The award honors "a young researcher, within ten years of their degree, who is making notable contributions to the field of political methodology."

The awards are "an effort to bring attention to exceptional scholarship. Currently there are more than 100 such awards honoring dissertations, papers, articles, books and career achievement."

Li is one of only four scholars selected nationally for the award that provides $2,000 towards dissertation research.

This Best Article by a Non-Tenure Scholar Award is "given to the author(s) of the best paper published in 2025 by a non-tenured scholar. To be eligible for this award, an article must have been published during 2025 and the recipient must not have tenure on the date the article is first published on a journal’s website."

The Outstanding Article Award recognizes "exceptional peer-reviewed journal articles representing the mission of the International History and Politics Section of the APSA, including innovative work that brings new light to events and processes in international politics, encourages interdisciplinary conversations between political scientists and historians, and advances historiographical methods."

The Best Paper Award is given for the best paper on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics presented at the previous year’s APSA Annual Meeting.

The American Doctoral Fellowship is meant to offset scholars’ expenses during one year of their doctoral program and also deepens AAUW’s impact by accelerating diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia.

The Kenneth Sherrill Best Dissertation Prize is given by the Sexuality & Politics section and recognizes the best dissertation on sexuality and politics completed and successfully defended in the previous two calendar years.

The Best Dissertation Prize is awarded for the best dissertation on women and politics completed and accepted in the previous year.

The Summer Institute in AI Methods for Social Scientists (AIMS) brings together scholars from across the social sciences for an intensive week of learning, practice, and collaboration in the ways to make use of AI methods in social science research.

The Best Published Article Award recognizes the best scholarly article published about Information Technology and Politics.

The Emerging Scholar award is designed to recognize a scholar who is no more than 6 years from the year of their PhD who has informed the study of legislative politics through innovative and rigorous scholarship.