# Of Note ![Michele Lamont standing and smiling while holding flowers and receiving the award from another person.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_1_1__720x720_scale/public/wcfia/files/kohli_prize_picture.png?itok=4wgQoL43) Photograph of Michèle Lamont receiving the Kohli Prize. *Courtesy of Michèle Lamont*## Michèle Lamont Wins Kohli Prize Former Center Director **Michèle Lamont**, Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies and professor of sociology and of African and African American studies at Harvard University, is the 2024 recipient of the Kohli Prize for Sociology. Sponsored by the the Kohli Foundation for Sociology, the prize is awarded annually to scholars who make significant contributions to the field. Lamont was recognized for her “scholarly work on boundaries, inequalities, and social worth.” ## James A. Robinson Wins Nobel Prize in Economics Former Faculty Associate **James Robinson**, Rev. Dr. Richard L. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies and a University Professor at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, is one of three recipients (with Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson of MIT) of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2024. The three laureates received the prize in economics for their ability to help people understand differences in prosperity between nations. Every year the Nobel Foundation, a private institution established in 1900, awards prizes in six different fields: physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, peace, and economic sciences. The 2024 Nobel Prize award ceremonies take place on December 10, also known as Nobel Day, in Oslo and Stockholm. ## Caroline Elkins Wins NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize Faculty Associate **Caroline Elkins**, professor of history and of African and African American studies at Harvard University and the Thomas Henry Carroll/Ford Foundation Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, is the recipient of the 2024 NYU/Axinn Foundation Prize. The award, established by the Axinn Foundation in partnership with NYU’s Graduate School of Arts and Science, “honors an American writer of artistic literary narrative nonfiction whose published book or books are of exceptional quality and societal import.” Elkins is the author of *Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire* and the Pulitzer-Prize-winning *Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya*. ## Natán Skigin Wins 2024 Kellogg Dissertation Award Raphael Morrison Dorman Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow **Natán Skigin** of the Weatherhead Scholars Program is the recipient of the 2024 Kellogg Institute Award for Distinguished Dissertation on Democracy and Human Development for his dissertation, “Challenging Stigma from Below: How Human Rights Movements Contest Repressive States and Shape Democratic Citizenship.” The prize, given by the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, is given annually to a former doctoral student affiliate for excellence in research consistent with the mission and research themes of the Institute. ## Several Weatherhead Affiliates Win Harvard FAS Awards Many Weatherhead Center affiliates received awards in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. William Lyon Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian Studies **Antonia Maioni** is the recipient of the 2024 Joseph R. Levenson Memorial Teaching Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching. Faculty Associate **Rosie Bsheer** received the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award, which recognizes faculty who offer extra support and guidance to graduate students’ research, education, and development. Faculty Associates **Emmanuel Akyeampong, Ya-Wen Lei, Steven Levitsky, Peter Der Manuelian, Derek Penslar, Dustin Tingley**, and **Daniel Ziblatt** were all awarded Walter Channing Cabot Fellows, selected in honor of their outstanding contributions to their fields, including their notable publications. Finally, **Melissa Dell, Alison Frank Johnson, Nick Harkness**, and **Maya Jasanoff** were awarded with an extra semester of paid sabbatical leave in recognition of their contributions and remarkable dedication to their students, colleagues, and the University. ## Stuart McManus Wins Dan David Prize Former Graduate Student Affiliate **Stuart M. McManus**, now assistant professor of history at Chinese University of Hong Kong, is a recipient of the 2024 Dan David Prize. The award recognizes “outstanding scholarship that illuminates the past and seeks to anchor public discourse in a deeper understanding of history.” It is given each year to outstanding early and mid-career scholars and practitioners in the historical disciplines. McManus is a historian of the global renaissance, working on his second book on the story underlying the famous 1619 slave voyage to Virginia. ## APSA Award Winners in European Politics and Society Graduate Student Associate **Andrew O’Donohue**, PhD candidate in the Department of Government, is a recipient of the Best Paper Award, European Politics and Society (Section 21), from the American Political Science Association (APSA), for the paper “Law versus Democracy: Minoritarian Courts, Audience Costs, and Democratic Backsliding in Turkey.” The Best Article Award in the same section, given for the best article dealing with European politics and society, goes to Advisory Committee Member **Anna Grzymala-Busse** for her article, “Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation.” ## Theda Skocpol Wins the Khaldun Award Faculty Associate **Theda Skocpol**, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University, is the recipient of the 2024 Khaldun Award. The award, given by the Comparative Historical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association, is meant to recognize a “lifetime of outstanding contributions to the subfield of comparative-historical sociology.” Skocpol’s work, notes the committee, covers an unusually broad spectrum of topics including both comparative politics and American politics. She is widely cited and has won many awards over the course of her long and illustrious career. ## Michael McElroy Wins William Bowie Medal Faculty Associate **Michael McElroy**, Gilbert Butler Professor of Environmental Studies at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, is the winner of the 2024 William Bowie Medal—the highest honor conferred by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The award, established in 1939, goes to an experienced senior scientist who is an established leader in their field, with outstanding contributions to fundamental Earth and space science. The medal was established “in honor of William Bowie for his spirit of helpfulness and friendliness in unselfish cooperative research.” Among many other projects at Harvard, McElroy heads up the Harvard-China Project on Energy, Economy, and Environment, which has collaborated for more than twenty years with colleagues in China. ## Gabriela Soto Laveaga Elected to the Academia Mexicana de la Historia Faculty Associate **Gabriela Soto Laveaga**, Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of Mexico at Harvard University, has been elected as a member of the Academia Mexicana de la Historia, one of the highest honors a historian of Mexico can receive. According to the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, her election “not only recognizes Soto Laveaga’s significant contributions to the field of Mexican history but also underscores her influence in the broader historical and academic communities. Her work continues to bridge geographical and disciplinary divides, making her a respected figure both in Mexico and internationally.” ## Matthew Anzarouth Wins Rhodes Scholarship Canada Program Undergraduate Research Fellow **Matthew Anzarouth**, an AB candidate in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies at Harvard College, is the recipient of a 2025 Rhodes Scholarship for Canada and plans to study political theory at Oxford. He is one of three international students at Harvard to win the prestigious scholarship. Anzarouth received a grant from the Weatherhead Center’s Canada Program for summer research toward his senior thesis on Canadian federalism, with a focus on Quebec language conflict and Indigenous self-determination claims. ## Egor Lazarev’s Book Wins Several Awards and Honorable Mentions Former Academy Scholar **Egor Lazarev**, now assistant professor of political science at Yale University, is the recipient of several awards for his book, *State-Building as Lawfare: Custom, Sharia, and State Law in Postwar Chechnya*, including the 2024 Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize (sponsored by the Association for Slavic Studies, East European, and Eurasian Studies \[ASEEES\] and the Stanford University Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies) and the 2024 Gaddis Smith International Book Prize (sponsored by the Yale Macmillan Center). Lazarev’s book also received honorable mentions for the Luebbert Best Book in American Political Science Association Comparative Politics and this year's Davis Center Book Prize (sponsored by Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies). ## Hardeep Dhillon Receives Vicki L. Ruiz Award Former Graduate Research Associate **Hardeep Dhillon**, now assistant professor of Asian American history at the University of Pennsylvania, is the recipient of the 2024 Vicki L. Ruiz Award for her article, “The Making of Modern US Citizenship and Alienage: The History of Asian Immigration, Racial Capital, and US Law,” *Law and History Review* (February 2023). The award, funded by the Western History Association, is given to the best article in a peer-reviewed journal on race in the American West to honor Dr. Ruiz’s significant contributions to the field of Western history. ## Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey Wins Governor General’s History Award Former William Lyon Mackenzie King Postdoctoral Fellow **Wendell Nii Laryea Adjetey**, now associate professor of post-Reconstruction US and African diaspora history and William Dawson Scholar at McGill University, is the recipient of the 2024 Governor General’s History Award for Scholarly Research for his book, *Cross-Border Cosmopolitans: The Making of a Pan-African North America*. The award, administered by the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) in partnership with Canada’s National History Society, celebrates the achievements of people from across Canada who share a vision and passion for history, and for making a difference in their communities. The CHA praised Adjetey’s book as “a remarkable work” and “a necessary and welcome contribution.” ## More from this issue [### Fall 2024, Volume 39 Number 1 ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024) ![Graphic of a large beige W and the words "Centerpiece" and issue information overlaid onto a darker beige background, next to a sepia-toned photo of a stucco building and doorframe with pigeons on the floor.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/Cover.png?itok=g8Ikep3B) [### Message from the Executive Director ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/executive-director) ![Headshot of Erin Goodman next to her name and title against gray background.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-05/goodman_erin_square_full_with-title.png?h=7d0147dd&itok=SEBskCwr) [### New Books ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/newbooks) ![Collage of a dozen book covers.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-04/New%20Books.png?itok=-4-umYfn) [### Dispatches: Undergraduate Researchers in the Field ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/dispatches) ![A woman with long dyed braids is leaning out of a car and looking down the road toward a sunset.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/dispatches_feature_-_image_only.png?itok=IpcAUlQT) [### Cope, Adapt, Thrive: Ensuring Our Shared Future on a Hot and Hostile Planet ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/feature_jodidi) ![Tjada D'Oyen McKenna and Melani Cammett are seated in leather chairs and smiling at someone in the audience (off camera).](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/tocimages-jodidi-2630px.jpg?itok=X4Wohd5a) [### Weatherhead Research Cluster on Identity Politics ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/prog_gsnic) ![A group of people standing in rows on a platform, posing for a group photo in a conference setting.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/wcfia/files/researchgroups-wrcip-group-2630px.jpg?itok=FySEmczL) [### Student Programs ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/prog_student) ![Several Juster Fellow students pose with Kenneth Juster and his wife in a lobby.](/sites/g/files/omnuum8891/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-04/ResearchGroups-students-JusterLunch-2630px.jpg?itok=IqNMWaPd) [### Photo Gallery for Fall 2024 Centerpiece ](/publications/centerpiece/fall2024/photo_gallery) description [ More About Centerpiece arrow\_circle\_right ](https://prod-wcfia.drupalsites.harvard.edu/publications/centerpiece) See also:- [ Centerpiece: Fall 2024 ](/newsletter-issues/centerpiece-fall-2024)