Dianne Pinderhughes named fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science | News | Notre Dame News

Dianne Pinderhughes, a Presidential Faculty Fellow and the Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C., Professor of Africana Studies and Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, has been named the Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS). She is one of only six scholars chosen for the 2023 academic year.

Pinderhughes was recognized for her work as a political scientist whose research addresses inequality with a focus on ethnic, racial and gender politics in the Americas. The academy also highlighted that Pinderhughes explores the creation of American institutions of civil society in the 20th century and their influence on the formation of voting rights policy. 

She is currently on sabbatical at Stanford University where she was named to the 2022-23 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. 

“I am honored to have been named a fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science for 2023,” Pinderhughes said. “I am also excited to have been designated the 2023 Eleanor Roosevelt Fellow. I look forward to interacting with this group of scholars in such challenging times.”

Pinderhughes, who also holds a concurrent faculty appointment in American studies and is a faculty fellow at the Kellogg Institute for International Studies, is a native of Washington, D.C. She earned a doctorate at the University of Chicago and taught at Dartmouth College and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign before joining Notre Dame in 2006.

Pinderhughes was previously a member of the National Advisory Committee of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research Program. She is a current member of the Board of Governors of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and is president of the International Political Science Association (2021-23). She has been a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and was elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.

Pinderhughes’ publications include “Black Politics After the Civil Rights Revolution: Collected Essays” (forthcoming); “Contested Transformation: Race, Gender and Political Leadership in 21st Century America” (co-author, 2016); “Uneven Roads: An Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics” (co-author, 2014); and “Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory” (1987). 

The AAPSS selects a small group of scholars and public servants each year in recognition of their contributions to social science and the extent to which their work has fostered public understanding of social dynamics and human behavior. The aim of the academy is to promote the use of social science in the public domain and in policymaking.

Each fellowship is named after a distinguished scholar or civic leader who has contributed to The Annals, the flagship journal of the AAPSS. Fellows include political scientists, sociologists, psychologists and economists, as well as scholars and practitioners in communications, education, government and public policy.

Marta Tienda, president of the AAPSS, said this of the new fellows of the academy: “The influential scholarship of these six eminent scholars illustrates the far-reaching significance of the social sciences for evidence-based policy.” 

Of the 153 fellows of the academy, one other Notre Dame professor has garnered the same honor: R. Scott Appleby, professor of history and the Marilyn Keough Dean of the Keough School of Global Affairs. 

Contact: Tracy DeStazio, assistant director of media relations, 574-631-9958 or tdestazi@nd.edu