SPOTLIGHTS Sen Receives 23rd Skytte Prize

Amartya Sen, Thomas W. Lamont Professor at Harvard University, was awarded the 23rd Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science. Sen was recognized for his multifaceted achievement that “combines insights into human vulnerability with knowledge about the potential of democratic political power to redress and relieve this deprivation.”

“I do of course feel happy to be awarded a political science prize,” said Sen in an interview with Eastern Eye, “even though perhaps it is not really deserved!”

Sen, who originates from West Bengal, India, has spent most of his professional career at Universities of Cambridge and Harvard, while retaining an affiliation with Delhi University. In 1998, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which he used to start the Pratichi Trust in India and Bangladesh that works to improve women’s access to education and health care.

“In Sen’s works,” notes Li Bennich-Björkman, Chair of the Skytte Prize Committee, “democracy and its potential to make a difference—through regular elections that reward and punish and through the public arena of constant discussion and opinion-shaping—is fundamental.”

Sen is an economist by training but his conviction that democratic institutions play a fundamental role in making a difference in people’s lives makes him a worthy recipient of this highly esteemed prize in political science. His notable scholarly works include Poverty and Famines (1981) where he explores the link between famine and lack of democracy and highlights the crucial role democracy plays in alleviating extreme poverty. In Development as Freedom (1999), he argues that political, social, and economic freedoms are both the means and the ends of development. He sees development not only in one’s material wellbeing but also one’s ability to make free choices and act independently on them. In his 2009 book, The Idea of Justice, Sen addresses questions of how justice may be increased or how injustices may be removed, rather than offering resolutions of questions about the nature of perfect justice. Sen’s contribution spans the fields of political economy, social choice theory, public health, political philosophy, as well as the subdiscipline of development studies. The 2017 prize was awarded at a ceremony on September 30, 2017.

Annual Meeting Recap

See more faces, awards, and memories from the 2017 APSA Annual Meeting in the Annual Meeting section of this issue!

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Spence Receives Provost’s Prize

Lester Spence, associate professor of political science and Africana studies at Johns Hopkins University, received the Provost’s Prize for Faculty Excellence in Diversity. The prize, established last year, recognizes a fulltime faculty member who has made scholarly or creative contributions related to diversity.

“Lester Spence, a leading scholar of political science, has long taken his scholarship—so important in recognizing inequality across diverse populations—outside the walls of the university,” said Christopher Celenza, vice provost for faculty affairs. “He has helped open Hopkins to the city of Baltimore in a way that is admirable, serving as a challenge to all of us to do better.”

Spence codirects the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He specializes in the study of black, racial, and urban politics in the wake of the neoliberal turn. An award-winning scholar, author, and teacher, Spence received the Johns Hopkins University Excellence in Teaching Award in 2009. His first book Stare in the Darkness: The Limits of Hip-hop and Black Politics received the 2013 W. E. B. DuBois Distinguished Book Award. His most recent book, Knocking the Hustle: Against the Neoliberal Turn in Black Politics, won both the Baltimore City Paper and Baltimore Magazine 2016 Best Nonfiction Book Awards and was named to The Atlantic’s 2016 “Best Books We Missed.” Spence has also published articles and essays in publications including The American Journal of Political Science, Political Research Quarterly, The New York Times, Jacobin, Salon, and The Boston Review. He can regularly be heard on National Public Radio and the Marc Steiner Show.

Kampwirth Receives ACLS Fellowship

Karen Kampwirth, Robert W. Murphy Chair of Political Science and professor, political science, Knox College, was awarded an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Collaborative Research Fellowship—with Victoria González-Rivera, associate professor of Chicana and Chicano Studies at San Diego State University—to work on the book One Hundred Years of LGBT History in Nicaragua: Stories from the Global South.

Kampwirth and González-Rivera have been doing research on Nicaraguan gender politics for decades, and the Fellowship will allow them to shape their extensive research into a book. During the project, they are travelling to Nicaragua to finish research and to meet with publishers and translators. For Kampwirth, the most important part of this is sharing people’s stories, and the duo will publish the book in both Spanish and English and make it accessible to those outside of academia. Kampwirth also hopes the research can change things for the better.

“From the perspective of modern day members of the Nicaraguan LGBT community, it is important, in terms of human rights, that their stories get told by multiple people, in multiple ways,” says Kampwirth.

In addition to her research on the Nicaraguan LGBT community, Kampwirth’s research on women’s involvement in armed revolutionary movements has resulted in two books: Women and Guerrilla Movements: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas, Cuba and Feminism and The Legacy of Revolution: Nicaragua, El Salvador, Chiapas. A prolific scholar, she has also written articles, coedited a book, and contributed to books on topics ranging from the Taliban and revolutionary movements in Poland and Iran to the role of masculinity and femininity in political figures ranging from Evita Perón to Hugo Chávez.

Hertzke Wins State-Wide Teaching Award

Allen Hertzke, David Ross Boyd Professor of Political Science, University of Oklahoma (OU) has been awarded the Oklahoma Medal for Excellence in Teaching at a Research University. Hertzke is completing his 31st year at OU, and he has gained international recognition as an expert and author on politics and religion.

“His work has influenced policy makers and has been recognized globally by national and international organizations and players, including major foundations, the White House, and the Vatican,” said department chair Keith Gaddie. But Hertzke’s greatest gift and his greatest passion is teaching, say students and colleagues.

His teaching principles—inspired by his own teaching mentors and years of trial and error—include intense student engagement, accessibility, rigor, and a profound love for students and learning. Hertzke was instrumental in redesigning, and now teaches, OU’s introductory course in American federal government—the only course required of all OU students and one that prepares them to be engaged citizens.

Former student Kyle Harper, now OU’s provost, described Hertzke as “an unforgettable lecturer” who made it clear that students were not learning facts to be able to pass a test. “We were learning about the most important and relevant ideas in the world, and we were training for one of the most important roles in our lives—citizen.”

A central theme of Hertzke’s teaching is helping students “walk in the shoes” of those with differing perspectives through role-playing, interviewing, and community immersion. “I see this kind of learning as vital, given our polarized discourse, ideological tribalization, racial and ethnic divisions, and the need to meet this century’s great crucible: living with our differences in a shrinking world,” Hertzke said.