Government Professor’s Book Wins Prestigious Political Science Award
Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America, written by Jaime Settle, the Cornelia Brackenridge Talbot Professor of Government and Data Science at William & Mary, was awarded the 2024 Doris Graber Outstanding Book Award. Presented by the American Political Science Association’s (ASPA) and International Communication Association’s (ICA) joint Political Communication Division, the prestigious prize recognizes “the most outstanding book in the field of political communication that was published in the past decade.”
Published in 2018 by the University of Cambridge Press, Frenemies explores the connection between social media and political polarization. It particularly focuses on how the combination of features on Facebook facilitates psychological polarization among the American public.
Settle’s book has been awarded other prizes as well, including the 2019 Best Book Award from ASPA’s Experimental Research Section and the 2023 Philip E. Converse Award from ASPA’s Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section, given to “an outstanding book in the field published five or more years ago.”
Settle’s research is closely connected to her teaching at William & Mary. In addition to teaching in the government department and data science program, Settle directs the Social Networks and Political Psychology Lab, co-directs the Social Science Research Methods Center, and previously served as the Associate Director and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Data Science Program.
