Cecelia Lynch, UC Irvine political science professor, has been named the 2025 Distinguished Scholar of the Religion and International Relations (REL) Section of the International Studies Association for her pathbreaking contributions to the field.

The award is Lynch’s third major recognition from the ISA, the most prominent professional organization in her field with more than 7000 members. In 2014, she received the J. Ann Tickner Award for “combining bravery in pursuing high-quality, pioneering scholarship that pushes the boundaries of the discipline with a deep commitment to service, especially teaching and mentoring.” And in 2019, she was named the International Political Sociology Distinguished Scholar for the significance of her scholarly contributions, interdisciplinarity, activism and social responsibility, and engagement and service.

Lynch's work focuses on interrelated themes of religion/secularisms, humanitarianism, ethics, and international relations broadly conceived, including its racial and gendered character. She’s the author, coauthor or co-editor of eight books and numerous additional articles and book chapters, including the award-winning Beyond Appeasement: Interpreting Interwar Peace Movements in World Politics which received the Edgar Furniss book prize for the best first book on international security, and the Myrna Bernath book prize of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Policy, and her more recent work, Wrestling with God: Ethical Precarity in Christianity and International Relations, which won the ISA Religion and International Relations Section Best Book Award in 2020. Her work has been published and/or translated into French, Chinese, Korean and Farsi.

She is the co-founder of Critical Investigations into Humanitarianism in Africa (www.cihablog.com), a research initiative that brings together a network of international scholars and religious actors to explore critical perspectives on the way humanitarian aid in Africa is sought, delivered and perceived. She also teaches a popular online course by the same title, offering a deep dive into the global north’s humanitarian and developmental aid practices in the continent that includes a critically important perspective: that of African scholars, practitioners and recipients whose voices are often minimized in the conversation.

Her research has been supported by the University of California, Henry Luce Foundation, Academy of International Affairs-NRW, Fulbright Foundation, Social Science Research Council/MacArthur Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, AAUW, Huntington Library and others. She has been recognized by the American Political Science Association’s Women’s Caucus and the Society for Women in International Political Economy for mentoring junior faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates.

Lynch earned her Ph.D. in political science at Columbia University and has been a member of the UC Irvine political science faculty since 1999. On campus, she holds an affiliate faculty role in the Religious Studies Program in the School of Humanities, a faculty associate appointment in the Department of Anthropology within the School of Social Sciences, and she’s part of the campuswide Global Health Research, Education and Translation (GHREAT) initiative faculty team, housed in the Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health. She’s also an honorary professor in the School of Religion, Philosophy and Classics, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa.

Lynch received her most recent honor at ISA's 66th annual convention held March 2-5th in Chicago.

-group photo (courtesy of Cecelia Lynch) from L to R: Marcos Scauso, Cal Poly Pomona; Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Aberystwyth University; Cecelia Lynch, holding computer showing Nadine Machikou, University of Dshang; Nukhet Sandal, Ohio University; Misbah Hyder, U.S. Naval War College; Toussant Kafarhire Murhula, Université Loyola du Congo.