2026 Related Group Calls

Related Group Chair(s): Related Group Chair(s): Tanika Raychaudhuri, Rice University – tanikar@rice.edu

The Asian Pacific American Caucus (APAC) welcomes proposals for papers and full panels on all aspects of Asian American and Pacific Islander political life and experiences in the United States. Proposals related to the 2026 conference theme of “Democracy Under Threat,” which consider current crises facing democratic systems of government and how we can protect and reimagine democracy, as they intersect with issues facing AAPI communities are particularly welcome.

Among many others, some questions of interest may include: How do Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) conceive of and construct their sense of political power as a group or as individuals at a moment when democracy is in crisis? How do subgroups within diverse AAPI communities understand and develop their power in politics in different ways? How might disinformation and weakened democratic institutions have a particular impact on AAPI communities and voters? To what extent are AAPI communities represented in current systems of government? As patterns of division and polarization mark the contours of American politics writ large, do AAPIs perceive themselves as part of a large and growing pan-ethnic group in politics? Do some subgroups within this broader pan-ethnic community feel those connections, or distance, more acutely than others?

In addition to these topics and theme-related proposals, we welcome paper proposals on the role of gender, sexuality, class, generational differences, group consciousness, or experiences of discrimination in shaping AAPI political behavior, the ways that AAPIs interact with institutional conditions and how political institutions shape the trajectory of Asian American and Pacific Islander group politics. Analyses of transnational politics—for example, the relationship between U.S.-based AAPIs and their countries of ancestry, and comparisons between Asian and Pacific Islander immigrant-based communities in the U.S. and other countries—are also welcome. These analyses may occur at national, state, local, and even neighborhood levels; from elite to mass politics; and in historical and contemporary perspectives. We particularly welcome papers focused on the power, peoplehood and politics of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.

Related Group Chair(s): Ji Yeon Hong, University of Michigan – jeanhong@umich.edu

The Association of Korean Political Studies (AKPS) welcomes submissions for its panels at the 2026 APSA Annual Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, from September 3 to September 6, 2026. We invite individual papers or panel proposals from any subfield in political science, including international relations and comparative politics. Papers may apply any theoretical or empirical approach to the study of Korea-related questions. The conference theme is “Democracy under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.”

Proposals may or may not directly engage with this theme, but they should present a clear and compelling linkage to Korean politics, broadly defined. In keeping with APSA’s goals of increasing diversity, inclusion, and access throughout the profession, AKPS welcomes diversity of approaches and interdisciplinarity from a wide-ranging collection of researchers. Graduate students and junior scholars are strongly encouraged to submit a proposal. There is no AKPS-specific submission site. Please use the APSA’s official submission system and select “AKPS” from the “Related Group.” The submission deadline is Thursday, January 15, 2026, 11:59 PM Pacific.

Related Group Chair(s): Janet Laible, Lehigh University – jml6@lehigh.edu

The British Politics Group welcomes proposals for papers, panels, roundtables, and other innovative formats on any topic related to British politics for the 2026 APSA Annual Meeting in Boston. We are open to proposals that focus on the United Kingdom as a case study as well as those that provide comparative perspectives on British politics, regardless of methodological approach.

Proposals may wish to consider the theme for the 2026 APSA Meeting, “Democracy under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild,” which invites participants to consider: “How do we understand the global crisis of democracy we face today? How do societies claw back democratic rights and practices when these come under assault? And how should we rebuild democratic institutions, norms, and practices?” In the context of the United Kingdom, proposals might consider challenges to democracy and/or efforts to promote and enhance democracy in a variety of domains, including but not limited to: political parties and populism, social movements and popular mobilization, law and civil liberties, or the politics of citizenship and identity.

In line with APSA’s diversity statement, we welcome submissions from scholars from diverse backgrounds, and we especially invite submissions from junior scholars or those new to the BPG. Please also note that all presenters including co-authors must be dues-paying members of the BPG in order to appear on the program (presenters may join the BPG after acceptance to the conference). Information about the British Politics Group, including membership information, may be found at britishpoliticsgroup.com. Additional questions may be addressed to the 2026 BPG Program Chair, Dr. Janet Laible, at jml6@lehigh.edu.

Related Group Chair(s): Charlie Hunt, Boise State University – charleshunt@boisestate.edu; Jaclyn Kettler, Boise State University – jaclynkettler@boisestate.edu

The Campaign Finance Research Group welcomes paper, panel, and roundtable proposals on a wide range of topics about campaign finance. Proposals addressing the conference’s core theme are especially encouraged, but we welcome any proposals examining the role of money in elections and politics, broadly speaking.

Nearly $15 billion was raised and spent to influence the outcomes of the 2024 federal elections in the United States, including record amounts from just a few wealthy individuals. These political actors can use campaign contributions and expenditures to influence political discourse, shape the policy agenda, and alter policy outcomes in ways that can distort democratic political representation and create or deepen political divisions. Money also offers a window into the motivations and ambitions of candidates, voters, and outside groups alike.

With a crucial midterm election on the horizon in 2026, and a still-evolving campaign finance legal landscape, the cost of campaign- and policy-related influence is likely to remain high in the United States. Recent elections across the globe also present opportunities to study the comparative role of money in politics. It is vitally important to study and understand money spent in campaigns and elections, especially in its capacity to purchase influence among those whom the dollars are raised and spent to elect.

We encourage proposals across a diverse range of methodologies and a diverse group of scholars – particularly those from groups underrepresented in the profession. We also welcome proposals examining campaign finance in any country and level of government.

Related Group Chair(s): John Dinan, Wake Forest University – dinanjj@wfu.edu

The Center for the Study of Federalism invites proposals for papers to be presented for a panel, “Federalism in the Second Trump Administration.” This panel seeks to examine the likely trajectories, challenges, impacts, and opportunities for American federalism resulting from President Donald J. Trump’s second presidential term.

The second Trump administration has already presented the United States’ federal system with a distinct set of pressures, and it has the potential to significantly reconfigure the relationship between national, state, and local governments. We invite papers that explore the anticipated policy, legal, and political dynamics of federal-state relations under Trump. Possible areas of focus include: executive federalism and presidential authority; the administrative state and federal regulatory rollback; the use of preemption or waivers; the role of states as collaborators or opponents in key policy domains such as immigration, healthcare, education, climate policy, digital privacy, artificial intelligence, and public safety; the evolving legal landscape with respect to cooperative and coercive federalism; the roles of states as opponents or supporters of democratic backsliding; impacts of Trump’s Supreme Court nominees on federalism; and the potential for new forms of intergovernmental conflict or cooperation.

We welcome submissions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes: the strategies states may deploy in response to federal initiatives; the constitutional and statutory bases for state and local resistance or acquiescence; partisan polarization and its impact on federalism; mechanisms of state innovation, experimentation, or obstruction; implications for minority rights, democratic governance, or the rule of law; and the consequences for civic participation and public trust in the federal, state, and local governments.

Related Group Chair(s): Justin Litke, The Catholic University of America – litke@cua.edu

CSS seeks papers from a broad range of scholars interested in the idea and use of compromise in statesmanship, particularly but not exclusively in the Anglo-American and Western traditions.

Related Group Chair(s): Peter Levine, Tufts University – peter.levine@tufts.edu; Trygve Throntheit, Ball State University – throntv@gmail.com

We invite proposals for panels, round tables, and individual papers that make a significant contribution to the civic studies field; articulate a civic studies perspective on some important issue; or contribute to theoretical, empirical, or practical debates in civic studies. We especially encourage proposals that emphasize actual or potential civic responses to the threats to democracy

Civic studies is a field defined by diversity yet connected by participants’ commitments to promoting interdisciplinary research, theory, and practice in support of civic renewal: the strengthening of civic (i.e., citizen-powered and citizen-empowering) politics, initiatives, institutions, and culture. Its concern is not with citizenship understood as legal membership in a particular polity, but with guiding civic ideals and a practical ethos embraced by individuals loyal to, empowered by, and invested in the communities they form and re-form together. Its goal is to promote these ideals through improved institutional designs, enhanced public deliberation, new and improved forms of public work among citizens, or clearer and more imaginative political theory.

The civic studies framework adopted in 2007 cites two ideals for the emerging discipline: “public spiritedness” (or “commitment to the public good”) and “the idea of the citizen as a creative agent.” Civic studies is an intellectual community that takes these two ideals seriously. Although new, it draws from several important strands of ongoing research and theory, including the work of Elinor and Vincent Ostrom and the Bloomington School, of Juergen Habermas and critical social theory, Brent Flyvbjerg and social science as phronesis, and more diffuse traditions such as philosophical pragmatism, Gandhian nonviolence, the African American Freedom Struggle. It supports work on deliberative democracy, on public work, on civic engagement and community organizing, among others.

Related Group Chair(s): Catherine Herrold, Syracuse University – ceherrol@syr.edu; Margaret Post, Clark University – mpost@clarku.edu

The APSA Related Group on Civil Society, Policy, and Power invites proposals concerning the nongovernmental actors and spaces that shape politics and policymaking in the US and around the world. This universe includes policy advocacy organizations, trade and professional associations, unions, nonprofit service providers, grassroots groups, think tanks, grantmaking institutions, individual donors, and informal networks of social capital.

We are especially interested in papers that address relationships between civil society, politics, and power in times of crises. The theme of collective action may be particularly relevant, as civil society is well positioned to promote collective action among diverse and divergent groups of people. We welcome submissions that address civil society, politics, and power in local, regional, national, and international contexts and encourage work that addresses the topic from international and comparative perspectives.

Papers need not directly engage the conference theme; we welcome the full range of original contributions. We invite interdisciplinary work and empirical studies from methodological traditions, as well as works of political theory, from scholars who represent the diversity of the profession (including by rank, subfield, identity, and perspective).

We are interested in work using original data sources and diverse methods to bring civil society organizations into the study of political institutions and processes. Proposals might focus on how non-governmental actors have shaped policy agendas, political dynamics, and state-building historically and at present. Alternatively, proposals might focus on how the state has shaped the size, power, activities, and scope of the non-governmental sphere. Research that views civil society in comparative perspective is especially relevant, as is research focusing on peoples and places that mainstream political science has neglected.

We encourage paper submissions and organized panel submissions. Panel submissions must include at least four papers, a panel chair, and a discussant. Where appropriate, the program co-chairs may add papers to these panels. We ask that all members submitting proposals also volunteer to serve either as panel chairs or as discussants.

Related Group Chair(s): Jeffrey Paller, University of San Francisco – jpaller@usfca.edu

Cities are at the forefront of global transformation, as the convergence of a global pandemic, deepening political polarization, and mass organized protests demanding social justice and systemic change usher in a new era for more than seven billion people. The city is the site of intense change, where residents are rethinking, restructuring, and reconnecting with others. While reimagining the future, people across the world navigate inherited legacies of inequality and hierarchy. Cities are forced to rethink their design, transport systems, governance apparatuses, workplaces, and public spaces. But cities have been here before, and lessons from the past offer insights into the world’s future. What is the future of cities? How can past experiences of urbanization inform patterns of urban growth today? How can the study of cities inform new forms of politics and political science?

Panel proposals that include perspectives from both the developed and developing world, have broad appeal across the discipline, and draw from significant fieldwork will be favored. Since we only have one panel on the APSA program, it is advisable to submit your proposals to other Organized Sections/Divisions as well.

Related Group Chair(s): Chien-Kai Chen, Rhodes College – chenc@rhodes.edu

The 2026 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting will be held on September 3-6, 2026, in Boston, Massachusetts. The Conference Group on Taiwan Studies (CGOTS) invites paper and panel proposals on research related to Taiwan for our CGOTS panels.

The result of Taiwan’s 2024 presidential election marked the unprecedented third win in a row since 2016 for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). However, while the DPP continues to dominate the executive branch of Taiwan’s political system, it is no longer the majority in Taiwan’s legislature. The development of this challenging political situation of divided/minority government and its impacts on, as well as its implications for, Taiwan’s domestic politics and foreign relations are undoubtedly worth a close examination by those who are interested in issues about Taiwan.

In addition to experiencing a challenging political situation at home, Taiwan is encountering new developments abroad as well. China has been increasing its hostility against Taiwan with, among other things, more and more military exercises and operations targeting the island. As for Taiwan’s biggest ally, the US, it is entering a new political landscape with Donald Trump returning to the White House and the Republican Party being the majority for both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Whether and how the changes of the US domestic and foreign policies as a result of this new political development in the US have affected and will continue to affect the relations between the US and Taiwan, as well as Taiwan’s political and economic development, in the context of growing Sino-US competition in the international system is worth pondering by both academic and policy circles.

We welcome proposals that employ innovative, diverse, and interdisciplinary approaches to comprehensively and comparatively examine Taiwan’s domestic politics and foreign relations. Issues that could be explored include but of course are not limited to Taiwan’s civil society and social movements, electoral politics and political participation in Taiwan, Taiwan’s party system and partisan conflict, the Taiwanese government’s domestic and foreign policies, Taiwan’s identity politics and its relations with China, Taiwan-US relations in the context of Sino-US competition, Taiwan’s international status and foreign relations in Asia and beyond, etc. Our panels aim to foster reflective and critical discourse on these subject matters, with no limitations on the scope and topics covered. Overall, we hope to shed light on our understanding of Taiwan and its future within the global context while increasing Taiwan’s international visibility.

Please send your paper or panel proposals to the APSA through their submission process. If you have any questions, please contact the CGOTS Coordinator, Dr. Chien-Kai Chen (chenc@rhodes.edu). Travel support for CGOTS panelists is subject to the availability of external funding.

Related Group Chair(s): Dimitri Courant, Sciences Po Paris & Harvard University  –dimitri.courant.phd@gmail.com; Alice Siu, Stanford University – asiu@stanford.edu; Euchan Jang, Ohio State University – jang.460@buckeyemail.osu.edu

At a time when democracy is under threat, the study and practice of Democratic Innovations is essential to “Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.” Democratic innovations are intended to embody a more participatory mode of politics, to redistribute political power, and to reimagine what democracy could be. They have long focused on understanding conflictual political situations, protecting the voices and interests of ordinary citizens, and rebuilding an empowered deliberative demos.

But can democratic innovations deliver on these promises in times of threats and crisis? Can they be sustained in a period of growing authoritarianism? Do they provide a political space that can counter problems of disinformation and polarization? What possibilities do they offer for developing new ideas to address the most pressing political and policy challenges, such as climate change, forced migration, wealth inequalities, global pandemics, inter- and intra-state conflict? And how should democratic innovations function in an increasingly digitized society?

APSA’s Democratic Innovations Related Group plans several panels that respond to these questions. We invite individual paper and complete panel proposals that speak to important theoretical and empirical questions related to innovative democratic practices and institutions. Democratic Innovations refer to a wide variety of innovations, including but not limited to deliberative minipublics (among which are citizens’ assemblies), participatory budgeting, popular assemblies, ballot initiatives, collaborative governance, and digital participation. Democratic Innovations can occur within state-sponsored institutions, civil society, social movements, the bureaucracy (through governance-driven democratization), or within the politics of electoral representation.

The study of Democratic Innovations is an interdisciplinary field bridging normative theory and empirical political science. As such, we welcome proposals from a range of theoretical, methodological, and epistemological approaches. We are also open to critical scholarships, highlighting the challenges and limitations of democratic innovations. We seek to create a diverse program and therefore encourage scholarship and scholars that have been historically underrepresented in political science, including but not limited to diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, nationalities, sexual orientations, and gender expressions, as well as diverse career trajectories and scholars from non-US institutions, especially those from the global South. We also encourage junior and untenured researchers to participate. Scholars wishing to propose a complete panel should aim to respect this diversity; inclusion of researchers from different universities, countries, genders, and career stages within the same panel is highly encouraged.

Related Group Chair(s): Rob DeLeo, Bentley University – rdeleo@bentley.edu; Summer Marion, Bentley University – smarion@bentley.edu

The Disasters and Crises Related Group (DCRG) brings together scholars from all subfields within political science along with researchers from outside the discipline to foster collaboration and diffusion of ideas on hazards, disasters, and crises. The DCRG invites proposals for its related group panel at the 2026 American Political Science Association meeting the theme of which is “Democracy Under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.” Potential topics include how multiple actors – private firms, informal resident networks, faith-based organizations, civil society organizations, and local, regional, and national governments – collaborate (or fail to do so) during threats; the use of information before, during, and after disaster; the relationship between federalism and state capacity and its effects on disaster outcomes; institutional transformation during shocks; and the relationship between disaster and policy change. We encourage proposals using a variety of methodological approaches including qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.

Related Group Chair(s): Jeff Feng, Northwestern University – jeff.feng@northwestern.edu

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from September 3- September 6, 2026. The Environmental Politics and Theory Related Group welcomes proposals for individual papers and panels on a wide range of environmental issues from diverse theoretical perspectives. Environmental political theory and adjacent fields have long investigated the relationship between democracy and environmental sustainability. Recent debates on topics ranging from eco-democracy and eco-authoritarianism to eco-populism and geoengineering continue dwelling on the theme of democratic politics in environmental political scholarship. We invite you to explore how calls for renewing and reforming democratic institutions, invigorating democratic social movements, and radically reimagining democratic societies might help build a more environmentally just and ecologically sensitive politics. We also invite you to reflect on how best to understand historical and contemporary challenges to democracy, as well as their relationship to environmental challenges like climate change, species extinctions, habitat loss, toxicity, and environmental injustice. How is democratic retrenchment used to advance anti-environmental backlash and extractivism? In what ways might renovation and reform of democratic institutions, norms, and movements cultivate a more robust response to the climate emergency? In what ways does democracy need to be reimagined in an era of massive environmental disruption and uneven global development? Are existing democratic institutions, norms, and movements up to the challenge of addressing environmental injustice and enacting a just transition?

As always, we are thrilled to read proposals that discuss new or emerging trends in environmental political theory, as well as those that comment on the broader state and trajectory of environmental politics and theory. What prevailing assumptions, arguments, and frameworks are in need of rethinking in order for environmental scholarship and politics to move forward? In what ways might political, economic, and social systems need fundamental restructuring to address the environmental crises of our time? Moreover, might the academic disciplines that study environmental politics and theory need to be rethought and restructured as well to meet the challenges of environmental scholarship in a time of crisis? Finally, in what ways might scholars reconnect with the world of practice and political action, and how might practitioners of environmental politics reconnect with neglected constituencies, movements, and ways of thinking (including, but not limited to, indigenous and postcolonial ones)?

In keeping with APSA’s goal of increasing diversity, inclusion, and access throughout the profession, we also strongly encourage proposals from scholars who belong to historically underrepresented groups, especially those from minority racial and ethnic communities, low-income and working-class backgrounds, non-Anglophone countries, and the LGBTQ+ community, as well as graduate students independent scholars, and contingent faculty.

Related Group Chair(s): Xiaoyu Pu, University of Nevada, Reno – xpu@unr.edu; Quangsheng Zhao, American University – zhao@american.edu

The Global Forum of Chinese Political Scientists invites submissions for panels and roundtables at the 2026 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting, to be held September 3–6, 2026, in Boston, MA. We welcome proposals that use innovative theories, methods, and evidence to advance the study of Chinese politics and China in the world, and we especially encourage interdisciplinary work and collaboration across subfields and methods. Illustrative topics include domestic institutions and governance; political economy; public opinion, information politics, and digital governance; foreign policy and China’s evolving role in regional and global orders; technology, geoeconomics, and supply chains.

Related Group Chair(s): Stan Hok-Wui Wong, University of St. Thomas, Houston – hok.wong@stthom.edu; Maggie Shum, Penn State Erie, The Behrend College – mps6969@psu.edu

The 2026 Annual Conference of the American Political Science Association (APSA) will be held between September 3 and 6, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. The conference theme will be “Democracy under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild.” GRAPH invites papers and proposals on Hong Kong’s political identity, domestic politics, diasporas, and international relations resonating with this theme.

Although Hong Kong has never been a democracy, it has long enjoyed robust rule of law and a high degree of civil liberties—both key components of liberal democracy and the foundation of the city’s role as an international financial center. In recent years, however, both civil liberties and the rule of law have faced unprecedented challenges, as China has imposed a draconian national security law (NSL) on the city. The year 2026 marks the sixth anniversary of the NSL’s implementation, yet scholarly works examining its social, political, and economic effects remain in short supply.

Beyond its domestic consequences, the NSL has also shaped the experiences of Hongkongers overseas. The law’s extraterritorial provisions have raised concerns about political restraint within diaspora communities, illustrating how legal and political control can extend beyond national borders and influence civic life in transnational contexts.

We therefore invite colleagues to address the theoretical and empirical understanding of these transformations, whether examining the NSL’s multifaceted impacts, its broader international and diasporic implications, or efforts to protect the rule of law and rebuild Hong Kong’s once-vibrant civil society. We believe that Hong Kong’s experience offers valuable insights relevant to the conference theme.

We welcome scholars from diverse methodological backgrounds to contribute to this conversation, particularly those employing innovative approaches to address the difficult causal challenges within Hong Kong’s political context.

Related Group Chair(s): Burke Hendrix, University of Oregon – bhendrix@uoregon.edu

The focus of this year’s conference is how to understand, protect and rebuild endangered institutions of political freedom. Unfortunately, these are familiar challenges for those working on Indigenous politics worldwide, where state practices have more often been unaccountable and authoritarian than substantively democratic. In these contexts, Indigenous political actors have long sought to understand the political forces they face, to protect their lives and political spaces, and to rebuild for the future. A full accounting of contemporary patterns of democratic backsliding and rising global authoritarianism requires taking these long-established patterns and practices into account within our social scientific and theoretical studies.

We invite papers on all areas of Indigenous politics understood as a global phenomenon, with special interests for this year’s conference in Indigenous politics and democracy broadly construed. We welcome papers from scholars at all ranks and kinds of institutions (including tribal colleges), as well as from practitioners with connections to academia. Indigenous politics remains a deeply understudied aspect of Political Science, and we welcome papers that help to build a deeper understanding of current state policies, Indigenous responses to them, and possible future trajectories.

Related Group Chair(s): Andrew Macpherson, University of New Hampshire – andrew.macpherson@unh.edu; Frederic Baron, National Intelligence University – frederic.s.baron@odni.gov

“Democracy under Threat: The Role of National Security Intelligence”

The 2026 APSA Annual Meeting, organized under the theme “Democracy under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild,” invites scholars from all areas of political science to examine the current crisis of democracy by engaging with three fundamental questions: How do we understand the global crisis of democracy we face today? How can societies reclaim democratic rights and practices when they come under assault? And how should we rebuild democratic institutions, norms, and practices?

The APSA Intelligence Studies Group encourages authors to submit papers on national security intelligence that engage with the conference theme of democracy under threat. The section welcomes scholarship that includes—but is not limited to—original research, definitional and operational analyses, theory development, case studies, and methodological contributions. Submissions should draw from diverse interdisciplinary, epistemological, and methodological perspectives and approaches. Papers may be considered for any session type.

Related Group Chair(s): Sofia Fenner, Colorado College – sfenner@coloradocollege.edu

The Interpretive Methodologies and Methods (IMM) related group calls for paper, panel, and roundtable proposals that explore interpretive methodological issues or that apply interpretive methods (e.g., political ethnography, grounded theory, discourse analysis) in ways that demonstrate their comparative advantage for empirical research across all subfields of political science. Especially welcome are proposals that reflect on how political science itself is situated in the webs of meaning and historical context that it studies, and those that engage with interpretive methodologies and methods to explore this year’s APSA theme. Interested presenters may contact the 2026 IMM program chair, Professor Sofia Fenner at sfenner@coloradocollege.edu.

Related Group Chair(s): Kristin Vekasi, University of Montana – kristin.vekasi@mso.umt.edu; Yoshikuni Ono, Waseda University – onoy.waseda@gmail.com

Over the last decade, natural disasters, geopolitical uncertainties, demographic challenges, and growing socioeconomic inequalities have steadily eroded Japanese confidence in formal and informal institutions. The Liberal Democratic Party’s electoral dominance is far less certain and the rise of new parties are just one measure of Sanseito and Ishin no Kai show reveal discontent with Japan’s democratic status quo. These themes are in line with the APSA 2026 sub-theme of “Understanding the Crisis of Democracy.”

For the APSA 2026 meeting, we invite scholars in all areas of the discipline to investigate questions related to perceived and actual changes in the quality of Japan’s representative democracy. We welcome research that looks at government actions and public reactions to domestic and international pressures, including (but not limited to):

• The consequences of an aging society, particularly generational differences in values and attitudes towards democratic ideas, economic priorities and sociocultural identities.
• Analysis of recent elections and their aftermath, including voter behavior, electoral strategy, and party realignment.
• Trust in established institutions and actors, including political parties, the civil service, academic experts, and the mass media.
• Japan’s foreign and security policy in response to challenges to the international order and continuing tensions in East Asia.

Related Group Chair(s): Melissa Arnold Lyon, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, University at Albany, SUNY – mlyon@albany.edu; Daniel R. Daneri, Syracuse University – drdaneri@syr.edu; Elizabeth Parker-Magyar, Yale University – elizabeth.parker-magyar@yale.edu

APSA Labor Politics promotes scholarship on labor-related issues. We invite papers and panels to be submitted on any theme related to labor, work, unions, or employment. We encourage diverse perspectives on these topics from any range of academic specialties, including but not limited to economy, comparative politics, social movements, public policy, interest groups, state politics, immigration, theory, human rights, gender, race, ethnicity, history, and law. We seek to connect diverse scholars and particularly welcome international and comparative scholarship along with international and junior scholars.

We would be especially interested in papers discussing topics such as resurgent and alternative labor organizing, new patterns of working-class identities and mobilization, the role of labor in climate politics and “green capitalism,” intersections of labor mobilization and social movements, migration and refugee issues, popular resistance to austerity, labor and parties in advanced economies, issues related to employment and labor market policies, changes in union politics and political organizations, informal and precarious work, and unemployment.

We welcome papers from a wide range of methodological approaches, focused on any region of the world.

Related Group Chair(s): Emily Rong Zhang, UC Berkeley, School of Law – zhanger@berkeley.edu

This Related Group has always been highly interdisciplinary. We welcome submissions with a diversity of approaches and folks with a wide set of research backgrounds and experiences.

Related Group Chair(s): Andrew Flores, American University – aflores@american.edu

The 2026 APSA meeting’s theme is “Democracy under Threat.” In alignment with this broader theme, the LGBTQ Caucus encourages proposals that situate expansive legal and material threats to LGBTQ rights under rising authoritarianism in broader historical and political contexts. In particular, we especially encourage papers related to legal challenges to trans medical care and marriage equality in the US, queer responses to far-right populism both in the US and transnationally (both institutionally and in the context of social movements), and the conditions of being LGBTQ+ in the academy today. 

We also encourage submissions that address some of the following broad themes: What is the status of rights claims and claims to institutional inclusion when both legal doctrine and institutional status quo are being threatened? What creative uses of the political process and legal reasoning emerge from LGBTQ+ perspectives that might respond to a variety of threats to democracy more broadly? What does a queer approach to democratic thinking look like? In what ways do democratic institutions aid in the accommodation of radical sexual difference and to what extent do democratic majorities have the potential to stifle these forms of heterogeneity?

As always, the section also welcomes diverse methodological approaches to the study of the politics of sexuality, including qualitative and quantitative empirical work, institutional analyses, as well as theoretical and interdisciplinary investigations.

Related Group Chair(s): Michael Promisel, Catholic University of America – promisel@cua.edu

The McConnell Center related group invites papers from the history of political thought focused on the themes of civic education, political leadership, civic virtue, and the education of political leaders.

Related Group Chair(s): Gerson Moreno-Riano, Cornerstone University – gmr@cornerstone.edu

“The Medieval Political Order under Threat: How to Understand, Protect, and Rebuild”

Scholars are invited to explore the various threats and crises of the political order in the Middle Ages through analyses of the medieval philosophical and applied solutions proposed for the flourishing of the political community. Building on the overall theme of 2026 APSA, we invited scholars of medieval political thought to explore the following questions along with other important and fruitful areas of investigation:

• How do we understand the various crises of the political order during the Middle Ages?
• How did medieval political institutions respond to these crises in both theory and practice?
• What arguments and practices did medieval political thinkers advance and defend to stabilize, rebuild, or protect the political order or to propose new political orders?

Given the great depth of scholarship in the broad domain of medieval political thought and ideas, a rich and fruitful discussion and panel can be expected. We look forward to your paper submissions.

Related Group Chair(s): Charles Tien, Hunter College, CUNY – ctien@hunter.cuny.edu

The Political Forecasting Group invites panel and paper proposals for the 2026 APSA Annual Meeting, which will be held in Boston from September 3 to September 6, 2026. We welcome forecasting research from a variety of subfields, including comparative politics, international relations, and elections. We are open to a diversity of methodological approaches and warmly welcome young scholars and members of underrepresented groups to submit a proposal to the Group.

Related Group Chair(s): Paul Nolette, Marquette University – paul.nolette@marquette.edu

Publius welcomes proposals analyzing contemporary developments in American federalism from a variety of perspectives and taking a variety of approaches.

Related Group Chair(s): Mark J. Lutz, University of Nevada, Las Vegas – mark.lutz@unlv.edu

The Society for Greek Political Thought is an interdisciplinary academic organization devoted to the study of classical political thinking in all of its forms. The Society promotes the study of ancient Greek philosophy, drama, poetry, history, and other works on politics and morals. The Society especially encourages the study of the Socratic revolution in political and moral thought that looks beyond cultural and ethnic traditions to discover what is just and what is good in light of lasting standards that are, at least in principle, accessible to all human beings. The Society welcomes scholarship not only on ancient Greek thinkers but also on ancient Roman, medieval Islamic, and early modern thinkers, among others, who adopted, revised, or vigorously contested elements of classical Greek political thought.

Related Group Chair(s): Dotan Haim, Florida State University – dhaim@fsu.edu; Elvin Ong Jiayun, National University of Singapore – poloje@nus.edu.sg; Jangai Jap, University of Georgia – jangai.jap@uga.edu

The Southeast Asian Politics Related Group (SEAPRG) invites proposals for the 2026 APSA Annual Meeting, to be held in Boston, Massachusetts from September 3 to 6, 2026. We welcome submissions on any aspect of politics in Southeast Asia, broadly defined. Proposals may focus on domestic politics, comparative analysis, or international relations of Southeast Asia.

We especially encourage work that reflects methodological diversity, interdisciplinary collaboration, and inclusive scholarly perspectives. Scholars at all career stages and from all backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

We accept proposals for individual papers or complete panels. Deadline and submission details will be available on the APSA website.