Nadia E. Brown, a professor of government and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., and Danielle Casarez Lemi, a Tower Center Fellow at the John G. Tower Center for Political Studies at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, are sharing the Ralph J. Bunche from the American Political Science Association. The award is presented annually to honor the best scholarly work in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism.
The two scholars are being honored for their book Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites (Oxford University Press, 2021). In the citation for the award, the committee stated that Sister Style examines the Black female experience in politics. It centers solely on their specific experience, and their reception by Black voters — a long overdue endeavor in the field of American politics. Black women currently represent the strongest and most reliable voter demographic of the Democratic Party, putting them at the center of the partisan battle in American politics. Yet, they are simultaneously severely underrepresented in the study of American politics – in the profession, as well as in the literature. The awards committee finds Sister Style to be a crucial and long overdue addition to the literature on American politics and American pluralism, and we feel strongly about highlighting the key contribution of this important book.”
Professor Brown joined the faculty at Georgetown University in 2021 after teaching at Purdue University. Her research includes intersectionality, Black women’s politics, Black politics, gender and politics, and gender and political science. Dr. Brown is a graduate of Howard University in Wahington, D.C., and holds a Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Dr. Lemi has been at SMU since 2020 after conducting postdoctoral research at Michigan State University. She uses experimental and elite interview methods to apply theoretical frameworks of identity and group behavior to questions of voter behavior and legislative politics. She is a graduate of San Jose State University, where she majored in political science. Dr. Lemi earned a master’s degree and a Ph.D. in political science at the University of California, Riverside.