Welcome to the APSA MENA Section Awards! We are delighted to announce the 2025–26 MENA Politics Section Award winners.
Award for Best Book
Committee: Steven Heydemann (chair), Diana Greenwald, and Rachel Brown
Best Junior Book Award
The APSA MENA Politics Section recognizes Rana Khoury, Civilizing Contention (Cornell University Press).
Honorable Mention, Junior Book: Killian Clarke, Return of Tyranny (Cambridge University Press).
Best Senior Book Award
The APSA MENA Politics Section recognizes Utku Balaban, Industrial Islamism (University of California Press).
Award for Best Article
Committee: Fiona Adamson (chair), Sarah Parkinson, and Salam Alsaadi
The APSA MENA Politics Section recognizes Allison S. Hartnett and Mohamed Saleh, “Precolonial Elites and Colonial Redistribution of Political Power,” American Political Science Review 119(4) (2025): 1723–1741.
Honorable Mention: Lisel Hintz, “Cooking Shows as Gender Edutainment in Authoritarian Regimes: Recipe for (New) Turkey,” Politics & Gender (2025): 1–30. First published online July 4, 2025.
Honorable Mention: Daniel L. Tavana, “Endogenous Opposition: Identity and Ideology in Kuwaiti Electoral Politics,” American Journal of Political Science 70(2) (2026): 623–642. First published online March 14, 2025.
Honorable Mention: Jannis Julien Grimm and Lilian Mauthofer, “Multi-Perspectivity and Ethical Representation in the Context of Gaza and October 7: Addressing the Semantic Void,” Daedalus, Special Issue on The Ethics of Social Research: Perspectives from the Study of the Middle East & North Africa 154(2) (Spring 2025): 169–188.
Award for Best Paper Presented at APSA
Committee: Carolyn Barnett (chair), Amir Reda, and Kevin Mazur
The APSA MENA Politics Section recognizes Efe Tokdemir, Arzu Kibris, and Asli Cansunar, “Ethnic Cues and Conflict-Triggered Harassment: Evidence from Soccer Fields.”
Honorable Mention: Yousef-Butt and Abdulaimi, “Selective Reconstruction: Local Elected Politicians, Collaborators, and Public Goods in Post-Conflict Iraq.”
Honorable Mention: Andrew O’Donohue, “Law versus Democracy: Judicial Selection Institutions, Court Capture, and Democratic Backsliding.”
Award for Best Dissertation
Committee: Killian Clarke (chair), Ahmed Mohamed Ezzedine, and Alexandra Blackman
The APSA MENA Politics Section recognizes Ronay Bakan (Johns Hopkins University), “Counterinsurgent Urbanism: Weaponizing Land and Heritage in the Kurdish Region of Turkey.”
Honorable Mention: Narmin Butt (University of California, San Diego), “Rebuilding After Conflict: Legacies of Collaboration.”