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Task Force Report: Let's Be Heard!

Let's Be Heard! How to Better Communicate Political Science's Public Value is now available as a special issue of PS: Political Science and Politics

Click here to read the report at Cambridge Journals Online!

Political science is at a crossroads. The knowledge that it produces is more diverse and valuable than ever before—yet many audiences do not understand why or how political science is beneficial. Moreover, the rise of the internet has changed the kinds of information that people seek. For many scholars, the question has become "How do we make our knowledge accessible and relevant to others while still retaining our high standards of scholarship and teaching?"

With this question in mind, the American Political Science Association commissioned a Task Force on Public Engagement. Its leaders John H. Aldrich and Arthur Lupia solicited constructive ideas from a diverse group of 21 experienced and knowledgeable academics and public figures. Let's Be Heard! makes these ideas available to everyone. Because of the topic’s timeliness, the American Political Science Association and Cambridge University Press have agreed to make the special issue available for free at Cambridge Journals Online.

Let's Be Heard! is organized into three sections: Section I includes in-depth interviews with publicly engaged political scientists and practitioners; Section II examines how to change the profession’s incentives for serving others; and Section III considers new ideas, approaches, and avenues toward broadcasting the value of political science. The contributors contend that political science can offer immense, life changing value to society, but its ability to have this impact depends on its ability to communicate its knowledge effectively. Let's be heard!