Conference for Department Chairs

APSA will not hold the 2010 APSA Conference for Chairs this year, respecting the current economy and limitations on academic travel and conference budgets. APSA will contact preregistrants to notify them about this change and to refund or credit their registration.

The Association will review the concept of a chairs conference and will be considering alternative formats and timing for the future. The APSA Departmental Services Committee welcomes suggestions from all members and ideas for future departmental leadership conferences. Please send your suggestions to Michael Brintnall at brintnall@apsanet.org.

In 2010, political science chairs and departmental leaders can continue to look forward to expanded programs offered by APSA during the 2010 APSA Annual Meeting in Washington DC. These events include the Workshop for Chairs luncheon and panel discussion and special session for graduate program directors. In addition, APSA plans to host a meeting with chairs during the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting in Chicago in April 2010. Please check the APSA Annual Meeting online program and MPSA program for details.

APSA also offers online resources to departmental leaders (/departments/) to aid them in their work and in keeping abreast to trends and development in the discipline. In addition, APSA is launching a new online community collaboration site which will feature a private communities for departmental leaders organized around departmental roles such as department chair, graduate director and so on. The site, called APSA Connect, will allow users to discuss common challenges and share resources in online document library. We expect this will become a valuable resource for departments and additional opportunity for departmental leaders to interact.

The Conference for Chairs is a unique professional development and networking opportunity for political science department chairs. It provides a venue for department chairs to interact with peers in an environment tailored to their unique roles in the discipline, while combining valuable opportunities for structured and unstructured discussions regarding trends and challenges in political science today.

The conference is part of the Association's ongoing commitment to support the work of departments and is overseen by the APSA Departmental Services Committee. Please direct questions about the APSA Conference for Chairs to dsp@apsanet.org.

Previous Conferences

2009 Conference Presentations