First recipient from an institution outside the United States in the award’s history

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) is proud to announce that Dr. Daniel Barker Flores, a Senior Teaching Associate in HKU’s Department of Politics and Public Administration (PPA), has been awarded the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) 2026 Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best dissertation in the field of comparative politics.

Nominated by HKU, Dr. Barker Flores completed his doctorate at the University of Oxford. This is the first time since the award was created that it has been won by a dissertation completed at an institution outside of the United States. The Gabriel A. Almond Award honors the best doctoral dissertation in comparative politics defended within the previous two calendar years. The award was established in recognition of Dr. Almond’s contributions to the discipline, profession, and Association.

Dr. Barker Flores’ award-winning thesis, titled “Coercion, Capital, and The Latin American City: Understanding Territorial Control and Governance in Marginalised Urban Communities”, explores how and why states are able to build territorial control in urban areas dominated by organized criminal groups. His project investigates why some Latin American cities successfully reduce the influence of armed criminal groups in marginalized neighborhoods and establish effective government control, while others fail to do so.

The full academic citation for the award can be read on APSA’s Political Science Now.

To conduct his research, Dr. Barker Flores spent months in the field across Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil. His data collection involved extensive archival research and hundreds of research interviews, many of which took place in marginalized urban areas controlled by criminal gangs.

Dr. Barker Flores expressed his sincere thanks to Professors Robert Thompson, Head of PPA Department, and Professor Kai Quek at the University of Hong Kong’s (HKU) Department of Politics and Public Administration for agreeing to nominate him for the award.

At HKU, Dr. Barker Flores is developing research articles exploring the politics of police reform, how organised criminal groups influence subnational democracy, and how gangs construct systems of local-level order in urban settings.

Congratulations to Dr. Barker Flores on this achievement!