New faculty member in Political Science, Assistant Professor Shiran Victoria Shen, has received the 2025 World Citizen Prize in Environmental Performance from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM). Granted by David and Joy K. Peyton, the award recognizes "research that assesses pathways to achieve measurable but as-yet unrealized gains in overall environmental performance, in particular to reduce consumption and waste."
Shen was recognized for three complementary works that together show how institutions and incentives can drive lasting environmental progress. The centerpiece was her book, The Political Regulation Wave: A Case of How Local Incentives Shape Air Quality in China (Cambridge University Press, 2022), which demonstrates how political and bureaucratic incentives shape environmental outcomes and how they can be leveraged to drive real improvements. She was also recognized for her 2025 Evan Ringquist Award–winning article, “Social competition drives collective action to reduce informal waste burning in Uganda” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024), which shows how social competition can motivate communities to reduce informal waste burning, and for her article, “Regularized Campaigns as a New Institution for Effective Governance” (Policy Studies Journal), which identifies how repeating targeted enforcement campaigns can deliver lasting compliance gains, even in contexts prone to regulatory capture.
Aseem Prakash, Professor of Political Science at University of Washington and Founding Director of the UW Center for Environmental Politics, nominated Shen for the award. In Prakash's nomination, he praised Shen as "a rising leader in the field" and "an innovative scholar whose work spans political science, environmental sciences, and public policy, offering a rare and rigorous window into how governments in hard-to-study but critical environments...craft and implement climate and environmental policies."
Prakash goes on to say, "In short, Dr. Shen's work exemplifies the qualities this prize aims to recognize: it is bold, empirically grounded, theoretically meaningful, and of direct relevance to pressing environmental challenges."
Shen joined the WashU Political Science department this fall, and her work has been published in Policy Studies Journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Communications Earth & Environment. Shen's first book, The Political Regulation Wave: A Case of How Local Incentives Systematically Shape Air Quality in China, received the 2023 International Public Policy Association Early Career Research Award, the 2020 APSA's Harold D. Lasswell Award, and 2019 APPAM PhD Dissertation Award.
The World Citizen Prize provides the recipient with a plaque, a $2,500 prize, and funds to attend the 2025 APPAM Fall Conference in Seattle to receive the award.
