CALL FOR PAPERS

WESTERN POLITICAL SCIENCE ASSOCIATION
2022 ANNUAL MEETING
CELEBRATING OUR 75TH ANNIVERSARY IN PORTLAND, OREGON

The Western Political Science Association will host its 2022 annual meeting at the Hilton Hotel on March 10 - 12, 2022, in Portland Oregon. Please make plans to attend and encourage others to join us!

In May, the association will distribute a call for papers. The DEADLINE for submission of paper proposals/program participation forms will be September 17, 2021.

If you are interested in shaping the content of the program by serving as a section chair, please contact:

PEI-TE LIEN
2022 WPSA Program Chair
University of California Santa Barbara
Email: plien@polsci.ucsb.edu

Theme: Lighting Up the New Dawn— Recover, Reconcile, and Rebuild @ 75

Meeting in the WPSA headquarter city of Portland and in the state of Oregon, home to indigenous nations for thousands of years before the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the 2022 conference location carries a unique significance derived from the city’s location, history, and the association’s milestone anniversary. Portland leads the nation in green urban planning and was a major site of daily protests against George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. As we plan to hold one of the first in-person meetings in the discipline following the COVID-19 pandemic, we anticipate a heightened level of enthusiasm in the reunion. This annual meeting will also mark the 75th Anniversary of the WPSA, and we plan to make the event a major celebration of the Association’s unique contributions to political science, both those in our history and those yet to come.

In the wake of a nation tormented and torn apart by the twin pandemics of COVID-19 and racism, American Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman opened a new page in American history on President Biden’s inauguration day by alluding to a new dawn which “blooms as we free it.” What marks a new dawn, and what role can we political scientists play, as individuals and as members of an association now reaching the golden age of 75, to help chart paths to “rebuild, reconcile, and recover” a besieged and dangerously divided nation? How can our research and teaching contribute to light up the new dawn? What is the new dawn for WPSA? Under what circumstances will it bloom?

We invite proposals that discuss the various possibilities from the vantage points of our very broad and diverse range of sections to help imagine together a more just and inclusive new dawn for America and for the world. We encourage members to submit proposals that discuss whether we need new paradigms of thinking about politics and democratic governance and identify where to rebuild, what to reconcile, and how to recover in the post-pandemic era.