Ralph J. Bunche Award - American Political Science Association (APSA)
PROGRAMS
APSA Awards
Ralph J. Bunche Award
Ralph J. Bunche Award
Ralph J. Bunche Award
Nominations are closed.
The Bunche Award honors the best book in political science that explores the phenomenon of ethnic and cultural pluralism.
The award is presented at the APSA Annual Meeting and carries a cash prize of $1,000.
Nomination Information
Eligibility:
Nominees do not have to be members of APSA, affiliated with an institution in the United States, or an American citizen in order to be considered for an award.  It is not compulsory that authors be political scientists.
Books must have been published in the previous calendar year to be eligible for the current awards cycle (books for a 2026 award must be published in 2025). Many books contain both a publication date and a copyright date, and these may differ. Eligibility is determined by the earlier of these dates that is printed with the publication information at the front of the book. Edited books are ineligible for nomination.
Individuals:
Please contact the publisher and ask for either an eBook to submit via the online application portal
or
to have a physical copy of the nominated book mailed directly to each award committee member.
Self-nominations are accepted.  If you nominate yourself for a book award, you assume responsibility for contacting your publisher and having copies of your book sent to the award committee either virtually or via mail.
Publishers:
Please submit your nomination online through the APSA application portal.  You have the option to either submit an eBook via the portal or mail a hard copy of the nominated book directly to each member of the award committee.
Award Committee
Chair
Andy Aoki, Augsburg University
Member
Megan Francis, University of Washington
Member
Lafleur Stephens,
Listing of Awardees
Year
Recipient
Title
Affiliation
2025
Kevin D. Pham
The Architects of Dignity: Vietnamese Visions of Decolonization
Universiry of Amsterdam
2024
Melvin Rogers
The Darkened Light of Faith
Brown University
2023
Sally A. Nuamah
Closed for Democracy: How Mass School Closure Undermines the Citizenship of Black Americans
Northwestern University
2022
Nadia E. Brown and Danielle Casarez Lemi
Mark Fathi Massoud
Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Elites
Shari’a, Inshallah: Finding God in Somali Legal Politics
Georgetown University, Southern Methodist University, University of California, Santa Cruz
2021
LaFleur Stephens-Dougan
Race to the Bottom: How Racial Appeals Work in American Politics
University of Chicago Press
2020
Davin Phoenix
The Anger Gap: How Race Shapes Emotion in Politics
Cambridge University Press
2019
Michael G. Hanchard
The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy
Princeton University Press
2018
Juliet Hooker
Theorizing Race in the Americas: Douglass, Sarmiento, Du Bois, and Vasconcelos
Brown University
2018
Chris Zepeda-Millán
Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism
University of California
2017
Vaughn Raspberry
Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination
Harvard University Press
2016
Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan Hajnal
White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics
Oxford University Press
2015
Megan Ming Francis
Civil Rights and the Making of the Modern American State
Cambridge University Press
2014
Tracie Burch
Trading Democracy for Justice: Criminal Convictions and the Decline of Neighborhood Political Participation
University of Chicago Press
2014
Natalie Masuoka and Jane Junn
The Politics of Belonging: Race, Public Opinion, and Immigration
University of Chicago Press
2013
Otto Santa Ana
Juan in a Hundred: Representations of Latinos on the Network News
University of Texas Press
2013
Lisa Garcia Bedolla and Melissa Michelson
Mobilizing Inclusion: Transforming the Electorate through Get-Out-the Vote Campaigns
Yale University Press
2012
Charlton D. Mcllwain and Stephen M. Caliendo
Race Appeal: How Candidates Invoke Race in U.S. Political Campaigns
Temple University Press
2011
Cristina Beltrán
The Trouble with Unity: Latino Politics and the Creation of Identity
Oxford University Press
2010
Christopher S. Parker
Fighting for Democracy: Black Veterans and the Struggle Against White Supremacy in the Postwar South
Princeton University Press
2009
Richard Iton
In Search of the Black Fantastic: Politics and Popular Culture in the Post-Civil Rights Era
Oxford University Press
2009
Julie Novkov
Racial Union: Law, Intimacy, and the White State in Alabama
University of Michigan Press
2008
Sarah Song
Justice, Gender, and the Politics of Multiculturalism
Cambridge University Press
2008
Victoria Hattam
In The Shadow of Race: Jews, Latinos, and Immigrant Politics in the United States
University of Chicago Press
2007
Fredrick C. Harris, Valeria Sinclair-Chapman, and Brian D. McKenzie
Countervailing Forces in African-American Civic Activism, 1973-1994
Cambridge University Press
2007
Mark Q. Sawyer
Racial Politics in Post-Revolutionary Cuba
Cambridge University Press
2006
Lisa Garcia Bedolla
Fluid Borders: Latino Power, Identity, and Politics in Los Angeles
University of California Press
2005
Richard M. Valelly
The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement
University of Chicago Press
2005
Seyla Benhabib
The Rights of Others
Cambridge University Press
2004
Robert O. Self
American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oklahoma
Princeton University Press
2003
Paul M. Sniderman and Thomas Piazza
Black Pride and Black Prejudice
Princeton University Press
2002
Michael Dawson
Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies
University of Chicago Press
2001
Claire Jean Kim
Bitter Fruit: The Politics of Black-Korean Conflict in New York City
Yale University Press
2000
J. Morgan Kousser
Colorblind Injustice: Minority Voting Rights and the Undoing of the Second Reconstruction
University of North Carolina Press
2000
Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup
The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Ethnic Conflict and International Intervention
M.E. Sharpe
1999
Anthony W. Marx
Making Race and Nation: A Comparison of the United States, South Africa, and Brazil
Cambridge University Press
1999
Matthew F. Jacobson
Whiteness of a Different Color: European Immigrants and the Alchemy of Race
Harvard University Press
1998
Rogers M. Smith
Civic Ideals: Conflicting Visions of Citizenship in U.S. History
Yale University Press
1997
Amy Gutmann and K. Anthony Appiah
Color Conscious: The Political Morality of Race
Princeton University Press
1996
Will Kymlicka
Multicultural Citizenship: A Liberal Theory of Minority Rights
Oxford University Press
1995
William H. Tucker
The Science and Politics of Racial Research
University of Illinois Press
1994
Raphael J. Sonenshein
Politics in Black and White: Race and Power in Los Angeles
Princeton University Press
1993
Rodney E. Hero
Latinos and the U.S. Political System: Two-tiered Pluralism
Temple University Press
1992
Donald L. Horowitz
A Democratic South Africa? Constitutional Engineering in a Divided Society
University of California Press
1991
Frank R. Parker
Black Votes Count
University of North Carolina Press
1990
Clarence N. Stone
Regime Politics: Governing Atlanta, 1946-1988
University Press of Kansas
1989
Ronald Walters
Black Presidential Politics
State University of New York Press
1988
Earl and Merel Black
Politics and Society in the South
Harvard University Press
1987
D. Garth Taylor
Public Opinion and Collective Action: The Boston School Desegregation Conflict
University of Chicago Press
1987
Rasma Karklins
Ethnic Relations in the USSR: The Perspective from Below
Allen & Unwin
1986
Paul R. Dimond
Beyond Busing: Inside the Challenge to Urban Segregation
University of Michigan Press
1985
Rufus P. Browning, Dale Rogers Marshall, and David H. Tabb
Protest Is Not Enough: The Struggle of Blacks and Hispanics for Equality in Urban Politics
University of California Press
1984
Mark Naison
Communists in Harlem During the Depression
University of Illinois Press
1983
John A. Armstrong
Nations Before Nationalism
University of North Carolina Press
1983
Orlando Patterson
Slavery and Social Death: A Comparative Study
Harvard University Press
1982
No award given
1981
Marguerite Ross Barnett
The Politics of Cultural Nationalism in South India
Princeton University Press
1980
Mario Barrera
Race and Class in the Southwest: A Theory of Racial Inequality
University of Notre Dame Press
1979
Arend Lijphart
Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Approach
Yale University Press
1979
M. Crawford Young
The Politics of Cultural Pluralism
University of Wisconsin Press
1978
Irving Howe
World of Our Fathers
Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich