Winner: Nicolas van de Walle (Cornell University)
Winner: Robtel Neajai Pailey (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Development, (Dual) Citizenship and Its Discontents in Africa: The Political Economy of Belonging to Liberia
Cambridge University Press
Winner: Elizabeth Wellman
“Emigrant Inclusion in Home Country Elections:Theory and Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa” American Political Science Review 115(1):82-96.
Winner: Vladimir Chlouba
“The Politics of Respect: Early State Inheritance and Traditional Governance”
Honorable Mention: Catlan Reardon
“The Ties That Bind or Break: Local Leaders,Dispute Arbitration, and Violence in Nigeria”
Winner : David Ngendo-Tshimba (Makerere University)
"Transgressing Buyira: An Historical InquiryInto Violence Astride the Congo-Uganda Border"
Honorable Mention: Vanessa van den Boogaard (University of Toronto)
"Informal Revenue Generation and the State: Evidence from Sierra Leone"
2021: Winner Janet Lewis
How Insurgency Begins Cambridge University Press.
2020: Co-Winner Ken Ochieng' Opalo
Legislative Development in Africa: Politics and Postcolonial Legacies. Cambridge University Press.
Co-Winner: Nicholas Smith
Contradictions of Democracy: Vigilantism and Rights in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Oxford University Press.
2019: Eric Kramon
Money for Votes: The Causes and Consequences of Electoral Clientelism in Africa. Cambridge University Press.
2018: Timothy Longman
Memory and Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda. Cambridge University Press.
2015: Catherine Boone
Property and Political Order in Africa: Land Rights and Structure of Politics. Cambridge University Press.
Honorable Mention: Frederick Cooper
Citizenship Between Empire and Nation: Remaking France and French Africa, 1945-1960. Princeton University Press
Honorable Mention: Claire Adida
Immigrant Exclusion and Insecurity in Africa: Coethnic Strangers. Cambridge University Press
2013: Rachel Beatty Riedl
Authoritarian Origins of Democratic Party Systems in Africa. Cambridge University Press
2012: Co-Winner Leonardo Arriola
Multiethnic Coalitions in Africa: Business Financing of Opposition Election Campaigns. Cambridge University Press
Co-Winner: Crawford Young
The Postcolonial State in Africa: Fifty Years of Independence, 1960-2010. University of Wisconsin Press
Honorable Mention: M. Anne Pitcher
Party Politics and Economic Reform in Africa’s Democracies. Cambridge University Press
2011: Adrienne LeBas
From Protest to Parties. Party-Building and Democratization in Africa. Oxford University Press
2010: Charles Piot
Nostalgia for the Future: West Africa after the Cold War. University of Chicago Press
2009: Pierre Englebert
Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow. Lynne Rienner Publishers
2008: Susan D. Wing
Constructing Democracy in Transitioning Societies of Africa: Constitutionalism and Deliberation in Mali. Palgrave-MacMillan.
2007: Elizabeth Schmidt
Cold War and Decolonization in Guinea, 1946-1958. Ohio University Press
2006: Joshua B. Rubongoya
Regime Hegemony in Museveni’s Uganda. Palgrave-Macmillan
2005: Dan Posner
Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa. Cambridge University Press
2004: Dennis Galvan
The State Must Be Our Master of Fire: How Peasants Craft Culturally Sustainable Development in Senegal. University of California Press.
2021: Anne Meng
“Winning the Game of Thrones: Leadership Succession in Modern Autocracies.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 65(5): 950-981.
2020: Amanda Lea Robinson and Jessica Gottlieb
“How to close the gender gap in political participation: Lessons from matrilineal societies in Africa.” Journal of Modern African Studies 52(4): 571-595.
Honorable Mention: Vanessa van den Boogaard, Wilson Prichard, and Samuel Jibao
“Informal taxation in Sierra Leone: Magnitudes, perceptions and implications.” African Affairs 118(471): 259-284.
2019: Mai Hassan and Tom O’Mealia
“Networks of Violence and Becoming: Youth and the Politics of Patronage in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Delta.” Journal of Modern African Studies 52(4): 571-595.
2018: Claire Adida, Jessica Gottlieb, Eric Kramon, and Gwyneth McClendon
“Reducing or Reinforcing In-Group Preferences? An Experiment on Information and Ethnic Voting.” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 12: 437-477.
2014: Akin Iwilade
“Networks of Violence and Becoming: Youth and the Politics of Patronage in Nigeria’s Oil-Rich Delta.” Journal of Modern African Studies 52(4): 571-595.
Honorable Mention: Isalin Bergamaschi
“The Fall of a Donor Darling: the Role of Aid in Mali’s Crisis.” Journal of Modern African Studies 52(3): 347-378.
Honorable Mention: Issaka K. Souare
“The African Union as Norm Entrepreneur on Military Coups d’etat in African (1952-2012): an empirical assessment.” Journal of Modern African Studies 52(1): 69-94.
2013: Dominika Koter
“Kingmakers: Local Leaders and Ethnic Politics in Africa,” World Politics 65 (2): 187-232.
2012: Séverine Autesserre
“Dangerous Tales: Dominant Narratives on the Congo and their Unintended Consequences,” African Affairs 111, 413
2011: Claire Adida
“Too Close for Comfort? Immigrant Exclusion in Africa.” Comparative Political Studies 44 (2011): 1370–1396.
2010: Mireille Razafindrakoto and François Roubaud
“Are International Databases on Corruption Reliable? A Comparison of Expert Opinion Surveys and Household Surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa,” World Development, 38 (8): 1057–1069.
2009: Leonardo R. Arriola
“Patronage and Political Stability in Africa,” Comparative Political Studies 42 (10).
2008: Susanne D. Mueller
“The Political Economy of Kenya’s Crisis,” Journal of Eastern African Studies 2 (2): 185–210.
2007: Lahra Smith
“Voting for an Ethnic Identity: Procedural and Institutional Responses to Ethnic Conflict in Ethiopia,” Journal of Modern African Studies 45, no. 4: 565–594.
2006: Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy Weinstein
“Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War,” American Political Science Review 100 (3): 429–448.
2004: Eghosa E. Osaghae
“Political Transitions and Ethnic Conflict in Africa.” Journal of Third World Studies, Vol. XXI, No. 1 (2004), pp. 221-240.e
2020: Co-Winner: Amanda Edgell
“Crowing Hens or Party Pawns? The Causes and Consequences of Gender Quotas in Authoritarian Regimes”
2020 Co-Winner: Beth Wellman
“Citizenship Beyond Borders: The Politics of Emigrant Enfranchisement in Africa”
2018: Modupe Oshikoya
Exploring the Impact of Insurgencies on Gender-Based Violence and the Nigerian Armed Forces: The Boko Haram Case (UMass Boston)
Honorable Mention: Fiona Shen-Bayh
Autocratic Courts in Africa (University of California, Berkeley)
2017: Sobukwe Odinga
Looking For Leverage: Hard Bargaining and US-Africa Security Partnerships (CUNY)
Honorable Mention: Charlie Taylor
Ethnic Politics and Campaign Strategies in Contemporary Africa: Evidence from Kenya and Ghana (University of Wisconsin)
2014: Jeffery Paller
African Slums: Constructing Democracy in Unlikely Places (University of Wisconsin)
Honorable Mention: Mai Hassan
The Kenyan State after Multiparty Elections (Harvard University)
2013: Matthew I. Mitchell
Rethinking the Migration-Conflict Nexus: Insights from the Cocoa Regions in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana (Queen's University)
2012: Janet Lewis
How Rebellion Begins: Insurgent Group Formation and Viability in Uganda (Harvard University)
2011: Jaimie Bleck
Schooling Citizens: Education, Citizenship, and Democracy in Mali (Cornell University)
2010: Jenifer Brass
Surrogates for Government? NGOs and the State in Kenya (University of California, Berkeley)
2020: Nicolai Schulz
“The Politics of Export Restrictions: A panel data analysis of African commodity processing industries”
Honorable Mention: Rachael McLellan ()
“The Politics of Local Control in Electoral Autocracies”
2018: Justine M. Davis
“Wartime Experiences of Civil Leaders: Legacies of Civil War in Cote D'Ivoire"
2017: Sarah Brierley
“Unprincipled Principals: Co-opted Bureaucrats and Corruption in Local Governments in Ghana."
2013: Milli Lake
“Organized Hypocrisy: External Actors and Building the Rule of Law in Fragile States”
2012: Amanda Robinson
Amanda Robinson, “Nationalism and Inter-Ethnic Trust: Evidence from an African Border Region”
2011: Robin Harding
“One for the Road: Voting for Public Goods in Ghana”
2010: Peace Medie
“Theorizing Policy Implementation: Enforcing Gender-Based Violence Laws in Post-Conflict Liberia.”
2009: Kim Yi Dionne
“Local Demand for a Global Intervention: Policy Priorities in the Time of AIDS”