The American Political Science Association (APSA) has presented Maxine Both with the 2026 Hayward R. Alker Best Student Paper Award for her paper Border Encounters: Mapping Socio-Spatial Identity in Immigration Detention in Canada and Italy. Fellow PhD researcher Zuzanna Samson received an honourable mention for her paper The (border)zones of death: Tracing the socio-political afterlife of migrants on the eastern EU land borders. Both papers were originally presented at APSA's 2025 Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Canada.
Upon receiving the award, Maxine remarked: "I feel honoured to have received this award, especially at the end of my PhD when I sometimes faced doubts and challenges about my research and writing. Receiving an award that recognises a proposal to integrate creative and visual methods from outside of political science speaks to ongoing efforts from scholars in political science to remain open to learning from other disciplines and to broaden and pluralise their methods repertoire. Getting to present this paper in my home country, Canada, in a panel together with my peers Zuzanna Samson and Mariusz Bogacki, my supervisor Jeffrey Checkel, and interpretive political scientists Wendy Pearlman and Laurel Weldon, whose work I admire, was truly a special experience. It showed me the importance of collaboration within an academic environment that can sometimes prioritise individualism over collective knowledge production. I hope that this paper will inspire others to use mapping methods in their research and to present their ideas for new methods in the social sciences."
Maxine’s paper introduces “relational mapping”, a novel method for exploring how identity is shaped not only by social factors such as race, gender, and class, but also by people’s relationships with the spaces they encounter. Drawing on field research with lawyers, activists, immigration detention centre workers, and families supporting people in detention in Canada and Italy, the study shows how relational mapping can offer new insights into experiences of borders and migration, while creating more ethical ways to study sensitive topics. By giving participants greater agency, helping to visualise emotional experiences, and reducing the need to verbalise difficult memories, the method highlights the value of interdisciplinary approaches to understanding identity in political science.
Zuzanna’s paper, draws on observations and interviews with local residents involved in funerals and the care of migrant graves. In her study, she explores how migrants are remembered and understood after death. Through an ethnographic approach, Zuzanna shows how encounters with deceased migrants can challenge perceptions of migrants as anonymous outsiders or threats, allowing local residents to see them instead as individuals, fellow believers, and members of the community. In doing so, the paper highlights how everyday acts of remembrance and care can reshape perceptions of migrants and push back against the idea of migrants as a security threat.
The annual Hayward R. Alker Best Student Paper Award recognises the student conference paper that best employs or analyses interpretive methodologies and methods for the study of politics. The award honours the memory and scholarly legacy of Hayward R. Alker, former President of the International Studies Association, and John A. McCone, Chair in International Security at the University of Southern California, reflecting his commitment to interdisciplinary, historically grounded and linguistically informed research, as well as his dedication to supporting graduate students and emerging scholars.