Workshops at the APSA Annual Meeting

APSA sponsors dissertation workshops on the Wednesday prior to the APSA Annual Meeting. Each full-day workshop includes six PhD candidates who present a dissertation chapter, along with two faculty members who lead the workshop and moderate discussions. The deadline for applications is April 8, 2019. 

Descriptions of the three dissertation workshops to be held at the 115th APSA Annual Meeting in Washington, DC can be found below. PhD candidates interested in participating in one of these workshops are encouraged to apply here.

Questions? Please contact grad@apsanet.org.

Co-Leaders
Annelise Russell
, Assistant Professor, University of Kentucky
Alison Craig, Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin

Description
The goal of this workshop is to develop a network of emerging scholars working on issues related to collaboration and communication in legislative studies. By broadening traditional Congress research beyond legislative activity, this workshop opens up new avenues for research that explore alternative measures of lawmaker behavior and novel methodologies. Dissertations on a range of topics are welcome, in particular research that addresses negotiation, lawmakers’ strategic communication, and new methods for quantitative analysis. Before the workshop, each student participant will share one draft of a dissertation chapter, and all participants will read each other’s work and prepare feedback. Faculty and students will discuss the drafts and suggest potential ways to improve research design, theory development, and writing style. In addition, the workshop will take time to address general professional development issues. Students will leave the workshop with directed revisions to strengthen both their theoretical and methodological approaches to dissertations and future studies.

Co-Leaders
Nadia Brown, Associate Professor, Purdue University
Sarah Gershon, Associate Professor, Georgia State University
 
Description
Co-sponsored by the Women and Politics Research Section, our workshop will focus on research revolving around the intersection of race, ethnicity and gender in American political behavior. Studies of the intersection of identity in American politics are growing significantly. As a part of this growth, scholars are developing increasingly diverse methodological approaches to explore the intersection of gender and ethno-race in America. Yet different methods yield different information about the intersection of identities and come with different strengths and weaknesses. As researchers that have used a variety of approaches to study race and gender in American politics (including content analysis, experiments, interviews and survey data), we hope to help young scholars build their research and guide them towards thinking about all the different ways these subjects may be explored. Dissertation chapters that explore mass and/or elite behavior in American politics from an intersectional perspective are welcome. The potential topics may include but are not limited to: candidate behavior, protest movements, immigration, mass behavior, voting, and legislative or judicial behavior. The panels will revolve around methodological approaches to the topic, with one panel including primarily quantitative work and the other including qualitative approaches. Common themes to our discussion will include theory development, measurement, and methodological approaches to studying intersectionality in American politics. We will also discuss some of the challenges associated with publishing intersectional research and highlight strategies for overcoming those barriers. The workshop will provide students with constructive feedback from both the leaders and the participants. Through the course of this process, we will provide individual students with guidance as well as create a space for a broader discussion about the state of the literature and avenues for new research. The workshop will require participants to engage in peer review and will be a collaborative space. Students will leave the workshop with directed revisions to strengthen both their theoretical and methodological approaches to dissertations and future studies. Finally, this workshop will create a stronger relationship with their peers and others working in their same field. We hope to use this workshop as a networking and mentoring space as well. 

Nationalism And Populism In International Relations

Co-Leaders
Jiyoung Ko, Assistant Professor, Bates College
Yaiping Wang, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Notre Dame University

Description
This workshop will bring together PhD candidates researching on nationalism, national identity, populism, and public opinion in international relations (including both international security and international political economy). Each participant will share a chapter of their dissertation prior to the workshop. All participants will read each other’s work and prepare feedback on how the chapter can be improved. For each presentation, one participant will also be assigned as a primary discussant in order to facilitate more focused discussion. This workshop will offer a valuable opportunity for PhD candidates to get constructive feedback on their dissertation chapter, develop a network of peers, and exchange their views on the direction of future research on these under-explored, yet increasingly important topics in international relations.