Roberta Sigel Best Conference Paper by Early Career Member Award

The Sigel Award is given to early career scholar authors of the best papers (or papers accepted as posters) presented at annual scientific meetings. Nominees must be current ISPP members.

ISPP first announced this award at its Vancouver meeting in 1996. Professor Sigel, whom the award honors, has been a distinguished professor of political science at Rutgers University since 1973. She is author and editor of seven books and many articles and book chapters, mostly in the areas of political socialization and democratic citizenship. She has had many leadership roles in the American Political Science Association and has served as program chair, Vice-President and President of ISPP.

Early Career Scholars who are currently dues paid members of ISPP and have had their paper or poster accepted for the most recent Annual Meeting are eligible to be considered for the award. Early Career Scholars are defined as graduate or undergraduate students and faculty who received their Ph.D. within the last eight years. The paper (or poster) can be a manuscript, in the review process, or published online (early view or equivalent) or in print at the earliest the year of the annual meeting (that is, published in 2014 for the 2014 Sigel Award handed out in 2015).

There are two prizes with slightly different criteria to accommodate the authorship and publication practices in the various disciplines represented in ISPP:

The first award will be given to the best paper (or poster) written by Early Career Scholars only. In the case of multiple authors, all co-authors must be Early Career Scholars. The second award will be conferred to the best paper (or poster) with an Early Career Scholar first author. This award allows, but does not require, non-Early Career Scholar co-authors.

Only papers (or posters) by current (dues paid for this year) ISPP members are eligible for consideration.

How to Nominate:

Nominees must be current ISPP members and Early Career Scholars. Early Career Scholars are all students (graduate or undergraduate) and faculty who received their Ph.D. within the last eight years. All nominations must include the following: The early career scholar’s paper (or poster) accepted for the most recent July meeting/conference, and a CV of the nominee. To complete a nomination, simply send these materials to the Committee Chair by the deadline.

The award recipient will be strongly encouraged to attend the Annual Meeting and Awards Reception.

2025 Award Committee:

Chairs: Becky Choma, Chair (Toronto Metropolitan University)

Email

Committee: Pierce Ekstrom (University of Nebraska – Lincoln), Nour Kteily (Northwestern University), Cecilia Hyunjung Mo (University of California – Berkeley), Gijs Schumacher (University Of Amsterdam)

THE NOMINATION PROCESS FOR 2025 NOW OPEN.  The deadline for nominations is 15 January 2025.

Winners will be notified by early April 2025.

First awarded in 1998.

Current Winners

  • 2024 Roberta Sigel Best Conference Paper by Early Career Member Award 1

    Elisabetta Mannoni, Political Science Department, LUISS, Rome

    “Pro-environmental voting: what it is, how to measure it, and its determinants among contemporary European voters”

    Elisabetta’s paper was highly commended by the Award Committee for reporting on an innovative piece of research that pushes forward conceptual understanding of pro-environmental voting in political psychology through an impressive analysis of large-scale multi-national data. The paper examined pro-environment behaviour through voting- specifically whether individuals vote for a party or candidate who emphasises environmental protection. It drew on the Chapel Hill Expert survey to categorise political parties in terms of their green credentials and then, on data from 26 European countries as part of the European Social Survey to assess the predictors of pro-environmental voting. Findings demonstrated, most notably, that pro-environmental voting was driven by moral obligation- i.e., people who felt responsible for environmental issues tended to vote for parties who emphasise environmental protection. Collective response efficacy, however, did not predict voting behaviour. Some demographic variations were also found, for example, younger voters tended to vote more in favour of environmental parties than older voters. Taken together, the paper demonstrates a novel conceptualisation and measurement of pro-environmental voting that makes an important contribution to the field. The Award Committee recognised the excellence of this research and commended Elisabetta for producing such a strong piece of research at an early career stage.

  • 2024 Roberta Sigel Best Conference Paper by Early Career Member Award 2

    Claire M. Gothreau , Aarhus University, Denmark

    The paper first authored by Claire was highly commended by the Award Committee. The research, which examined the underrepresentation of women in politics, represents one of the most comprehensive examinations of the phenomenon to date, drawing on samples from twenty countries across five continents, using a conjoint candidate choice experimental design. All main hypotheses and analyses were pre-registered. Findings showed that voters generally preferred women candidates. This pro-female bias held in 14 countries, with only one country evidencing a pro-male bias. Macro-level factors that predicted a preference for women candidates were country-level representation of women in parliament, gender equality, and levels of democracy, whereas individual-level factors that predicted this preference were being female, politically left-leaving, and low endorsement of hostile sexism. The scope, timeliness, and theoretical and methodological rigor of the research makes it a stand-out paper led by an early career researcher.

Past Winners

  • 2024 Elisabetta Mannoni; Claire M. Gothreau (first author)
  • 2023 Nicholas Haas & Emmy Lindstam; Jasper Van Assche (first author)
  • 2022 Allison Anoll & Andrew Engelhardt; Bjarki Gronfeldt
  • 2021 Hui Bai (single author); Ryan Shandler (first author)
  • 2020 Eunji Kim (single author); Not Awarded (first author)
  • 2019 Carly N. Wayne; Arnold Ho
  • 2018 Cecilia Hyunjung Mo and Katharine Conn; Aharon Levy
  • 2017 Nour Kteily & Emile Bruneau; Sandra Penic
  • 2016 Rebecca Schiel & Gary Smith; Rezarta Bilali
  • 2015 Yphtach Lelkes & Sean J. Westwood; Jojanneke van der Toorn with Matthew Feinberg, John Jost, Aaron Kay, Tom Tyler, Robb Willer, and Caroline Wilmuth
  • 2014 Cecil Meeusen; Smadar Cohen-Chen with Richard J. Crisp and Eran Halperin
  • 2013 Michael Bang Petersen & Lasse Laustsen
  • 2012 Rune Slothuus; Scott Clifford, Jennifer Jerit, and Jason Barabas
  • 2011 Melinda Jackson; Erin Hennes with John Jost and Irina Feygina
  • 2010 Thomas Craemer, Pete Hatemi and Rose McDermott
  • 2009 Jason Barabas and Jennifer Jerit (abstract); Margarita Krochik (abstract)
  • 2008 Eric Dickson (paper abstract); Elizabeth Suhay
  • 2007 Christopher Federico
  • 2006 Daphna Canetti-Nisim; Rajiv Jhangiani and Peter Suedfeld
  • 2005 Romain Lachat
  • 2004 James N. Druckman, Kjersten R. Nelson
  • 2003 Celeste Lay
  • 2002 Not Awarded
  • 2001 David Redlawsk
  • 2000 James Druckman, Michael Allen, Sik Hung Ng
  • 1999 Not Awarded
  • 1998 Kristin Hall Maher, David Redlawsk

Abstracts of award winners:

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