Isabel M. Perera, assistant professor of government in the College of Arts and Sciences, has received two prestigious awards – the Charles H. Levine Memorial Book Prize from the International Political Sciences Association and the 2026 European Studies Book Award from the Council for European Studies – for her book “The Welfare Workforce: Why Mental Health Care Varies Across Affluent Democracies,” an open-access publication from Cambridge University Press.
In the book, Perera investigates the wide variation in services provided to those with mental health challenges, including schizophrenia, chronic depression and severe bipolar disorder, in countries with otherwise similar health systems and social policies, such as Norway and Sweden.
“In some countries, such as the United States, policymakers closed hospitals but failed to replace them with adequate social and medical supports,” Perera writes. “Other countries, though, developed much more expansive public mental health care systems.”
The comparative analysis, Perera writes, offers a window into how government employees are shaping social policy. She based the book on her dissertation, which received several awards, including the 2019 National Academy of Social Insurance John Heinz Dissertation Award and the 2021 Georges Lavau Best Dissertation Award.
Perera’s book makes a considerable theoretical contribution, said the award committee for the Levine Prize, which annually honors the best book on comparative administration or public policy.
“While the welfare state literature has long emphasized the political feedback generated by program beneficiaries, Perera turns the lens toward those who deliver social services – the public sector workers and managers whose livelihoods depend on the welfare state,” the prize committee wrote. “Her concept of the welfare workforce gives agency to a class of actors that comparative scholarship has too often overlooked.”
The award citation also notes the book’s accessibility and reach: “By showing how alliances between front-line workers and managers can build, defend, and expand services for populations with limited political voice, the book both advances foundational scholarly debates and offers important lessons for strengthening public institutions today.”
Perera’s book also received the 2026 European Studies Book Award from the Council for European Studies (CES), standing out to a multidisciplinary jury composed of scholars from the humanities and social sciences “for its theoretical rigor, scope and impact,” said Abigail E. Lewis, CES executive director. The award is given periodically and recognizes the best book in European Studies in either the humanities or social sciences.
“I am very honored by this recognition,” Perera said. “That a marginalized subject such as mental illness is receiving such attention is especially encouraging. I hope the awards motivate others to read and learn about this important area.”
More News from A&S
Cornell Holocaust scholar echoes Pope Leo’s concerns about AI and human dignity
Artificial Intelligence
