Academic Leadership in Political Science Award

Academic Leadership in Political Science Award is awarded in recognition of outstanding inclusive and collaborative academic leadership in the discipline of Political Science, broadly defined.

Academic Leadership in Political Science Award Guideline

  • Call for Nominations 
  • Closing Date for Nominations 19 July 2024
  • Commission of Winner’s Award  

APSA reserves the right not to make an award in any given year.

Nomination Guidelines

  • The Award is open to persons employed in an academic position in the discipline of Political Science (at any level).
  • Both nominee and nominator must be a current financial member of APSA in the year of nomination.
  • Nominees will be judged on the extent to which they have provided outstanding leadership in one or more of the following areas:
    • supporting academic pluralism and the value of diverse approaches to the discipline;
    • mentoring and championing colleagues, especially women and members of non-dominant groups, as well as early career academics;
    • role modelling academic rigor through constructive feedback of research and co-publishing;
    • demonstrating awareness of the particular challenges experienced by women and members of non-dominant groups, as well as those faced by early career academics;
    • building research communities and collaborative academic opportunities.
  • Nominations must include short statements (around 500 words each) from the nominator and two other colleagues, describing how the nominee exhibits the values of inclusive and collaborative academic leadership. Supporting statements may come from mentees or other colleagues; at least one statement should ideally come from a woman and/or non-dominant group; and (if possible ) a weblink to link to either the nominee’s webpage at their home institution or CV (if this nominee has posted their CV online). We are attentive to performance related to opportunity criteria and institutional context and would encourage nominees to include where relevant these considerations in their supporting statements.
  • All documents should be emailed to the APSA National Office at: Arts-SSPS-APSA@unimelb.edu.au by the announced due date. Please do not submit anything until the call for nominations is announced.

Judging Process

  • The decision will be made by a sub-committee appointed by the APSA Executive. Past winners will be encouraged to participate in the judging process for future awards.
  • Anybody who has been nominated for the prize or who has nominated someone else for the prize will not be eligible to participate in the judging panel. Members of judging panels should adhere to the Guidance on Identifying and Managing Conflicts of Interest. If the Chair of a judging panel has a significant conflict of interest, they must relinquish their position as Chair to one of the other panellists.

Award Details

  • The winner will be invited to attend the Association’s annual conference dinner (funded by APSA) and receive a certificate and lifetime membership of APSA.
  • APSA will name only the winner, not the nominees.

Past Winners

2023: Professor Darren Halpin

2022: Professor Lisa Hill

2021: Professor Sarah Maddison

2020: Professor Rodney Smith

Special commendation for Associate Professor Ben Isakhan

2018: Professor Ariadne Vromen 

2017: Professor Adrian Little

2016: Professor Pippa Norris

2015: Dr Gwenda Tavan, Dr Barbara Sullivan, Associate Professor Jim Jose, Professor David Marsh.