A recap of the PSA Parliaments annual conference Parliaments: Coming of Age, held at the National Assembly for Wales, Cardiff, on 7-8 November 2019.
On 7-8 November the National Assembly for Wales hosted the PSA Parliaments 2019 Annual Conference – Parliaments: Coming of Age? Over 50 academics and practitioners attended to hear and discuss papers on issues including scrutiny, legislative amendments, public engagement, institutional identity, devolved and sub-national legislatures, career politicians, and the constituency activities of legislators (the full programme is listed on our Annual Conference page). Blogs of each of the papers will be published over the next few months on our blog.
We were delighted to host a keynote talk from David Melding AM, who discussed the history of the National Assembly for Wales, drawing on his experience as a former chair of the Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee.
In one of the highlights of the conference, Mr Melding presented our Undergraduate Essay Competition winner Joshua Wakeford with his certificate, and congratulated him on his work. Our runner-up, Cynthia Njeri Mbuthia, was not able to attend, but has received her certificate and prize in absentia. Find out more about the Essay Competition, and read Joshua and Cynthia’s essays.
We also enjoyed a tour of the Senedd building over lunch.
We are keen to gather feedback on the conference from attendees and non-attendees: please fill out our feedback form. If you attended, please let us know what you enjoyed and how we can improve next year. If you were unable to attend, please let us know how we can make the conference more accessible or appealing to you.
A huge thank you to the clerks and officials of the National Assembly for Wales for hosting and welcoming us to Cardiff. Thank you also to the Political Studies Association for their support. Finally, thank you to all those who presented papers, chaired panels, or contributed to the conference. We hope to see you at the Parliaments Group panels at the PSA Annual Conference in Edinburgh next April.
