Political Science Graduate Awards

The following awards are available for graduate students in the department:

Andersen Award

Kristi Andersen Award to Support Attendance at IQMR (Institute for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research).

Most Recent Winners (2021): Farrah Brown, Aaron Lattanzi, Nilesh Sinha, Ivy Raines, Raza Raja

Previous Winners (2020): Farrah Brown, Aaron Lattanzi, Nilesh Sinha

Previous Winners (2019): Ugur Altundal, Vinessa Buckland, Tae Hyun Lim, María Laura Veramendi García

Cohn Fund

The Cohn fund is used to reward the best application for external funding.

Most Recent Winner (2021): Emma Dreher, Kyungwon Suh

Previous Winners (2020): Ugur Altundal, María Laura Veramendi García

Previous Winner (2019): Jason Blessing

John D. Nagle Fund

The John D. Nagle fund is endowed to support grad students in political science who are conducting research abroad on issues related to political change and social injustice.

Most Recent Winner (2021): María Laura Veramendi García

Previous Winner (2020): Bess Davis

Previous Winner (2019): Katharine Russell

Ketcham Award

The Ketcham Award is intended for students that study citizenship and public affairs whose work exhibits “commitment to open and just public life.”

Most Recent Winners (2021): Ugur Altundal, Bess Davis

Previous Winners (2019): Aykut Ozturk, Claire Sigsworth

Previous Winner (2017): Rachel MacMaster

Kissel Award

The Kissel Fund supports research and teaching on civil liberties, broadly defined. In some years, this will include awards to graduate students doing research in this area.

Most Recent Winners (2020): Claire Sigsworth, Nathan Carrington, Laura Jenkins, Nilesh Sinha

Previous Winners (2019): Brianna MacMahon, Nathaniel Carrington, Claire Sigsworth, Laura Jenkins

Koff Award

The Koff Award is for the best graduate student paper written each year on comparative politics.

Most Recent Winner (2021): Sefa Secen

Previous Winner (2020): Tae Hyun Lim

Previous Winner (2019): Dongshu Liu

Meiklejohn Award

The Meiklejohn Award is intended for students whose work exhibits “commitment to open and just public life."

Most Recent Winner (2021): Farrah Brown

Previous Winner (2020): Sefa Secen

Previous Winner (2019): Beatriz Rey

Stonecash Award

The Stonecash Award is for the best graduate student paper written this year on American politics or may provide an annual award for outstanding academic performance by a graduate student as judged by the Chair of the department or his/her designee.

Most Recent Winner (2021): Nathan Carrington, Colin French

Previous Winner (2020): Emma Dreher


Previous Winners (2018): Nathaniel Carrington, Dongshu Liu

Thorson Award

Stuart Thorson Award to Support Attendance at ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research).

Most Recent Winners (2021): Farrah Brown, Ayşenur Deger, Dan Jackson, Kari Waters

Previous Winners (2020): Amr El Afifi, Kari Waters

Previous Winners (2019): Kyungwon Suh, Jiayi Zhang