Prerna Singh is Mahatma Gandhi Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Studies and faculty fellow at the Watson Institute. Her research is focused on comparative politics, political economy of development, social welfare, and politics of South Asia and East Asia.
Singh's World Politics article, "Subnationalism and Social Development: A Comparative Analysis of Indian States" was recently awarded the Luebbert prize for the best article in comparative politics published in the last two years by the Comparative Politics section of the American Political Science Association. It was also awarded the best article prize by the American Sociological Association's Sociology of Development section. Singh's article was also awarded the Mary Parker Follett prize by the American Political Science Association for the best article in Politics and History, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation Prize for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs, and the Barrington Moore Prize for the best book of the year in the area of comparative historical sociology.
“All of us at the Watson Institute extend our heartiest congratulations to Prerna Singh on her being awarded the Luebbert Prize. Though awarded specifically for Prerna’s article “Subnationalism and Social Development,” the prize speaks to the empirical depth and theoretical richness that runs through all of Prerna’s work. What a wonderfully appropriate and richly deserved validation of outstanding social science research.” -Watson Institute Director, Edward Steinfeld
An excerpt from the article:
"In recent years countries – both developed and developing – in different parts of the world have been characterized by the presence of powerful nationalist movements within their territorial boundaries. Such subnational movements, specially the case of Quebec in Canada and the Basque region and Catalonia in Spain, have been widely studied but the concept of subnationalism itself has come in for surprisingly little scholarly attention. In this paper I attempt to develop a concept of subnationalism, delineate one way in which it might be measured and use this to measure the strength of subnationalism in Indian provinces."