Awards

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Pinderhughes Research Award

The Pinderhughes Award honors scholarly excellence and innovation, rigorous research and persistence. Political scientist Dianne Pinderhughes once said of the process toward collective liberation: “It takes generations of work, it takes innovation, and it takes people willing to work across differences." Having grown up in a segregated area of DC, while attending a Catholic high school in eyeshot of the Capital and the Supreme Court, Pinderhughes has worked to understand the relationship between these two worlds since her first intellectual footprints: segregation and state rights, disenfranchisement and political power. Her pioneering books, such as Uneven Roads: An Introduction to US Racial and Ethnic Politics (2014) and Race and Ethnicity in Chicago Politics: A Reexamination of Pluralist Theory (1987), have transformed our understanding of issues of inequality, particularly at the intersection of public policy in the Americas and racial, ethnic, and gender politics. Pinderhughes is an expert on the creation of American civil society institutions in the twentieth century, as well as their influence on evolving policies around voting rights. She is a stalwart supporter of students and equitable education.

Doris Derby Research Award

The Doris Derby Award takes special notice of cross-genre or intermodal work and adaptations, particularly work whose ambition is to reach multiple and broad audiences. 

Known widely for her stunning photographs that documented the women and children of the Civil Rights Movement, Doris Derby was formally trained as an anthropologist and worked across a wide spectrum of fields. She co-founded the Free Southern Theater, a touchstone in the Black theater movement, organized voting drives, co-led early Head Start educational programs, and served as a Mississippi Field Secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In the academy, she served as Director of African American Students Services and Associate Professor at Georgia State University. Her creative and political practice encompassed not only photography, but also documentary film, creative writing, mural art, political organizing, and pedagogy. 

Speaking of Derby's ethic of generosity, Professor Faye Harrison, U of I, African American Studies, said that after one conversation with her as a new doctoral student, she felt: "I can do this. I can make it in this field." This award is meant to bring that same spirit to burgeoning scholars and creative practitioners.