The Cross-Regional Conference of AFP Fellows in Political Science, International Relations, and History

The Academic Fellowship Program of OSI's International Higher Education Support Program contributes to higher education reform by assisting progressive university departments in Southeastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Mongolia and by supporting promising local scholars. The Open Society Institute's International Higher Education Support Program (HESP) launched the Academic Fellowship Program (AFP) in 2004.

Higher education reform in the countries targeted by AFP is often impeded by lack of funding, ineffective education policies, poor planning and management, reliance on traditional curricula that emphasize passive rather than active learning, limited flexibility in career choices, corruption, and elitism. The Academic Fellowship Program seeks to diminish these obstacles as it contributes to reform of higher education and helps build academic networks locally, regionally, and globally. It focuses on both the educational institution and the individual scholar. AFP assists reform-minded departments in their efforts to achieve world-class academic stature and become models of innovation and reform in their region. At the same time the Program also supports promising local scholars by promoting their return to the region, their positioning within academe, and their continued professional development. During the academic year 2005–2006 AFP has developed partnerships with 41 university departments in the region, out of which 11 are departments of political science or international relations.

AFP has recently initiated yearly discipline-based meetings for its fellows in order to support their professional development and to provide a networking opportunity for them and the departments in which they are based. The 2005–2006 academic year was the first for AFP to organize such events, which focused on issues key to the development of teaching, both in disciplinary content and methodology. AFP organized three cross-regional conferences: Law/Economics, December 14–18, 2005, Slavske, Ukraine; Political Science/International Relations/History, 23–27 February, 2006, Sinaia, Romania; and Sociology, Social Work, Psychology, Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Media, Philosophy, 1–5 March, 2006, Tbilisi, Georgia.

The 2006 Political Science/International Relations/History Conference brought together close to 90 participants, including AFP Returning Scholars and other faculty members from partner departments in the four AFP regional programs: Southeast Europe, Russia/Ukraine/Moldova, the Caucasus, and Central Asia/Mongolia. Also invited were some of AFP's resident and non-resident international scholars who are working with AFP partner departments. The event aimed at providing a forum in which scholars from these regions could meet with their peers from the region and beyond to discuss the state of the disciplines in terms of research and teaching. Abstracts and papers from the conference were posted on a special section on APSA's PROL site: http://convention2.allacademic.com/index.php?cmd=osi06.

Several skills-building sessions during the event focused, among other themes, on course design and teaching introductory courses, using online components to support student learning, incorporating comparative research methods in teaching social sciences, teaching qualitative methods and integrating research and teaching. Benjamin Read delivered a mini-course on field-research in comparative and international politics.

In addition, traditional thematic panels brought together scholars presenting state-of-the art research in their fields. Young academics from Eastern Europe and Eurasia presented research papers on a diverse range of topics, including nationalism, minorities, politics and identity, political transitions, ideology, and normative theory. Debates continued during roundtable discussions, which focused on issues of concern to scholars, such as advocacy versus neutrality in the classroom, academia and public policy, and developments on the job market for political science graduates. One of the roundtables, moderated by Susan Woodward, examined the state of political science in the region; the topic was proposed by AFP fellows, who were keen on exploring how the discipline has evolved and how it is understood in the different countries. In more informal networking sessions, participants presented best practices in reform efforts and explored possible joint research or departmental cooperation. An example of a collaborative project stemming from the conference is an interdisciplinary research project on the geopolitics of oil, which will lead to the development of a new course.

Representatives of professional associations relevant to the discipline were invited to take part in the event and present opportunities and benefits of joining such associations. Benjamin Read made a short presentation on APSA, while Claudiu Craciun spoke about EPSNET.

The conference provided participants with a unique opportunity to receive valuable feedback on their research and to meet with peers with similar interests, from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar, from Kiev to Yerevan.

APSA members who are interested in joining the AFP network can become involved by applying to the International Scholar Program.

The 2006 APSA-PSA Exchange

This spring representatives from APSA attended the UK Political Studies Association's 56^th Annual Conference, convened in Reading, from April 3–6. Established in 1950 and with its headquarters currently based at the University of Newcastle, the PSA is the leading association in the field in the United Kingdom. Currently, it has 1,645 members (membership has been growing dramatically, with record levels set for the past several years) and produces four journals (British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Politics, Political Studies, and Political Studies Review) as well as a range of other publications.

In recent years, the APSA-PSA relationship has proceeded on the basis of an exchange of panels at respective annual meetings along with evolving discussions on issues of mutual interest such as the representation of women and minorities in the discipline. Periodically, APSA presidents are invited to attend the PSA annual conference; this year President Ira Katznelson spoke during the annual conference dinner and reflected on his recent trip to India and the linkages between political science in three democracies such as the U.S., UK, and India. In addition, the APSA Task Force on Difference and Inequality in the Developing World presented a preview of its forthcoming report at a roundtable session.

In the past year, the PSA applied for and received Related Group status within APSA. It has organized a panel at the 2006 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia entitled “UK Political Science Today.” This follows up on their panels in previous years and the PSA's co-sponsorship of APSA's centenary reception at the 2004 Annual Meeting in Chicago. APSA's relationship with the PSA continues to grow, reflecting our broadening common agenda.

From left to right: PSA Treasurer John Benyon (University of Leicester); PSA External Relations Liaison Terrell Carver (University of Bristol); APSA President Ira Katznelson (Columbia University); and Bahram Rajaee (APSA).

APSA International Membership

Upcoming International Events 2006

August 7–18: ECPR Summer School for Methods & Techniques, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, www.essex.ac.uk/ecpr/events/summerschools/ljubljana/index.aspx.

August 10–12: The Global Political and Social Order, Prague, Czech Republic, www.expandinghc.org.

August 28–29: New Zealand Political Science Association Annual Conference, Christchurch, New Zealand, www.arts.auckland.ac.nz/sites/index.cfm?P=6251.

September 4–6: 3rd Latin American Political Science Association Congress “Democracy and Inequalities,” University of CAmpinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brasil, www.ifch.unicamp.br/alacip.

September 6–9: European Group of Public Administration Meeting on Public Sector Performance Information, Milan, Italy, http://soc.kuleuven.be/io/egpa/qual/milan/milan.htm.

September 7–9: European-American Relations and the Middle East from Suez to Iraq, Zurich, Switzerland, www.isn.ethz.ch/php/conferences/UpcomingEvents/2006_zurich.htm.

September 7–9: European Consortium for Political Research, First ECPR Graduate Conference, University of Essex, UK, http://www.essex.ac.uk/ECPR//events/graduateconference/index.asp.

September 28–30: 2006 Congress of the Canadian Association of Latin American Studies, University of Calgary, Canada, www.larc.ucalgary.ca/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=72&Itemid=67.

October 18–20: International Conference on Governance, Institutions and Networks, University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies, www.apsanet.org/content_25065.cfm.

October 20–22: Political Studies Association of Ireland Annual Conference, Cork, Ireland, www.ucc.ie/acad/govt.

November 17–18: Berlin Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change, Berlin, Germany, http://web.fu-berlin.de/ffu/akumwelt/bc2006.

December 13–14: Netherlands Defence Academy Symposium 2006, Expeditionary Operations: “Effects and Challenges,” Koninklijke Militaire Academie (KMA), Breda, Netherlands, www.nlda.nl/.

For a complete listing of upcoming conferences, visit the APSA conference caledar at: www.apsanet.org/section_181.cfm.