William Howell one of two UChicago scholars awarded 2023 Guggenheim Fellowships

This article was originally published by UChicago News. View the full article here.

Guggenheim Fellowships have been awarded this year to two University of Chicago scholars, chosen on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.

Prof. Orit Bashkin and Prof. William Howell are among the 171 Fellows selected in this year’s class from nearly 2,500 applicants to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Their respective fellowships will support projects on the history of Middle Eastern Jews and how U.S. political institutions shape our democracy.

“The new class of Fellows has followed their calling to enhance all of our lives, to provide greater human knowledge and deeper understanding,” said Edward Hirsch, president of the Guggenheim Foundation, according to the announcement. “We’re lucky to look to them to bring us into the future.” 
 

William Howell

Prof. William Howell is a leading political scientist who has written widely on separation-of-powers issues and American political institutions, especially the presidency. He is the Sydney Stein Professor in American Politics at the Harris School of Public Policy and chair of the Department of Political Science. He also co-hosts Not Another Politics Podcast.

Most recently, Howell co-wrote “Presidents, Populism, and the Crisis of Democracy” with Terry Moe. He’s authored and co-authored numerous books, including “Relic: How Our Constitution Undermines Effective Government—and Why We Need a More Powerful Presidency.”

With the support of his Guggenheim Fellowship, Howell plans to work on writing projects during his sabbatical next year.

“I plan to write a book and some papers that examine how the design of political institutions and the emergence of the modern administrative state have downstream political implications for parties, electoral competition, and, more broadly still, democracy itself,” Howell said.

The Fellowship will also help continue his work as director of the Center for Effective Government, which was founded in 2019 to improve the performance of government through institutional reform.

“I can hardly wait to get after the work that this Fellowship is intended to underwrite,” Howell said. “What a great honor and privilege this is.”