Of Note

Andrew O’Donohue Receives Best Conference Paper Award at APSA

Graduate Student Associate Andrew O’Donohue is the recipient of the 2024 Best Conference Paper Award from the American Political Science Association’s Law and Courts Section. He was recognized for his paper, “Law versus Democracy: Minoritarian Courts, Audience Costs, and Democratic Backsliding in Turkey,” an in-depth study highlighting how Turkey’s independent courts—not just executives—can undermine democracy. The award honors the best paper on law and politics presented at APSA’s annual meeting and showcases groundbreaking research in the field.

Two Faculty Associates Receive HBS Teaching Award Honors

Faculty Associates Rawi Abdelal (Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at Harvard Business School) and Meg Rithmire (James E. Robison Professor at Harvard Business School) are corecipients of faculty teaching award honors, as chosen by students from the Harvard Business School graduating class of 2025. All four awarded professors were recognized for their excellence and dedication to teaching, and for the positive impact they had both in and out of the classroom. The students based their decision on six criteria: inspiration, knowledge transfer, accessibility, career guidance, quality of life, and feedback.

Lydia Walker Receives 2025 James J. Busuttil Prize and Medal for Human Rights

Former Graduate Student Associate Lydia Walker, assistant professor and Myers Chair in Global Military History at The Ohio State University, is the corecipient of the 2025 James J. Busuttil Prize and Medal for Human Rights for her book, States-in-Waiting: A Counternarrative of Global Decolonization (Cambridge University Press). The prize, given by the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, goes to exemplary works of early career scholarship that make a distinctive and compelling contribution to the study of human rights. According to the Royal Asia Society, the Medal and Prize are offered by Dr. James J. Busuttil, an activist, author, academic and nongovernmental organization leader in human rights, to promote research and publication on human rights. The award was instigated in 2024 and the inaugural award was made in 2025.

Anna Grzymala-Busse Wins 2025 Heinz I. Eulau Award

Advisory Committee member Anna Grzymala-Busse, Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies at Stanford University, receives the 2025 Heinz I. Eulau Award. The award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best article published in the APSA journal, American Political Science Review. Her article, “Tilly Goes to Church: The Religious and Medieval Roots of European State Fragmentation,” questions the prevailing view that European state development involved overcoming fragmentation in the early modern era as centralizing governments forged strong states through warfare.

Ya-Wen Lei Receives 2025 Alice Amsden Book Award

Faculty Associate Ya-Wen Lei, professor of sociology at Harvard University, is the corecipient of the 2025 Alice Amsden Book Award for her book, The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (Princeton University Press). Awarded annually, the award celebrates groundbreaking scholarly works that push the boundaries of socioeconomic research and offers fresh perspectives on the complexities of global economic development. Lei’s book was chosen because of its powerful insights into the policy and legal instruments that underpin the functioning of the Chinese state and its relationship with private firms.

Ian Kumekawa Wins 2025 Craufurd Goodwin Prize

Former Graduate Student Affiliate Ian Kumekawa, Anniversary Fellow at the Center for History and Economics at Harvard University and a lecturer in history at MIT, is the recipient of the 2025 Craufurd Goodwin Prize, for his article "Measuring the Cost of Pollution: Economic Life, Economic Theory, and the Origins of Environmental Economics" in the Journal of Modern History. The award, established in 1995 (and named after Craufurd Goodwin in 2017), is presented by the History of Economics Society for the best article in the history of economics during the previous publication year.

Prerna Singh Awarded Max Planck-Humboldt Medal

Former Academy Scholar and Faculty Associate Prerna Singh, Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and International and Public Affairs and Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University, was awarded a Max Planck-Humboldt Medal for her research on the development of welfare states in the Global South—specifically her research on vaccine hesitancy in India and China. Every year, the Max Planck Society and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation give the Max Planck-Humboldt Research Award to a researcher from abroad. The prize, according to their website, is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, and is awarded alternately to research projects in natural and engineering sciences, life sciences, and the humanities, social sciences, and human sciences.

Pippa Norris Receives 2025 Sir David Butler Prize

Faculty Associate Pippa Norris, Paul F. McGuire Lecturer in Comparative Politics at Harvard Kennedy School, was awarded the 2025 Sir David Butler Prize for Lifetime Contribution to the Study of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties. The prize, administered by the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties (EPOP) group of the Political Studies Association, celebrates a notable scholar either retired or close to retirement, who made a distinctive and indelible mark on the discipline. According to the EPOP, “Sir David Butler was one of the founding fathers of the quantitative study of elections in Britain and thus the discipline of psephology (which he also named).”

Beth Simmons Elected President of APSA

Former Weatherhead Center Director Beth Simmons, Andrea Mitchell University Professor of Law and Political Science Penn Law at the University of Pennsylvania, has been elected president of the American Political Science Association (APSA) for the 2025–2026 term. Simmons, an active member for over thirty years, has previously served in various APSA leadership roles. Founded in 1903, APSA is the world’s largest political science association, with over 11,000 members across more than 100 countries. Simmons is recognized for her research on how international law influences human rights, the political economy during the interwar years, and the spread of global policies.

Ieva Jusionyte Wins 2025 MacArthur Fellowship

Former Faculty Associate Ieva Jusionyte, Watson Family University Professor of International Security and Anthropology in the Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, was selected as a 2025 MacArthur Fellow—a no-strings-attached fellowship known as the “genius grant.” Every year the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awards fellowships directly to creative individuals—rather than through institutions—who have demonstrated excellence in their fields and the potential to make meaningful, positive impacts on society through their innovative work or outstanding achievements. Jusionyte is a cultural anthropologist who explores the political and moral ambiguities of border regions—her most recent book unpacked the complexities of gun trafficking and violence at the US–Mexico border.

Michael Sandel Wins 2025 Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture

Faculty Associate Michael Sandel, Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government at Harvard University, is the 2025 recipient of the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy and Culture in recognition of his influential work on justice, ethics, markets, and democracy. This annual award—first given in 2016 and established by the Berggruen Institute—is selected by an international panel of scholars and writers. It honors individuals whose ideas have significantly deepened humanity’s understanding of itself and the world. The Berggruen Prize Jury selected Michael Sandel, the ninth laureate, for his far-reaching contributions to public discourse and the common good within society.

Paul Kosmin Wins American Historical Association Award

Faculty Associate Paul Kosmin, Philip J. King Professor of Ancient History at Harvard University, has been awarded the American Historical Association 2025 Prize in History Prior to CE 1000. His book, The Ancient Shore (Harvard University Press), was awarded the prize for the best book in English in any field of history prior to CE 1000. Founded in 1985 and initially named after James Henry Breasted—a trailblazer in ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern history and the Association’s president in 1928—the prize was endowed by longtime Association member Joseph O. Losos. The name of the prize was changed in 2024.

Sunil Amrith Wins British Academy Book Prize

Former Faculty Associate Sunil Amrith, Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History at Yale University, is the recipient of the 2025 British Academy Book Prize for his book, The Burning Earth: An Environmental History of the Last 500 Years (W. W. Norton). The British Academy Book Prize was “established in 2013 to reward and celebrate writing grounded in high-quality research—works of nonfiction that will inspire readers to deepen their understanding of people, society, and cultures across time and place.” Amrith is the thirteenth recipient of the award, and impressed the judges with his groundbreaking work of global environmental history that reveals the connections between human history and environmental change.

Noah Feldman Appointed University Professor

Faculty Associate Noah Feldman, Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, is one of the recipients of the highest faculty distinctions at Harvard University with an appointment as University Professor. The Harvard Gazette notes that “the title was created in 1935 to honor individuals whose groundbreaking work crosses the boundaries of multiple disciplines, allowing them to pursue research at any of Harvard’s Schools.” Feldman has been named the Arthur Kingsley Porter University Professor. The appointment honors a scholar in the humanities.