Category: News

Happy New Year to you all! We hope you’re well. Here are the latest updates for you:

1. Call for Papers
2. #PSA24: Early Bird Registration
3. PSA: Nominations for Academic Prizes
4. University of London Exhibition on Parliaments
5. Call for Applications: ECPR Summer School of the Standing Group on Parliaments
6. RKE Opportunities and Academic Fellowships
7. Recent Publications
8. Recently on the Blog
9. Overview of Parliaments Map

If you have any notices/messages you would like us to circulate to our group, please let us know. The next newsletter will be sent on 5th of February.

Best wishes,

Seán, Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, and Jack.

1. Call for Papers

Workshop: Legal aspects of reform to the devolved institutions in Northern Ireland

Please consider the call for papers for this joint workshop on legal aspects of reform to the devolved institutions in NI from the Liverpool Public Law Unit and the International Law and Human Rights Unit at the University of Liverpool. The workshop will take place on 10 April 2024. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 28 January. Any queries should be directed to Dr Katie Johnston (katie.johnston@liverpool.ac.uk).

The Central European University 19th Annual Doctoral Conference

The CEU Annual Doctoral Conference (Re)Searching Power: Emerging Approaches across Disciplines is taking place between 17 and 19 April, 2024. The conference provides a professional, supportive, and international environment for PhD students and early career researchers in various fields of the humanities and social sciences to discuss their works in progress, establish formal or informal networks, and initiate future collaborative research. The submission deadline is 14 January 2024. For more details, click here or email adc2024@ceu.edu

2. #PSA24: Early bird registration still open

The early bird registration for the PSA Annual Conference (25–27 March 2024 in Glasgow) is still open until 2 February. This is your chance to take advantage of discounted rates. If your paper has been accepted on one of our panels, please take this opportunity to secure your spot.

Please note that there is a further discount for scholars from the Global South and Low-income Countries. The application deadline for the PSA Support Fund to assist with conference expenses is also 2 February. 

3. PSA: Nominations for academic prizes

17 January (5pm GMT) is the last day to submit a (self-)nomination for the PSA academic prizes, which will be presented during the PSA’s Annual Conference. The PSA particularly encourages you to make a nomination for the prestigious teaching prizes. More information is available here.

4. University of London Exhibition on Parliaments, 12 January – 16 March

The Global Research Network on Parliaments and People is holding an exhibition Living Democracy: Frayed Entanglements on the relationship between politicians and people in the Brunei Gallery, SOAS. The exhibition is open Tuesday to Saturday 10:30am-5pm, from the 12th January to 16th March 2024, featuring research findings from Brazil, Ethiopia, Fiji, India, the UK and the US.

Living Democracy – Frayed Entanglements offers films, photography, installations, podcasts and timelines about riffs, rhythms and rituals in parliaments. 

5. ECPR Summer School of the Standing Group on Parliaments: Call for applications

The ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments has just opened the call for applications for their summer school. The school is for PhD students and early career scholars. It takes place 18-29 August 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany. More information on what to expect and how to apply can be found here.

6. RKE opportunities and fellowships

The UK Parliament Knowledge Exchange Unit Call for Thematic Research Leads 2024 – 2026

The KE Unit is recruiting to eight positions  for thematic research leads from a broad range of scientific and research disciplines. These part-time roles, funded by UKRI and supported by all of UKRI’s research councils, will be appointed to work with UK Parliament from September 2024 to summer 2026.

More details can be found here. The deadline to apply is 23:55, Sunday 3 March 2024.

Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme (UK Parliament)

The Parliamentary Academic Fellowship Scheme (UK Parliament) runs on a rolling basis, as Parliament identifies a need for academic expertise. Open for applications are the following:

• Lobbying and Political Ethics Parliamentary Academic Fellowship
• Constitutional Law Parliamentary Academic Fellowship

The closing date for applications is 25th February 2024 at 23:55. More details and guidance can be found here. 

7. Recent publications

• Emilia Belknap & Meryl Kenny, “‘The first, but not the last’: Women’s descriptive and substantive representation in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election”. British Politics.
• Alia Middleton & Louise Thompson, “More than a memento mori? Assessing the participation of former Prime Ministers in the House of Commons”, The British Journal of Politics and International Relations.

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

8. Recently on the blog

• Dr Mari Takayanago contributed a blog piece on ‘Necessary Women: pioneering women working in Parliament‘. It draws on her first book co-authored with Elizabeth Hallam Smith: ‘Necessary Women: the Untold Story of Parliament’s Working Women‘.

If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our new communications officer, Jack. We will be posting more blogs from those who presented at our Annual Conference last November, so watch this space!

9. Overview of parliaments map

We have two new contributions to our Overview of Parliaments Map.

• Muhammad Asad Ayaz, a parliamentary researcher, has written a piece on the National Assembly of Pakistan.
• Robert Hirst, a recent MA graduate from the University of Sheffield, has looked at the UK Parliament.

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. Highlights: PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2-3 November 2023
2. #PSA24: Early bird registration
3. PSA membership
4. SGP Annual Weekend, 5-6 January 2024
5. Call for papers: NoPSA 2024
6. PhD scholarships, jobs and RKE opportunities
7. Recent publications (and other things) that have caught our eye
8. Recently on the blog

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

Best wishes

Seán, Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, and Jack.

1. Highlights: PSA Parliaments Conference, 2-3 November 2023

Seeing so many of you at our Annual Conference in November was an enormous pleasure. Despite Storm Ciarán interfering with travel plans, the early career symposium we held for the first time, the drinks reception and the conference were a great success. Read the highlights and see photo evidence here.

If you attended the conference, whether in-person or virtually, we would be grateful to hear your feedback to help us improve future conferences. The survey just has four questions and should only take a couple of minutes to complete.

2. #PSA24: Early bird registration

The PSA Annual Conference will take place from 25–27 March 2024 in Glasgow, convened by the University of Strathclyde. The early bird registration is now open until 2 February, allowing presenters and attendees to secure their spot at a discounted rate. If your paper has been accepted on one of our panels, please take this opportunity to secure your spot and take advantage of the discount.

Please note that there is a further discount for scholars from the Global South and Low-income Countries. The application deadline for the PSA Support Fund to assist with conference expenses is also 2 February 2024.

More information on pricing and registration details can be found here.

3. PSA membership

If you receive our newsletter but are not a member of the UK Political Studies Association, then now is the perfect time to consider joining. Starting from £10/year for students, PSA membership provides numerous benefits including access to various resources and journals, discounted conference registration fees and opportunities to network and even win academic prizes. The full list of benefits and more information on how to join can be found here.

If you are already a PSA member, now is still a good time to verify that your contact details are up-to-date and that you are also an official member of our specialist group (in the ‘My group membership’ section of your PSA account). We would greatly appreciate your support since the number of members directly impacts our allocated funding and hence capacity to put on events for you.

4. SGP Annual Weekend, 5-6 January 2024

The Study of Parliament Group Annual Weekend 2024 will take place over Friday 5th and Saturday 6th January. You can register here, and check the action packed programme here.

5. Call for papers: NoPSA 2024

Our colleagues from the Nordic Political Science Association have published a call for papers for the NoPSA Political Science Congress, which will be held in Bergen (Norway), 25-28 June 2024. There are a few panels that may be relevant to parliamentary scholars (i.e., Conflict in Parliamentary Parties, Generational Politics: Participation, Representation and Politics, or Gender, Politics and Democracy).

6. PhD scholarships, jobs and RKE opportunities

PhD scholarships at the University of Leeds

Do you know of excellent students who are considering doing a PhD? If so, please forward the information below about this open call for PhD Scholarship in Politics and International Studies 2024/25, at the University of Leeds. The deadline  for applications is Monday 11th March 2024 and the application to PhD needs to be accepted first to be eligible to scholarship. Further details can be obtained by emailing Prof. Cristina Leston-Bandeira at C.Leston-Bandeira@leeds.ac.uk

CPA call for consultants

The CPA Headquarters Secretariat is calling for consultants to develop an online course on the role of Parliamentarians in upholding human rights as part of the CPA Parliamentary Academy online learning platform. The consultant will work with the CPA to develop the written course content for use by Parliamentarians of Commonwealth national and subnational legislatures. Deadline for applications – 8 December 2023. Read more about this call and apply here.

Research and Knowledge Exchange with the Welsh Parliament on gender and diversity quotas

A number of committees in the Welsh Parliament /Senedd Cymru are currently looking to engage with academics to support the scrutiny of forthcoming  gender/diversity quota legislation. You can sign-up through the Area of Research Interest (ARI) form and provide details about your existing and future research on gender and diversity quotas. This might lead to an invitation to provide oral or written evidence.

7. Recent Publications (and other things) that have caught our eye

• Cherry Miller, “Gendering Parliamentary Diplomacy: The Case of EU27-UK relations”, Social Politics.
• Lotte Hargarve, “Earning Their Stripes? How Political Experience Shapes Gendered Policy Prioritization”, Legislative Studies Quarterly.
• James Weinberg published a new book Governing in an Age of Distrust: A Comparative Study of Politicians’ Trust Perceptions and Why They Matter, Oxford University Press.
• The Hansard Society’s Parliament Matters Podcast: Two of the UK’s leading parliamentary experts, Mark D’Arcy (Parliamentary Correspondent) and Ruth Fox (Director of the Hansard Society) have joined up to produce a weekly podcast about all things Parliament and we love it!

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

8. Recently on the blog

• Making the Law Count: The UK Post-Legislative Gap. Tom Caygill examines the nature of the decline in engagement in post-legislative scrutiny in Westminster, the wider reasons for it and suggests how we can move forward from here.  
• What are the implications of having the Foreign Secretary sitting in the House of Lords? Andrew Defty examines the implications raised by David Cameron’s appointment as Foreign Secretary.
• Also on the blog, we have a new update on our map of parliaments around the world courtesy of Calixte Bloquet’s contribution on the French Parliament.

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Parliaments Conference 2023: Call for Papers
2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition
3. Parliamentary Studies Module: Call for Applications
4. POST Fellowship (UK Parliament): Mapping Public Engagement in Parliaments across the World
5. Survey on the Importance & Prestige of Parliamentary Work in the House of Commons
6. Hanna Pitkin & David Olson
7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
8. Recently on the Blog

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

This is our last newsletter of the academic year. We’ll see you all again in September!

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Diana, Chris and Ruxandra.

1. PSA Parliaments Conference 2023: Call for Papers

We are very pleased to announce that our annual conference will take place at the LSE and online on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd November!

As usual, we will be holding the conference on the Friday and a drinks reception on the Thursday evening. However, in an exciting new development, we will also be holding a working papers workshop, co-hosted by the PSA Early Career Network, for early career researchers during Thursday daytime.

Full details about the conference and workshop, including how to apply and/or volunteer as a workshop discussant, can be found here.

We are very grateful to Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey for helping us to organise the conference and to the Department of Government at LSE for co-sponsoring the event.

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition

There’s still time to submit an entry for our undergraduate essay competition! In fact, due to the UCU marking and allocation boycott, we’ve decided to extend the closing date to the 15th September 2023.

If, once you’ve done your marking, one of your undergraduate students has produced an exceptional piece of work, then please consider submitting it on their behalf (no self-nominations allowed).

Every year we want to reward the best assignments written by UK-based undergraduate students on any aspect of parliamentary and legislative studies. The entries which display the most originality, analytical rigour and significant contributions to the field will be awarded a prize of £100 for the winner and £50 for the runner-up.

Full details of the competition, including how to submit nominations, can be found here. For any questions, please get in touch with Caroline.

3. Parliamentary Studies Module: Call for Applications

Applications will open next week for Higher Education institutions to deliver the Parliamentary Studies module for academic years 2024/5 – 2029/30.

This will be the third time that the UK Parliament has sought collaborators to teach the Parliamentary Studies module. For this five year cycle we have made provision for 20 universities or other higher education institutions to deliver the Parliamentary Studies module in partnership with Parliament, and those currently delivering the module are welcome to apply again.

Applications will be judged by a panel of staff from the Houses of Parliament and representatives from the Higher Education sector. The deadline for applications is Thursday 6 July 2023. We aim to inform successful institutions by the end of July/early August.

If you’re interested in further information and/or wish to request an application pack, please contact ppoe@parliament.uk

4. POST Fellowship (UK Parliament): Mapping Public Engagement in Parliaments across the World

Faced with rising populism and political disengagement, parliaments across the world are making efforts to connect with their citizens. What do these activities look like, who undertakes them, where do they take place? Help us answer these questions and create a map of public engagement activities happening in parliaments across the world (rather like this brilliant map showing parliaments’ access to academic research), to enable the International Parliament Engagement Network to foster lesson sharing, knowledge exchange and collaborations.

This opportunity is open to university-based researchers or knowledge exchange professionals. Ideally, you would be working with us 60% of your time for one year, but we can be flexible about these arrangements. You will be able to shape the project and have access to existing networks. More information is available here. Prof. Cristina Leston-Bandeira is also happy to give further details and/or discuss this opportunity further. You can contact her here.

5. Survey on the Importance & Prestige of Parliamentary Work in the House of Commons

Stephen Holden Bates, Caroline Bhattacharya and Stephen McKay are running a survey on the importance of different aspects of parliamentary work and the prestige of different select committees and they would like to hear your views. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete and can be found here.

If you have any questions about the survey, then please contact Stephen.

6. Hanna Pitkin & David Olson: In Memory

We were very sad to hear last month of the deaths of both Hanna Pitkin and David Olson.

You can read an obituary of Hanna Pitkin here and a tribute to David Olson here.

7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Sebastian Dettman has published The Geographic Scope Of Opposition Challenges In Malaysia’s Parliament in Pacific Affairs.

Boydell & Brewerhave published the 9(!) volume The History of Parliament: The House of Commons 1640-1660 edited by Stephen K. Roberts.

Christian D. Phillips has published Nevertheless, He Persisted: White Men and the Links Between Incumbency and Group Descriptive Representation in Political Research Quarterly.

Daniel Stockemer and Aksel Sundström have published Age Inequalities in Political Representation: A Review Article in Government & Opposition.

And new issues of Representation and Legislative Studies Quarterly are out.

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

8. Recently on the Blog

We published one great blog last month.

• A Nation of Petitioners: people and Parliament in the nineteenth century United Kingdom by Henry Miller

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Parliaments Conference 2023: Call for Papers
2. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners
3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel
4. Welcome to Diana Stirbu!
5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition
6. Parliamentary Studies Module: Call for Applications
7. Congratulations to Lotte Hargrave!
8. Other Events: ECPR Gender & Politics Seminar & PSA ECN Workshops
9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
10. Recently on the Blog

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

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris, Ruxandra and, for the first time, Diana.

1. PSA Parliaments Conference 2023: Call for Papers

We are very pleased to announce that our annual conference will take place at the LSE and online on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd November!

As usual, we will be holding the conference on the Friday and a drinks reception on the Thursday evening. However, in an exciting new development, we will also be holding a working papers workshop for early career researchers during Thursday daytime.

Full details about the conference and workshop, including how to apply and/or volunteer as a workshop discussant, can be found here.

We are very grateful to Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey for helping us to organise the conference and to the Department of Government at LSE for co-sponsoring the event.

2. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch for Henry J. Miller’s new book, A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd May at 2pm BST.

Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

The book launch is part of our Online Brown Bag Seminar Series. If you have an article or book that has been accepted for publication and you would like to present it as part of our series, then please get in contact with Stephen.

3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel

Our rescheduled panel on Parliaments in Context will take place on Wednesday 24th May at 2pm BST.

We have three great papers. Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

4. Welcome to Diana Stirbu!

We are very pleased to announce that Diana Stirbu has become a co-convenor of PSA Parliaments.

Diana is Professor of Public Policy and Governance at the London Metropolitan University and is probably best known for her work on the Welsh Senedd. You can read her Urgent Questions here.

Diana will be replacing Stephen who is stepping down as co-convenor in November after our annual conference.

5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay

Our undergraduate essay competition is running again this year!

Many of you have probably been busy marking over the last few weeks. If one of your undergraduate students has produced an exceptional piece of work, then please consider submitting it on their behalf (no self-nominations allowed).

Every year we want to reward the best assignments written by UK-based undergraduate students on any aspect of parliamentary and legislative studies. The entries which display the most originality, analytical rigour and significant contributions to the field will be awarded a prize of £100 for the winner and £50 for the runner-up.

The closing date is 12th June 2023.

Full details of the competition, including how to submit nominations, can be found here. For any questions, please get in touch with Caroline.

6. Parliamentary Studies Module: Call for Applications

Applications will open next week for Higher Education institutions to deliver the Parliamentary Studies module for academic years 2024/5 – 2029/30.

This will be the third time that the UK Parliament has sought collaborators to teach the Parliamentary Studies module. For this five year cycle we have made provision for 20 universities or other higher education institutions to deliver the Parliamentary Studies module in partnership with Parliament, and those currently delivering the module are welcome to apply again.

Applications will be judged by a panel of staff from the Houses of Parliament and representatives from the Higher Education sector. The deadline for applications is Thursday 6 July 2023. We aim to inform successful institutions by the end of July/early August.

If you’re interested in further information and/or wish to request an application pack, please contact ppoe@parliament.uk

7. Congratulations to Lotte Hargrave!

Congratulations to Lotte Hargrave for winning the PSA’s 2023 McDougall Trust Prize for her dissertation which examines the impact of gender stereotypes on politicians’ behaviour and voter attitudes.

More details can be found here.

8. Other Events: ECPR Gender & Politics Seminar & PSA ECN Workshops

The ECPR Gender & Politics Standing Group are holding a series of online seminars on ‘feminist dialogues on the classics’. The first considers gender and sexuality representation in politics on Tuesday 30th May at 2pm (BST).

Full details can be found here.

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The PSA’s Early Career Network are holding two online workshops on knowledge exchange. The first is on May 3rd and considers demonstrating knowledge exchange and impact in grant applications. The second is on June 7th and focuses on developing ethical knowledge exchange and impact.

Full details can be found here and here.

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Temitayo Isaac Odeyemi, Damilola Temitope Olorunshola and Boluwatife Solomon Ajibolad have published Turning public engagement into standard practice: institutionalisation in the work of the South African Parliament in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Mette Marie Staehr Harder has published Parting with ‘interests of women’: how feminist scholarship on substantive representation could replace ‘women’s interests’ with ‘gender equality interests’ in the European Journal of Politics and Gender.

Jonathan Malloy has published The Paradox of Parliament with the University of Toronto Press.

Mihail Chiru has published Seniority and Ideological Proximity? A Longitudinal Analysis of the Appointment of Party Group Coordinators in the European Parliament in the Journal of Common Market Studies.

Elizabeth Evans and Stefanie Reher have published Gender, disability and political representation: understanding the experiences of disabled women in the European Journal of Politics and Gender.

The Routledge Handbook of Parliamentary Administrations edited by Thomas Christiansen, Elena Griglio and Nicola Lupo has been published.

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

10. Recently on the Blog

We published one great blog last month.

• The Parliamentary Battle over Brexit: The Story in Brief by Meg Russell and Lisa James

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Parliaments at PSA23!
2. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners
3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel
4. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition
5. PSA Trustee Elections
6. ALCS Membership: Public Service Announcement
7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
8. Recently on the Blog

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

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris and Ruxandra.

1. PSA Parliaments at PSA23!

We had a great time in Liverpool for the Annual PSA Conference. 

We convened four panels on parliamentary processes and procedures, comparative analysis of legislatures, scrutiny and legislation, and rhetoric and representation, which were all very well attended and which all contained some very interesting and important papers.

We believe all panels were recorded by the conference organisers so, if you missed the conference or just want to relive the experience, you’ll hopefully have access to all presentations soon.

2. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch for Henry J. Miller’s new book, A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd May at 2pm BST.

Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

The book launch is part of our Online Brown Bag Seminar Series. If you have an article or book that has been accepted for publication and you would like to present it as part of our series, then please get in contact with Stephen.

3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel

We have not forgotten about our postponed online panel Parliaments & Parliamentarians in Context.

We will be rearranging this panel very soon and will hopefully announce a new date and time next month.

Details of the panel can be found here.

4. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition

Our undergraduate essay competition is running again this year! 

Many of you have probably been busy marking over the last few weeks. If one of your undergraduate students has produced an exceptional piece of work, then please consider submitting it on their behalf (no self-nominations allowed).

Every year we want to reward the best assignments written by UK-based undergraduate students on any aspect of parliamentary and legislative studies. The entries which display the most originality, analytical rigour and significant contributions to the field will be awarded a prize of £100 for the winner and £50 for the runner-up.

The closing date is 12th June 2023.

Full details of the competition, including how to submit nominations, can be found here. For any questions, please get in touch with Caroline.

5. PSA Trustee Elections

Two of our members, Nicholas Allen and Matthew Hepplewhite, are standing to become trustees of the PSA. 

You can read their pitches and details of how to vote here.

6. ALCS Membership: Public Service Announcement

If you publish books and in journals that are based in the UK and you are not yet a member, then please consider joining the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Societyso you can receive payment for secondary uses of your work.

One of our convenors hadn’t even heard of it until this time last year and doesn’t know why this isn’t the first thing you are told when you start your PhD. 

Anyway, it can earn you hundreds and even thousands of pounds each year!

7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Orly Siow has recently published two articles: Needles in a haystack: an intersectional analysis of the descriptive, constitutive and substantive representation of minoritised women in the European Journal of Politics and Gender and What Constitutes Substantive Representation, and Where Should We Evaluate It? in Political Studies Review.

Nic Cheeseman and Marie-Eve Desrosiers have published How (not) to engage with authoritarian states and Douglas Thorkell has published Futureproofing democracy: Principles of foresight-based policy analysis and stress-testing for national parliaments and governments, both with the Westminster Fotw-text-wideundation for Democracy.

Franklin De Vrieze has published Advancing parliamentary innovation through Post-Legislative Scrutiny in The Parliamentarian. 

Jelena Lončar has published Evoking the resemblance: Descriptive representation of ethnic minorities in Ethnicities.

Meg Russell has published a working paper House of Lords reform: navigating the obstacles with the Bennett Institute for Public Policy.

And new issues of the Journal of Legislative Studies and the International Journal of Parliamentary Studies have been published.

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

8. Recently on the Blog

We didn’t publish anything this past month because we were too busy on the picket lines winning back our pensions and trying to get better pay and conditions.

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
2. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel
3. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition Launch!
4. Urgent Questions with David Parker
5. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners
6. PSA Trustees Wanted!
7. Job: British Politics Lecturer, University of Leeds
8. Other Events: Book Launch of The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit
9. Other Events: 100 more by 2030! How to Create a More Gender-balanced Democracy
10. Other Events: Austrian Day of Parliamentary Research
11. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
12. Recently on the Blog

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

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris and Ruxandra.

1. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

Registration has opened for the 2023 PSA Annual Conference being held in Liverpool and virtually in April 2023. Early bird registration ends on 4 February 2023, and accepted paper-givers must register by then to guarantee their place. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA23 website.

PSA Parliaments are running four panels on the Monday and Tuesday, as can be seen from the conference programme here.

The PSA offers support to UK based PhD students and early career researchers as well as scholars from the Global South. See the website for more information.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

2. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel

Due to the on-going UCU industrial action, we postponed our online panel Parliaments & Parliamentarians in Context on Wednesday 15th February 2023.

We will rearrange the panel once it is clear what is happening with the industrial action (and/or employers have given staff in UK higher education a decent pay rise, restored lost pension benefits and addressed casualisation, workload and the gender, disability and ethnicity pay gaps).

Details of the panel can be found here.

3. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition Launch!

We are very pleased to announce the launch of our 2023 undergraduate essay competition! 

Many of you have probably been busy marking over the last few weeks. If one of your undergraduate students has produced an exceptional piece of work, then please consider submitting it on their behalf (no self-nominations allowed).

Every year we want to reward the best assignments written by UK-based undergraduate students on any aspect of parliamentary and legislative studies. The entries which display the most originality, analytical rigour and significant contributions to the field will be awarded a prize of £100 for the winner and £50 for the runner-up. The closing date is 12th June 2023.

Full details of the competition, including how to submit nominations, can be found here. For any questions, please get in touch with Caroline.

4. Urgent Questions with David Parker

This month’s interviewee is Prof. David Parker (Montana State University)!

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about soaking and poking, Red Sox, Star Trek and lots, lots more!

5. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch for Henry J. Miller’s new book, A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd May at 2pm BST.

Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

The book launch is part of our Online Brown Bag Seminar Series. If you have an article or book that has been accepted for publication and you would like to present it as part of our series, then please get in contact with Stephen.

6. PSA Trustees Wanted!

The PSA are currently calling for nominations from their membership for three trustees to ensure the PSA continues its journey to excellence, sustainability, diversity, and growth.

These positions are open to all Academic Members and the PSA would very much welcome nominations from women and scholars from groups generally under-represented in the discipline. 

The deadline for nominations closes on Wednesday 8th March.

You can find out more about governance of the PSA and the role of the trustees here, and there is information about how to apply here.

7. Job: British Politics Lecturer, University of Leeds

The University of Leeds are advertising for a Lecturer in British Politics (Grade 8). More details can be found here.

8. Other Events: Book Launch of The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit

The Constitution Unit at UCL are holding an online book launch for Meg Russelland Lisa James’s new book The Parliamentary Battle Over Brexit (OUP) on Thursday 23rd March 2023. Other speakers include David Gauke, Joanna Cherry and Robert Saunders.

More details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

9. Other Events: 100 more by 2030! How to Create a More Gender-balanced Democracy

The Mile End Institute at Queen Mary University of London are holding an event on how to create a more gender-balanced democracy on Thursday 23rd March 2023. Speakers include Frances Scott and Rainbow Murray. 

The event is on later than the book launch above so you can go to both!

More details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

10. Other Events: Austrian Day of Parliamentary Research

The Legal, Legislative and Research Services (RLW) of the Austrian Parliamentary Administration, in cooperation with the International Journal of Parliamentary Studies, is holding the first “Austrian Day of Parliamentary Research” on 26th June 2023. 

This one-day conference in the premises of the Austrian Parliament will bring together scholars from various disciplines to discuss current developments in parliamentary research, as well as their reception in and potential contribution to parliamentary practice.

More details, including how to submit a paper proposal, can be found here.

11. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Silje Hermansen and Andreja Pegan have published Blurred lines between electoral and parliamentary representation: The use of constituency staff among Members of the European Parliament in European Union Politics.

The Hansard Society has published a new working paper Proposals for a New System for Delegated Legislation.

Matthew Smith and Jack Newman have published MPS, Outside Interests, and Corporate Boards: Too Busy to Serve? in Parliamentary Affairs.

Erica Rayment and Elizabeth McCallion have published Contexts and Constraints: The Substantive Representation of Women in the Canadian House of Commons and Senate in Representation.

Punam Yadav has published Do political quotas work? Gender quotas and women’s political participation in Nepal in the European Journal of Politics and Gender.

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

12. Recently on the Blog

We published one blog last month:

• Love in the Legislature: From Proposal to “Aye Do” by Charlie Feldman

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

We hope you’re well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panels!
2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
3. Urgent Questions with Mark Bennister
4. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners
5. New Overview of the US Congress!
6. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees
7. Call for Papers: ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments Conference
8. Gen+ParlNet Online Seminar: Designing for Listening in Feminist Democratic Representation
9. Gendering Multi-Level Parliamentary Democracy Workshop
10. Tribute to Jean Blondel
11. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
12. Recently on the Blog

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

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris and Ruxandra.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panel!

After a very successful annual conference in Birmingham at the start of November, PSA Parliaments will be holding another extra online panel.

At the moment, Parliaments & Parliamentarians in Context will be held on Wednesday 15th February 2023 at 2pm (GMT). Full details of the panel, including how to book tickets (for free) can be found here.

However, this date is currently a strike day for the on-going UCU industrial action. If employers have not given staff in UK higher education a decent pay rise, restored lost pension benefits and addressed casualisation, workload and the gender and ethnicity pay gaps by then, and the strike day goes ahead, we will need to move the seminar. We will send round an update on this at some point before the 15th.

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

Registration has opened for the 2023 PSA Annual Conference being held in Liverpool and virtually in April 2023. Early bird registration ends on 4 February 2023, and accepted paper-givers must register by then to guarantee their place. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA23 website.

The PSA offers support to UK based PhD students and early career researchers as well as scholars from the Global South. See the website for more information.

We are running at least four panels. More information will follow soon.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

3. Urgent Questions with Mark Bennister

This month’s interviewee is Dr Mark Bennister (University of Lincoln)!

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about record shops, frozen rabbits, synchronised swimming and lots, lots more!

4. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch for Henry J. Miller’s new book, A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd May at 2pm BST.

Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

The book launch is part of our Online Brown Bag Seminar Series. If you have an article or book that has been accepted for publication and you would like to present it as part of our series, then please get in contact with Stephen.

5. New Overview of the US Congress!

Many thanks to Caroline Leicht for writing an overview of the US Congress for our website!

You can read Caroline’s overview, as well as many others, here.

If you would like to write an overview of a parliament or legislature not yet coloured red on one of our maps (and the UK is notable for still being grey!), then please let Chris know.

6. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees

Our very good friends on IPSA’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists are holding another online seminars on legislative committees.

The book launch of Maya Kornberg‘s Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process (Columbia University Press) will take place on Monday 13th February 2023, 14:00–15:30 UTC.

Full details of the event, including how to book your free tickets, can be found here.

If you are not yet a member of RCLS, you can join (for free) here.

7. Call for Papers: ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments

The ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments will host its 8th conference in Vienna from Thursday July 6th to Saturday July 8th, 2023. There is no regional or methodological restriction.

Please see here for more details, including how to submit a proposal.

8. Gen+ParlNet Online Seminar: Designing for Listening in Feminist Democratic Representation

Gen+ParlNet are holding on online seminar on Thursday, 2nd February at 15:30 (Brussels time). The title of the seminar is Designing for Listening in Feminist Democratic Representation. The presenters are Karen Celis and Sarah Childs and the discussant is Mette Marie Stæhr Harder.

To sign up, please email Mette Marie Stæhr Harder or Cherry Miller.

9. Gendering Multi-Level Parliamentary Democracy Workshop

Cherry Miller is organising a hybrid international workshop to explore parliaments as both gendered workplaces and gendered sites of policy-making at multiple state levels.

Full details of the workshop, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

10. Tribute to Jean Blondel

PSA Parliaments were very sad to hear the news that Jean Blondel, who made such a contribution to parliamentary and legislative studies, as well as political science more broadly, had died on Christmas Day. 

You can read a tribute to him written by his colleague and friend, David Sanders, here.

11. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Ville Aula and Tapio Raunio have published The conditions of committee importance – drawing lessons from a qualitative case study of Finland in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Xuhong Su and Wenbo Chen has published Pathways to women’s electoral representation: the global effectiveness of legislative gender quotas over time also in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

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

12. Recently on the Blog

We published two great blogs last month:

• Evidence use by parliamentary committees: what is it good for? by Mark Geddes; and
• Information Literacy for Scrutiny: Equality and Diversity in Research by Anne-Lise Harding

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

Happy New Year! We have some updates for you in this slightly later than normal newsletter:

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panels!
2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
3. Urgent Questions with Emma Crewe
4. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners
5. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees
6. Call for Papers: RCLS at the IPSA World Congress
7. Call for Papers: Party Politics at the Local Level
8. Job Opportunity: Research Fellowship – Addressing Barriers in Political Engagement
9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
10. Recently on the Blog

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

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris and Ruxandra.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panels!

After a very successful annual conference in Birmingham at the start of November, PSA Parliaments will be holding two extra online panels in the new year.

Our first panel is on representatives and representation and will be held on Wednesday 25th January 2023 at 2pm (GMT). 

Full details of the panel, including how to book tickets (for free) can be found here.

Our second panel is called Parliaments & Parliamentarians in Context and will be held on Wednesday 15th February 2023 at 2pm (GMT). 

Full details of the panel, including how to book tickets (for free) can be found here.

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

Registration has opened for the 2023 PSA Annual Conference being held in Liverpool and virtually in April 2023. Early bird registration ends on 4 February 2023, and accepted paper-givers must register by then to guarantee their place. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA23 website.

The PSA offers support to UK based PhD students and early career researchers as well as scholars from the Global South. See the website for more information.

We are running at least four panels. More information will follow soon.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

3. Urgent Questions with Emma Crewe

This month’s interviewee is Professor Emma Crewe (SOAS)!

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Himachal Pradesh, Rodin, Bourdieu, and chatting to daughters!

4. PSA Parliaments Book Launch: Henry J. Miller’s A Nation of Petitioners

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch for Henry J. Miller’s new book, A Nation of Petitioners: Petitions and Petitioning in the United Kingdom, 1780-1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2023).

The event will take place via Zoom on Wednesday 3rd May at 2pm BST.

Full details, including how to book your free ticket, can be found here.

5. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees

Our very good friends on IPSA’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists are holding two online seminars in the new year on legislative and parliamentary committees.

The first is On the Outskirts of Parliament – the Delegation for Women’s Rights where Claire Bloquet (Institute for Parliamentary Research, Berlin) will be discussing their prize-winning work about the French National Assembly. The seminar will take place on Monday 23rd January 2023, 14:00–15:30 UTC.

Full details of the event, including how to book your free tickets, can be found here.

The second is a book launch for Maya Kornberg‘s Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process (Columbia University Press). The launch will take place on Monday 13th February 2023, 14:00–15:30 UTC.

Full details of the event, including how to book your free tickets, can be found here.

If you are not yet a member of RCLS, you can join (for free) here.

6. Call for Papers: RCLS at the IPSA World Congress

RCLS are also hosting a number of panels at the IPSA World Congress in Buenos Aires and online, 15-19 July 2023.

Please see here for more details.

7. Call for Papers: Party Politics at the Local Level

The call for papers for the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops 2023 in Toulouse (25-28 April) is open until January, 9, 2023. 

One workshop is endorsed by the ECPR Standing Group on Parliaments. It concerns ‘Party Politics at the Local Level’ and will be directed by Simon Otjes (Leiden University) and Christina-Marie Juen (Darmstadt University).

This Workshop aims to shed more light on the role of political parties in local politics. It focuses on the interaction, competition and cooperation between parties in the electoral arena and local councils.

More information can be found here.

8. Job Opportunity: Research Fellowship – Addressing Barriers in Political Engagement

Are you interested in working on perceptions and barriers to political engagement? If so, this post may be for you. 

You’d be working with Prof. Cristina Leston-Bandeira together with staff in the UK and Welsh Parliaments to explore people’s perceptions of political engagement through focus groups. 

Deadline for application: 10 January 2023. Feel free to contact Cristina for more details.

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Philip Cowley and Resul Umit have published Legislator Dissent Does Not Affect Electoral Outcomes in the British Journal of Political Science.

Simon Weschle has published Politicians’ Private Sector Jobs and Parliamentary Behavior in the American Journal of Political Science.

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

10. Recently on the Blog

We published two great blogs last month:

• Procedural Vetos and Parliamentary Sovereignty by Adam Tucker; and
• We need reform of the legislative process to empower Parliament by Jess Sargeant

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

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you:

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panels!
2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
3. Urgent Questions with Felicity Matthews
4. Welcome to Ruxandra Serban!
5. PSA and Specialist Group Membership
6. New Parliament Thematic Research Lead: Congratulations to Rick Whitaker!
7. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees
8. Petition against Job Losses at Birkbeck
9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
10. Recently on the Blog

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

We’ll see you in 2023!

Best wishes

Stephen, Seán, Caroline, Chris and, for the first time, Ruxandra.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Extra Online Panels!

After a very successful annual conference in Birmingham at the start of November, PSA Parliaments will be holding two extra online panels in the new year.

Our first panel is on representatives and representation and will be held on Wednesday 25th January 2023 at 2pm (GMT). 

Full details of the panel, including how to book tickets (for free) can be found here.

Our second panel is called Parliaments & Parliamentarians in Context and will be held on Wednesday 15th February 2023 at 2pm (GMT). 

Full details of the panel, including how to book tickets (for free) can be found here.

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

Registration has opened for the 2023 PSA Annual Conference being held in Liverpool and virtually in April 2023. Early bird registration ends on 4 February 2023, and accepted paper-givers must register by then to guarantee their place. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA23 website.

The PSA offers support to UK based PhD students and early career researchers as well as scholars from the Global South. See the website for more information.

We are running at least four panels. More information will follow soon.

Whether in person or online, we hope to see you there!

3. Urgent Questions with Felicity Matthews

This month’s interviewee is Professor Felicity Matthews (University of Sheffield)!

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Suede, architecture, cakes, pizzas and wood pigeons!

4. Welcome to Ruxandra Serban!

Welcome to Ruxandra Serban who joins the PSA Parliaments team as our new Membership Officer and Treasurer!

Ruxandra is a political scientist specialising in comparative legislative studies and UK parliamentary politics. She is an LSE Fellow in Qualitative Research Methods in the Department of Methodology at the LSE. She holds a PhD in Political Science from UCL, where she also worked as a Research Assistant at the Constitution Unit. 

Ruxandra has published on procedures and practices of prime ministerial questioning in different parliaments, and she maintains a research agenda on parliamentary questioning procedures.

You can follow her on Twitter here (if it’s still working by the time you read this).

5. PSA and Specialist Group Membership

If you receive this newsletter and are not a PSA member, please consider joining. You enjoy lots of benefits as a PSA member, such as subscriptions and free or discounted access to events. More information on how to join can be found here.

If you are already a PSA member and enjoy this newsletter and our activities, could we kindly ask you to check that you have also formally joined our group via your PSA account.

Joining our group officially will help us with our funding and capacity to host events and support early career scholars, and we would greatly appreciate it!

For any questions, please contact our membership officer, Ruxandra.

6. New Parliament Thematic Research Lead: Congratulations to Rick Whitaker!

Congratulations to Rick Whitaker of the University of Leicester on becoming the first Thematic Research Lead on Parliament, Public administration and the Constitution.

The thematic research leads have been established by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) and the holders will each join new thematic policy hubs which will bring together staff from POST, the House of Commons Library and Select Committee teams, ensuring greater co-ordination and a better flow of research information through Parliament.

More details about the initiative can be found here.

7. IPSA RCLS Online Seminars on Legislative & Parliamentary Committees

Our very good friends on IPSA’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists are holding two online seminars in the new year on legislative and parliamentary committees.

The first is On the Outskirts of Parliament – the Delegation for Women’s Rights where Claire Bloquet (Institute for Parliamentary Research, Berlin) will be discussing their prize-winning work about the French National Assembly. The seminar will take place on Monday 23rd January 2023, 14:00–15:30 UTC.

Full details of the event, including how to book your free tickets, can be found here.

The second is a book launch for Maya Kornberg‘s Inside Congressional Committees: Function and Dysfunction in the Legislative Process (Columbia University Press). The launch will take place on Monday 13th February 2023, 14:00–15:30 UTC.

Full details of the event, including how to book your free tickets, can be found here.

If you are not yet a member of RCLS, you can join (for free) here.

8. Petition against Job Losses at Birkbeck

You may have already heard the depressing news about the potential job losses at Birkbeck, including up to 7 in the Politics Department where PSA Parliaments has many friends.

You can read a BISA, UACES and PSA joint letter on the future of politics at Birkbeck here and you can sign a petition against the job losses here.

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

John Connolly, Matthew Flinders, David Judge, Michael Torrance and Philippa Tudor have published an article, Institutions Ignored: A History of Select Committee Scrutiny in the House of Lords, 1968–2021, in Parliamentary History.

Anja Osei and Daniel Wigmore-Shepherd have published an article, Personal Power in Africa: Legislative Networks and Executive Appointments in Ghana, Togo and Gabon, in Government & Opposition.

And there are new issues of the Journal of Legislative Studies , the International Journal of Parliamentary Studies and Legislative Studies Quarterly out.

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

10. Recently on the Blog

We published seven(!) great blogs this month:

• Multilevel blame and credit games: How is the European Union held responsible for economic crises? by Agni Poullikka
• There’s a time and place for prorogation — and this is it by Steven Chaplin
• How Sunak can restore integrity, professionalism and accountability by Meg Russell, Alan Renwick, Sophie Andrews-McCarroll and Lisa James
• Restoration and Renewal: Intimidation as a necessary evil? by Alex Prior
• Post-Johnson, constitutional combustion continues: But the fire can be extinguished by Andrew Blick and Peter Hennessy
• MPs, outside interests, and corporate boards – Too busy to serve? By Jack Newman and Matthew Smith
• Together and apart: Innovations in Prime Ministerial questioning in the Canadian House of Commons by Ruxandra Serban

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