Professor Craig Volden has won the annual award for best paper from State Politics and Policy Quarterly, an organized section of the American Political Science Association. The award, which Volden received for his coauthored paper "Legislative Effectiveness in the American States," recognizes "the best paper on state politics and policy presented at any professional meeting in the previous calendar year."

With appointments to both the Politics Department and the Batten School, Dr. Volden also serves as Director of the Center for Effective Lawmaking. His current projects include studies of innovation and policy diffusion across states and localities, and an analysis of the legislative effectiveness of individual members of Congress.