Faculty Fellow Dianne Pinderhughes was honored by the National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) last spring with the creation of the Dianne M. Pinderhughes Mentorship Legacy Award.

The award is given to a deserving undergraduate student attendee each year by NCOBPS to honor Pinderhughes's longstanding commitment to mentoring of students and the discipline of political science.  

Pinderhughes is an ardent supporter, founding member, and past president of NCOBPS (1998–99), as well as the first African American female president of the American Political Science Association (2007–08). In that capacity, she commissioned a taskforce to address political science in the 21st century, with a specific focus on the association’s lack of racial and gender diversity.

In 2016, she served as first vice president of the International Political Science Association and program cochair for its 2016 World Congress in Istanbul, Turkey.

Pinderhughes’s research focuses on issues of race and representation in politics, and she has published several books, more than 30 book chapters, and numerous articles and reports. Her most recent work, Contested Transformation: Race, Gender, and Political Leadership in 21st Century America (coauthored, Cambridge University Press, 2016), explores the intersection of gender and race.

She is now working on a second edition of a textbook she coauthored on US racial and ethnic politics and publishing a volume on the political landscape after the civil rights movement and after Barack Obama’s presidency.

In 2015, Pinderhughes’s former students established the Dianne M. Pinderhughes Foundation, which sponsors the award to honor Pinderhughes’s positive influence on their careers and to continue her legacy of outstanding scholarship, teaching, and dedicated mentorship for the benefit of future generations.

The deadline for all nominations and supporting materials for this year’s award is Friday, March 10. See call for nominations here.

Originally posted at africana.nd.edu and al.nd.edu.