The William M. LeoGrande Award and the The William M. LeoGrande Prize were established in 2012 to honor William M. LeoGrande's tenure as Dean of American University's School of Public Affairs from 2003 to 2012. The endowed award was made possible through the financial support of alumni, friends, and colleagues of Professor LeoGrande.

One of the world's most accomplished scholars in Latin American politics and U.S. foreign policy, Professor LeoGrande continues to serve as a Professor of Government at American University. He has written five books, including Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana. Most recently, he was co-editor of A New Chapter in US-Cuba Relations: Social, Political, and Economic Implications.

Professor LeoGrande has been a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, and a Pew Faculty Fellow in International Affairs. His articles have appeared in various international and national journals, magazines, and newspapers.

In 2012, the School of Public Affairs and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies established the William M. LeoGrande Award for the best book or article in Latin American or Latino Studies published by a member of the American University community. The $2,000 award is given annually to the author of a book or article published during the preceding two years.

Marcelo Bohrt, Associate Professor in American University’s School of International Service, is the recipient of this year’s William M. LeoGrande Award for his excellent article, "Race and Diplomatic Bureaucracy: State-Building in Nineteenth-century Bolivia as a Response to Transnational Racialization Threats," published in 2021 in the journal Global Historical Sociology of Race and Racism. Read the article here. 

In 2012, the School of Public Affairs and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University established the William M. LeoGrande Prize for the best book on U.S.-Latin American relations. This $1,000 prize is awarded annually to the author or editor of a book published in Spanish, English, or Portuguese during the preceding two years.

William Michael Schmidli, currently an Assistant Professor in the Institute for History at Leiden University, is the recipient of the 2022 William M. LeoGrande Prize for his well-researched book, book, Freedom on the Offensive: Human Rights, Democracy Promotion, and US Interventionism in the Late Cold War (Cornell University Press, 2022). Learn more about the book here.