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
2026
Mariana Duran Amaya for “Digital Repression and the Repertoire of Online Dissent in Venezuela”
2025
Bea Culligan for “Justice or Just US? The Impact of Diplomatic Alignment with the US on ICC Investigations”
2024
Max Serota for “Autocratic Radicalization: The Strategic Choices of Autocratic Executives and the Death of Democracy”
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 “Transgressive Imagination of Resistance in the 1970s Polish ‘Opposition.'”
2019
Natalie Sainz for “Urban-Rural Political and Demographic Polarization: An Explanation for Increasing Policy Clashes Between Cities and States.”
2018
Kirsten Walters for “Write in Dugan for mayor, but not on city walls: Revanchist responses to graffiti in Detroit, 2013-2018.”
2017
Mary Baumgartner for “It’s a ‘Great Place’…Or is it? Effects of the Growth Machine in Milwaukee.”
2016
David Soper for “The Role of Christianity in Hobbes’ Political Project”
2014
Erika Eldrenkamp for “The Olympic Trojan Horse: Who Governs? Who Benefits? Who Pays?”
2013
Charles Nathan for “Political Perspectives on Political Philosophy: The Politically Thymotic Perspective of the Republic“
2012
- Molly Curtiss for “Cosmopolitanism and Hybrid Identities: The Case of the Pieds Noirs”
- Danielle Smogard for “The Evolution of International Criminal Justice: A Hybrid Solution is Born”
2011
Anna Poaster for “The Determinants of Food Security: A Cross-Sectional Analysis”