Abstract
Western Political Science Association (WPSA)
Site for 2017 Conference will be Moving, Check for Updates
The 2017 meeting of the WPSA was scheduled to be held at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, from April 13 to 15. However, the Association has been informed that the Empress will be going through a major renovation during the meeting time. As a consequence, the meeting will likely be moved to a hotel in Vancouver, British Columbia. Vancouver is the largest city in the Pacific Northwest, with a vibrant atmosphere and a lovely setting. At the deadline of this edition of PRQ, a contract was close to being signed at an ideal location. Please follow the WPSA web site and Facebook page for updates. Stephen Nicholson, University of California, Merced, is serving as Program Chair for this meeting. Janni Aragon, University of Victoria, is serving as the Local Arrangements Chair. Sikata Banerjee, University of Victoria, is also on the Local Arrangements Committee. The conference will mark the seventieth anniversary of the Association. Don’t forget your passport!
Proposals for the 2017 meeting are encouraged. The DEADLINE for submission of paper proposals/program participation forms is September 18, 2016. The theme for the 2017 meeting is “The Politics of Identity, Intergroup Bias, and Conflict and Cooperation.” Details about the conference, its theme, the Call for Papers, and proposal instructions appear on the WPSA website: www.wpsanet.org.
The WPSA annual meeting offers not only the opportunity for traditional research presentations and roundtable discussions but also a place for interested groups to schedule special events and workshops. In addition, if you are part of a research community that is interested in holding a meeting in the spring, we may be able to accommodate your group by coordinating a conference within the WPSA annual meeting. For information about these opportunities, please contact Richard Clucas, WPSA Executive Director, at hprc@pdx.edu.
Political Research Quarterly (PRQ) Editor Search
The WPSA will soon be announcing the search for a new editor for the PRQ. The term of the current editors—Jeanette Mendez, Clarissa Hayward, and Jim Scott—will expire on June 30, 2018. The Association will be seeking nominations and self-nominations of qualified individuals to edit the journal from July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2022. Complete information about the search will be made available in early September on the Association’s website at http://wpsanet.org.
The PRQ is a highly ranked general journal of political science. The journal aims to record advances in the understanding of politics in all areas by publishing scholarly articles representing the highest standards of excellence, and reflecting a full range of substantive interests, theories, and approaches defining contemporary political science. According to the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), PRQ’s impact factor and rankings has risen steadily from 0.486 in 2007 (ranking it fifty-sixth out of ninety-three journals in Political Science) to 1.149 in 2014. Eclipsing the 1.0 impact factor mark is an important benchmark in journal rankings, and PRQ now ranks forty-seventh out of 161 journals in the JCR Political Science category. One of two official journals of the WPSA, it is owned and published by the University of Utah. The editor or team of editors is responsible for the substantive content of the journal.
Requests for more information should be submitted to Richard Clucas, WPSA Executive Director, at hprc@pdx.edu.
Recipients of 2015 WPSA Awards
The following WPSA awards were presented by the Association at the 2016 Annual Meeting held in San Diego, California.
The award for the best paper on Asian Pacific Americans and Politics was awarded to Neil Visalvanich, Durham University, for his paper “Asian Candidates in America: An Experimental and Observational Look.”
The Betty Nesvold Award for the best paper on Women and Politics was given to Catherine N. Wineinger, Rutgers, for her paper “How Can a Black Woman Be a Republican? An Intersectional Examination of Identity Politics in the Mia Love Campaign.”
The award for the best paper on Blacks and Politics was awarded to Christopher Towler, Western Washington University, for his paper “Far-Right Sympathy and Racial Intolerance: Race, Integration and Reactionary Conservatism in the 1960s.”
The Charles Redd Award for the best paper on the Politics of the American West was given to Deserai A. Crow, Lydia A. Lawhon, Elizabeth Koebele, Adrianne Kroepsch, Rebecca Child, and Juhi Huda, University of Colorado Boulder, for their paper “Information, Resources, and Management Priorities: Agency Outreach and Mitigation of Wildfire Risk in the Western United States.”
The Dissertation Award was given to Julian D. Gottlieb, University of Seattle, for his dissertation completed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, “The Protest News Framing Cycle: How News Attention and Framing Change over the Course of a Protest.”
The award for the best paper on Environmental Political Theory was awarded to Margaret E. Farrar, John Carroll University, for her paper “Sustainable Places.”
The award for the best paper on Latina/Latino Politics was given to Alex Street, Carroll College; Chris Zepeda-Millan, University of California, Berkeley; and Michael Jones-Correa, Cornell University, for their paper “Political Effects of Having Undocumented Parents.”
The Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the WPSA was awarded to Christopher Holman, Nanyang Technological University, for his paper “Machiavelli and the Constellative Use of History.”
The award for the best article published in the PRQ during the previous calendar year was given to Mirya R. Holman, Tulane University; Monica C. Schneider, Miami University; and Kristin Pondel, GfK, for their December 2015 PRQ article “Gender Targeting in Political Advertisements.” An Honorable Mention in this category was given to Mehmet Gurses, Florida Atlantic University, for his March 2015 PRQ article “Transnational Ethnic Kin and Civil War Outcomes.”
Submissions for 2017 WPSA Awards
Instructions and deadlines for paper submissions and nominations for 2017 WPSA awards may be found on the WPSA website. The deadlines for most awards are set for June 15, 2016.
WPSA Nominations
The WPSA Committee on Nominations requests that nominations be submitted for the following WPSA officer positions:
Vice President: to serve as Program Chair for the 2019 Annual Meeting (San Antonio, Texas). This individual will serve as Association President 2019–2020, subsequent to service as Program Chair.
Treasurer: to serve from March 2018 to March 2021.
Four members of the Executive Council: two from Region A (California), one from Region B (Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah), and one from Region C (Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan). Terms are for three years, March 2018–March 2021.
Nominations of women and members of ethnic minorities are encouraged. The committee also encourages nominations that will help achieve a balance of large and small schools, areas of specialization, and regions in WPSA governance.
Nominations and self-nominations should be accompanied by (a) a written indication from the individual that she or he is willing to serve, (b) a statement in support of the nominee including details of previous WPSA activities, and (c) a copy of the nominee’s vita. To ensure consideration, all nominations should be submitted by June 15, 2016 (and earlier if possible) to WPSA President Julie Novkov at jnovkov@albany.edu.
WPSA Endowments Need Your Support
In response to member requests, the WPSA Executive Council approved the creation of its first endowed awards in fall 2014. If these awards are to get off the ground, they need your financial support.
One of these endowments is for an award honoring Betty Moulds, who served for twenty-five years as the Chief Administrator for the WPSA. The Betty Moulds Lifetime Service Award will be given to individuals who have made a long history of service and an extraordinary contribution to the WPSA. The second endowment is to honor Joel Olson, an Associate Professor of political theory at Northern Arizona University and a longtime WPSA member who passed away unexpectedly in March 2012. The Joel Olson Award will be given to activist scholars whose work is at the creative intersection of radical political theory and practice. The awards honoring Betty Moulds and Joel Olson will be funded entirely by their endowments, so your support is essential for them to be launched. The Executive Council also created the WPSA Endowment Fund, which will be used to help protect the long-term financial security of the Association and to provide funding for special projects.
Please consider making a donation to any of these endowments. The WPSA is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization; as such, your contributions are fully tax deductible, as permitted by law. To make a donation, please visit the WPSA website at http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/about/donate.php.