Margaret Peters — 2018 Theodore J. Lowi Award Recipient

The American Political Science Association (APSA) will present the APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award to Dr. Margaret Peters at the 2018 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition, the world’s largest gathering of political scientists and source for emerging scholarship in the discipline. The $750 award, supported by the International Political Science Association, recognizes an author’s first book in any field of political science for showing promise of having a substantive impact on the discipline. 

Margaret Peters is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at UCLA. Her research focuses broadly on international political economy with a special focus on the politics of migration. Her book, Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization (2017, Princeton University Press) examines the relationship between trade policy, outsourcing, and immigration policy and received the Best Book Award from the IPE and Ethnicity, Nationalism, and Migration Sections of the International Studies Associations and the Migration and Citizenship Section of APSA. Prior to coming to UCLA, she was an Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at Yale University and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2011. Her work has appeared in International Organization and World Politics, among others. She teaches classes on international political economy and migration and occasionally tweets @MigrationNerd.

The Award Committee was unanimous in its decision to award the Theodore J. Lowi ‘First Book Award’ for 2018 to Margaret Peters.  Dr. Peters is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at UCLA.  Her research focuses broadly on international political economy with a special focus on the politics of migration.  Prior to coming to UCLA, she was an Assistant Professor in the Political Science department at Yale University and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2011.  Her work has appeared in International Organization and World Politics, among others.

Her first book, Trading Barriers: Immigration and the Remaking of Globalization (2017, Princeton University Press) examines the relationship between trade policy, outsourcing, and immigration policy, demonstrating the important and influential role played by international trade and capital movements in shaping public policies toward immigration.  An exhaustively researched and original analysis, with broad international policy implications, Trading Barriers illuminates our understanding of the relationship between trade liberalization and immigration policies.