ASU professors win award for best book on law and courts

Arizona State University professors Valerie Hoekstra and Miki Caul Kittilson have received the C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts from the American Political Science Association for their book "Reimagining the Judiciary: Women’s Representation on High Courts Worldwide" (co-authored with Maria C. Escobar-Lemmon and Alice J. Kang).

“It is such an honor to receive the Pritchett Award from the law and courts section," said Hoekstra, an associate professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies. "It is gratifying to have such a meaningful recognition of the years of work that went into the research.”

“It is an extraordinary honor to receive this award for the best book on law and courts from the American Political Science Association, the leading professional organization for political scientists,” said Kittilson, associate dean for faculty success in the College of Global Futures, a professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies and principal investigator of the ASU ADVANCE program, which translates the expectations of inclusion and success in ASU's charter to the inclusion and success of faculty at all career stages.

“It is especially meaningful to see our work recognized among a long line of impactful books,” Kittilson added.

“The Pritchett Award is very prestigious, and it is fantastic to see Professor Hoekstra and Professor Kittilson’s work recognized in this way,” said Magda Hinojosa, professor and director of the School of Politics and Global Studies.

As previously covered by ASU News, their book examines women’s representation in the high courts in five country case studies based on interviews and archival research, and provides a theoretical framework explaining how it has changed over time.

“Most fundamentally, our book calls for a shift in mindset from placing the onus on women to thinking about institutional transformation of the judiciary,” Kittilson said. “The inclusion of women in decision-making is not simply about having women in the pipeline, nor providing more training for women. We must also redesign established practices of selection and reimagine who can and should serve on the bench.”

“Our work provides a novel dataset for scholars and practitioners to access a high quality, reliable data set on the composition of courts globally and across time. This should remain a widely used resource for years to come,” Hoekstra said.

“We have extraordinary scholars doing groundbreaking research on women and politics in the School of Politics and Global Studies. Professor Hoekstra and Professor Kittilson are tackling fundamental questions by examining how and when women are included in high courts across the globe,” Hinojosa said.