Affigne Named to APSA Council

The APSA Council has acted to name Anthony (Tony) Affigne, Providence College, to fill an interim vacancy on the Council until September 2005. The vacancy was created when Robert Axelrod, University of Michigan, moved from a position on the Council to Vice President following the last Annual Business Meeting. The Constitution calls for the Council to fill interim vacancies in its own membership. The Council opted to fill this position by considering members from B.A.- and M.A.-granting institutions, since such members have served on the Council relatively infrequently. The Council considered a number of faculty from these institutions with active records of service in the Association, identified both from records of APSA service and by suggestions from Council members.

Affigne is associate professor and chair, department of political science, Providence College, and one of the founders of APSA's organized section on Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. He has been widely involved in APSA activities as well as community affairs in Providence and Rhode Island.

Georges Lavau Dissertation Award

The French Politics Group invites submissions by March 1st, 2005 for the Georges Lavou Dissertation Award. The Award, honoring the renowned French political scientist, is presented every three years to the best dissertation that is uniquely on French Politics or has a significant component on French politics, for example a chapter on France. All submissions must be in English and may be made by either the author or the chair of his/her committee. All submissions must be made to the entire committee at their emails below: Chair Jonah Levy (University of Berkeley), jlevy@socrates.berkeley.edu; Karen Bird (McMaster University), kbird@univmail.cis.mcmaster.ca; Vincent Hoffmann-Martinot (Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Bordeaux), v.hoffmann-martinot@wanadoo.fr.

Google Launches New Scholarly Search Engine

Online search engine Google recently launched a new site that focuses specifically on academic materials. The new engine limits its results to, according to the company statement, “scholarly literature such as peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, and technical reports.” The value in such an engine is that it may find articles on obscure topics that Jstor and other engines may overlook. To access Google Scholar visit: www.scholar.google.com.

AACS Call for Papers

The American Association for Chinese Studies seeks proposals for papers, roundtables, and panels for its 47th Annual Conference, co-hosted by Vanderbilt University. Though membership in the Association is required for participation, non-members many join after their proposals have been accepted.

The program committee prefers proposals for complete panes, including a panel chair, 2-3 presenters, and 1-2 discussants and especially welcomes theme panels that will help integrate the conference. The committee also welcomes proposals for individual papers and will attempt to place the presenter on an appropriate panel. Proposals for roundtables featuring special events of broad significance, such as the impact of the U.S. presidential election on cross-strait relations, are invited. Send your proposal (including an abstract of 250–500 words, your telephone number, fax number, and email address) to Program Chair Jerry McBeath (University of Alaska, Fairbanks), ffjam@uaf.edu, by May 2, 2005.