TLC at APSA
Starting in 2018, APSA’s annual meeting features a one-day conference-within-a-conference called “TLC at APSA.” This mini-conference takes place on Saturday of APSA’s Annual Meeting and is designed to expand the reach of the TLC to the broader political science community. TLC at APSA offers a full day of teaching and learning workshops, panels, and networking opportunities.
2025 TLC at APSA
Teaching Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times
Saturday, September 13, 2025 | Vancouver, Canada | 2025 APSA Annual Meeting
Program Co-chairs: Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Towson University, and Erin Richards, Cascadia College
In keeping with the overall conference theme of “Reimagining Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times,” the 2025 TLC at APSA theme is “Teaching Politics, Power, and Peoplehood in Crisis Times.”
- How can political science educators advance students’ understanding of democracy and power dynamics within democratic systems as we prepare students to adapt to and address current crises and challenges facing democratic systems worldwide?
- What is the role of higher education in preparing future leaders and citizens to not merely participate in democratic governance, but also to develop, navigate, and debate the democratic innovations needed to meet new challenges and address threats from anti-democratic forces?
Amid these new uncertainties, teacher-scholars can encourage and model democratic learning and skill-building in the classroom and in co-curricular spaces through educational options that include problem-solving, collaboration, compromise, information and media literacy, and critical thinking. Political scientists have the opportunity—and the need—to educate our students about the benefits, limitations, challenges to, and changing nature of democracy in the 21st century.
Past TLC at APSA Events
In keeping with the overall conference theme of “Democracy: Retrenchment, Renovation, & Reimagination,” the 2024 TLC at APSA theme is “Teaching Democracy: Reflection, Innovation and Imagination.” How can political science educators advance an understanding of democracy, how democracy has adapted to past challenges, and the threats that democracy faces today? What is the role of higher education in preparing future leaders and citizens to not merely participate in democratic governance, but also to develop and debate the democratic innovations needed to meet new challenges. Amid these new uncertainties, teacher-scholars have an opportunity to encourage and model democratic norms in the classroom with problem-solving, collaboration, compromise, information and media literacy, and critical thinking. Political scientists have the opportunity—and the need—to educate our students about the benefits, limitations, and changing nature of democracy in the 21st century.
The seventh annual TLC at APSA, the teaching and learning conference-within-a-conference that is part of the APSA Annual Meeting, took place
Saturday, September 7, 2024, in Philadelphia. View the TLC at APSA Schedule.
As democratic norms have bent under strain and as citizens struggle to discern fact from fiction, the role that political scientists play in advancing civic and political education for all students has become more critical than ever. In addition, disparities in student learning and challenges to higher education brought about or exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic also demand innovative responses.
The sixth annual TLC at APSA, the teaching and learning conference-within-a-conference that is part of the APSA Annual Meeting, will take place Saturday, September 2 in Los Angeles, CA. You are invited to participate in the day-long program promoting scholarly reflection on the tools, strategies, and pedagogical approaches enabling political science educators to develop and promote inclusive forms of civic literacy and engagement. View the full schedule here.
The fifth “TLC at APSA,” the teaching and learning conference-within-a-conference, will take place Saturday, September 17, 2022, in Montreal, Québec, Canada as part of the APSA Annual Meeting. This full-day event seeks to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning, equip faculty with new techniques and resources for teaching, share innovative techniques to maximize students’ interest, and enhance the role of teaching in the discipline of political science. The use of technology and issues of accessibility in the post-pandemic era, broadly understood, are also of interest. View the full schedule here.
2021 TLC at APSA
The fourth “TLC at APSA,” the teaching and learning conference-within-a-conference, will take place Saturday, October 2, 2021, in Seattle, WA, as part of the APSA Annual Meeting. This full-day event seeks to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning, equip faculty with new techniques and resources for teaching, and enhance the role of teaching in the discipline of political science. Please join us for this gathering, which will provide a highly interactive forum for scholars to share innovative tools for political science education and research on the scholarship of teaching and learning.
In keeping with the overall Annual Meeting theme of “Promoting Pluralism,” this year’s TLC at APSA theme is “Teaching Pluralism through Political Science Education.” We perceive pluralism, in the widest possible way, to represent a diversity of ideas, experiences and identities. Teaching pluralism builds classrooms and environments that encourage students to develop a deeper understanding along with tolerance of diverse ideological thought. It looks to create communities inclusive of experiences across the spectrum of human abilities, gender identities and sexual orientations. It makes space for the identities and aspirations of members of varied ethnic, religious and linguistic communities. We are particularly interested in proposals that explore the ways in which we teach and model the principles of pluralism for the 21st century View the full schedule here.
2020 TLC at APSA
The third annual TLC at APSA (Teaching and Learning Conference at APSA) is a full-day virtual event that seeks to promote the scholarship of teaching and learning and enhance the role of teachingin the discipline of political science. This year’s conference theme is “Teaching Democratic Principles through Political Science Education.”View the full schedule here.
2019 TLC at APSA
The second Teaching & Learning Conference at APSA (TLC at APSA) took place Saturday, August 31, 2019 in Washington, DC as part of the 2019 APSA Annual Meeting. This conference-within-a-conference explored the theme of “Political Science Education in the Time of Resurgent Populism and Privilege.” View the full schedule here.
2018 TLC at APSA
The first Teaching & Learning Conference at APSA (TLC at APSA) took place Saturday, September 1, 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts as part of the 2018 APSA Annual Meeting. This mini-conference explored the theme of “Political Science Education in Contentious Times.” View the full schedule here.