Information about the Congressional Research Awards

Grant Recipients, 2012

Grant Recipients, 1978-present

How do I apply?

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 March 1, 2013

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 invested more than $881,041 to support over 414 projects. Applications are accepted at any time, but the deadline is March 1 for the annual selections, which are announced in April.  A total of up to $35,000 will be available in 2013. 

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, course lectures, 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. 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? 

Download the Word document -- Congressional Research Award Application -- and complete the required entries. You may send the application as a Word or pdf attachment to an e-mail directed to Frank Mackaman at fmackaman@dirksencenter.org. Please insert the following in the Subject Line:  “CRA Application [insert your surname].” Thank you.

The Congressional Research Award Application contains the following elements:

• Applicant Information.
• Congressional Research Award Project Description. 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. Recommended length: five pages.
• Budget. Indicate how funds will be spent and the extent of matching funds available, if any. Recommended length: one-half page.
• Curriculum Vita. The vita or resume should not exceed two pages.
• Reference Letter. Graduate students (those who have successfully defended their dissertation proposal) must arrange for a letter of reference from the person directing their dissertation work. The letter should be sent on institutional letterhead as a signed pdf attachment to Frank Mackaman at fmackaman@dirksencenter.org.  Length not to exceed one page.
• Overhead Waiver Letter. 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. The Overhead Waiver Letter should be sent on institutional letterhead as a signed pdf attachment to Frank Mackaman at fmackaman@dirksencenter.org.

IMPORTANT:  The entire application when printed must NOT exceed ten pages. This total does NOT include the reference letter (one additional page) or the Overhead Waiver Letter (one additional page).

When is the deadline? 

All application materials must be received on or before March 1, 2012.  Awards will be announced in April 2012. 

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) 347-7113       
(309) 347-6432 FAX 
fmackaman@dirksencenter.org

Grant Recipients, 2012

*PhD Candidate

*Peter-Christian Aigner, History Department, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Daniel Patrick Moynihan and the Shaping of Modern Liberalism: Urban Poverty, Foreign Policy, and the Democratic Party, from JFK to Clinton
$3,500

This project examines the role of Moynihan in shaping national discourse and policy on the major engagements of his career. By focusing on his place in context, it explores the changing nature of Democratic and liberal political culture and ideology during the years of conservative “realignment,” with special attention to the consequences of various congressional reforms after the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

Michael J. Allen, History Department, Northwestern University
The Confidence of Crisis: Congress Confronts the Imperial Presidency, 1968-1992
$3,150

This research examines the showdown between Congress and the ‘imperial presidency” in the 1970s and 80s to illuminate one of the principal political and policy challenges Americans faced in the last half century: how to balance their expansive foreign policy ambitions against their reluctance to sacrifice significant blood and treasure in their pursuit.

Scott J. Basinger, Department of Political Science, University of Houston
Congressional Scandals and Media Coverage: A Database for Researchers
$2,250

Basinger will create a congressional scandal dataset to address these questions: (1) How frequently are Congress members accused of unethical or immoral behavior? (2) How much attention do such accusations receive in the national news media and has the level of attention changed over time? (3) What are the electoral consequences of involvement in scandal, and do the consequences depend on (a) news media attention to the scandal and (b) the way the misbehavior was investigated?

Marija Anna Bekafigo, Department of Political Science, University of Southern Mississippi
Change and Continuity among Party Leaders and Committee Chairs in the U.S. House, 1949-2010
$2,500

Based on a database of 51 leadership actions, this project answers two questions: How do party leaders and committee chairs operate over time and when is one set of leaders more or less visible? The 62-year time period provides an ideal setting to study longitudinal change.

Michael Bowen, Department of Religion, History, Philosophy, and Classics, Westminster College
The Watergate Babies and the Transformation of the Democratic Party
$2,873

This project is a group biography of the 75 freshman House Democrats of the 94th Congress. The study will use this class of legislators to trace the broader ideological and strategic changes of the Democratic party in the 1970s and 80s and explain why the Democrats abandoned the principles of the New Left and adopted the centrism that characterized the Clinton era.

*Rebecca DeWolf, Department of History, American University
Equal Status versus Equal Rights: Congress, the Equal Rights Amendment, and Gendered Citizenship in America, 1920-1960
$3,500

This dissertation argues that the ERA conflict from 1920 to 1960 transformed American citizenship from a single-paradigm for white males to a dual-gender model that included separate standards for men and women. DeWolf looks at how Congress fundamentally shaped the history of the ERA and contends that the ERA failed because several congressmen updated the justification for treating men and women differently.

*Nicholas Howard, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Issues, Members, and Obstruction: Holds in the Senate
$2,650

This project seeks to test the usage, distribution, treatment, and outcome of holds in the Senate across time periods and structural environments. The study includes how the two parties use holds, if majority status impacts the use and strategy of holds, and how the leadership of each party manages holds.

*Bryan Knapp, Department of History, Brown University
America’s Multinational Moment: The U.S. Congress, Global Corporations, International Activism and the Struggle to Save the World, 1968-1981
$3,392

This dissertation explores the variable, intense and long-running congressional investigations into America’s precarious relationship with the rest of the world in the 1960s and 70s. The period was defined by great anxiety about multinational corporations, as well as hopes for the future and visions of world peace from every point on the political spectrum.

Karen Kunz, Division of Public Administration, West Virginia University
Budget Priorities and Politics in the Legislative Branch, 1960-2010
$2,775

This study examines appropriations and House and Senate budgets to establish how spending practices within the legislative branch have changed over time. Further, it explores the impact of several variables, such as economic fluctuations; debt and deficit levels; elections; party control of the House, Senate, and Executive; and non-routine activities such as committee investigations and disciplinary probes into spending practices and priorities.

Scott A. MacKenzie, Department of Political Science, University of California, Davis
From Political Pathways to Legislative Folkways; Connecting Institutions, Political Experiences and Legislative Decision-Making
$3,499

To what extent do political institutions affect who serves in democratic legislatures like the U.S. Congress? To what extent do legislators’ political experiences affect what they do in office? By addressing these two questions this research will demonstrate how institutions such as electoral system rules and legislative organization affect the type of politician who gets elected to Congress and the political experiences these individuals bring with them.

*Rachel Pierce, Department of History, University of Virginia
Capitol Feminism: Work, Politics and Gender in Congress, 1960-1980
$3,500

This dissertation examines the secretaries, women staffers, and congresswomen who intermixed daily within the halls of congressional buildings, and to whom congressmen frequently turned when measuring support for “women’s issues.” It also assess how a women’s liberation movement outside Congress affected men and women within those halls. Whether, when, and how certain men and women adopted the rhetoric, ideological precepts, and policy goals of women’s liberation is a central question for understanding the success of feminist legislation.

Jordan Ragusa, Department of Political Science, College of Charleston
Structure-Induced Learning and the Sociological Study of the U.S. Congress
$2,079