UNLV political science and women's studies professor Michele Berger received the 1998 Horace H. Rackham Distinguished Dissertation Award from the University of Michigan for her dissertation, "Workable Sisterhood: A Study of the Political Participation of Stigmatized Women with HIV/AIDS."

Berger's dissertation was one of four recognized as being "exceptional and unusually interesting work."

Berger, who joined the UNLV faculty in January, studies issues of gender and political participation, jurisprudence, and constitutional law.

She received her bachelor's degree in political studies from Bard College and both her master's and doctoral degrees in political science from the University of Michigan.