A Message From Our Chair on the 2022/23 PSA Academic Prizes

As we launch the PSA prizes for another year, some of you may notice a few changes to the categories this year.

These changes emerged from a review of the association’s prizes conducted by a Prizes Working Group last year. I was pleased to chair this group, but was helped enormously by the huge contributions of the other members: Fiona MacKay, Kate Dommett, Amelia Hadfield, Rose Gann and Lali Sindi from the PSA staff team. As a result of these deliberations, there are a few prizes this year here the eligibility criteria have changed somewhat, as well as some completely new prizes.

Let me outline some of the main changes. First, we have made the eligibility criteria consistent for all ‘early career’ PSA prizes. These will now be eligible to recognize achievement “normally made within ten years of the completion of a PhD or equivalent”. Note, though, the word ‘normally’. There will be flexibility for nominees who have had significant career interruptions of various kinds.

Second, for many years the PSA has had a Richard Rose prize for early career scholars specializing in the study of British politics. Reflecting the increasingly global focus of political studies in the UK (and with the support of Prof Rose, who of course has made many distinguished contributions himself to the comparative study of politics) we have decided to open this prize to scholars in all areas. Leading young scholars studying Britain are, of course, still eligible for the prize – but so is everyone else!

Third, and recognizing how much of our work is conducted through various forms of collaboration, we have created new Team prizes in both the areas of research and teaching. Here we are looking for nominations from outstanding collaborative efforts – which could, of course, take various forms. It is great to have these new prizes named after Pippa Norris and Jacqui Briggs respectively.

Fourth, we have created two new prizes (an early career and an ‘open’ prize) for professional contributions prizes. These will allow the PSA to recognise, as it has long done, matters like public engagement and communications. But it also gives us also scope for acknowledging contributions to the profession, and to the profile of political studies, made in some other ways.

Finally, in addition to our very long-standing McKenzie prize for the best book published in a particular year, and in recognition that much field-defining work is published in a variety of ways, we have also introduced an additional prize for outstanding contributions (either contained in a single piece or spread across a body of work). We are delighted that Carole Pateman agreed to have this named after her.

With all this emphasis on change please note that a number of the PSA’s prizes remain unchanged. These include our PhD prizes, which reward outstanding doctoral theses in various fields.

Huge thanks are due to the Prizes Working Group members for helping us to refresh how we recognize excellence and outstanding achievement. Thanks also to the many great scholars, or their families for those no longer with us, for supporting our efforts by allowing us to name prizes after them.

Now, let’s get those nominations flooding in!

Roger Awan-Scully
Chair, Political Studies Association of the United Kingdom - Professor of Political Science

Want to make a nomination? You can do so here.

Deadline: Friday 13 January 2023