The Charles E. Merriam Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) in recognition of a person whose published work and career represent a significant contribution to the art of government through the application of social science research.
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Michael C. Dawson is the John D. MacArthur Professor of Race, Diaspora, and Indigeneity Studies; Political Science; and the College at the University of Chicago. Dawson received his doctorate degree from Harvard. He has directed numerous public opinion studies that focus on race and public opinion. His research interests include black political behavior and public opinion, political economy, and black political ideology. More recently, he has combined his quantitative work with work in political theory. His first two books, Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics and Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies, won multiple awards. Recent books include Not In Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics and Blacks In and Out of the Left. With Megan Ming Francis, Dawson launched a nationwide, multi-university project to study the intersection of race and capitalism. Recent work from Dawson related to this project includes the 2016 articles in Public Culture (with Francis) and Critical Historical Studies as well as a 2019 article in The Journal of Political Philosophy co-authored with Emily Katzenstein. He is the founding director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago. Dawson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2006. In 2017, Dawson was the first awardee of the American Political Science Association’s Hanes Walton, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award for the Study of Race and Ethnic Politics.
Citation from the Award Committee:
We are delighted to announce that Michael Dawson has received the 2023 Charles E. Merriam Award. Professor Dawson’s pathbreaking research includes signal analyses of U.S. government. His multiple award-winning work Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics (Princeton 1995) and a related collection of articles, utilize election and survey data to demonstrate African Americans’ ongoing political disenfranchisement and resulting collective disillusionment with state institutions and U.S. society more generally. Subsequent books and articles explored the role of radical black leftist politics in shaping U.S. government and the intersections of race and American civil society. As co-founder and longtime editor of the DuBois Review, Professor Dawson has also vitally helped expand social science contributions to understanding the intricate interplay of race and governance, in both the U.S. and comparative government contexts.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. Fonna Forman (chair) of the University of California, San Diego, Dr. Rogan Kersh of Wake Forest University, and Joel Rast of the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee.