PSA ParliamentsWe are pleased to announce our planned panels for the Annual PSA Conference, to be held on 21-23 March 2016, in Brighton. At #psa16, we will have six panels, covering a range of parliamentary and legislative issues, as well as a lunch time event, covering research impact and its relationship to Parliament. Titles and authors are listed here, but may be subject to change. We will try to add further details as and when they become available.
Monday 2nd November, 1.15 – 6pm
Attlee Suite, Portcullis House
The Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST), Parliamentary Outreach and Research Councils UK (RCUK) would like to invite you to an interactive event showcasing the ways that research has informed parliamentary processes.
**CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS**
Following on from our successful events and panels at this year’s PSA Conference, we hope to have an equally successful series of panels at the 2016 Annual Conference, which will be held in Brighton on 21st -23rd March 2016. The group should be able to run three or four panels at the conference.
If you would be interested in presenting an individual paper as part of our specialist group panel, please complete a Paper Proposal Form with an abstract of no more than 250 words by Thursday 1st October 2015. We will then be in touch by 8th October to let you know if your paper has been successful.
If you would be interested in putting together a panel for the conference please complete a Panel Proposal Form by Thursday 1st October 2015. We will then be in touch by 8th October to let you know if your paper has been successful.
This call is open to all members of the group. Postgraduate students who wish to present would be eligible to apply to the PSA Postgraduate Access Fund for financial support to attend the conference.
Image: Michael Bamford CC BY-NC-ND
Our newsletters are usually sent out once every three to four weeks directly to your email. For more information on membership and how to receive regular direct updates from the group, please click here.
On 25 June, the specialist group (SG) held a research workshop on research methods for doctoral research students and early career academics, which provided a rich source of information and sharing of ideas between attendees.
This spring, the Parliaments and Legislatures SG held the first essay competition open to all undergraduate students. This essay competition was open, where students were asked to write about a parliament, legislature, or a specific matter concerning legislative studies.
Our newsletters are usually sent out once every three to four weeks directly to your email. For more information on membership and how to receive regular direct updates from the group, please click here.
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Hello everyone,
Please see information below on the following – a long list, but very short items, a good read for a Friday;):
If you have any notices / messages you would like us to circulate to the group, let us know – it could be about disseminating an event, new research, new publication etc. Please avoid sending attachments; where possible, we would prefer circulating more substantive information through web links instead.
Best wishes,
Cristina (@estrangeirada), Louise (@louiseVThompson) and Marc (@marcgeddes)
PSA Parliaments and Legislatures Specialist Group
The Institute for Government is today calling for reforms to the ways that select committees operate. To fulfil their crucial role in scrutinising government, these committees must improve their focus on what they are trying to achieve and their understanding of their own impact; and they must be better supported and led than by the currently-dysfunctional Liaison Committee.
On Friday 15 May, the PSA Women and Politics Specialist Group and the Political Leadership Specialist Group – supported by Birkbeck and Canterbury Christ Church University – co-hosted a workshop on ‘Women, Gender and Political Leadership’. The increasing prominence of female leadership and recruitment, ranging from the UK General Election debates to the US Presidential race, has given the study of gender and political leadership a new urgency and importance. This one-day event – organised by Dr. Mark Bennister (Canterbury Christ Church), Dr. Meryl Kenny (Leicester), and Dr. Ben Worthy (Birkbeck) – brought together 40 participants to explore this under-researched area, examining in detail the challenges for women in office and the means by which they can attain it.
With a much reduced majority, what problems will David Cameron face with his backbench critics? Professor Philip Cowley of the University of Nottingham has been researching backbench dissent for 20 years and wrote this article for the Telegraph blog, looking at the problems ahead. As he shows, although the government’s majority is small, it is larger than people realise, and many Conservative MPs will not want to do anything to destabilise the government ahead of the forthcoming EU referendum.
Read more here.