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May 2024 Newsletter

Hello, everyone! We are two days late from our usual schedule, but we hope you all enjoyed the first May Bank holiday! We have plenty of updates for you this month!

  1. PSA (Parliaments) News
  2. Urgent Questions with Sean Haughey
  3. Undergraduate Essay Competition
  4. Opportunities
  5. Special Issue: Call for Articles
  6. Recent Publications
  7. Recently on the Blog
  8. Overview of Parliaments Map

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our group, please let us know.

Best wishes,

Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, Jack and Lauren

1. PSA (Parliaments) News

Welcome to Lauren Martin

We are delighted that Lauren Martin is joining our team as our new Treasurer and Membership Officer. Lauren is a PhD student at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the use of the House of Commons e-petition system as a way for citizens to engage with Parliament and explores how they are featured in both individuals’ and organisations’ campaigning activities.

Call for and to Members 

If you have colleagues who are interested in parliaments, consider recommending them to join our specialist group! We are open to members who study legislatures from anywhere around the world, with any theoretical or methodological approaches, from an academic or from a practitioner perspective. Even if parliaments are just a small part of your broader research agenda (for example you are using parliamentary debates to try out a new text analysis technique), we want to hear from you and learn more about your work!

If you supervise or work with PhD students or Early Career Researchers, please forward our details to them, and we’ll be happy to chat if they have any questions. We hold regular events where they can get feedback on papers, like the ECR workshop we held at the LSE in November 2023, and we are keen to plan more ECR events (such as workshops and methods training) in the future.

If you are not a member of the Political Studies Association, consider joining in order to benefit from the full range of PSA events.

Worrying developments at the University of Lincoln and other universities

We are all aware that the UK higher education sector has come under significant financial pressure. More than 50 universities have already opened voluntary severance schemes or announced compulsory redundancies. (The UCU branch at Queen Mary University of London has compiled an overview here.) We also know that the social sciences, arts and humanities tend to be particularly vulnerable to budget cuts.

The PSA, BISA and UACES have recently issued a joint letter regarding the redundancies faced by the Department of Politics & International Relations at Goldsmiths. The University of Huddersfield just announced that around 12% of staff are at risk and at least 12 courses (including sociology) will be axed. Unfortunately, these are just some of the examples highlighting the precarious state of many universities.

As representatives of the community of academics in the subfield of parliamentary studies, we are also very concerned about the news we hear from the University of Lincoln, where one in ten academic staff is facing redundancy. The university is known for excellent parliamentary research and teaching (see e.g. the Lincoln Parliamentary Research Centre), and we stand in solidarity with our colleagues who are affected.

Help Shape the PSA 2025+ Strategy

The PSA’s Trustees want to devise a new strategy to ensure the PSA is clear on its direction and role, and is sustainably resourced, from 2025 to best serve our community in the future. More information can be found here. You can share your thoughts HERE! For further questions please email: strategy@psa.ac.uk

2. Urgent Questions with Sean Haughey

Our outgoing Co-Convenor Sean left us a special present and answered our Urgent Questions. Whether you want to read about an Irishman in Seoul, join in the dream of being a farmer with dogs (many dogs) or need a restaurant recommendation for Wales, you should read Sean’s answers here.

3. Undergraduate Essay Competition

It is that time of the year again! The call for our 2024 undergraduate essay competition has officially opened.

If you are teaching undergraduates in the UK, we are asking you to nominate a student for their excellent written piece on parliaments and legislatures. It is a fantastic opportunity for them to get recognition for their work and even win prize money. More details can be found here.

4. Opportunities

Full-Time and Permanent Job Opportunity at University of Edinburgh 

The School of Social and Political Science at the University of Edinburgh is looking for a Lecturer in (British) Politics. Applicants with expertise in any area of Scottish, British or UK politics (i.e., research on political behaviour and elections/parties; parliaments and other political institutions; and representation and participation) are welcome. This post is open ended, available from September 2024. You can find the job advert here. The deadline for applications is 14 May 2024.

Lectureship in Politics and Gender at Queen Mary University

Queen Mary University of London is seeking a permanent Lecturer in Politics and Gender at the School of Politics and International Relations. The closing date for applications is 26th May 2024. Find more information here.

Commons Library website

The House of Commons Library provides politically impartial research, analysis, statistics and information to help MPs to scrutinise legislation, prepare for debates, develop policies and support their constituents. They want to hear more about how you use the Library website and would be very interested to have a 30-40 minute call with you to discuss your views. Please contact Ed Knight (knightec@parliament.uk) if you would like to participate and we will organise a call.

5. Special Issue: Call for Articles

Please note the following Call for Articles for a special issue of the International Journal of Parliamentary Studies, “Political impartiality in a parliamentary context” (to be published in 2025) edited by Ben Yong (Durham) and Christoph Konrath (Austrian Parliament).

There is a growing interest in the administration of parliaments, and the work of parliamentary officials. This special issue aims to examine a core aspect of parliamentary administration: political impartiality. 

We invite applications with titles, abstracts (maximum 300 words) and short CVs, which should be sent by 31 August 2024 to benjamin.y.yong@durham.ac.uk. Selected candidates will then have to send their articles by 31 March 2025. More details can be found here.

6. Recent Publications

If you would like your published research to be featured in this section, please email Caroline with details.

7. Recently on the Blog

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our new communications officer, Jack.

8. Overview of Parliaments Map

We have one new contribution to our Overview of Parliaments Map:

For anybody who wishes to cover any of the countries not yet covered in our map, contact our communications officer Jack.