The Khaldun Award – given by the Comparative Historical Sociology section of the American Sociological Association – is meant to recognize a “lifetime of outstanding contributions to the subfield of comparative-historical sociology”.
It is simply “one of the most celebrated awards given by the section, presented only to scholars of the utmost distinction” – and Theda Skocpol, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology, is this year’s winner, honoring her impressive career to date.
At Harvard, she has served as Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (2005-2007) and as Director of the Center for American Political Studies (2000-2006). She has been elected to membership in all three major U.S. interdisciplinary honor societies: the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (elected 1994), the American Philosophical Society (elected 2006), and the National Academy of Sciences (elected 2008), and is also a past president of the American Political Science Association.
The Khaldun Award committee said: “Theda Skocpol is precisely the caliber of scholar that the award is supposed to acknowledge. The superlatives that are invoked in many award citations often seem like a reach. But they seem entirely appropriate in her case. Over the course of her long and illustrious career, Skocpol has made one outstanding contribution after another, transforming the subfield of comparative-historical sociology multiple times, all the while compiling a professional and intellectual record of the highest distinction. It is only right that one of the most celebrated awards given by the section is being given to celebrate her and what she has accomplished in her scholarly lifetime.”
Skocpol’s work covers an unusually broad spectrum of topics including both comparative politics (States and Social Revolutions, 1979) and American politics (Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States, 1992). Her books and articles have been widely cited in political science literature and have won numerous awards, including the 1993 Woodrow Wilson Award of the American Political Science Association for the best book in political science for the previous year. Skocpol’s research focuses on U.S. social policy and civic engagement in American democracy, including changes since the 1960s. She has recently launched new projects on the development of U.S. higher education and on the transformations of U.S. federal policies in the Obama era.
The committee concluded that “Theda Skocpol is a most deserving recipient of the Khaldun Award; her scholarship as well as her career as a teacher and advisor embody the highest intellectual ideals of the ASA Section on Comparative and Historical Sociology.”