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The Department of Government is one of the leading political science communities in the United States. Our faculty represent a broad spectrum of backgrounds, methodologies and approaches. We have strength in teaching and research not only in the four fields of political science—American politics, political theory, comparative politics, and international relations—but also in the areas of formal theory, methodology, and political economy.

DEPARTMENT NEWS

Ryan J. Owens and Ryan C. Black (Michigan State University), received a National Science Foundation grant for their project: "Estimating the Policy Preferences of United States Courts of Appeals Judges Across Circuits and American Political Institutions."

Jennifer Hochschild and Vesla Weaver, have been awarded with the "Best Paper in the 2008 APSA Convention from the section on Public Policy." for their paper entitled: "The Shifting Politics of Multiracialism in the United States."

Beth Simmons, has been named to the 2009 class of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows: http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/04.23/99-aaas.html

Professor Stephen Ansolabehere testified in front of the Senate Rules Committee this morning: March 11th, 2009 about election administration, using data from the 2008 CCES. (Also reported on by the New York Times)

Daniel Ziblatt, "Shaping Democratic Practice and the Causes of Electoral Fraud: The Case of Nineteenth Century Germany" American Political Science Review 103 (1) February 2009
Rebecca Buckwalter-Poza ’10 has been awarded one of the 2009 Truman Scholarships for public service.

Nancy Rosenblum has been nominated for the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award. This is an award given out annually by the GSC to recognize faculty members who go above and beyond in their service as mentors to graduate students by supporting and promoting their students' research, educational, professional and personal development.

Steven Levitsky "Looking at the world through a comparative lens."

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2009/02.26/11-levitsky.html

Daniel Hopkins (PhD 2007) won the 2008 APSA E.E. Schattschneider Award for his dissertation, “When Differences Divide: How National Influences and Local Demographics Shape Politics Between Ethnic Groups.” Daniel Hopkins has also won the Richard J. Herrnstein Prize awarded by the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

Jennifer Hochschild gave the Sir Robert Birley Lecture at City University of London, on Nov. 6, 2008. It was entitled:  "The Uncertain Politics of Multiracialism in the United States."
Jennifer Hochschild has also been invited to hold the Chair in American Law and Governance at the John W. Kluge Center of the Library of Congress for a term.  She will spend the winter and spring of 2011 at the Library, conducting research on the ideological and partisan connotations of the revolution in genomic science.

Professor Michael Sandel was honored by the American Political Science Association at the group’s annual meeting in Boston. The official dedication was titled “Excellence in Teaching: Honoring the Career of Michael Sandel.” The full text can be found in the Harvard University Gazette, Sept. 11-17, pg. 3.
The Seminar "Religion and Society" has changed its name to "Religion and Politics: Local and Global."
Carpenter With Catch
President Bush has announced his intention to nominate eight individuals to serve as Members of the Board of Directors of the National Board of Education Sciences (NBES).Among those nominated is Professor Paul E. Peterson, Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government, Harvard University. For further information on the NBES, visit http://ies.ed.gov/director/board/index.asp.
Warren Miller Prize for the best article published in Political Analysis, 2008, for “ Matching as Nonparametric Preprocessing for Reducing Model Dependence in Parametric Causal Inference ” by Daniel E. Ho, Kosuke Imai, Gary King, and Elizabeth Stuart.
Professor Robert Putnam is awarded the 2008 Warren E. Miller Prize. (more)
Traci Burch (PhD 2007) has won the 2008 APSA Urban Politics Section award for her dissertation, “Punishment and Participation: How Criminal Convictions Threaten American Democracy.”
Traci Burch has also won the William Anderson Award from the APSA for best dissertation in American Politics in 2008.
Vesla Weaver (PhD 2007) has been selected as the winner of this year's APSA Race, Ethnicity, and Politics Section prize for her dissertation,  “Frontlash: Race and the Politics of Punishment.”
Lily Tsai (PhD, 2005) has been selected as the winner of the 2007-08 Dogan Award from the Society for Comparative Research for her book, "Accountability without Democracy." (Cambridge University Press 2007)
Professor Kevin Quinn , is the winner of the Gosnell Award for best paper on political methodology given at a conference. His paper "What Can be Learned from a Simple Table? Bayesian Inference and Sensitivity Analysis for Causal Effects from 2x2 and 2x2xK Tables in the Presence of Unmeasured Confounding," was presented at the Northeast Political Methodology meeting on April 18, 2008. This is the third time that Kevin has won this award.
The Edward M. Chase Prize for the best dissertation on a subject relating to the promotion of world peace is awarded to Andrew Kennedy for his dissertation “Dreams Undeferred: Mao, Nehru, and the Strategic Choices of Rising Powers.”
The Senator Charles Sumner Prize for the best dissertation “from the legal, political, historical, economic, social, or ethnic approach, dealing with any means or measures tending toward the prevention of war and the establishment of universal peace” is awarded to:  
1. Katerina Linos for her dissertation “Diffusion of Social Policies Across OECD Countries.” and
2. Aziz Rana for his dissertation “Settler Empire and the Promise of American Freedom.