World Congress - Virtual 2021

Opening Ceremony

The Opening Ceremony of the 26th IPSA World Congress of Political Science began with the welcoming speech of IPSA Executive Director and master of ceremony, Kim Fontaine-Skronski, who welcomed Congress delegates, Program Co-Chairs, the Local Organizing Committee, partners, and exhibitors. Dr. Fontaine-Skronski announced that 2,854 delegates from all over the world are participating in the 26th edition of the World Congress, making it the second largest in attendance in IPSA’s history.

She pointed out that the virtual format created opportunities to launch a second call for proposals that allowed the participation of hundreds of new delegates who would not have been able to travel to Lisbon, but were able to attend in a virtual mode, to send an international call for volunteers welcoming 84 of them, and finally introduce an Observer registration category that includes a free one-day pass for IPSA members that do not have a role in the program.

Dr. Fontaine-Skronski then introduced IPSA President, Marianne Kneuer, who thanked the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) and its Co-Chairs Carlos Jalali and Madalena Meyer Resende for their commitment and excellent work:

“They have overcome the multiple challenges that led us on this exciting Congress program that achieves to continue our global mission, which is to present opportunities for academic exchange and to connect and build networks across continents.”

New Nationalisms in an Open World is the official Congress theme developed by the Program Co-Chairs, Bertrand Badie and Hasret Dikici Bilgin. This central and complex theme is more relevant than ever as domestic and global political developments have increased. The COVID-19 pandemic strengthened nationalist policy. However, the pandemic also revealed the power of international cooperation, and this complexity allows us to develop, discuss publicly and draw a path to solve nationalism and its global implications.

Prof. Dr. Kneuer also thanked and recognized all the hard work made by the Program Co-Chairs, the  Research Committees and Session Chairs, and the Secretariat staff in Montreal under the leadership of Kim Fontaine-Skronski.

In conclusion, the IPSA President invited IPSA delegates to the next World Congress that will be held at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina in July 2023. The Congress will be organized in collaboration with the Argentine Society of Political Analysis (SAAP) and will have a strong presence from the political science communities of the Americas.

Prof. Dr. Kneuer then proceeded to honour Prof. Guy Lachapelle. As IPSA’s longest-serving Secretary-General (2000-2020), Prof. Lachapelle’s name is linked to the most impressive period of growth in the history of IPSA. Under his leadership, the Association established its permanent Secretariat in Montreal in 2006, its membership more than doubled, and IPSA saw all-time highs in World Congress participation among many other accomplishments. The IPSA family is grateful for his long-standing commitment to the organization’s growth and development.

Prof. Lachapelle talked about his journey with IPSA that started in 1995 when he was elected the President of the Quebec Political Science Association and brought the 2000 IPSA World Congress, which he described as “the Olympics of Political Science,” to Quebec City, Canada. “My only goal was to serve you, help national associations to grow, and find a place for IPSA to pursue a fruitful dialogue with colleagues from all over the world.

In his speech, Program Co-Chair Bertrand Badie discussed the Congress theme and elaborated his views on the history of nationalism. According to him, in contrast to the previous century, nationalism doesn’t rhyme anymore with emancipation or a practice of liberty. The new nationalism is different, and it’s not targeting emancipation but choosing preservation instead. Professor Badie encouraged the audience to analyze this new concept because of its impact in all Political Science fields.

After Prof. Badie’s presentation , the LOC Co-Chairs, Prof. Madalena Meyer Resende and Dr. Carlos Jalali were invited to participate in the ceremony. Dr. Jalali talked about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the organization of the Congress and how the LOC Committee was disappointed by not being able to hold it in Lisbon, where it could have been “a historical event.” On the other hand, Prof.  Resende reassured that, even if this edition is being held in a virtual format, the Congress shows the diversity and vitality of the Political Science community worldwide.

The Opening Ceremony also featured a Keynote Address by the Portuguese Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Augusto Santos Silva. In his address, Minister Silva summarized his views regarding new nationalisms under five main points:

1. Political scientists need to study and know more about nations and nationalism to understand better and compare different historical events such as revolutions in Europe in the 19th century. There is a close relationship between nationalism, revolutions and nation-building;
2. Every process of nation-building is specific. For instance, after their independence, Portugal’s colonies Angola and Mozambique chose to keep the colonial language as an instrument for their nation-building process;
3. Nations are imaginary communities, and the process of nation-building is a never-ending reality. This applies to even profoundly consolidated nations such as the USA, Brazil and Chile;
4. Nation is not a concept belonging to the past but relevant to our present;
5. To extend our understanding of new nationalism, political scientists need to diversify our approach and have a cosmopolitan approach. The current nationalist approach denies openness, diversity and multiculturalism. If we better understand nationalism, we will perhaps be stronger in fighting these challenges.
    

Mattei Dogan Award Lecture

The Prize of the Foundation Mattei Dogan awarded by the International Political Science Association for High Achievement in Political Science is to honour scholars of high international reputation in recognition of their contribution to the advancement of political science, with a particular focus on recognizing outstanding scholarship on comparative studies of political elites.

Chaired by Executive Committee (EC) member Pablo Oñate, this award session gathered two leading scholars.

The 2018 Prize of the Foundation Mattei Dogan awarded by the International Political Science Association for High Achievement in Political Science recipient, James Scott, who postponed his award lecture to the 2021 IPSA World Congress, discussed human interventions on rivers and their implications. His presentation, titled “In Praise of Floods,” indicated that rivers are actually living organisms: They are born, move, merge or die. However, exploiting them by building big dams, changing their courses or depleting them for irrigation affects the nature and creatures that depend on them. As Prof. Scott puts it, the result is usually a disaster.  

Maurizio Ferrera, the recipient of the 2021 Prize of the Foundation Mattei Dogan awarded by the International Political Science Association for High Achievement in Political Science recipient, also gave a lecture, titled “The EU as an Experimental Polity-builder - Lessons from the Crisis Decade and Post-pandemic Prospects.” In his lecture, Prof. Ferrera focused on the EU and its ability to deal with the current and future crisis including Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, border controls, the EU enlargement in the Balkans etc.

Special Session: Research Funding Café

“Café events” have been part of the IPSA World Congress program that provides specific training, especially to young scholars and students. Organized by IPSA EC member Umut Korkut, the Research Funding Café session discussed and identified funding opportunities for research projects in Political Science.

Prof. Korkut launched the session by describing his academic career, interests, and further research in relation to Political Science. He is currently a professor of International Politics at Glasgow School and has expertise in Hungarian and Turkish politics, but enlarged his academic interests into political discourses, European politics, and grants applications.

The Café was held on a Q&A basis to best answer the questions of participants wishing to apply for future grants. Prof. Korkut discussed the transatlantic and European Union grants. The European Research Council (ERC) grant and the Marie Curie grant were the most highlighted ones during his talk. He contrasted them in terms of leadership learning where the ERC grant expected you to have a lead role, in opposition to the Marie Curie grant that provides you with the tools to achieve several academic works preparing you for post-graduate research.

The key points that Prof. Korkut insisted on were how English grammar has to be perfect when filling out any application form.. Grant’s agencies want to see that you are willing to take risks even if you may fail. “Be brave” and “don’t be intimidated by research.”

Special Session: Diversity and Inclusion in the Discipline: Roundtable on Research Agendas and Approaches

Chaired by IPSA Vice President Prof. Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Executive Committee member Umut Korkut, this roundtable gathered prominent scholars worldwide: Dr. Kiera Ladner Canada, Prof. Angelia Wilson (UK), Prof. Christopher Isike (South Africa) and Dr. Enzo Lenine (Brazil)

Prof. Abu-Laban introduced the session and addressed themes of gender and diversity in the discipline. Indeed, three years ago, the IPSA changed its constitution and elaborated a major action plan: the inclusion of gender and diversity topics in the 2021 World Congress.

Prof. Ladner from Manitoba University was the first to speak at the roundtable and explored diverse themes including indigenous studies, women’s governance and conscientious building.

Prof. Wilson from the University of Manchester echoed the previous speech and approached the discipline by observing how her colleagues behaved with regard to diversity and inclusion. The first point she made was about power, and how it defines knowledge. Secondly, she pointed out how difficult it is to choose a specific subject in the discipline. Finally, she observed that women are increasingly more included in the discipline.

IPSA Vice President Prof. Isike emphasized the need to have more diverse subjects in Political Science. According to him, diversity research can’t be divided from racial research.

Finally, Dr. Lenine presented a statistical approach to diversity and inclusion in the discipline. He hierarchized knowledge, methodologies, number of publications and specialized his research in the Latin American area. He pointed out that research papers written by men are more published than the ones written by women.

Contributing editor: Angelina Parmentier 

Plenary Session: New Nationalism in a Global Perspective

Liah Greenfeld and Adam Hanieh kicked off the first Plenary Session of the 2021 IPSA World Congress of Political Science. The Plenary, titled New Nationalism in a Global Perspective, was chaired by the Program Co-Chair Hasret Dikici Bilgin.

Prof. Greenfeld’s Plenary lecture, “Globalization of Nationalism”, presented the nature of nationalism: national consciousness, national identity, and the organization of communities as nations. Her presentation also analyzed the reasons for the continued appeal of nationalism in the context of an increasingly open world, attributing this appeal to the dignity with which nationalism endows personal identities of common people.

Through a historical perspective of social transformations in France, the United States, China, and the UK, Prof. Greenfeld confirmed the effective power of nationalism in modern politics. Her analysis of nationalism was established under several claims. She emphasized the beginning of the “nation” in the 16th century when societies changed their status.

Prof. Greenfeld specifies that dignity requirements appeared and transformed the nature of consciousness in society. People became members of the same community, sharing a similar identity: “Individualist civic consciousness became collectivist civic consciousness.” Thus, the definition of nation is intrinsically linked to the notion of democracy.

Furthermore, Prof. Greenfeld introduced nationalism as a social progress and consciousness trigger. In modern times, globalization is considered to be the opposite of nationalism. However, it’s a product: “The world starts to be unified by sharing cultural and national consciousness,” and the world is ‘naturally divided.’ Nationalism, therefore, brought us equality, inclusion, personal dignity and revealed itself as a “brick of the word wall.”

Adam Hanieh’s continued with his Plenary Lecture titled “Migration, Methodological Nationalism, and the Global Political Economy: Thinking Across Borders”. He discussed the key theoretical approaches to migration in Political Science. He made the case for renewing and developing a global political economy perspective that is grounded in a critique of methodological nationalism. Prof. Hanieh divided his presentation in three main themes: 1) How migration is understood through the economy; 2) How migration challenges conception of social classes; 3) What this might reveal about the border and state management.

Indeed, the connection between capitalism and migrant labour is not new and was shaped by the concept of the worker class. This last notion changes our view about borders, increasing exaggerated fears. In fact: “without borders, the category of migrants will not exist. We will only see mobility”. Migrants are more than ever seen as a “passive object of humanitarian aid and support” or as a “simple result” of historical events and not as a “vital part” of the working class. Thus, migration analysis must be a part of economic and social research.

Award Session: Juan Linz Prize Award Lecture 

Chaired by IPSA Vice President Yuko Kasuya, the Juan Linz Prize Award Lecture session gathered the 2018 and 2021 Juan Linz Prize Recipients: Adam Przeworski and Thomas Risse.

Prof. Przeworski’s lecture, “the 2020 US Election and the Study of Comparative Politics”, explored the US 2020 election and its impact. The lecture responded to questions including: Are the US conditions so exceptional that we can just ignore this event, or does it indicate that lessons from history are a poor guide to recent developments across several countries, most importantly the phenomenon of “democratic backsliding”?

Prof. Risse’s award lecture, “New Nationalisms, Liberal Orders, and the Challenges for Political Science”, discussed the challenges to liberal orders, both domestic and international, and reviews various explanations as well as their weaknesses. It also suggested ways to overcome the fragmentation in Political Science, particularly in comparative politics and international relations.

Special Session “IPSAMOOC: New Digital Scenarios for Global PS Education”

Chaired by Mauro Calise and IPSA Executive Director Kim Fontaine-Skronski, this roundtable focused on the IPSAMOOC project and its evolution. The participants included Fortunato Musella, Valentina Reda, Ana Figueroa, Max Steuer and Andressa Liegi Vieira Costa.

Dr. Fontaine-Skronski detailed IPSA’s new online project IPSA Digital, a new service proposed by the RC Liaison Representative and developed by members of the Executive Committee. IPSA Digital offers IPSA’s Collective Members and Research Committees free and privileged event planning and technical consultation with a professional event planner from the IPSA Secretariat. The service also gives access to virtual meetings and webinar rooms for hosting conferences, research meetings and other activities held in a virtual format.

Next, Prof.  Musella stressed that IPSAMOOC represents a unique media for research and dissemination, and it has set the goal to create a virtual academic hub connecting academics and spreading research.

Dr. Reda presented the outputs of the IPSAMOOCs since their creation in 2017. What started as single courses have now shifted to full programs, and focus more on skills and competencies rather than critical thinking. As a result, the courses have proved to be an extraordinary success with the global MOOC audience, registering more than 70,000 enrolments from more than 150 countries.

Finally, Dr. Figueroa, Dr. Steuer and Ms. Vieira Costa shared their analysis of the partnership between IAPSS, IPSA and Federica Web Learning by collecting learner’s perspectives, creating focus groups and observing learner’s reactions.

Special Session: The Future of Political Science 

The Future of Political Science roundtable discussion gathered IPSA’s four Past Presidents: İlter Turan (2016-18), Aiji Tanaka (2014-16), Helen V. Milner (2012-14) and Lourdes Sola (2006-2009).  

The session examined the phenomenon of new nationalism as it manifests itself in the Global South. The speakers talked about the features of new nationalism; the factors behind its rise; how it is different from earlier nationalisms; whether it is different from the new nationalism in Western Europe and the United States, and whether it is uniform or varies across countries and social groups within countries; how is it related to religion and ethnicity, to populism; how it has transformed the domestic and international politics of societies.

Prof. Tanaka’s presentation explored the legitimacy of the political system and argued that it has been damaged by politicians such as Donald Trump, who not only damaged the legitimacy of American democracy but also damaged the legitimacy of the country’s electoral system. Prof. Tanaka emphasized that the significance of each research should be evaluated not only according to scientific rigour alone but also according to relevance to political reality.

Prof. Milner emphasized that liberal democracy stagnates around the world, and this trend applies not only to developing countries but also to stable democracies like the US. She mentioned that globalization has many positive effects such as growth, development and technological advancement but at the same time poses challenges to democracy and deepens inequality. Prof. Milner also touched on multinational companies that became even more powerful due to globalization and started challenging states.  

In her speech, Prof. Sola highlighted the current social and political problems and the role and responses of the governments, especially in the emerging market democracies. In the face of climate change, the impact of artificial intelligence on the job market, and disruptive pandemics, governments stand out important actors. She also mentioned China’s growing economic power and its pressure on emerging market democracies.

Finally, the Chair of the roundtable, Prof. Turan indicated that more and more political leaders tend not to rely on the institutions of government. He also pointed out the divide in the Political Science community emerged in certain countries such as Turkey. Certain political scientists use their academic titles and express their views publicly without any evidence to defend the government and use Political Science as a propaganda machine. Prof. Turan also highlighted that more and more politicians use Ph.D. Political Science degrees to advance their careers, but some of them face plagiarism allegations.

Award Session: Karl Deutsch Award Lecture

Chaired by IPSA Vice-President Yasmeen Abu-Laban, the recipient of the 2020 Karl Deutsch Award, Jane J. Mansbridge, gave an award lecture titled “Three Responses to the Nationalism within Your Country”.

She first defined the settings for new nationalisms: the increasing need for free-use goods (common defence, clear rivers, stable climate, etc.) that lead to the free-riders problem and finally increased government coercion. The first postulate about free-use goods came from people’s voices not being heard by the government. This triggered the growing need for regulation and coercion. Thus, the challenge will be “finding a way to make that state coercion increasingly legitimate.”

Prof. Mansbridge presented new nationalisms as a response in three themes: negotiation mindset (looking for the interest behind the positions and listening to each other), the totality of government mindset and a place-based mindset. By using an example and a well-presented methodology, Prof. Mansbridge redefined nationalism and replaced it in contemporary times.

Research Method Courses

The Research Methods Courses (RMC) has long been a tradition at the IPSA World Congress. These courses, given by renowned international instructors, offer state-of-the-art information concerning recent advances in research methods across various fields. They usually draw junior and senior scholars with interest in these fields and in recent developments that help enhance their research networks.

This year, two courses were offered. The first course, Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), was taught by Dirk Berg-Schlosser. This course provided a short introduction to the main variants of the QCA method: crisp-set QCA, multi-value QCA, and fuzzy-set QCA.

The second course, Mixed Methods, was taught by Max Bergman. The Mixed Methods Research Course explored when, how, and why to mix qualitative and quantitative methods within one research design.

Contributing editor: Angelina Parmentier

IPSA President’s Plenary Session: The Impact of COVID-19 on Democracy
At each Congress, the outgoing IPSA President organizes a Plenary session to gather prominent scholars worldwide. This tradition continued with IPSA President Marianne Kneuer. The Plenary aimed to shed light on the impact of COVID-19 on democracies in different regions of the world. For this purpose, the participants, Sheri Berman (USA), Maria Herminia Tavares de Almeida (Brazil), Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria), Annie Chikwanha (South Africa), and Julio Teehankee (Philippines), addressed the topic from their regional perspective allowing a comparative panorama. The session began with the introductory speech of Prof. Dr. Kneuer, who drew a general picture of the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on democracy. She then presented each speaker to the audience.  

In her speech, Prof. Berman focuses on the Trump Administration’s chaotic response to the COVID-19 that deepened the existing divide among US citizens. As she indicated, the US President and right-wing media portrayed the pandemic as a hoax and as another attempt to destabilize his administration. Republican Party supporters also took the pandemic less seriously and widely ignored the recommendations of the scientific community. Prof. Berman emphasized that the pandemic accelerated the decay of American democracy, and Trump used the pandemic to erode democratic rights. 

Then, Prof. Chikwanha drew a general picture of Africa in the face of the pandemic and detailed the main challenges that were intensified in the continent with the arrival of the pandemic, including the lack of health care accessibility and infrastructure. She also stressed that the state capacity, which is deficient in many countries in Africa, is an essential factor in responding to the crisis. Prof. Chikwanha also highlighted harsh military measures taken by certain regimes in Africa and mentioned that hundreds of thousands of people have been arrested for violating regulations to suppress the spread of the virus. Additionally, the African leaders used the pandemic as a pretext to limit civil and political liberties. Finally, Prof. Chikwanha pointed out China’s increasing influence on the continent by using the Sinovac vaccine.  

The next speaker, Prof. Krastev, summarized how the pandemic has affected Europe’s citizens and their views on the continent’s politics and society. Similar to the other speakers, he confirmed that the existing divide in Europe was worsened due to COVID-19. Prof. Krastev also stressed that citizens lost trust in their government and institutions. He also talked about the paradox of the nationalist parties in Europe who had to reposition themselves. While they were attacking democracy before the pandemic, they now became the defenders of freedom. According to him, these parties have realized that economic nationalism doesn’t work and, as in the case of Italy, have even started supporting the government in its fight against the pandemic.

Prof. Tavares de Almeida focused on the main issues that Latin American countries face. These structural issues predate the pandemic, including poverty and inequalities, slow growth and tight fiscal constraints, the wave of widespread protests in the 2010s and troubled democracies. Caused by institutional instability, citizens’ distrust in political institutions and the rise of populist leaders were also among the challenges that Prof. Tavares de Almeida highlighted. Finally, she pointed out that the pandemic has deepened the structural threats to democracy, but it’s not clear if populist presidents benefited from it, as they constantly confronted parliaments, courts, and political opposition, which increased dissent and polarization in Latin America.

Finally, Prof. Teehankee explored the situation in Southeast Asia by indicating that while the pandemic contributed to the decaying of democracy in the region, this problem predated the pandemic. Prof. Teehankee analyzed the health of Southeast Asian democracy and focused on the four leaders of the region in terms of their responses to the pandemic. The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, adopted a militarized approach and passed anti-terror laws. The Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen also declared strict emergency laws and unleashed a social media crackdown. Myanmar’s junta chief, Min Aung Hlaing, arrested political leaders, and the military launched a deadly crackdown on protesters. Finally, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin declared a state of emergency, suspended the parliament and postponed elections.
 

The Council elected IPSA’s new President and President-elect

The IPSA Council, the highest decision-making body of the Association, has elected Prof. Dianne Pinderhughes (United States) as the new President of IPSA, succeeding Prof. Dr. Marianne Kneuer. Prof. Pinderhughes will serve a two-year term from 2021 to 2023.

The IPSA Council has also elected Prof. Pablo Oñate (Spain) as the President-elect. Prof. Oñate will serve two years as President-elect and will become President at the 2023 IPSA World Congress in Buenos Aires.

On behalf of IPSA and the global Political Science community, we congratulate Prof. Pinderhughes and Prof. Oñate on their new positions.

Read more information here. 

Award Session: Meisel-Laponce Award Ceremony

The Meisel-Laponce Award Ceremony was chaired by the International Political Science Review (IPSR) Editors Theresa Reidy and Daniel Stockemer. Prof. Reidy presented Kim Strandberg, Staffan Himmelroos and Kimmo Grönlund, the 2020 recipients of the Meisel-Laponce Award created by the IPSR to honour the first two editors of the journal, John Meisel and Jean Laponce. The prize is awarded at every second World Congress to the best article published in IPSR in the previous four years.

Prof. Strandberg presented the 2020 award-winning article titled “Battling Polarization with Deliberation? - An Experimental Study of Opinion Extremism in Discussions among Like-minded Citizens.” He explained how people could easily connect with other people who share the same ideas and interests in today's society. The problem is that political reasoning in such like-minded groups easily becomes lopsided, hence forming a polarization of opinions. In the last years, we have seen numerous instances of the inherent danger with polarization. Finding ways to stop polarization are arguably more important than ever before. He also demonstrated how he and his colleagues designed a study in 2014 to test whether introducing deliberative norms in like-minded discussions can alleviate group polarization. They found that free discussion without rules led to group polarization in like-minded groups, whereas polarization could be avoided in groups with deliberative norms.

Sponsored Presentation: IPSR - Meet the Editors

IPSA World Congress’ new sponsored session, “Meet the Editors”, allows editors to engage in conversation with the participants, followed by a Q&A session.

The International Political Science Review (IPSR) Co-Editors Theresa Reidy and Daniel Stockemer, and Rosie Cann from SAGE Publications met the Congress delegates and answered their questions. 

The session started with the presentation of Prof. Stockemer, who gave an overview of the journal that entered its 42nd year of publication. Submissions to the IPSR journal have increased sharply in recent years. The Thomson-Reuters journal impact factor (JIF) has also improved. Finally, downloads of articles have doubled in the last few years. 

After this short presentation, a lively Q&A session started. Participants asked various questions, including the submission and review process and publication timeline.

IPSA's 26th Executive Committee

We are pleased to announce the results of the election of the 26th Executive Committee held on 13 July 2021 in virtual mode. Congratulations to the 16 newly elected members!

We would like to highlight that for the first time in history, 56 percent of the Executive Committee members are women (9 out of 16). With President, Past President and President-elect, the percentage of women leading IPSA is at 58 percent (11 out of 19). Another noteworthy first is that there is a woman President, Dr. Dianne Pinderhughes, succeeding another, Prof. Dr. Marianne Kneuer. These encouraging numbers are a clear indication that the general tendency of women being under-represented in the membership and senior levels of Political Science associations is changing.A heartfelt thank you goes to all the candidates that have not been elected. IPSA would like to reiterate its commitment to you and the Political Science communities that you represent.

Read More.

2021 Global South Award Lecture

The 2021 IPSA Global South Award session began with the introduction of Timofey Agarin, Professor at Queen’s University Belfast and Chair of the Research Committee (RC) 14, followed by the recipient Abdalhadi Alijla's lecture titled “Palestine and the Habeas Viscus: An Autoethnography of Travel, Visa Violence, and Borders”. When he was a kid, he wanted to be Yasser Arafat. Instead, he was trained as an engineer, but it did not take long for him to pursue his passion for Political Science. Being a scholar in Gaza wasn't easy. For three years, Dr. Alijla wasn't allowed to leave Gaza to study in Italy. And, as he pointed out, many Gazan scholars give up trying to study or attend academic events abroad to avoid harassment.

In his lecture, he mentioned that political scientists from the Global South face many barriers such as racism in the job market, scarcity of resources, and "post-modern exploitation" from the Global North. However, Dr. Alijla recognized the positive aspect of it by acknowledging the work of Global South researchers. That’s why he decided to integrate autobiographies into his work as transdisciplinary research. 

Including his personal experience, Dr. Alijla developed the history of the Gaza Strip. He explained that the military rule of 1969 never stopped and established consistent control over the Palestinians. Next, Dr. Alijla detailed Gaza's "state of exception" where the situation is “essentially extrajudicial” or something beyond the law. Dr. Alijla also examined the process and ritual of travelling as a quasi-citizen through various border points of entry.

Special Session: Nationalism and International (Dis)order  

This Special Session, organized in memory of Yale University Prof. Nuno P. Monteiro, addressed the challenges caused by the rise of nationalism and its impact on the international order. Chaired by Rita Faden from the Luso-American Development Foundation in Portugal, speakers focused on the rise of nationalism and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The first speaker, Maria Raquel Freire, discussed the impact of the pandemic on democracy and analyzed the BRICS countries' (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) impact on international order. Although this formation first promoted the development of the Global South, it followed the rules of capitalism and failed to meet expectations.

Next, Miguel Poiares Maduro focused on the idea of a political mismatch and the impact of the pandemic by referring to his book, Democracy in Times of Pandemic: Different Futures Imagined. Prof. Maduro indicated that the pandemic triggered economic emergencies, reinforced polarization and nationalism, and helped transnational movements to emerge.

Finally, Ricardo Reis discussed how the world has quickly changed since the pandemic. Although globalization was severely hit due to the pandemic, international trade was the first to recover.
 

Special Session: Film - Searching for Andreas: Political Leadership in Times of Crisis

Searching for Andreas: Political Leadership in Times of Crisis is an award-winning political documentary. The film premiered at the 20th Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and won two awards at the 2019 International Documentary Festival of Ierapetra: 2nd Feature Greek Award and Best Original Music.

Searching for Andreas is an independent production about the pitfalls of charismatic leadership and the limits of democratic politics during economic globalization. The documentary focuses on Andreas Papandreou, former Greek Prime Minister and the founder of the political party PASOK and explores the pitfalls of charismatic leadership and the limits of democratic politics during economic globalization.

Following the movie sessions, Prof. Harris Mylonas was present for the Q&A session alongside Dr. Maya Tudor.

“Research in Germany“: Meet the Funding Organizations

“Research in Germany” is an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It provides international researchers with information about funding and career opportunities in Germany. In this presentation, delegates had the opportunity to meet representatives from German research and funding organizations such as the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Academic Exchange Service, the German Research Foundation or the Max Planck Society.

First, Anne Knab introduced the DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service, and discussed different Ph.D. opportunities.
 
Next, Damian Grasmück, presented the Humboldt Foundation who sponsors people and not just projects and includes a diverse program starting from post-doctoral and addressing researchers from abroad and in Germany.
 
Next, Markus Stanat presented the DFG, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, offering individual research grants for doctorate-holding researchers.

Finally, Peter Haffke introduced the Max Planck Society assisting research and hosting international and national research. 
 

Introduction to QDA Miner 6.0: Doing Qualitative Analysis and Mixed Methods Research

Provalis Research is a world-leading developer of text analysis software, with ground-breaking qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods programs. Provalis Research software products are used by more than 6,000 institutions worldwide. In his presentation, the founder of Provalis Research, Normand Péladeau, provided a tour of the various features of the QDA Miner software and covered all the main steps involved in a mixed methods research project such as data importation, coding and annotation up to the analysis of the results, including co-occurrence, sequence and comparative analysis. At the session, Normand Péladeau also answered various questions from our delegates. 

Contributing editor: Angelina Parmentier

The Future of Free Speech

Program Co-Chair Bertrand Badie began the last Plenary Session of the Congress by introducing the speaker Suzanne Nossel, the Chief Executive Officer at Pen America. In her Keynote Address, Ms. Nossel focused on the significant threats to free speech and the ways to respond to them. She also talked about online and offline threats to free speech and China’s growing pressure on free speech locally and internationally.
Ms. Nossel reminded that the widespread protests in 2020 urged political changes, and the world witnessed unjustified imprisonment of writers and intellectuals. While disinformation and public surveillance put pressure on free speech, especially on journalism, the actions of oppressive governments exceed their borders and dissidents. According to her, this oppressive trend spreads and erodes transnational treaties on academic freedom.
In conclusion, Bertrand Badie touched on the fragility of free speech and talked about monocultural universalism.

Academic Freedom in a Globalized World

Chaired by newly-elected IPSA President-elect Pablo Oñate, the Special Session offered regional in-depth case studies about the Academic Freedom constraints and limitations. 
In his introduction, Prof. Oñate talked about IPSA’s 2021 Academic Freedom Report. This newly-released report, written by outgoing IPSA President Marianne Kneuer, presents the results and analysis of a survey on violations of Academic Freedom elaborated by the IPSA Committee on Academic Freedom and conducted by the IPSA Secretariat among its collective members in 2020. Forty-four national and regional Political Science association members of IPSA responded to this global survey. The report is available on the IPSA website for all IPSA members.

Next, Magdalena Musial-Karg from Adam Mickiewicz University discussed the academic freedom violations in Poland and, more specifically, the Law on Higher Education and Science implemented in 2018. The law aimed at “improving the quality of education and scientific research” but triggered controversy and protests across the country because it diminished the power of universities and limited Academic Freedom. 

Julio Teehankee from De La Salle University-Manila gave a historical perspective of the government interventions in universities in the Philippines from former President Ferdinand Marcos (1965-86) to the current President Rodrigo Duterte. Although Academic Freedom for higher education was enshrined in the Constitution of the Philippines in 1987, government interventions never stopped. For instance, in 1989, an agreement was signed between the government and the University of the Philippines to prevent state forces from entering the university. This agreement was unilaterally terminated by Rodrigo Duterte in 2020.

Finally, the Scholars at Risk Network (SAR) founder, Robert Quinn, presented the Network’s activities and the 2020 report. SAR is an international network of higher education institutions and associations whose mission is to protect threatened scholars and promote academic freedom. In collaboration with prominent institutions, the Network also created the Academic Freedom Index, which ranks countries based on their academic freedom performance.
 

Professional Development Café
The second café event of the Congress was an opportunity for students and young professionals to meet with mentors and better understand the requirements for beginning a successful career in academia and beyond.

The Editor of the International Political Science Review, Theresa Reidy, former IPSA Executive Committee member Simona Piattoni, IPSA Executive Committee member Umut Korkut, and Washington and Lee University Professor Krzysztof Jasiewicz met the Congress delegates to share their professional experiences and respond to their questions. The café session mainly focused on publishing, editing, reviewing and sourcing research funding and postdoctoral career.

Various questions were asked about building a career after doctoral or postdoctoral research. Prof. Piattoni indicated that finding a stable position right after graduation gets more challenging, and a one-year contract is most likely to be offered. Prof. Korkut also specified that jumping from one project to another would create a more attractive employability profile. Speakers also recommended publishing a research book six years after graduation.
 

International Political Science Abstracts - Meet the Editors

In this Meet-the-Editors session, the International Political Science Abstracts’ editors, Paul Godt and Stephen Sawyer met the Congress delegatse and explained the utility of the Abstracts as a research tool. The Editors also highlighted the unique new chapters on book reviews and edited book chapters. In the Q&A section, participants asked their questions about the journal and submission process.

Created in 1951, the International Political Science Abstracts is a truly global resource, providing non-evaluative abstracts of articles published in scholarly journals from every region of the world. It is an essential roadmap to literature in Political Science, political sociology, political psychology, international relations, international law, human rights, conflict studies, ethnic studies and other related fields. Since 2007, the Abstracts have been published by SAGE Publications.

The Meet-the-Editor sessions are organized by SAGE Publishing in collaboration with IPSA.

Closing Ceremony of the 2021 IPSA World Congress

The 2021 IPSA World Congress of Political Science concluded with a virtual ceremony presented by IPSA Executive Director Kim Fontaine-Skronski. On behalf of the World Congress Team, Dr. Fontaine-Skronski thanked all the delegates, attendees, exhibitors and partners for their participation and support. She then introduced IPSA Past President Marianne Kneuer.

In her Closing Ceremony address, Prof. Dr. Kneuer emphasized that the World Congress was successful in every respect: "It was successful in terms of the number of participants, and also because IPSA was able to fulfill its mission in a virtual way ​​namely to create opportunities for academic exchange, opportunities of new and inspiring encounters and opportunities for the creation of networks."

Moreover, Prof. Dr. Kneuer announced the establishment of a new award, the IPSA Guillermo O'Donnell Award for Latin-American Scholars. The award is named after Prof. Guillermo O'Donnell, IPSA's Past President and one of Latin America's most prominent political scientists.

Next, IPSA’s newly elected President, Dianne Pinderhughes, explained how Ilter Turan and Marianne Kneuer’s Presidential leadership terms have substantially institutionalized IPSA since 2016. She explained that the IPSA Constitution has been revised, and the 2018-2022 Strategic Plan reaffirmed the Association’s commitment “to promote the advancement of political science throughout the world” by identifying new goals and a strategy for that new commitment.

The identification of five missions, including 1) a Global Political Science Community, 2) Inclusivity and Diversity, 3) Academic Freedoms, 4) Robust Networks and 5) Ethics, provides for mutually reinforcing values. 

Dr. Pinderhughes also highlighted IPSA’s dazzled capacity as an organization with various projects and publications, including IPSAPortal, IPSAMOOCs, 51 Research Committees, Summer Schools, IPSR and Abstracts journals, and the IPSA Digital project. Dr. Pinderhughes reassured the delegates that she would continue to work to extend these resources. 

She indicated the importance of continuing to develop strategies for expanding membership on the African continent to further advance Prof. Dr. Kneuer and Past Vice President Christopher Isike’s existing work in these efforts. She also mentioned that the Association will focus on Latin America and Asia.

Finally, Dr. Pinderhughes explained that “issues in a new leadership era with the Presidency changing hands from a woman President Kneuer to another woman President, Pinderhughes” and she’s looking forward to working as the new president to “shape IPSA’s future”.
 

Next, the Program Co-Chair, Hasret Dikici Bilgin, provided a brief overview of the World Congress Program. She discussed new nationalisms that became oppressive and created obstruction and excluded various groups. Prof. Dikici Bilgin dedicated her Co-Chair work to the Turkish Academics for Peace, who were criminally charged and expelled from their universities. She also dedicated her work to the students and scholars of the Bogazici University in Istanbul who resisted the appointed President of their university: “I am in solidarity and thankful to them for their fight against new nationalisms”. 
 

The next speaker was Rodney Hero, the Chair of the IPSA Committee on Organization, Procedures and Awards (COPA), to present the following IPSA awards:

• The Francesco Kjellberg Award went to Elif Naz Kayran, Post-doctoral researcher at the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University, for her outstanding paper “Understanding Anti-Immigration Demands: Reconceptualising the Labour Market Competition Hypothesis and the Role of Institutions”.
• The Wilma Rule Award on Gender and Politics went to Nayia Kamenou, Lecturer at the Department of Social & Political Sciences at the University of Cyprus, for her paper “Feminism Hijacked: Women, Gender and Political Agency in the Golden Dawn and the National Popular Front”.
• Finally, APSA-IPSA Theodore J. Lowi First Book Award went to Simukai Chigudu, Associate Professor of African Politics at the Oxford Department of International Development. His first book is titled The Political Life of an Epidemic: Cholera, Crisis and Citizenship in Zimbabwe (Cambridge University Press, 2020).

Congratulations to the recipients!

In her Closing Ceremony remarks, Dr. Fontaine-Skronski expressed her profound gratitude to the Executive Committee (EC) members and Past President Marianne Kneuer. Their commitment allowed IPSA to progress and transform tremendously over the past three years.

Dr. Fontaine-Skronski also thanked the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) Co-Chairs, Madalena Meyer Resende and Carlos Jalali, and the other members of the Committee for their work in preparing the Congress in Lisbon, and for their collaboration and flexibility when transitioning to a virtual format.

Finally, she recognized the excellent work and leadership of the World Congress Director, Yee Fun Wong, and the other members of the IPSA Secretariat (Roksolana Bobyk, Thomas Chapdelaine, Ekaterina Kuzmenko, Eric Grève, Mathieu St-Laurent, Halûk Dag, and Fernand Thériault) for organizing the 2021 IPSA World Congress.
 

Next, the Program Co-Chairs of the 2023 IPSA World Congress of Political Science, Euiyoung Kim, IPSA EC member, and Theresa Reidy, IPSR Co-Editor, presented the theme of the upcoming World Congress: Politics in the Age of Transboundary Crises: Vulnerability and Resilience in an Uncertain World. 

In their presentations, the Program Co-Chairs explained that when they began their discussion about the 2023 Congress theme, the COVID-19 pandemic was at the forefront of their thoughts, and they saw the pandemic as an example of a global challenge. 

The Co-Chairs invited submissions from all subfields of Political Science and methodological approaches, more specifically, submissions from scholars cooperating across state borders.
 

The next IPSA World Congress of Political Science will be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2023, with Martín D’Alessandro, Chair of the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), and Oscar Ozlak serving as LOC Honorary Chair. Dr. D’Alessandro expressed his excitement to host the next World Congress in Buenos Aires to show their hospitality and to establish a new landmark in their career as political scientists and in the Political Science community. 

The LOC representative, María Laura Perera Taricco, also addressed the Congress delegates and shared a video of the Universidade Catolica de Argentina.

Finally, the closing ceremony entered into a formal part with the passing of the IPSA Congress flag symbolizing the transfer of duty and responsibilities from the current LOC, represented by the LOC Co-Chairs, Carlos Jalali and Madalena Meyer Resende, to the next one, represented by the Argentina LOC Chair, Prof. D’Alessandro.

Perspectives on New Nationalisms Generated by Race, Ethnicity and Gender in Domestic, National and International Contexts

Chaired by IPSA's newly elected President Dr. Dianne Pinderhughes, the panel presented contemporary issues associated with the rise of nationalisms, revealing the array of ways in which variables such as race, ethnicity and gender promote, generate, shape and support varieties of nationalism in comparative perspective.

In his presentation, titled The Intersection of Race and Structural Features of US Government: Enduring Differential Political Outcomes for African Americans, Dr. Minion K. C. Morrison concluded that the US Constitution was designed by a white elite to sustain its supremacy and property interests. According to him, this design yields structures that reinforce white supremacy and institutionalize the racist ideology that undermines black citizenship rights. 

Prof. Todd Shaw's presentation, titled Different Nations Within: African American & Puerto Rican Cultural Nationalism, compared African Americans and mainland Puerto Ricans and concluded that Puerto Rican and African American cultural autonomists strongly identify with their groups or their group’s conception of a homeland as well as believe that their group’s distinctive cultures, histories, and languages must be taught to children.

Prof. Sukyong Choi's presentation, titled The Integration of Racial Minorities in the U.S., explained the reasons for educational, economic and political inequality among the racial and ethnic groups in the US. by focusing on why some racial and ethnic groups succeed while other groups don't make much progress.

Timofey Agarin Elected Research Committee (RC) Liaison Representative

IPSA is pleased to announce the election of Timofey Agarin as Research Committee (RC) Liaison Representative. RC chairs elected Dr. Agarin at the Advisory Commission on Research (ACR) meeting held on 15 July 2021, in conjunction with the IPSA Virtual World Congress of Political Science. The RC Liaison sits on the Committee on Research and Training (CRT), which convenes at each IPSA Executive Committee meeting. The position holder represents the interests of the research committees within IPSA official bodies and strengthens ties between research committees and the Executive Committee.

The State of Political Science in Africa 

This special session examined the state of Political Science in Africa in terms of teaching and learning, including teaching methods and Political Science research. The key questions the panel seeked to answer included the often neglected ones on the epistemological perspectives shaping the Political Science curricula in Africa. For example, how relevant are these curricula to the continent’s political and developmental realities in a digitalizing world? Talking about digitalization, the fourth industrial revolution has also affected African politics and its development profoundly, and in ways that raise new questions about the digitalization of Political Science education in universities across the continent.

The roundtable was chaired by IPSA Past Vice President and recently elected President of the African Association of Political Science (AAPS), Christopher Isike. Following its revival in 2018, the AAPS was formally relaunched with the support of IPSA on 25 March 2021 and became the 61st collective member of IPSA the next month.

Contributing editor: Angelina Parmentier