2026 was a great year for APE scholarship at APSA, featuring major recognition across the discipline. This momentum continued into the conference itself, with high attendance across panels and events.
APSA-Wide Honors at the Opening Event
The conference got off to an incredible start at the award ceremony, where APE scholars took home three major APSA-wide honors:
The APE-Section Award Winners
The APE section continued with its annual tradition of recognizing outstanding contributions to the field during the section's business meeting:
- Best Dissertation on the American Political Economy: Elizabeth Thom for Withering on the Vine: Lessons from Extractive Industry Decline.
- Best Paper on the American Political Economy: Gautam Nair, Owen Bernstein, and Richard Zeckhauser for Incidental Representation: Consumers, Big Retail, and Trade Policy.
A Bustling Program & Community
Beyond awards, APE had a fantastic presence across 14 panels, roundtables, and Author-Meets-Critique sessions. Attendance was exceptionally high at this year’s APE reception (co-hosted alongside the Class and Inequality and Politics and History sections), after which the Junior Working Group gathered for its own event in downtown Boston.
