The E. E. Schattschneider Award is presented annually by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to honor the best doctoral dissertation in the field of American government.
Citation from the Award Committee:
We are delighted to present the E. E. Schattschneider Award to Roxanne Rahnama for her brilliant dissertation, “Myths and Monuments: Ideological Tools of Dominance and Symbolic Change.” This dissertation explores how ideology—defined to include symbols, rhetoric, and ideas, contributes to the preservation of social hierarchy in periods of institutional and political change. Focusing on the Lost Cause movement in the U.S. South following the Civil War, Rahnama finds that the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organization deployed the hagiography of the Lost Cause to preserve white male (and planter) status. She also links the potency of UDC mobilization to Confederate battle losses. In a powerful final twist, Rahnama applies her theory to the contemporary era, arguing that the removal of Confederate monuments in recent years has reduced racial animosity in nearby areas. The dissertation stands out for its willingness to take on a “big picture” topic, its theoretical richness and historical scope, its creative use of data and meticulous empirical analysis, its sensitive attention to potential alternative explanations, and elegant writing. It represents a significant contribution to scholarship on American politics, political economy, race and politics, and gender and politics.
Roxanne Rahnama is a Provostial Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. She earned her Ph.D. in Politics from New York University in 2024, where she is also an alumni affiliate of the Identities & Ideologies Project. Her research focuses on race and ethnic politics, gender and politics, status, and the role of ideology in sustaining hierarchy. Roxanne’s notable scholarship includes her recent publication “Monumental Changes: Confederate Symbol Removals and Racial Attitudes in the United States” in the Journal of Politics, which examines how Confederate symbol removals affect racial attitudes and hate crimes. Her research on the “Lost Cause” ideology explores how and when elite groups turn to ideology to maintain dominance, particularly through the case of the United Daughters of the Confederacy in the Jim Crow South. Her work contributes to understanding how contestation over symbols and mobilization around ideology shape intergroup dynamics in the American context, with implications for contemporary debates around historical narratives and racial justice.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Dr. Srinivas C. Parinandi (Chair) of University of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Mackenzie Israel-Trummel of William & Mary