Research Group Descriptions

Workshop Organizers: Javier Osorio (University of Arizona); Latifur Khan (University of Texas at Dallas); Patrick Brandt (University of Texas at Dallas); Vito D’Orazio (West Virginia University)

The explosion of electronic information, combined with big data analytics, machine learning, and natural language processing, has fueled the ongoing revolution through Large Language Models (LLMs) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform how research is conducted. Unfortunately, political scientists are only just beginning to tap into the potential of these tools. Given the rapid development of computer science methods, it is crucial for the discipline to adopt and adapt these computational tools to advance research. By integrating cutting-edge LLM and AI tools, political scientists can develop domain-specific ontologies, generate databases from unstructured electronic documents, analyze larger datasets, gain deeper insights into political behavior and complex systems, and expand their research frontiers. Adopting these methodologies will improve research quality and scope, foster multidisciplinary collaboration, and strengthen our ability to inform policy.

While LLMs have gained attention for their text generation capabilities, their true research potential lies in their text extraction and analysis. As much political science research relies on textual sources, LLMs offer substantial potential to enhance the field. Scholars across subfields—Americanists studying judicial ideology in lower courts, Comparativists studying legislative discourse in native languages, and International Relations researchers analyzing UN General Assembly debates—stand to benefit from the improved efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and fresh insights LLMs provide.

The goal of this Research Group is to build a community dedicated to adopting, adapting, and applying LLMs and AI in political science. The workshop will facilitate sharing research, best practices, and emerging methodologies while encouraging networking and future collaborations. Supported by an existing NSF grant, this Research Group aims to extend its impact beyond the APSA Virtual Meeting by offering technical training, supporting research partnerships, and pursuing a special journal issue.

Participants will submit complete papers (similar to computer science conferences) and attendees will be asked to read the papers in advance, enabling in-depth discussion and feedback. Papers may be grouped thematically into breakout sessions, depending on the number of submissions. Leading domain and political methodology scholars will serve as session discussants and facilitators.

This Research Group is led by Dr. Patrick T. Brandt (University of Texas, Dallas), Dr. Latifur Khan (University of Texas, Dallas), Dr. Vito D’Orazio (West Virginia University), and Dr. Javier Osorio (University of Arizona), with active involvement from graduate and undergraduate students at their respective institutions. Supported by NSF grants, the team of political scientists and computer scientists developed ConfliBERT, a domain-specific LLM designed to analyze political conflict and violence. Originally built for English, ConfliBERT now includes Spanish and Arabic, with more languages planned. Used to advance research on political violence, terrorism, organized crime, congressional hearings, and UN Security Council interactions, its applications include binary and multi-class classification, named entity recognition, extractive question answering, ontology development, and active learning. For further details, visit https://eventdata.utdallas.edu/.

Workshop Organizers: Fabrício M. Fialho (London School of Economics and Political Science); Sara Maria Camacho Felix (King’s College London); William Paul Simmons (University of Arizona)

The growing diversification of students and faculty, alongside the rise of virtual learning and global information access, has highlighted the need to reimagine university curricula and pedagogy. Both students from the Global South studying in the Global North and marginalized students in the Global South are driving calls for decolonizing higher education curricula. Decolonization is a contested concept that involves decentering the Western canon as the sole authority on knowledge and incorporating diverse intellectual traditions, theories, and epistemologies. It also advocates re-envisioning classrooms as democratic and less hierarchical.

Despite progress in decolonizing curricula for disciplines such as political science, much remains to be done. Despite institutional support and the growing call by student activists for decolonization, significant barriers remain, including insufficient teaching resources, entrenched faculty reward structures, lack of training, and occasional institutional resistance.

This Research Group workshop will gather an international community of scholars who are working on the decolonization of higher education in both the Global North and South, particularly political scientists. The goal is to facilitate knowledge exchange, share successes and failures in curriculum development innovations, create new teaching materials for theory and methodology, and explore strategies to overcome institutional barriers. The workshop will also address ways to improve student assessments and experiences. Discussions will center on the decolonization of teaching theories and methods in political and social sciences, taking into account the varied teaching environments—on-site, hybrid, and virtual.

The workshop will center on three key themes: (i) Decentering Western political and social theory and its effects on students’ understanding of sociopolitical dynamics; (ii) Decolonizing the teaching of quantitative and qualitative methods and their implications for empirical research; and (iii) Addressing disciplinary and institutional barriers to decolonizing higher education. Prioritizing the perspectives of scholars and activists from the Global South, these sessions will not only explore decolonization but will also model it, foster non-hierarchical discussions, and employ problem-based learning to address challenges specific to the Global South. Sessions will also focus on the multimodality of teaching environments, which includes recognizing both the opportunities provided by online and virtual resources as well as recognizing the limitations and inequalities in access to these resources across nations and regions.

The goal of the Research Group is to significantly impact political science teaching practices by developing tools, frameworks, and innovative materials to inform curriculum changes. With a virtual, international network of scholars committed to decolonization in higher education, the group can coordinate international research teams and produce open-access teaching resources, including a journal special issue and a book in collaboration with a British university press. Ultimately, the workshop aims to transform teaching practices and explore research questions measuring the global impact of decolonization in higher education.

Workshop Organizers: Benjamin David Harack (Oxford University)

The remarkable progress of artificial intelligence in recent years is prompting states to reassess their perceptions of near-term opportunities and risks. New concerns have emerged as especially salient for states, including the potential for dangerous misuse of AI in the form of bio and cyber weapons controlled by non-state actors. More speculatively, AI might drive a drastic reordering of the global economy and military power—prospects that, in turn, raise questions about the potential for arms races and great power war.

This Research Group aims to understand the strategic implications of AI by extending international relations theory and coupling it with a fine-grained grasp of the empirical realities of both AI and broader technological change. While technologies of extreme significance are rare in the historical record, there is still much to learn from the history of technological change. Similarly, much of international relations theory may be highly relevant to understanding the age of AI. The central challenge for this Research Group will be identifying and pursuing the research bets informed by the emerging shape of AI technologies, as well as by history and theory. Dedicated to understanding the international politics of AI, this Research Group will adopt a methodologically pluralistic approach.

Workshop Organizers: John Ishiyama (University of North Texas); Michelle Deardorff (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)

This Virtual Research Group Workshop will feature papers exploring the curricular structure of undergraduate political science programs, responding to the American Political Science Association’s (APSA) reconsideration of undergraduate education in the discipline. We welcome workshop contributors to illustrate how their programs have implemented APSA’s recommendations, focusing on student learning outcomes and drawing on experiences from a diverse range of undergraduate institutions. In particular, we encourage submissions responding to the 2024 APSA Presidential Task Force Report on Rethinking Political Science Education.

Workshop Organizers: Grant M. Cohen (University of Colorado)

This Research Group will examine the obstacles and challenges one may face when conducting survey research in authoritarian states, where governmental transparency is minimal and citizens often fear expressing their political opinions due to the risk of retaliation. In Cuba, for instance, both governmental and non-governmental data are scarce, and citizens are reluctant to respond to surveys because of concerns that their anonymity may be compromised. How can we obtain valid and reliable data in such settings? Which interpersonal approaches are most effective for putting potential respondents at ease? What available technological tools, if any, could help increase response rates and ensure data validity? These are just some of the questions we aim to address in this Research Group.

While survey research will be the primary focus of these workshop sessions, we also invite anyone conducting research in authoritarian states to apply for this Research Group.

Workshop Organizers: Amanda M. Rosen (U.S. Naval War College); Tavishi Bhasin (Kennesaw State University)

Political Science Education is a growing subfield within political science as well as the subject of the most recent APSA Task Force. With thousands of articles, blog posts, and online resources proposing novel methods of teaching, using increasingly sophisticated methodologies to assess effectiveness, and discussing the nature, goals, and limitations of teaching and learning, it’s time for researchers to evaluate the field’s achievements and future directions. The APSA Virtual Research Meetings offer a great opportunity for scholars worldwide to exchange ideas on research in the subfield and engage with graduate students, whose experiences can help shape the direction of future studies. While online education is a generally important topic in political science pedagogy, the virtual format of this meeting addresses three main limitations of large in-person events: (1) high costs that exclude many from less well-funded institutions or the Global South; (2) a tendency to treat educational research as secondary (sometimes discouraging graduate student involvement); and (3) limited chances for collective reflection.

The principal objective of this Research Group is to establish political science education as a true research-based subfield by creating a reading canon, developing a graduate curriculum, and identifying key research questions and methodologies. Sessions will focus on advancing scholarship, fostering a collaborative network of researchers and classroom practitioners, and contributing to APSA initiatives such as TLC, JPSE, and APSA Connect. The group aims to strengthen pedagogical research, support early career instructors with evidence-based teaching methods, and empower graduate program directors to transform their department’s teaching preparation. These initial workshop sessions aim to produce three proposals for sharing at APSA TLC and potentially other informal venues (such as APSA Connect or ALPS), laying the groundwork for future projects and publications, including a potential JPSE special issue.

To this end, this Research Group will bring together researchers working in political science education for several purposes. First, we aim to begin establishing a canon or foundational reading list of essential works in political science pedagogy. At present, there are no formal or informal lists guiding an early career scholar who wishes to conduct research in this growing subfield. Second, we seek to consider and reach a consensus on what a “SOTL subfield” (Trepanier 2017) might look like within graduate programs. Finally, we will outline core research categories, most common methodologies, and areas of future research to guide new scholars. Participants will discuss key questions in the subfield and identify understudied areas, ideally inspiring cross-institutional projects addressing these three goals.

To encourage the development of research questions, methodologies, and future research directions, each workshop session will focus on one of three topics: (1) essential readings for the subfield; (2) a graduate curriculum for the political science education subfield; and (3) the state of the field. A moderator will guide each discussion, participants can share their insights, and ideas will be captured in a collaborative document. The main goal of these discussions is to generate proposals and projects that will receive broader feedback at TLC at APSA and beyond.

This Research Group will not include traditional paper presentations. Instead, participants will share collective findings and engage in interactive discussions between researchers and recent graduate students. The workshop aims to develop proposals in the three focus areas while building a network of political science education researchers. We will bring these proposals forward for broader discussion at TLC during the 2025 APSA Annual Meeting in Vancouver.

This Research Group is open by application. We particularly invite active researchers who publish on these topics and graduate students interested in shaping the future of political science graduate education. Candidate applications should include: (1) their interest or initial thoughts on one or more of the three areas outlined above, and (2) an overview of their existing research agenda in political science education.

Workshop Organizers: Zach Elkins (University of Texas at Austin); David Collier (UC Berkeley)

The organizers of this Research Group invite scholars to join a workshop dedicated to advancing the study of concept analysis. Accepted participants will prepare 3,000–5,000-word commentaries ahead of the virtual meeting, considering potential future directions in concept analysis and contributing to a broader, collective exploration of the field.

Led by two senior scholars from APSA’s Qualitative and Multi-Methods Research Section (Section 37), this workshop aims to go beyond traditional paper reviews and workshopping. Instead, its primary goal is to encourage a field-wide dialogue that revisits the core contributions of concept analysis, assesses the current state of the field, and maps out promising developments. The virtual format of this meeting provides an ideal, accessible platform for discussions on the state of the field, encouraging collaboration and the generation of new ideas. This unique forum is designed to benefit both seasoned scholars and those newer to concept analysis.

We welcome applications from scholars eager to engage with these objectives and contribute to the evolving conversation on the future of concept analysis. Whether you are exploring this area for the first time or strengthening an existing research agenda, we encourage you to apply and participate in this innovative virtual workshop.