The State Politics and Policy Section of American Political Science
Association announces a call for proposals to host the Ninth Annual
Conference on State Politics and Policy. The section president, Melinda
Gann Hall, has appointed a committee to solicit proposals for hosting
future conferences and coordinate among those institutions wishing
to host them. The committee consists of Tom Carsey, University of
North Carolina – Chapel Hill (chair), Caroline Tolbert, University
of Iowa, and Christopher Mooney, University
of Illinois at Springfield.
The annual conference is the flagship event of the State Politics
and Policy Section. Each conference is co-sponsored by the section
and State Politics and Policy Quarterly, but it is primarily sponsored
by the hosting institution. Previous conferences have been hosted
by:
• Texas A&M University (2001)
• University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2002)
• University of Arizona (2003)
• Kent State University (2004)
• Michigan State University (2005)
• Texas Tech University (2006)
• University of Texas at Austin (2007)
• Temple University (2008)
The Mission of the Annual Conference on State Politics and Policy
The Annual Conference on State Politics and Policy provides scholars
interested in state politics - broadly defined - the opportunity
to gather and share the latest research developments in the field.
Its mission is to expand the breadth and depth of scholarly knowledge
about politics, policy, and policymaking as these processes unfold
at the state level.
The primary interests of many of the scholars who attend these conferences
lie squarely within the traditional domain of the state politics
field. However, many others focus more generally on political institutions
(such as legislatures and political parties), political behavior
(such as voting and public opinion), specific policy areas (such
as education or health care), or broader questions of policymaking
and representation and use the states as an attractive research venue.
Given the goal of expanding knowledge and defining the field broadly,
the annual conferences strive to cast a wide net regarding the types
of scholars that are invited to attend.
Previous conferences have taken a variety of forms in trying to
meet these goals. In addition to the traditional conference format
of paper presentations and panels, past conferences have featured
at range of innovations, including graduate student poster sessions,
being held in conjunction with a parallel conference (e.g., on term
limits), presentations and speeches by state elected officials, and
so forth. Those proposing to host the 2009 conference may want to
look at the Web sites of these earlier conferences or contact the
previous hosts for more information. All of this information is available
at: http://www.fsu.edu/~statepol/conferences/conferences.htm
Past Conferences on State Politics and Policy have been presented
by the host university with budgets of usually around $20,000-30,000.
This includes a $200-300 per paper stipend and certain conference
meals that were provided by past hosts to conference attendees. The
host of the 2009 conference does not necessarily need to follow these
traditions, but the proposal should make clear what (if any) services
the host intends to provide for conference attendees.
Proposal Requirements
Proposals for hosting the Ninth Annual Conference on State Politics
and Policy should consist of a 2-4 page document that includes the
following information:
Proposed theme of the conference (if any)
Proposed budget for the conference
Availability of resources and facilities for hosting the conference
Proposed organization for the conference
Proposed dates of the conference
Complete contact information for those person(s) submitting the
proposal
Proposals should be submitted to the selection committee chair, Tom Carsey
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. All proposals
should be submitted by November 1st, 2007, to guarantee full consideration.
The committee hopes to make a decision early in 2008.
The committee STRONGLY prefers electronic submissions. Electronic
submissions may be made by sending an e-mail to Tom Carsey at: carsey@unc.edu and
including the proposal as an attached file (.pdf, Word, or WordPerfect
format). Non-electronic submissions should be sent to:
Tom Carsey
Dept. of Political Science
University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
