award recognizes the authors of the Best Paper on Judicial Politics presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association:
Incremental or Transformative? The Effect of Civil War on Institutional Change
Liana Eustacia Reyes, Rice University
Keith E. Hamm, Rice University
Maria Aroca, Rice University
Nancy Martorano Miller, University of Dayton
Ronald D. Hedlund, Northeastern University
The committee citation stated, “”Incremental or Transformative? The Effect of Civil War on Institutional Change” is theoretically original and methodologically creative. The committee especially liked the work of merging American Political Development in law and courts and comparative institutional development literature. The insight that white southerners’ skepticism
of federal authority was as much a product of their experience with the Confederacy and the loss of its version of federal legitimacy as it was of their experience with the U.S. government was particularly interesting. The move toward empirical work based on data generated from older historical cases and applying that history into our understanding of contemporary constitutional development in other areas is a welcome addition to the literature.”
Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award:
The 2022 Pi Sigma Alpha Best Paper Award recognizes the authors of the Best Overall Paper presented at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the Southern Political Science Association:
Crediting Invisible Work (Horses): Congress and the Lawmaking Productivity Metric
Mandi Eatough, University of Michigan
Jessica Preece, Brigham Young University
The committee citation stated, “This paper addresses a theoretical and empirical shortcoming in the congressional literature: how do we identify “work horses” from “show horses”? Conventional measures that focus on the traditional bill sponsorship and passage process cannot differentiate the two types. In this paper, Eatough and Preece first compile data on bill sponsorship, cosponsorship, and amendments; they then use text-as-data methods to credit instances of behind-the-scenes lawmaking via text reuse between bills; and finally they weight achievements from each of those lawmaking methods. Using these weights (“LawProM”), Eatough and Preece find that traditional measures systematically undercount the legislative successes of women and Black Members of Congress because they disproportionately legislate in less visible ways. The committee found this paper theoretically grounded and technically implemented. We believe this paper will open up myriad avenues for future research; we can see the metric as a major contributor to the literature. And for these reasons, we believe it worthy of the Pi Sigma Alpha Award.”
Diane Blair Award:
2022 Diane Blair Award is given biennially to recognize a political scientist who has played an outstanding role in politics and/or government during his or her career:
The citation stated, “During her career as a political scientist at the University of Arkansas, Diane Blair was not only an outstanding teacher and researcher, but played an unusually vigorous and effective role in the political world and in government, including working in state and national political campaigns and serving on state and national boards and commissions.
We give the award every other year, to a political scientist who has played an outstanding role in politics and/or government during his or her career. In that sense, it might be thought of as a “lifetime achievement” award.
One purpose of the award is to emphasize how important it is for political scientists to use their professional skills and learning in the real world of politics and government.
Our awardee has not only played an unusually vigorous and effective role in the political world and in government, he has played a vital role in helping others do the same.
Dr. Jeffrey Biggs served as director of the American Political Science Association Congressional Fellowship Program from 1997 to 2014.
The program allows professors, but also journalists, federal employees, and other professionals to experience congress by serving one year on a congressional staff. He should know the importance of this fellowship; he worked in the foreign service for 21 years and then was a congressional fellow in 1984 with Congressman Tom Foley and Senator Alan Simpson. He then served as press secretary for Majority Leader then-Speaker Foley from 1987-1994.
Along with mentoring fellows, he also oversaw new partnerships for the program.
One professor (and former fellow) said of our awardee, “It is honestly difficult for me to think of a person who would be on more political scientists’ “Most Influential to My Career” than Jeff. His impact has been massive.”
Another stated, “He was a dedicated, effective and thoughtful steward of the CFP for so many years. I can attest personally to his dedication and mentorship. He has shaped the professional trajectories of so many political scientists through the CFP program and sharpened our understanding of how Congress operates through this work. He [is] an ideal recipient of this honor.”
Another former fellow noted: “Jeff was a fantastic guide for finding your way around the Hill. He was always willing to provide suggestions, guidance, or general friendship. He was always willing to use any connection he had to help any of us at any time.”
Joseph L. Bernd JOP Best Paper Award:
The 2022 Joseph L. Bernd JOP Best Paper Award recognizes the authors of the Best Paper published in the Journal of Politics in 2021:
“Family History and Attitudes toward Out-Groups: Evidence from the European Refugee Crisis”
Elias Dinas, University of Oxford
Vasiliki Fouka, Stanford University
Alain Schläpfer, Stanford University
The committee citation stated, “The committee read over 100 papers and evaluated them on 5 criteria: originality, significance, and quality of argument, evidence, and writing. Out of the many excellent papers published in the JOP in 2021, this manuscript scored the highest across these criteria. The project has an important research question–can leveraging family history reduce xenophobia?–which speaks to current refugee resettlement efforts. It tackles this question in an impressive way, with two large-scale surveys in Greece and Germany. And, it offers important, nuanced results: priming the parallels between family history and the experience of contemporary out-groups increases sympathy for refugees among respondents with a family history of forced displacement. This effect spills over to individuals without a refugee background if they live in places with a large share of refugee descendants. But, individuals without such a family history respond negatively to the treatment. These results suggest that highlighting the past can have a significant impact on public opinion in the present.”
V.O. Key Award:
“Movers and Stayers: The Partisan Transformation of 21st Century Southern Politics.”
Irwin L. Morris, North Carolina State University
The committee citation stated, “This year’s winner of the V.O. Key Award honoring the best book on Southern Politics is Irwin Morris for his book Movers and Stayers: The Partisan Transformation of 21st Century Southern Politics
In Movers and Stayers, Morris examines how population growth—specifically, the in-migration of non-southerners (the movers), has influenced the politics of where these populations settle. Morris finds that the influx of young, better educated residents to Southern urban centers for career purposes is the primary driver of recent increases in Democratic Party support in Dixie, contrary to explanations based on the rural/urban divide, on the increasing urbanization of the South, or on political sorting. Their preferences for more progressive policies conflicts sharply with those of long-term southerners (the stayers) who desire the region to maintain its traditional conservative policies and governance. This tension between movers and stayers fuels polarization both regionally and nationally. Morris’ identification of migration as central to the transformation of the South is novel, and it provides inspiration for future research.
Finally, the book challenges scholars to reconceptualize “The South.” Movers and Stayers draws attention to the fact that in the 21st century, the region is more than simply a collection of the states that comprised the Confederacy. In doing so, the book begins to shift our focus from analyzing the region in terms of a deep vs. rim state perspective to one distinguishing growing (e.g., Georgia, Florida and Texas) and declining (e.g., Alabama and Mississippi) Southern states.”
Walter Beach Travel Award
The 2022 Walter Beach Travel Award was presented to a foreign colleague to assist him/her with the opportunity to present at the annual conference.
Alberto Lioy, University of Hradec Kralove.
Erika Fairchild Award
The 2022 Erika Fairchild Award is presented biennially by the SPSA Women.
Mirya Holman, Tulane University
