Information about the Congressional Research Awards

Grant Recipients, 2009

Grant Recipients, 1978-present

Application Summary Sheet

What did grant recipients accomplish in their first year of funded research?

Information about the Congressional Research Awards

NOTE: The next deadline for applications is February 1, 2010

The Dirksen Congressional Center invites applications for grants to fund research on congressional leadership and the U.S. Congress.  The Center, named for the late Senate Minority Leader Everett M. Dirksen, is a private, nonpartisan, nonprofit research and educational organization devoted to the study of Congress and its leaders.  Since 1978, the Congressional Research Awards (formerly the Congressional Research Grants) program has paid out $776,188 to support 378 projects. Applications are accepted at any time, but the deadline is February 1 for the annual selections, which are announced in March.  A total of up to $35,000 will be available in 2010. 

Who is qualified to apply? 

The competition is open to individuals with a serious interest in studying Congress.  Political scientists, historians, biographers, scholars of public administration or American studies, and journalists are among those eligible.  The Center encourages graduate students who have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus to apply and awards a significant portion of the funds for dissertation research.  Applicants must be U.S. citizens who reside in the United States.

The awards program does not fund undergraduate or pre-Ph.D. study.  Organizations are not eligible.  Research teams of two or more individuals are eligible.  No institutional overhead or indirect costs may be claimed against a Congressional Research Award. 

What kind of research projects are eligible for consideration? 

The Center’s first interest is to fund the study of the leadership in the Congress, both House and Senate.  Topics could include external factors shaping the exercise of congressional leadership, institutional conditions affecting it, resources and techniques used by leaders, or the prospects for change or continuity in the patterns of leadership.  In addition, The Center invites proposals about congressional procedures, such as committee operation or mechanisms for institutional change, and Congress and the electoral process. 

The Center also encourages proposals that link Congress and congressional leadership with the creation, implementation, and oversight of public policy.  Proposals must demonstrate that Congress, not the specific policy, is the central research interest. 

The Center does NOT require grant recipients to use historical materials in its collections.  For persons interested in such research, however, please visit http://www.dirksencenter.org/print_collections_overview.htm for information about our holdings.

The research for which assistance is sought must be original, culminating in new findings or new interpretation, or both.  The awards program was developed to support work intended for publication in some form or for application in a teaching or policy-making setting.  Research produced by previous grant recipients has resulted in books, papers, articles, videotapes, and computer software. 

What could a Congressional Research Award pay for? 

Generally speaking, an award can cover almost any aspect of a qualified research project, such as travel to conduct research, duplication of research material, purchase of data sets, and costs of clerical, secretarial, research, or transcription assistance.  This list is merely illustrative, but specifically excluded from funding are the purchase of equipment, tuition support, salary support for the principal investigator(s), indirect costs or institutional overhead, travel to professional meetings, and publication subsidies.

Awards range from a few hundred dollars to $3,500.  Stipends will be awarded to individuals (not organizations) on a competitive basis. Grants will normally extend for one year.  In some circumstances, the Center will make more than one award to a single individual in consecutive years, but not more than three awards to the same person in a five-year period. 

The Internal Revenue Service requires The Center to report disbursements of more than $600 to individuals.  Accordingly, we file a 1099-MISC reporting grant payments. If potential recipients prefer to have payments made to a university foundation on their behalf, they must submit with their proposal a letter from the responsible official stipulating that no indirect or overhead costs will be charged against the grant. In other words, the entire amount must be paid out to the individual.

How do I apply? 

There is no standard application form.  Applicants are responsible for showing the relationship between their work and the awards program guidelines. 

For general information about preparing grant requests, please visit "What Grantmakers Want Applicants to Know." Not all the information posted there pertains to The Center's programs, but it is useful guidance.

Applicants must submit the original AND five copies of... 

• The Application Summary Sheet listing name, addresses (including e-mail address) and telephone numbers for work and home, Social Security number, institutional affiliation when appropriate, project title, project abstract (not to exceed 100 words), and total amount requested.
• A description of the project's goals, methods, and intended results, demonstrating clearly its importance to the awards program priorities. This is the most essential element of the application. Be sure to explain the project's significance and relationship to existing scholarship.
• A vita, including a list of publications.
• A budget indicating how funds will be spent and the extent of matching funds available, if any. 
• Graduate students must include in their submission the original and five copies of a letter of reference from the person directing their dissertation work. This letter and the copies should be sealed in a separate envelope.
• If potential recipients prefer to have payments made to an institutional entity on their behalf, they must submit with their proposal a letter from the responsible official stipulating that no indirect or overhead costs will be charged against the grant. In other words, the entire amount must be paid out to the individual.

When is the deadline? 

All application materials must be received on or before February 1, 2010.  Awards will be announced in March 2010. 

How are recipients selected? 

Proposals are judged by the significance of the research project; the project's design, plan of work, and dissemination; the applicant's qualifications; the relationship of the project to The Center's program goals and to current work in the field; and, the appropriateness of the budget request for the project's requirements. 

Grant recipients agree to... 

• Acknowledge the support given by The Dirksen Congressional Center wherever material is published or presented.
• IMPORTANT. Provide an “Impact Statement” after one year describing how the grant was spent and evaluating the impact of the research project. This 350-500 word statement will be posted on The Center's Web site.
• Furnish The Center with a copy of any book, article, or other publication incorporating research made possible by the grant.
• Cooperate in periodic studies conducted by The Center to evaluate the grants program.  This may include writing summaries of research findings for use in other Center publications.
• Permit publication of the research abstract in print and electronic formats.

Call, write, or e-mail 

Frank H. Mackaman
The Dirksen Congressional Center 
2815 Broadway
Pekin, IL 61554-4219 USA 
(309) 347-7113 
(309) 347-6432 FAX 
fmackaman@dirksencenter.org

Grant Recipients, 2009

*Nicholas W. Carnes, Department of Politics, Princeton University
Social Class and Congressional Leadership
$3,500

Political observers have long recognized that members of Congress are drawn disproportionately from selective colleges, prestigious occupations, and elite social circles. But do lawmakers’ social class backgrounds actually affect their choices in office? This project proposes to collect data on numerous markers of social attainment for each of the 788 unique senators and representatives who served during the last five Congresses (1999-2008). These measures—combined with existing data on congressional leadership activities and roll call votes—will allow the research to determine whether and how members’ social class backgrounds affect their leadership decisions on a wide array of political issues.

*Marika-Eugenia Dunn, Department of Political Science, Rutgers University
Representation in Majority Minority Congressional Districts through Constituency Casework
$3,310

This project will examine the constituent casework process in congressional districts with majority White, African American, and Latino populations. It will examine similarities and differences in both the frequency and subject matter of casework with which constituents within such districts ask for assistance, and the processes by which district staff respond to these requests. Additionally, the project will compare casework data with members’ legislative behavior to explore the nature of the relationship between constituency casework and policy responsiveness among majority White and majority minority districts.

*Shennette M. Garrett, Department of History, University of Texas at Austin
The New Deal and African American Banking in the South
$1,251

Garrett will consider the role of southern Democrats in crafting congressional reforms affecting black-owned banks in the South during the 1930s. The project evaluates the effectiveness of these reforms by considering the nature of the involvement of key southern Democrats in the passage and implementation of policies to regulate, reform, and recuperate banking on the state and regional levels; the ways black business and civic leaders influenced and constrained Congress’s actions; and the specific effect of southern Democrats’ involvement on black-owned banks in the South. The project highlights the political economy of race and business in the New South.

*Craig B. Hollander, Department of History, The Johns Hopkins University
Capitol Crime:  Congress, Politics, and the African Slave Trade, 1789-1860
$3,260

This project explores the influence of Congress, as a legislative body, and individual Congress members, as politicians and statesmen, on the abolition and suppression of the African slave trade. By focusing on the correspondence, activities, and politicking of Congress members both on and away from Capitol Hill, this study hopes to reveal why and how elected representatives tried to eradicate the slave trade within the political, social, and moral framework of antebellum America.

*David S. Keenan, Department of History, Northwestern University
Organized Interests and the Process of Government in the Early American Republic, 1783-1800
$3,500

Keenan’s project offers the first comprehensive treatment of interest group lobbying in the early U.S. Congress. He intends to demonstrate that interest groups employed a traditional legal instrument, the petition, to solicit favors from Congress members and draw wider public attention to their concerns. The right of petition as exercised during the early national period constituted an affirmative mechanism for the advancement of minority interests in a majoritarian system. Consequently, early American policies often reflected the interests of narrow, well-organized constituencies rather than broad popular majorities.

Douglas L. Kriner, Department of Political Science, Boston University
Can Investigative Oversight Mend the Broken Branch?
$3,500

This project examines congressional investigative oversight of the executive branch. Its goals are two-fold. By creating an original, comprehensive data set of over 12,000 oversight hearings from 1900 to 2007, the project first explores the forces driving the considerable variance in congressional oversight over time. Second, through a mix of quantitative, historical, and archival analyses, the project assesses the capacity of this investigative oversight to serve as a viable constraint on the executive branch.

Scott R. Meinke, Department of Political Science, Bucknell University
Leadership, Loyalty, and Constituency:   Governing and Representation in the House Extended Party Leadership
$2,700

This research asks how senior party leaders construct and employ the extended House leadership networks to serve party goals and how rank-and-file members link their party leadership activity with constituency representation. Building on conditional party government theory and using qualitative evidence from House leaders’ archived papers and quantitative analysis of member behavior, the project will describe and explain the rapid changes in both parties’ leadership structures since the 1970s and analyze members’ strategic efforts to relate partisan Washington service to constituency representation.

*Mark J. Oleszek, Institute of Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Social Embeddedness and the Contemporary Evolution of the U.S. Senate
$3,500

Action and accomplishment in the contemporary Senate depend to a considerable degree on senators themselves. Lawmaking is an inherently social activity, especially in the upper chamber, and the interactions that occur between and among senators can inform policy outcomes and, more broadly, our understanding of the legislative process. Oleszek employs a measure of social embeddedness derived from cosponsorship behavior among senators to understand how the social dimension to lawmaking has evolved since the 1970s. Results indicate a gradual decline in the importance of collaboration to legislative outcomes, a disconcerting trend to an institution that features a relatively flat organizational hierarchy and supermajority voting requirements. Centrifugal forces external to the chamber seem to be straining the social fabric of the institution in ways that undermine the importance of the Senate to our constitutional system of government.

*Rachel A. Shapiro, Department of History, University of Virginia
Washington Brotherhood:  Friendship and Politics in the Civil War Era
$3,243

This project investigates the influence of community life in Washington, DC, on the course of American political events leading up to the Civil War. Shapiro argues that, although sectional hostility did grow throughout the nation in the years before the war, the personal and political friendships that many Congress members and their families made while living in the District tempered these animosities. Men and women from across the North-South divide interacted in a series of social, political, religious, intellectual, philanthropic, and educational situations that helped commit a significant portion of them to the cause of union and peace in 1861.

*Zachary C. Smith, Department of History, Boston University
From the Well of the House:  The Rise of Conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives, 1978-1994
$3,420

This project is a study of the strategies, tactics, and motivations of conservative Republican representatives as they pursued majority status in the House from 1978 to 1994. It argues that partisan, aggressive, and media savvy conservative members took advantage of new House rules, the media, and scandal in order to gain power. It tracks the progress of conservatives from a small minority to the governing power as they pushed the Republican party to a more partisan and conservative stance, facing down members of both parties in the drive to reclaim the majority.

*Edward H. Stiglitz, Department of Political Science, Stanford University
Congressional Oversight of the Federal Judiciary
$3,500

Oversight of the federal judiciary is one of Congress’s key roles in the American separation of powers system. A particularly importance congressional oversight function involves the decision of whether to “override” statutory interpretations handed down by the judiciary. This project extends existing data to the present, allowing a systematic testing of a wide range of separation of powers theories in which Congress plays a central role.

* PhD candidate

Application Summary Sheet

The fill-in application summary sheet allows you to enter information while the form is displayed by an Adobe Acrobat product and then print the complete form for your records and for submission to the Congressional Research Award Screening Committee.

Please review the Fill-in Application Instructions for software requirements and detailed instructions on usage. Caution: the Acrobat Reader does not allow you to save your fill-in application to disk.

All proposals must be received no later than February 1, 2009. Submit the complete application package to:

Congressional Research Award Screening Committee
c/o The Dirksen Congressional Center
2815 Broadway
Pekin, Illinois 61554

If you have questions, contact Frank Mackaman, Dirksen Center, at the address above or preferably by e-mail: fmackaman@dirksencenter.org. His phone number is 309.347.7113.