The Barbara Sinclair Lecture Award is presented annually to honor achievement in promoting understanding of the U.S. Congress and legislative politics.
Citation from the Award Committee:
Professor Eric Schickler is one of the most productive and influential congressional scholars of his generation. The author or editor of eight books, some three dozen refereed articles, and another 30 chapters and other invited works, his interests are wide-ranging across legislative politics. His research has been supported by significant grants from the National Science Foundation, the Hewlett Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Dirksen Congressional Center. Professor Schickler received his undergraduate education at the New College of Florida and his doctorate from Yale University. Since 1997, he has been associated with the University of California, Berkeley, where he has chaired the Department of Political Science and served as co-director of the Institute of Government Studies. From 2003-2006, he was on the faculty of Harvard University.
Professor Schickler has researched and written trenchantly about institutional innovation in Congress, legislative rules (including the filibuster in the Senate and the discharge petition in the House), congressional checks on presidential authority, partisan polarization, the political legacy of slavery, the New Deal coalition, and racial realignment. Of particular note is his interest in exploring political history and American political development through the lens of the Congress. One measure of his impact on congressional studies is that he is a three-time winner (in 2001, 2006, and 2016) of the Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize for the most outstanding book in legislative studies, more than any other scholar. He has also received the Philip E. Converse Award from the APSA Elections, Public opinion, and Voting behavior Organized Section, and the J. David Greenstone Award from the APSA Politics and History Organized Section. Since 2021 he has also served as co-author of the seminal textbook Congress and Its Members.
Eric Schickler is the Jeffrey & Ashley McDermott Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author of three books on the U.S. Congress: Disjointed Pluralism: Institutional Innovation and the Development of the U.S. Congress (2001), Filibuster: Obstruction and Lawmaking in the United States Senate (2006, with Gregory Wawro), and Investigating the President: Congressional Checks on Presidential Power (2016, with Douglas Kriner; also winner of the Richard E. Neustadt Prize for the best book on executive politics). His book, Racial Realignment: The Transformation of American Liberalism, 1932-1965, was the winner of the APSA Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book on government, politics or international affairs published in 2016. He is also the co-author of Partisan Hearts and Minds, which was published in 2002. Schickler was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2017.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. David C. Barker (co-chair) of American University, Meghan McConaughey (co-chair) of the American Political Science Association, Dr. David Mayhew of Yale University, Dr. Marvin Overby of Pennsylvania State University at Harrisburg, and Dr. Melinda Ritchie of The Ohio State University