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December 2022 Newsletter

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 ConnollyMatthew FlindersDavid JudgeMichael 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:

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

Categories
News

November 2022 Newsletter

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

  1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online
  2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
  3. Winners Announced for the PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition!
  4. Wanted: Treasurer & Membership Officer
  5. Urgent Questions with Alexandra Meakin
  6. Funded PhD on House of Lords Committees at the University of Sheffield
  7. The History of Parliament Trust’s Oral History Project: Call for Volunteers
  8. Write a Blog for the PSA
  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.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online

There is still time to book tickets for our Annual Conference, which will be held at The Exchange in Birmingham and online on 3rd-4th November 2022 with the theme of What Next? 

We have our now traditional drinks reception on the Thursday evening and then four brilliant panels on the Friday.

We had nearly twice as many paper proposals than normal and we weren’t able to accommodate everyone on the Friday so we have decided to also run some annex panels online in December and January – please keep an eye out for details in future newsletters.

The conference (including lunch and refreshments) is free for all attendees, whether presenting or in the audience, but you must register beforehand. We are also in a position to be able to offer a limited number of travel bursaries to PhD students. Please contact Sean for further details.

Please see here for full details of the conference, including how to book tickets and a slightly revised timetable. 

We are very much excited to be meeting up in person after two years of online conferences and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

For those of you attending on Zoom, a link will be sent round beforehand.

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

The 73rd Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association will be held in Liverpool and online on 3rd-5th April 2023 (see here for details).

The submission process is different from previous years in that specialist groups were given an exclusive timeframe for them to receive papers and propose panels ahead of the open call which closes on 8th November.

We’ve already put together four panels but we do have room for more in our allocation. So, if you have missed the specialist group deadline and will submit through the open call but would like to present under the auspices of our group, we recommend putting “I would like to be on a PSA Parliaments panel please” somewhere prominent on your submission. It’s not now fully in our control but hopefully your request will be granted by the convenors.

As always, we do not have any preferences in terms of theory, method or empirical focus and we welcome papers from PhD students through to professors, as well as from practitioners. We are fully committed to avoiding all-male panels. We are also seeking to increase the proportion of papers on our panels from people from an ethnic minority background.

3. Winners Announced for the PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition!

We are delighted to announce the winners of our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition!

First place has been awarded to Jack Liddall, from the University of Edinburgh. Jack was nominated by Dr Marc Geddes for his excellent essay: ‘Compare the effectiveness of the Scottish Parliament’s committees and the House of Commons’ Public Bill Committees in influencing government bills’. The judging panel described Jack’s essay as a “tight, rigorous comparative study that was well-structured, well-written, made a clear case on the basis of the evidence presented, and advanced our knowledge of the two Parliaments concerned.” The panel praised the “outstanding mixed-methods approach, with impressive interview data complementing the quantitative analysis” and noted that it was “particularly welcome to see a rigorous empirical comparison between the Westminster and Scottish Parliaments”. Finally, the panel also commended the essay for contributing to “ongoing debates in the literature – of which it showed a sophisticated understanding – about the extent of executive dominance of the legislative process”.

Our runner-up was Liliana Smith from the University of Leeds, who was nominated by Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira for her MP strategy briefing ‘Historic child sexual exploitation in Bradford’. The judging panel described Liliana’s entry as a “really interesting and impressive strategy briefing, which demonstrates a thorough and astute understanding of how Westminster operates”. The panel concluded that “the strategy briefing could have been put straight in front of an MP or their staff and been immediately useable”, noting how it “evidenced a strong and sophisticated understanding of both the local policy landscape around the relevant issue and the Westminster mechanisms available to backbenchers”. Liliana’s entry was also praised for being nuanced, well-structured and particularly well-written.

Jack and Liliana will receive prizes of £100 and £50 respectively, and have been invited to receive their certificates—and our congratulations—at the PSA Parliaments Annual Conference on Friday 4 November in Birmingham.

All entries were anonymised and shortlisted before judged by a panel which included a guest judge, Dr Brigid Fowler, Senior Researcher at the Hansard Society. The PSA Parliaments team would like to share our immense thanks to Brigid for reading through these entries and providing such helpful feedback.

The standard of entries from universities across the UK was incredibly high and we would like to thank all the PSA Parliaments members who took part and congratulate their students for their excellent work. Nominations for the 2023 competition will open early next year.

You can read the winning entries here.

Congratulations Jack and Liliana!

4. Wanted: Treasurer & Membership Officer

PSA Parliaments are now looking for a new Treasurer and/or Membership Officer. 

If you are interested in joining the PSA Parliaments team and being part of, quite frankly, the friendliest and prizewinning-est specialist group in the world, then please let Stephen know in the first instance. 

PSA Parliaments team members must be based in the UK and be somewhere between PhD student and professor.

5. Urgent Questions with Alexandra Meakin

This month’s interviewee is Dr Alexandra Meakin, who gives us her valedictory answers as the outgoing co-convenor of PSA Parliaments.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about greyhounds, dinosaurs and fast food twinnery!

6. Funded PhD on House of Lords Committees at the University of Sheffield

The University of Sheffield is advertising a PhD, co-funded by the House of Lords, on the role and reform of Select Committees in the House of Lords, 2018-2025. 

Full details of the PhD, including how to apply, can be found here.

7. The History of Parliament Trust’s Oral History Project: Call for Volunteers

The History of Parliament Trust’s oral history project is looking for more volunteers to interview former MPs about their lives and experiences.

The Trust’s oral history project has been underway since 2011. They now have around 200 interviews in their archive, held with their partners at the British Library, mostly undertaken by volunteers. They aim to produce life story interviews of former MPs and so their interviews ask about early life experiences, inspiration to enter politics and life after Parliament, as well as day-to-day life in Westminster and major political events.

The Trust would love to hear from those with an interest in political history and experience in oral history, although this is not essential as full training will be provided. They are running their next online training course on 12th and 13th January 2023 (09:30-13:15) and are especially keen to hear from volunteers in the North, the Midlands and Wales.

Volunteers will be expected to undertake some research on their interviewee (materials provided by ourselves), conduct interviews and prepare summaries for the archive. Ideally each volunteer will undertake around two interviews a year, which can last for many hours over several sessions. Travel expenses will be reimbursed. The Trust also runs a programme of seminars for the volunteer team, and they are regularly invited to attend other events held by the Trust at the Institute of Historical Research or Westminster.

The Trust is also inviting expressions of interest from A-level or undergraduate students of history or politics who wish to gain some work experience in a research organisation. The placement will involve assisting the oral history project team in collecting data and research materials on prospective interviewees.

You can find more information about the project on their website and blog. You can listen to many of the interviews undertaken so far on the British Library’s catalogue.

Please contact Dr Emmeline Ledgerwood for more information.

8. Write a Blog for the PSA

The PSA would love to see more PSA Parliaments’ members contributing to the PSA Blog on their website (which we would also republish on our website).

You can find their guidelines here

If you are interested in submitting a blog please contact comms@psa.ac.uk for approval and publishing.

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Felix Wiebrecht has published an article, Explaining Activity in Authoritarian Assemblies: Evidence from China, in the Journal of East Asian Studies.

And Cheryl Schonhardt-BaileyChristopher Dann and Jacob Chapman have published an article, The accountability gap: Deliberation on monetary policy in Britain and America during the financial crisis, in the European Journal of Political Economy.

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 this month:

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

Categories
News

October 2022 Newsletter

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

  1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online
  2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
  3. Goodbye to Alexandra…
  4. …And Hello (Again) to Sean and Caroline
  5. Wanted: Treasurer & Membership Officer
  6. Urgent Questions with Diana Stirbu
  7. PSA Parliaments Online Brown Bag Seminars
  8. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  9. Recently on the Blog

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

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Exchange in Birmingham and online on 3rd-4th November 2022 with the theme of What Next? 

We have our now traditional drinks reception on the Thursday evening and then four brilliant panels on the Friday.

We had nearly twice as many paper proposals than normal and we weren’t able to accommodate everyone on the Friday so we have decided to also run some annex panels online in December and January – please keep an eye out for details in future newsletters.

The conference (including lunch and refreshments) is free for all attendees, whether presenting or in the audience, but you must register beforehand. We are also in a position to be able to offer a limited number of travel bursaries to PhD students. Please contact Stephen for further details.

Please see here for full details of the conference, including how to book tickets. 

We are very much excited to be meeting up in person after two years of online conferences and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

The 73rd Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association will be held in Liverpool and online on 3rd-5th April 2023 (see here for details).

The submission process is different from previous years in that specialist groups were given an exclusive timeframe for them to receive papers and propose panels ahead of the open call on 6th October.

We’ve already put together four panels but we do have room for more in our allocation. So, if you have missed the specialist group deadline and will submit through the open call but would like to present under the auspices of our group, we recommend putting “I would like to be on a PSA Parliaments panel please” somewhere prominent on your submission. It’s not now fully in our control but hopefully your request will be granted by the convenors.

As always, we do not have any preferences in terms of theory, method or empirical focus and we welcome papers from PhD students through to professors, as well as from practitioners. We are fully committed to avoiding all-male panels. We are also seeking to increase the proportion of papers on our panels from people from an ethnic minority background.

3. Goodbye to Alexandra…

After five years on the team in one guise or another, we’re very sad to say goodbye to Alexandra, who is stepping down as co-convenor after our conference in November. Alexandra has been a brilliant co-convenor and, before that, communications officer and will be sorely missed. But we’re also very happy that she is expecting her second child and that she will continue to be a valued member of the group when she returns from parental leave.

We look forward to saying goodbye to her properly in Birmingham, as well as reading her valedictory Urgent Questions in the next newsletter!

4. …And Hello (Again) to Sean and Caroline

We’re very lucky that Seán Haughey and Caroline Bhattacharya have agreed to step up from Treasurer and Membership Officer respectively to be the new co-convenors!

Many of you will already know Seán and Caroline but, for those who don’t, Seán is a Joint Lecturer in Politics and Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool whose research focusses on the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive, and Caroline is a PhD student at the University of Helsinki (but based in Cambridge) whose research concerns parliamentary contestation, German parliamentarism and parliamentary roles.

Welcome to your new roles, Seán and Caroline!

5. Wanted: Treasurer & Membership Officer

PSA Parliaments are now looking for a new Treasurer and/or Membership Officer. 

If you are interested in joining the PSA Parliaments team and being part of, quite frankly, the friendliest and prizewinning-est specialist group in the world, then please let Stephen know in the first instance. 

PSA Parliaments team members must be based in the UK and be somewhere between PhD student and professor.

6. Urgent Questions with Diana Stirbu

This month’s interviewee is Professor Diana Stirbu, perhaps best known for her work on the Welsh Parliament/Senedd Cymru.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about photography, Japan and what she has in common with Homer Simpson!

7. PSA Parliaments Online Brown Bag Seminars

After the success of our online events over the past couple of years, we will be holding some online seminars this year. 

The purpose of the seminars will be to allow people to showcase their work and to generate debate and discussion. As such, papers presented will be recently published work, or work accepted for publication, rather than work in progress. The seminars will last an hour and will be held on Wednesday lunchtimes on an ad hoc basis.

If you would like to present a paper, or want to nominate someone, then please email Stephen.

8. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Peter CleggMette Marie Stæhr HarderElisabeth Nauclér and Rafael Cox Alomar have published an article, Parliamentary representation of overseas territories in the metropolis: a comparative analysis in Commonwealth & Comparative Politics.

Ben Worthy and Stefani Langehennig have published an article, Accountability, analysis and avoidance: how PMO data impacts on Westminster, in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

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

And, finally, a new issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly has been published. 

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

9. Recently on the Blog

We published one great blog in September:

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

Categories
News

September 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well and that you had a lovely summer. We have some updates for you in our first newsletter of the new academic year:

  1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online
  2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online
  3. PSA Parliaments Online Brown Bag Seminars
  4. Urgent Questions with Pete Dorey
  5. PhD Opportunity in Irish Politics at the University of Liverpool
  6. Workshop on Belonging, Inclusion & Exclusion at Westminster
  7. Gen+ParlNet: Call for Abstracts & a Save the Date
  8. Congratulations to Wang Leung Ting!
  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 the group, please let us know.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022 in Birmingham & Online

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Exchange in Birmingham and online on 3rd-4th November 2022.

The theme of the conference is What Next? 

The deadline for submitting paper proposals is Friday 16th September but we have already made tickets available for those who know they will be attending.

The conference (including lunch and refreshments) is free for all attendees, whether presenting or in the audience, but you must register beforehand.

Please see here for full details of the conference, including how to submit proposals and book tickets.

We are very much excited to be meeting up in person after two years of online conferences and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

2. PSA Annual Conference 2023 in Liverpool & Online

The 73rd Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association will be held in Liverpool and online on 3rd-5th April 2023 (see here for details) and PSA Parliaments will be convening a number of panels.

The submission process is different from previous years in that specialist groups have been given an exclusive timeframe until the 12th September for them to receive papers and propose panels ahead of the open call in October.

If you would like to propose a paper or a panel to be held under the auspices of the prize-winning PSA Parliaments group, then please fill out this form before 12th September.

As always, we do not have any preferences in terms of theory, method or empirical focus and we welcome papers from PhD students through to professors, as well as from practitioners. We are fully committed to avoiding all-male panels. We are also seeking to increase the proportion of papers on our panels from people from an ethnic minority background so please get in touch with Alexandra if you come from an ethnic minority background and would like to discuss how your research could be highlighted on our panels.

3. PSA Parliaments Online Brown Bag Seminars

After the success of our online events over the past couple of years, we’re hoping to hold some online seminars this year.

The purpose of the seminars will be to allow people to showcase their work and to generate debate and discussion. As such, papers presented will be recently published work, or work accepted for publication, rather than work in progress. The seminars will last an hour and will be held on Wednesday lunchtimes on an ad hoc basis.

If you would like to present a paper, or want to nominate someone, then please email Stephen.

4. Urgent Questions with Pete Dorey

This month’s interviewee is Professor Pete Dorey, co-author of House of Lords reform since 1911: Must the Lords go? (Palgrave Macmillan) and the textbook Exploring British Politics (Routledge).

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about being an ageing indie kid, curries and how delivering newspapers shapes your politics!

5. PhD Opportunity in Irish Politics at the University of Liverpool

The Institute of Irish Studies at the University of Liverpool invites applications for a PhD studentship beginning in September 2022.

Potential areas of research include power-sharing, post-conflict governance, gender and the politics of Northern Ireland/Ireland, constitutional change, political economy of Ireland/Northern Ireland, British-Irish relationships, parliamentary studies, or UK devolution. Applications broadly focussed on the governance and politics of Northern Ireland, or comparative projects which include the governance and politics of Northern Ireland, will also be considered. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed-methods projects are welcome.

Full details of the studentship, including how to apply, can be found here.

6. Workshop on Belonging, Inclusion & Exclusion at Westminster

Colleagues from London South Bank University and the University of Leeds are holding a workshop on ‘Belonging, Inclusion and Exclusion at Westminster’ in London on Friday 23rd September (1-4pm).

More details are available here.

7. Gen+ParlNet: Call for Abstracts & a Save the Date

Our friends at Gen+ParlNet will host three online seminars this academic year (the + is to make explicit that Gen+ParlNet very much welcomes research addressing gender and parliaments from intersectional lenses).

The seminars aim to provide a wonderful opportunity for researchers to get new eyes on their research from colleagues in the field.

Each seminar will feature two papers which will be circulated in advance. After a brief introduction by the author (10 min), a designated discussant will comment on the paper. Hereafter, all participants will be able to give their comments on the paper. The seminars will last for 90 minutes each (though Seminar 3 may be extended) and will be open to all who pre-register.

The three seminars will be held on: Thursday, November 10 at 09.00Thursday, February 02 at 15:30; and Tuesday, May 02 at 9:00 (all Brussels time).

The first two seminars are open for submissions of abstracts that address questions relating to gender+ sensitive parliaments in a wide sense, and we encourage all scholars to submit their abstracts for one of these seminars to Mette Marie Staehr Harder no later than October 1st.

A website for the network will be up and running shortly but, in the meantime, you can register for their mailing list by contacting Sonia Palmieri and you can follow them on Twitter here.

8. Congratulations to Wang Leung Ting!

Congratulations to a good friend of PSA Parliaments, Wang Leung Ting, who has recently taken up a lectureship post in comparative politics at the University of Reading!

9. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Cherry Miller has published an article, Between Westminster and Brussels: Putting the “Parliament” in Parliamentary Ethnography, in Politics & Gender.

Moritz Schmoll and Wang Leung Ting have published an article, Explaining Physical Violence in Parliaments, in the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

David Judge and Mark Shephard have published an article, Divining the UK’s national interest: MPs’ parliamentary discourse and the Brexit withdrawal process, in British Politics.

Monique DoyleJennifer Rault-Smith and Rashaad Alli of the South African Parliamentary Monitoring Group have published a report on parliamentary oversight in light of state capture and the Zondo Report.

The Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) have published four new policy briefs on parliaments and public debt management:

More details about the briefs can be found here.

Ben WorthyCat Morgan and Stefani Langehennig have published a project report for their Leverhulme Trust funded project, Who’s Watching Parliament?, which looked at how new data tools like TheyWorkForYou are impacting upon Parliament. 

The House of Lords Liaison Committee have published a report Review of House of Lords investigative and scrutiny committee activity in 2021–22.

And, finally, new issues of Parliamentary Affairs, Government & Opposition, Representation and the Journal of Legislative Studies have 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 three great blogs over the summer:

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

Categories
News

June 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you in our last newsletter of the academic year:

  1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Mark Shephard
  4. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  5. Report Launch: Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland
  6. Petition against Job Losses at De Montford University
  7. Jobs at the University of Birmingham
  8. PSA Diverse Voices Scholarships 2022/23
  9. New Newsletter from IPSA’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
  10. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  11. 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 hope you have a lovely summer. See you in September.

1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022

We can’t remember if we’ve already mentioned it but PSA Parliaments won Specialist Group of the Year at the PSA awards ceremony!

Our Annual Conference will be held at The Exchange in Birmingham and online on 3rd-4th November 2022.

The theme of the conference is What Next?

Full details of the conference, including how to submit proposals, can be found here.

We are very much excited to be meeting up in person after two years of online conferences and we hope to see as many of you there as possible!

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

Our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition is still open for entrants until Monday 6th June. The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Mark Shephard

This month’s interviewee is Dr Mark Shephard, Deputy Editor of Journal of Legislative Studies and Joint Chair of the Study of Scottish Parliament Group.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Houston, Kate Bush and the Kate Bush of Parliamentary Studies, and Prawns!

4. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Chris Monaghan (University of Worcester)
  • Matthew Flinders (University of Sheffield)
  • Alison Young (University of Cambridge)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Report Launch: Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland

Sean Haughey and Jamie Bow will be launching their report “Public Attitudes to Institutional Reform in Northern Ireland: Evidence from a Deliberative Forum” in Belfast on Thursday 9th June 2022 at 11am BST.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

6. Petition against Job Losses at De Montford University

58 members of staff at De Montford University, including those based in the Local Governance Research Centre, are facing redundancy.

Please consider signing the petition against the job losses here.

7. Jobs at the University of Birmingham

The Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham are looking to make four appointments at either Assistant Professor or Associate Professor level with one of the sub-disciplinary areas mentioned in the advert being ‘Democracy, Representation and Accountability’.

Further details of the jobs can be found here and here.

8. PSA Diverse Voices Scholarships 2022/23

The PSA has recently launched a new initiative to support black and minority ethnic scholars currently undertaking PhD study in politics and international relations and are looking to award three Diverse Voices Scholarships in 2022 to students who meet both the following criteria:

  • A PhD student (in their second or final year in 2022/23 academic year) affiliated to a UK Higher Education Institution; and,
  • Those self-identified as Black British, Asian British, or minority ethnic UK permanent residents.

Full details of the scholarships, including how to apply, can be found here.

9. New Newsletter for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists

Our good friends at the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists have launched the first of their re-vamped newsletters.

You can read the newsletter here and you can join RCLS for free and receive future newsletters here.

10. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Emmeline Ledgerwood has published ‘Armed with the necessary background of knowledge’: embedding science scrutiny mechanisms in the UK Parliament in the British Journal for the History of Science.

Caroline Bhattacharya has published Restrictive rules of speechmaking as a tool to maintain party unity: The case of oppressed political conflict in German parliament debates on the euro crisis in Party Politics.

Patrícia Calca has published a monograph Executive-Legislative Relations in Parliamentary Systems Policy-Making and Legislative Processes with Palgrave Macmillan.

The Inter-Parliamentary Union have published their third Global Parliamentary Report which examines public engagement in the work of parliament.

And, finally, a new issue of Legislative Studies Quarterly has been published.

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

11. Recently on the Blog

We published one great blog this month:

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

Categories
Events News

PSA Parliaments at #PSA22

The PSA Annual International Conference (PSA22) was held last month in York and online, providing an opportunity for our fantastic community of scholars and practitioners in parliamentary and legislative studies to finally meet up in person, three years after the last PSA in Nottingham in 2019, but also allowing others to contribute virtually through the hybrid proceedings.

The PSA Annual International Conference (PSA22) was held last month in York and online, providing an opportunity for our fantastic community of scholars and practitioners in parliamentary and legislative studies to finally meet up in person, three years after the last PSA in Nottingham in 2019, but also allowing others to contribute virtually through the hybrid proceedings.

We were delighted to host an exceptional and very well attended programme of PSA Parliament panels, featuring ground-breaking research on parliaments and legislatures from around the globe, across five panels and a roundtable on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th April.

Monday started with our panel How to be a parliamentarian? Representation and roles, in which David C.W. Parker and Jeffrey L. Lazarus (Montana State University-Bozeman, Georgia State University) explored public spending and constituency data in the UK Parliament; Caroline Bhattacharya, Stephen Holden Bates, Stephen McKay (University of Helsinki, University of Birmingham, University of Lincoln) considered how the roles of backbench MPs’ roles changed between 1979 and 2019. Luai Allarakia (University of Richmond) examined conflict within Kuwait’s National Assembly and Omomayowa Olawale Abati (Stellenbosch University) considered youth representation in Nigeria’s Lower National Legislature.

We hosted a roundtable during Monday lunchtime, chaired by Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson, as part of the planning process for a second edition of the successful Exploring Parliament textbook. The roundtable featured the most senior official in the House of Lords—the Clerk of the Parliaments, Simon Burton, and House of Commons Principal Clerk, Farrah Bhatti, in addition to leading parliamentary scholars Sarah Childs and Jack Sheldon.

Our final Monday panel How to be a parliamentarian: how do Members participate? featured Donald Keya Manyala and Benson Inzofu Mwale (Parliament of Kenya) presenting their paper: Participation of Minority Legislators in Legislative Business at the National Assembly of Kenya; Alia Middleton, Louise Thompson (University of Surrey, University of Manchester) examining the parliamentary lives of former UK Prime Ministers and Joel Martinsson (Linnaeus University / Swedish Parliament) considering when and why Swedish parliamentarians submit motions on behalf of special interest organizations.

On Tuesday our day started with Felix Wiebrecht, (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) presenting his research on legislatures in authoritarian regimes; James Strong (Queen Mary University of London) exploring whether UK War Powers Convention fundamentally changed the House of Commons’ influence over the use of force;Temitayo Odeyemi, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Alexander Beresford (University of Leeds) considering non-state actors and Nigeria’s national-subnational legislative public engagement; and Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds) discussing public engagement and the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, as part of our panel Parliamentary powers, prerogatives, and public engagement.

Our second panel of the day, How MPs use old and new media and how old and new media affects MPs, started with research from James Weinberg (University of Sheffield) on the mental health of politicians in the UK, Canada and South Africa; Tevfik Murat Yildirim, Gunnar Thesen (University of Stavanger, Norway) then discussed the public visibility of Members of Parliament in the UK and Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler (University of Stirling) explored parliamentarians’ communication strategies.

Our final panel of the day (and conference!), on Comparative and inter-parliamentary analysis included papers from Margaret Arnott (University of the West of Scotland) interparliamentary relations in the devolved UK; André Vella (University of Birmingham) on parliamentary privilege in Commonwealth legislatures; Franklin De Vrieze (Westminster Foundation for Democracy) on the oversight role of parliaments in public debt management; and finally Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler, Mark Shephard (University of Stirling, University of Strathclyde) comparing personal attacks and positive self-reference in exchanges between the Conservatives and SNP in PMQs and FMQs.

Thank you to all our paper-givers and attendees (virtual and in-person) for sharing your research and offering excellent perspectives and questions the papers provided. Thank you also the local University of York team for convening the conference, and to Grace Cooper who ensured all the tech ran smoothly.

The location of the next PSA conference has been announced as Liverpool and we look forward to yet another excellent set of parliaments panels.

Categories
News

May 2022 Newsletter

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

  1. Prizes, Prizes, Prizes at #PSA22
  2. PSA Parliaments Roundup at #PSA22
  3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Date for Your Diary
  4. PSA Parliaments in Parliamentary Affairs
  5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  6. Urgent Questions with Louise Thompson
  7. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?
  8. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  9. New Website for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists
  10. Other Events: Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies
  11. Call for Chapters: Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management
  12. Job: Research Fellow in French Politics & Social Media, University of Nottingham
  13. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye
  14. Recently on the Blog

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

1. Prizes, Prizes, Prizes at #PSA22

We can’t remember if we’ve already mentioned it but PSA Parliaments won Specialist Group of the Year at the PSA awards ceremony!

The PSA said:

“The study of parliaments is one of the longest-standing yet also most vibrant and modern areas of British political science. The PSA is delighted to be able to recognise the considerable efforts of its Parliaments specialist group in contributing to this. In difficult circumstances since 2020, this specialist group has played an exemplary role in maintaining – indeed, in some respects enhancing – its own activities. The judges were particularly impressed by its communications with members and the high quality of the events that it organises. Recent years have seen several members of this specialist group win individual PSA prizes, further testament not only to the vitality of work in this area but of the continuing strength of the Parliaments group.”

Whoop!

As mentioned in the commendation, there were also prizes for several members and friends of the PSA Parliaments group:

  • Philip Norton won the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lifetime Achievement Prize!
  • Louise Thompson won the Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics!
  • Sarah Childs won the WJM Mackenzie Prize for the best book published in political science for her co-authored book with Karen Celis Feminist Democratic Representation!
  • Steven MacGregor won the Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in the field of government and public administration for his thesis Does government dominate the legislative process?
  • The Institute for Government won the Political Communicator of the Year Prize!

Whoop whoop!

2. PSA Parliaments Roundup at #PSA22

The PSA Annual International Conference (PSA22) was held last month in York and online, providing an opportunity for our fantastic community of scholars and practitioners in parliamentary and legislative studies to finally meet up in person, three years after the last PSA in Nottingham in 2019, but also allowing others to contribute virtually through the hybrid proceedings.

We were delighted to host an exceptional and very well attended programme of PSA Parliament panels, featuring ground-breaking research on parliaments and legislatures from around the globe, across five panels and a roundtable on Monday 11th and Tuesday 12th April.

Monday started with our panel How to be a parliamentarian? Representation and roles, in which David C.W. Parker and Jeffrey L. Lazarus (Montana State University-Bozeman, Georgia State University) explored public spending and constituency data in the UK Parliament; Caroline Bhattacharya, Stephen Holden Bates, Stephen McKay (University of Helsinki, University of Birmingham, University of Lincoln) considered how the roles of backbench MPs’ roles changed between 1979 and 2019. Luai Allarakia (University of Richmond) examined conflict within Kuwait’s National Assembly and Omomayowa Olawale Abati (Stellenbosch University) considered youth representation in Nigeria’s Lower National Legislature.

We hosted a roundtable during Monday lunchtime, chaired by Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Louise Thompson, as part of the planning process for a second edition of the successful Exploring Parliament textbook. The roundtable featured the most senior official in the House of Lords—the Clerk of the Parliaments, Simon Burton, and House of Commons Principal Clerk, Farrah Bhatti, in addition to leading parliamentary scholars Sarah Childs and Jack Sheldon.

Our final Monday panel How to be a parliamentarian: how do Members participate? featured Donald Keya Manyala and Benson Inzofu Mwale (Parliament of Kenya) presenting their paper: Participation of Minority Legislators in Legislative Business at the National Assembly of Kenya; Alia Middleton, Louise Thompson (University of Surrey, University of Manchester) examining the parliamentary lives of former UK Prime Ministers and Joel Martinsson (Linnaeus University / Swedish Parliament) considering when and why Swedish parliamentarians submit motions on behalf of special interest organizations.

On Tuesday our day started with Felix Wiebrecht, (The Chinese University of Hong Kong) presenting his research on legislatures in authoritarian regimes; James Strong (Queen Mary University of London) exploring whether UK War Powers Convention fundamentally changed the House of Commons’ influence over the use of force;Temitayo Odeyemi, Cristina Leston-Bandeira, Alexander Beresford (University of Leeds) considering non-state actors and Nigeria’s national-subnational legislative public engagement; and Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds) discussing public engagement and the Restoration and Renewal of the Palace of Westminster, as part of our panel Parliamentary powers, prerogatives, and public engagement.

Our second panel of the day, How MPs use old and new media and how old and new media affects MPs, started with research from James Weinberg (University of Sheffield) on the mental health of politicians in the UK, Canada and South Africa; Tevfik Murat Yildirim, Gunnar Thesen (University of Stavanger, Norway) then discussed the public visibility of Members of Parliament in the UK and Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler (University of Stirling) explored parliamentarians’ communication strategies.

Our final panel of the day (and conference!), on Comparative and inter-parliamentary analysis included papers from Margaret Arnott (University of the West of Scotland) interparliamentary relations in the devolved UK; André Vella (University of Birmingham) on parliamentary privilege in Commonwealth legislatures; Franklin De Vrieze (Westminster Foundation for Democracy) on the oversight role of parliaments in public debt management; and finally Sebastian Ludwicki-Ziegler, Mark Shephard (University of Stirling, University of Strathclyde) comparing personal attacks and positive self-reference in exchanges between the Conservatives and SNP in PMQs and FMQs.

Thank you to all our paper-givers and attendees (virtual and in-person) for sharing your research and offering excellent perspectives and questions the papers provided. Thank you also the local University of York team for convening the conference, and to Grace Cooper who ensured all the tech ran smoothly.

The location of the next PSA conference has been announced as Liverpool and we look forward to yet another excellent set of parliaments panels.

3. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference 2022: Date for Your Diary

After two years online, we’re hoping it’s going to be third time lucky for holding our own Annual Conference in Birmingham.

Full details, including how to submit proposals, will be released soon but, for the time being, please keep Friday November 4th 2022 free.

The event will be hybrid and, as always, it will be free for members of the group.

4. PSA Parliaments in Parliamentary Affairs

In autumn 2020, we set out on a journey: a team brainstorming session gave rise to the idea of conducting a survey to map the current state of our sub-discipline, which was then followed with ideas about organising a roundtable and analysing the literature and authors of the sub-discipline more closely. And here we are, one and a half years later, with a collection of four articles and an editorial on the past, present and future of parliamentary and legislative studies, which will be published as a special section in Parliamentary Affairs in a few months. All pieces are available now as Advance articles!

In the editorial, we pose the central questions for the special section – what does the sub-discipline of parliamentary and legislative studies look like in the early 2020s, how did we get here, and where are we going? – and outline some of the problems faced by the sub-discipline.

In the article written by our team (and available open access!), we map the current state of parliamentary and legislative studies by drawing on our survey of 218 scholars from 48 countries. Concerns about an underrepresentation of women, ethnic minority and first-generation scholars seem warranted. Though most researchers use both qualitative and quantitative methods to some degree, cluster analysis identifies two groupings of academics with distinct research interests and views. A bibliometric analysis of 25 years of publications in Parliamentary AffairsLegislative Studies Quarterly and The Journal of Legislative Studies challenges the common view that the sub-discipline is dominated by US-based/focused political science. There is an upward trend in internationalisation (as well as female authorship), a considerable pluralism in theoretical and methodological approaches, and emerging sub-literatures linking the US-focused literature and UK-focused literature.

Check out whether your survey response features in the article, whether you are a Qualint or Quantirc, and where you sit in the co-authorship network!

The special section is completed by three articles, in which Emma CreweShane Martin and Michelle Taylor-Robinson build on their contributions to the roundtable we held in June 2021 and take turns kicking off important discussions on the pastpresent and future of the sub-discipline. A very insightful exchange between three scholars coming from different perspectives!

5. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

Our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition is still open for entrants until Monday 6th June. The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

6. Urgent Questions with Louise Thompson

This month’s interviewee is Dr Louise Thompson, author of Making British Law: Committees in Action, co-editor of Exploring Parliament and Parliamentary Affairs, and PSA prizewinner.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about rivers, The Time Traveller’s Wife and tips on what to watch while ironing!

7. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch of Hannah White’s forthcoming book Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons? (Manchester University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 25th May 2022 between 11:00am and 12:30pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Hannah White (Institute for Government)
  • Mark D’Arcy (BBC)
  • Alexandra Meakin (University of Leeds)
  • Baroness Morgan of Cotes (House of Lords)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

8. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are similarly delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of our very own Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST. The speakers are:

  • Chris Monaghan (University of Worcester)
  • Matthew Flinders (University of Sheffield)
  • Alison Young (University of Cambridge)

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

9. New Website for the Research Committee of Legislative Specialists

Our good friends at the International Political Science Association’s Research Committee of Legislative Specialists have launched a new website: ipsa-rcls.org

You can join RCLS for free and receive their quarterly newsletter here.

10. Other Events: Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies

Registration is now open for the Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies to be held in Budapest and Online on 12-13 May 2022.

Full details of the conference line-up and how to register can be found here.

11. Call for Chapters: Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management

The Routledge Handbook of Applied Political Management is seeking chapter proposals on an ongoing basis – as long as there is space left – up to the deadline for the first draft: 1 April 2023.

Political management is about how to get things done by managing resources and people within political organisations. It applies and adapts concepts from business management to politics including five core areas of political management: Political Planning, Political Organising, Political HR, Political Leadership and Political Reviewing. Suggested chapter sections and themes and further details on the scope of political management are on the book project webpage.

The editor would welcome submissions from members of the parliamentary specialist group. Themes related to parliaments include workplace well-being, management of staff and advisors, and internal relationships and communication, and strategic and tactical use of rules for political goals/gain. The chapter proposal form can be downloaded here.

There will be an online workshop in early Autumn 2022 so, if you can submit by 1 July 2022, there is the potential to be included as a presenter, meet other authors and get feedback on your ideas.

You can also discuss potential ideas with the editor Jennifer Lees-Marshment.

12. Job: Research Fellow in French Politics & Social Media, University of Nottingham

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral Research Fellow position in political backgrounds and digital campaigning at the University of Nottingham. The role holder will help to coordinate an externally funded collaboration with the Digital Society Project, led locally by Dr William Daniel.

Full details of the Fellowship, including how to apply, can be found here.

13. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Simon Otjes has published What explains the size of parliamentary staff? in West European Politics.

Steven MacGregor’sprizewinning thesis Does government dominate the legislative process? can be downloaded here.

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

14. Recently on the Blog

What with winning prizes and editing cracking special sections, we’ve only managed to publish one great blog this month:

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

Categories
News

#PSA22 Winners

+++ BREAKING NEWS +++ BREAKING NEWS +++

For the second year in a row, we’ve had to break out the emojis to celebrate a very successful night for PSA Parliaments and its members at the PSA Annual Awards!

🥳 PSA Parliaments won the Specialist Group of the Year Prize for the second time in four years!

🥳 Philip Norton won the Sir Isaiah Berlin Lifetime Achievement Prize!

🥳 Louise Thompson won the Richard Rose Prize for a distinctive contribution to the study of British Politics!

🥳 Sarah Childs won the WJM Mackenzie Prize for the best book published in political science for her co-authored book with Karen Celis Feminist Democratic Representation!

🥳 Steven MacGregor won the Walter Bagehot Prize for the best dissertation in the field of government and public administration for his thesis Does government dominate the legislative process?

🥳 The Institute for Government won the Political Communicator of the Year Prize!

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to our members for making PSA Parliaments such a now-officially-recognised brilliant group!

Categories
News

April 2022 Newsletter

We hope that you are keeping safe and well. We have some updates for you (a little later than normal because of the UCU strikes over pensions, pay and conditions):

  1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022
  2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022
  3. Urgent Questions with Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey
  4. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?
  5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution
  6. PSA Trustee Elections: PSA Parliament’s Member, James Strong, is Standing
  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 the group, please let us know.

1. PSA Annual International Conference 2022

Registration remains open for the 2022 PSA Annual Conference in York and online, 11th-13th April 2022. Full details of the conference and how to register can be found on the PSA22 website.

As detailed below, the PSA Parliaments panels and roundtable are being held on the Monday and Tuesday.

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

2. PSA Parliaments Undergraduate Essay Competition 2022

We are pleased to announce the launch of our 2022 Undergraduate Essay Competition! The winner will be presented with a prize of £100 and a runner-up prize of £50 at our annual conference in November 2022.

The competition is open to all undergraduate students who have submitted a piece of assessed work which contributes to our understanding of parliaments or legislatures.

Full details of the competition can be found here.

3. Urgent Questions with Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey

This month’s interviewee is Prof. Cheryl Schonhardt-Bailey, author of the recently published Deliberative Accountability in Parliamentary Committees.

Head over to Urgent Questions to read about Idaho, romance novels and how long it’s been since Cheryl ate a curry

4. Book Launch: Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons?

We are delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be hosting a book launch of Hannah White’s forthcoming book Held in contempt: What’s wrong with the House of Commons? (Manchester University Press).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 25th May 2022 between 11:00am and 12:30pm BST. The speakers include:

  • Hannah White
  • Alexandra Meakin
  • Baroness Morgan of Cotes
  • And another TBC!

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

5. Book Launch: Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution

We are similarly delighted to announce that PSA Parliaments will be co-hosting the book launch of our very own Chris Monaghan’s forthcoming monograph Accountability, Impeachment, and the Constitution (Routledge).

The launch will take place virtually on Wednesday 8th June 2022 at 2pm BST.

Full details of the event, including how to register, can be found here.

6. PSA Trustee Elections: PSA Parliament’s Member, James Strong, is Standing

One of our members, James Strong, is standing for election to become a PSA Trustee.

If you have a vote, please check your inbox for details of how to vote.

7. Recent Publications that have Caught Our Eye

Kristen Heim has published Beyond stereotypes: the evolution of five Southern African legislatures in the budget process in the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Jennifer Piscopo and Susan Franceschet have published Policymaking, Constituency Service, and the Pandemic: How Working Remotely Transformed U.S. State Legislators’ Representative Roles in Representation.

Finally, new issues of Government and OppositionInternational Journal of Parliamentary StudiesJournal of Legislative Studies, and Representation have all been recently 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 published two great blogs in February:

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

Categories
Events News

Special Newsletter about #PSA22

The timetable for the PSA Annual Conference, which is being held in York and online between the 11th and 13th March 2022, has been released.

All of the PSA Parliaments panels and roundtables are being held on the Monday and Tuesday. You can find full details of them on the conference timetable, on our website or, more quickly, below.

We hope to see you – either in-person or virtually – at the conference!

PSA Parliaments Timetable for #PSA22