Best Dissertation Award

The PMRA Best Dissertation Award recognizes exemplary doctoral research in public management. The award honors dissertations that demonstrate strong theoretical grounding, methodological rigor, and clear relevance to the study and practice of public management.

2026 Nominations Now Open

 

 

2025 Best Dissertation Award

The Public Management Research Association is proud to recognize Lianne Visser, Assistant Professor, Leiden University, as the recipient of the 2025 Best Dissertation Award.
Her dissertation, titled “Customized Interactions: How Street-Level Practitioners, Managers, and Policymakers Accomplish and Challenge the Provision of Customized Social Services,” and completed at Radboud University, was selected by the award committee for its excellence in public management research.
Lianne Visser

 

Eligibility

To be eligible for consideration, dissertations must have been completed and successfully defended between January 1, 2025 and December 31, 2025.

Nominees must be current members of the Public Management Research Association (PMRA) or be willing to become members in order to receive the award. Nominators are expected to inform nominees of the nomination and confirm eligibility prior to submission.

Application Process

Nominations will be accepted January 1 through February 1, 2026. 

Nominations must include the following materials:

  • A letter explaining why the nominated dissertation merits recognition
  • A PDF copy of the dissertation
  • A PDF copy of the nominee’s curriculum vitae

 

Assessment Criteria

Each submission will be assessed based on the following criteria:

  • Considers relevant theoretical and empirical literature;
  • Employs an appropriate research design for the research question at hand;
  • Provides thoughtful interpretation of research findings, validly infers theoretical and applied implications of the results, appropriately caveats the research results, and suggests promising directions for future research;
  • Generates knowledge that is both practically and theoretically relevant;
  • Is logically, concisely, and clearly written.

Award & Recognition

The award will be presented at the 2026 Public Management Research Conference, June 4 to 6, 2026, at American University in Washington, D.C. The award also includes a $750 USD cash award.

Award Committee Chair

Sebawit Bishu, University of Washington

Past Recipients

 

2024 | Chelsea Pennick McIver, Associate Director of Policy Analysis Group and Research Assistant Professor, University of Idaho

2023 | Danyao Li, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

2022 | Marija Aleksovska, Assistant Professor, Utrecht University

2021 | Shelena Keulemans, Assistant Professor, Public Administration, Radboud University

2020 | Miyeon Song, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina

2019 | Andrea Headley, Assistant Professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University

2018 | Huafang Li, Assistant Professor, Grand Valley State University

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