Clark University Professor Honored With Two Awards for Her Book on Russian Politics

Valerie Sperling, professor and chair of the department of political science at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has won two awards for her book Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia (Oxford University Press, 2014).

Professor Sperling was honored with the Davis Center Book Prize in Political and Social Studies, which is sponsored by the Kathryn W. and Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. It honors the best book published on Russia, Eurasia, or Eastern Europe in anthropology, political science, sociology, or geography in the previous calendar year. The Davis Center Book Prize carries a cash award and is presented at the national convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Professor Sperling also received the Heldt Prize for the best book in Slavic and East European Women’s Studies from the Association for Women in Slavic Studies.

Dr. Sperling has been a full professor at Clark University since 2011. She is a graduate of Yale University and earned a master’s degree in Russian studies at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Professor Sperling earned a second master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley.