Award Winners
2020 Award Winners
The National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) announced top award winners at its 51st annual gathering in Atlanta, Georgia on March 13, 2020. A list of all the 2020 award winners follows:
The Fannie Lou Hamer Outstanding Community Service Award is given to members of NCOBPS, who have made exemplary contributions to the growth and development of the African American community in the United States. Award Recipients: Emmitt Y. Riley, III, DePauw University; Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
The Anna Julia Cooper Teacher of the Year Award is given to faculty members, who demonstrate excellence in the classroom as teachers, advisers, and academic mentors to students. Award Recipient: Monique Bruner, Rose State College.
The W.E.B. Du Bois Distinguished Book Award recognizes books authored by members of NCOBPS, whose subjects in some way grapple with fundamental questions of political power, race, and other intersections of oppression. Award Recipients: Adom Getachew, Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-Determination (Princeton University Press, 2019); Niambi Michele Carter, American While Black: African Americans, Immigration and the Limits of Citizenship (Oxford University Press, 2019).
The Alex Willingham Best Political Theory Paper Award is named in honor of one of our founding members and a brilliant political theorist. Award Recipients: H.LT. Quan, Arizona State University, “`Your Silence Will Not Protect You’: Black Abolitionist Feminism and Contemporary Struggles Against American Fascism” ; Jasmine Noelle Yarish, Augustana College, “The Quilted Nationalism of Black Women’s Political Labor: Rethinking Abolition Democracy and W.E.B. Du Bois’s Color & Democracy.”
The Rodney Higgins Best Faculty Paper Award is named in honor of Dr. Rodney Higgins (1911-1964), the long-time chair of the Department of Political Science at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Award Recipient: Caroline Shenaz Hossein, York University, Canada, “A Black Epistemology for the Social and Solidarity Economy: The Black Social Economy.”
The Lena Stromile Harris Student Leadership Award is named in honor of the mother of Kathie Stromile Golden, the long-time executive director of NCOBPS. The award honors the contributions of the Stromile family to NCOBPS and their life-long involvement in developing student leaders. Award Recipient: Princess Williams, University of Michigan.
The Sammy Young, Jr. Best Student Paper Award is named in honor of Sammy Younge (1945-1966), who was an undergraduate student at Tuskegee University during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. Award Recipient(s): No recipient(s).
The Bayard Rustin Best LGBTQ+ Student Paper Award recognizes the best paper by a student selected from papers presented at the previous annual meeting on the topic of the LGBTQ+ African American community and its participation in American political life. Award Recipient(s): No recipient(s).
The Jewel and James Prestage Mentorship Award recognizes outstanding political science/public administration professors who excel in mentoring students. Award Recipient: Joseph L. Jones, Philander Smith College.
The Dianne M. Pinderhughes Mentorship Legacy Award is a scholarship award for undergraduate students to attend the Annual Gathering of NCOBPS. Award Recipient: Lorraine Nance, University of California, Irvine (Faculty Mentor, Tiffany Willoughby-Herard).