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  • December 2024 Newsletter

    Hello, everyone! The end of the year is nearly here – how time flies!!! We held our Annual Conference in November and we are now wrapping up 2024 with our last newsletter of the year. We have some nice conference highlights for you and the usual interesting news.

    1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference: Highlights
    2. Our UG Essay Competition Winners
    3. PSA Parliaments Membership and Survey
    4. Opportunities
    5. Calls for papers
    6. Urgent Questions
    7. Recent Publications
    8. 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.

    Best wishes,

    Caroline, Diana, Ruxandra, Jack and Lauren

    1. PSA Parliaments Annual Conference: Highlights

    Last month, we held our Annual Conference and were absolutely delighted to welcome close to 50 participants for the main event. It was great to see so many familiar faces as well as new ones.

    On Thursday, 21 November, WISERD hosted us at Cardiff University for our early-career workshop. We then gathered at the Senedd for our traditional drinks reception with a special keynote by the Deputy Presiding Officer David Rees MS. This was followed by an informal dinner on the other side of the bay.

    On Friday, 22 November, the main conference took place in the beautiful Pierhead Building, featuring three exciting panels with very high-quality presentations throughout (as we were told by several attendees afterwards). We heard about a wide range of topics and had engaging discussions with many great questions form the audience. Massive thanks to the Senedd Cymru and their research unit for hosting us and sponsoring the lunch.

    Please see here for all the highlights!

    2. Our UG Essay Competition Winners

    At the conference, we also announced the winners of our annual undergraduate essay competition. We received many excellent submissions and the winning essays displayed an outstanding level of analysis. We thank Stephen Holden Bates (University of Birmingham) for being our external judge this year!

    The winner is Colin Wilson who was nominated by Philip Cowley of Queen Mary University of London. He wrote a “Parliamentary Studies Research Portfolio” with three mini-studies.

    The runner-up is Lola Clugston, nominated by Stephen Elstub of Newcastle University, for her essay on “Enhancing the Impact of Select Committees in the UK Parliament: A Focus on MP Engagement”.

    We are thrilled to award both students their well-deserved prizes of £100 and £50 and wish them best of luck for their postgraduate studies! Thank you and congratulations also to the nominating academics!

    You can read the judging panel’s feedback and both essays here.

    3. PSA Parliaments Membership and Survey

    PSA Parliaments membership

    If you like what we do and want to support our activities, please consider becoming a member of the UK Political Studies Association (PSA) if you have not already, and join us officially there. Or, if you think one of your colleagues would benefit from a PSA membership or from just receiving our newsletter, please spread the word (all information available here). Our membership figures (PSA members and newsletter subscribers) determine our budget and, thus, the activities we can offer.

    The PSA is currently looking into revising its membership structure and assessing the potential of introducing a new affiliate category. We, as a Specialist Group, are supportive of this idea and believe it may allow more of our non-PSA members, especially practitioners, to get involved. We will keep you updated.

    Members Survey

    We are conducting this survey to gather more viewpoints and wishes regarding our activities and events. This will help us to align our work closely with the expectations of our members while considering our limited resources. The results will be used to inform our planning process and guide us in setting our priorities for the next couple of years.

    Thank you for taking the time to fill this in!

    4. Opportunities

    Call by Modernisation Committee: Reminder

    We want to remind you that the new Modernisation Committee has launched a call for written submissions to hear from different groups, including academics. This is a great opportunity to feed your research findings into parliamentary reform.

    The deadline is 16 December 2024 and all the details can be found here.

    The UCL Public Policy team has provided useful tips on giving written and oral evidence to select committees here.

    PSA Women & Politics Specialist Groups Mid-Career Researcher Mentoring Programme 

    Are you a mid-career member of the PSA? The PSA Women & Politics SG is hosting a Mid-Career Researcher (MCR) Mentoring Programme tailored specifically to the needs of women in academia following a research track. This initiative responds to a critical need to address the career development of scholars beyond their first promotion, offering tailored support to navigate the challenges unique to mid-career professionals. 10 places are available, with bursary support provided towards travel and accommodation for each participant 

    Location: PSA office, Camden, London  | Dates: Thursday 23 January and Friday 24 January 2025 

    Apply to register by 5pm Monday 2nd December. 

    Find out more, including how to apply, here.

    5. Call for Papers

    4th Global Conference on Parliamentary Studies, Athens, Greece, Friday, 13 June 2025

    This is an opportunity  for academics, researchers and practitioners to explore “Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century”. Set in the birthplace of democracy, this unique gathering invites thought leaders to address the challenges and opportunities of our time, where technology, media and geopolitical shifts intersect with democratic governance. 

    The conference is jointly organized by the Hellenic OCR Team and Széchenyi István University.

    Submit your abstract by 28 February 2025, and learn more about the event here. 

    6. Urgent Questions with Richard Whitaker

    Our popular Urgent Questions feature is back! Richard Whitaker, Professor of Politics at the University of Leicester and currently a Parliamentary Academic Fellow, has told us why the NHS is responsible for him choosing an academic career, about his passion for working in Parliament and – a familiar theme to our loyal readers – music.

    Watch out for the yellow jumper! You can read all of Rick’s answers here.

    7. Recent Publications

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

    8. On the Blog

    We would love to have more contributions on our blog. If you have an idea for a blog on some aspect of parliamentary study, please get in touch with our communications officer Jack.

    9. Overview of Parliaments Map

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

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