Lee Sigelman Prize in Political Science

This prize is awarded for the best paper written for a Carleton political science class by a declared major before the end of the junior year (not including comps papers). The prize is in memory of Lee Sigelman, who graduated from Carleton College in 1967 with a BA in Political Science. He had a distinguished career as a political scientist and was the editor of the discipline’s flagship journal, the American Political Science Review, from 2001 to 2007.

Funding for the Lee Sigelman Prize comes from generous gifts to the Carleton College Political Science Department from Professor Sigelman’s family and many fellow alumni.

Nominations are made by Political Science faculty, and the recipient is determined by a faculty committee.


Prize Recipients

2023

Teagan Klinkner for “Speeches, Sovereignty, and Special Operations: Using Operational Code to Construct a Dyadic Analysis of Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy”

2021

Hana Mensendiek for her paper, “Transgressive Imagination of Resistance in the 1970s Polish ‘Opposition.'”

2019

Natalie Sainz for her paper, “Urban-Rural Political and Demographic Polarization: An Explanation for Increasing Policy Clashes Between Cities and States.”

2018

Kirsten Walters for her paper, “Write in Dugan for mayor, but not on city walls: Revanchist responses to graffiti in Detroit, 2013-2018.”

2017

Mary Baumgartner for her paper, “It’s a ‘Great Place’…Or is it? Effects of the Growth Machine in Milwaukee.”

2016

David Soper for his paper “The Role of Christianity in Hobbes’ Political Project”

2014

Erika Eldrenkamp for her paper, “The Olympic Trojan Horse: Who Governs? Who Benefits? Who Pays?”

2013

Charles Nathan for his paper, “Political Perspectives on Political Philosophy: The Politically Thymotic Perspective of the Republic

2012

  • Molly Curtiss for her paper, “Cosmopolitanism and Hybrid Identities: The Case of the Pieds Noirs”
  • Danielle Smogard for her paper, “The Evolution of International Criminal Justice: A Hybrid Solution is Born”

2011

Anna Poaster for her paper, “The Determinants of Food Security: A Cross-Sectional Analysis”