The University of Michigan’s Political Science department has named PhD candidate Joshua Thorp the winner of the 2023 Eldersveld Prize for the best paper presented at a professionally-sponsored conference. The Graduate Affairs Committee announced the award this week for Thorp’s paper, “Body Politic: Disability and Political Cohesion.” Joshua Thorp is a Next Generation scholar and winner of the Converse-Miller fellowship in American political behavior for 2022.  His research focuses on political psychology in the United States and other developed democracies, with a particular focus on the politics of disability. Thorp’s dissertation examines disability as a dimension of political identity in the United States. Based on this work, Thorp wrote a blog for CPS, “Does Disability Shape Political Identity?” that can be read here.

Professor Samuel Eldersveld was a scholar of party systems and political elites, with research domains ranging from the US to the Netherlands to China to India to the city of Ann Arbor, where he was mayor from 1957 to 1959. Professor Eldersveld was associated with the Department of Political Science for 72 years, beginning as a master’s student in 1938, and holding the title of professor emeritus upon his death in 2010. The American Political Science Association’s section on Parties and Political Organizations has named its lifetime achievement award after Professor Eldersveld.

The Graduate Affairs Committee comprises Marc Dincecco, Nicholas Valentino, and Lisa Disch. The next student recipient will be named in 2023, for work presented at a conference between May 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023