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The Association
Gazette
Recognizing excellence in the profession is one of the most important roles of the American Political Science Association. Through the service of member committees who review nominations, APSA presents awards for the best dissertations, papers and articles, and books in the various subfields of the discipline as well as for career achievement in research, teaching and service to the discipline. The 2016 APSA Awards were presented at the Annual Meeting in Philadelphia on August 31.
Career Awards
FRANK J. GOODNOW AWARD
The Frank Johnson Goodnow Award was established by the APSA Council in 1996 to honor service to the community of teachers, researchers, and public servants who work in the many fields of politics. Frank J. Goodnow, the first president of the American Political Science Association, a pioneer in the development of judicial politics, and former president of Johns Hopkins University, is an exemplar of the public service and volunteerism that this award represents.
Award Committee: Anne Schneider, Arizona State University, Chair; Richard Johnston, University of British Columbia; Tom Remington, Emory University
Recipient: Virginia Sapiro, Boston University
Citation: Our honoree this year is Virginia Sapiro, professor of political science, Dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Boston University. She has served the profession with her scholarship, her intellectual contributions, and her service to literally dozens of different aspects of the American Political Science Association.
Perhaps most notable is her contribution to opening the profession and the Association to women and to the subfield of women and politics. In the 1970s, when Sapiro finished her degree and began what became an outstanding career, the decision to focus on women in politics was controversial. This was not an established field of study. Who would want to spend their time studying women in politics (some still thought this an oxymoron) where the possibilities for publication and recognition for one's work were slim? But it is to Sapiro, and others like her, who took the risk of creating excellence in a new field, that we owe such a debt of gratitude for the continuing and difficult efforts to ensure equal opportunity for women and minority scholars.
Creating a path for women in the profession requires not just advocacy, but scholarship that...