Political Science and Beyond

Politics are ubiquitous in social life, shaping all manner of interactions in so many spheres of human activity. From the playground to the retirement community, from the marketplace to the halls of government, from families to the global economy, we are constantly engaged in political struggles large and small. Political science, in turn, has long been fundamentally interdisciplinary, exchanging ideas, theories, data, and methods with fields from anthropology to zoology;mo;usb;mc; – and everything in between. As political science has become a more self-conscious discipline, it has simultaneously grown more aware of its intellectual debts and on-going contributions to cognate fields of study. The 103^rd Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association will celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of political science and highlight new opportunities for intellectual exchange across disciplinary boundaries.

Few substantive topics studied by political scientists are the exclusive preserve of a single discipline. Race, gender, and class have long stood at the intersection of sociology and political science. Attitudes, cognition, and decision-making are studied by psychologists and political scientists alike. Justice, equality and deliberation are central to both philosophy and political theory. Property rights, regulation, and economic policy are equally the domain of economists and political scientists.

Similarly, the methods used by political scientists are widely shared. From discourse analy;mo;hd;mc;sis to participant-observation, from case studies to statistical analy;mo;hd;mc;ses, no research tool is unique to political science. In recent years, political scientists have both borrowed and pioneered network analy;mo;hd;mc;ses to reveal patterns of bill sponsorship in Congress, social ties between states, and interactions between interest groups; randomized laboratory experiments to see how people process political information; agent-based models to study everything from cooperation to voting, the economy, and the evolution of the international system; brain imaging to identify the physical loci of political cognition; and “twin” studies to probe the genetic contribution to political attitudes.These methodological advances have allowed political scientists to extend our understanding beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries and to fruitfully engage questions that straddle fields.

The 2007 Annual Meeting aims to embrace the extraordinary potential of linking political scientists with researchers and teachers from other disciplines. We encourage participants to think across disciplinary boundaries in organizing panels and in their individual contributions to the program.We particularly encourage the participation of scholars from cognate fields. Doing so will expose political scientists to the newest research currents in other arenas, demonstrate in return the intellectual vitality of political science, and most of all enrich the discussion across disciplines and our understanding of politics.

2007 Program Chairs

Elisabeth R. Gerber, University of Michigan

David A. Lake, University of California, San Diego

Registration

www.apsanet.org/2007

DEADLINE: AUGUST 8, 2007

More info: www.apsanet.org/2007