Graduate Student Conference | Shifting Power in the 21st Century

Tuesday, March 6, 2018 9:00 am - 4:00 pm EST (GMT -05:00)

Graduate students from across Canada are invited to submit a proposal to present their research at the annual conference held by the University of Waterloo’s Political Science Graduate Student Association. This year’s conference will be centred on the theme Shifting Power in the 21st Century”. The conference will be held on March 6, 2018 from 9AM to 4PM at the Balsillie School of International Affairs (room 1-42) in Uptown Waterloo, ON.

We are seeking research papers that explore changing power relations, not only between states, but also different levels of government, institutions, and non-state actors in the 21st century. This theme of changing power relations is seen in the rise of China, the power of populism in the election of Donald Trump, the increasing power of cities as supranational actors, among others. We will ask: how do we understand today’s new or changing political power dynamics? A broad discussion of changing power relations and arenas will demonstrate the need for continued study of modern political issues.

Please note presenters are not required to have completed their research/paper before the conference. It is expected that presenters will be able to share a portion of their findings.

Selected presenters will be granted $25 CAD to use for travel expenses to the conference, and have the opportunity to submit their papers for publication in the Political Science Graduate Student journal, Insight & Inquiry.

The conference aims to incorporate papers that cover a wide array of topics related to this year’s theme. We encourage submissions in the areas of International Relations, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Theory, Canadian Politics, Public Policy, Political Economy, National and International Security, International Development, and Environmental Politics. The conference will be divided into panels in order to allow presenters to interact with others in their field.

Graduate and upper-year undergraduate students can submit their research for consideration by emailing a brief proposal to uwpoliticalscience2018@gmail.com. Proposals should include the title of the paper, as well as a 300-word abstract outlining the thesis or topic to be discussed, a brief discussion of the methodology used to pursue the topic, and its significance in relation to existing literature.

The deadline to submit is February 21, 2018 at 11:59PM. Selected applicants will be emailed February 26, 2018 by 4:00PM.