Call for Papers: Postgraduate Conference in Political Science and International Studies

To be held virtually on September 16th and 17th 2021

We find the world amidst significant political, social, economic, and technological transformations incited by the global Covid-19 pandemic, late modernity, and the industrial revolution 4.0, amongst others. These global dynamics have far-reaching implications for states, governments, and communities, as well as for individuals since their everyday lives are significantly affected by these developments. Thereby, routines, identities, and security of individual and collective actors are increasingly challenged, leading to widespread emotional distress and manifold coping mechanisms to adapt to this ‘brave new world’. As a result, politics and international studies are now more crucial than ever to understand the implications of these challenges as well as how political actors respond to them. These multi-layered developments entail an abundance of actors and therefore methodological pluralism is paramount to capture different perspectives on these recent global transformations.

This methodological pluralism has hugely benefited the study of politics. However, methods and methodology are often left as a sidenote in journal articles or books as theoretical frameworks and empirical findings often take the centre stage. This often leads researchers, especially early career scholars, to be creative in their methodological thinking by resorting to textbook methodological approaches and then synthesizing and adapting them in a way that fits the case study at hand. This adaptation is a creative process in which something new, that is uniquely equipped to study a specific case, is engendered. Especially in the light of the contemporary global developments in which research designs need to be adapted to the limitations of a pandemic, whilst also responding to new phenomena at hand to study, a constructive dialogue on methodologies is crucial as there is not only one right way to study politics.

This conference constitutes a space to share and reflect on cutting-edge methodologies ranging from the study of discourses to narratives and content analysis of qualitative data more broadly. Whilst some details about the overall research project should of course be provided in order to contextualize the presentation, this conference aims to focus on the method (ological) component of the work. Therefore, we would be very keen to receive papers that explicitly discuss the methodological aspect of a research project. We also encourage doctoral students to submit the methodology chapter or section of their thesis, accompanied by some theoretical background, if they wish to get some feedback on it.

• Connect different methodological approaches and methods, either from within the same or across different disciplines.
• Discuss in-depth methodology and methods of a research paper or a PhD thesis, including details such as codebooks, coding procedures, and data selection.
• Elaborate on the scholar’s positionality, including ethnic background, nationality, gender, religion, etc., in the research process.
• Present how the author connected the theoretical framework with the methodology.
• Explore the implications of the pandemic on research design and practices.

Interested researchers should send a proposal comprised of a 500-words abstract and a short biography to PAIS_EUTOPIA@warwick.ac.uk. The deadline for proposals is May 30th, 2021.

For any questions or inquiries about the conference or the paper selection process, please contact us at PAIS_EUTOPIA@warwick.ac.uk.

Organizers: Nicolai Gellwitzki (Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick) and Anne-Marie Houde (Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick)