Anna Grzymala-Busse, Ronald and Eileen Weiser Professor of European and Eurasian Studies, and director of the Ronald and Eileen Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies and the Weiser Center for European and Eurasian Studies, received a U-M Faculty Recognition Award. Faculty Recognition Awards are intended for faculty early in their careers who have demonstrated substantive contributions to the university through achievements in scholarly research and/or creative endeavors; excellence as a teacher, adviser and mentor; and distinguished participation in service activities of the university. Eligible candidates include full professors with no more than four years at that rank, associate professors and assistant professors. Up to five awards of $1,000 each are made each year.

Political scientist Anna Grzymala-Busse works on the cutting edge of comparative politics. She brings rich historical and cultural knowledge, original insights and thoughtful analysis to her research on post-communist politics in East Central Europe, state development and transformation, and religion and politics. Fluent in English, Czech and Polish, Grzymala-Busse first attracted national attention when she won the 2000 Gabriel Almond Award for Best Dissertation in Comparative Politics from the American Political Science Association.

Her book “Redeeming the Communist Past, The Regeneration of Communist Parties in East Central Europe (2002)” offers a penetrating analysis of the rebirth and adaptation of communist parties in several East Central European states after the collapse of communism in 1989. Her second book, “Rebuilding Leviathan: Party Competition and State Exploitation in Post-Communist Democracies (2007),” won the APSA’s 2008 Ed A. Hewett Prize for Best Publication on the Political Economy of the Former Soviet Union and East Central Europe, and best book honors from the Slavic Studies Association.

Grzymala-Busse has published 20 articles in top journals; a half-dozen chapters in high-profile collections, and reports, reviews and working papers. She has won the APSA Alexander George Award for Best Article in Qualitative Methods, and the APSA 2008 Gregory Luebbert Award for Best Article in Comparative Politics. Grzymala-Busse has directed Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies and Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia since 2010. Under her leadership, the centers have taken on a prominent role on campus through conferences, guest lectures and support for students and faculty. She leads the Comparative Politics Workshop, a forum for graduate students to present their work. She also serves on numerous university and professional committees, reviews for more than a dozen journals and two academic presses, and also is in demand as a speaker at workshops and conferences around the country. Grzymala-Busse received the Henry Russel Award in 2009.

To read about other U-M faculty honored for scholarship and service, see the University Record article.