2023 American Political Science Association Annual Meeting

The American Political Science Association (APSA) invites proposals for the 119th APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition, August 31 – September 3, 2023, held in Los Angeles, California, to address the latest scholarship in political science. The conference theme is Rights and Responsibilities in an Age of Mis- and Disinformation.

APSA and the 2023 program co-chairs, Zoltán Búzás, University of Notre Dame, and Felicity Vabulas, Pepperdine University, look forward to your participation in panels and sessions prepared by APSA’s divisions and numerous related groups.

Find the calls for proposals for the 2023 APSA Annual Meeting!

The submission deadline is Wednesday, January 18, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. Pacific.

Theme: Rights and Responsibilities in an Age of Mis- and Disinformation

Political communication can be fraught with mis- and disinformation that can skew the political landscape and impact the attitudes and actions of political actors. Misinformation broadly refers to disseminating false, misleading, or unsubstantiated information, without intent to deceive. Disinformation goes further to deliberately mislead with biased information, manipulated facts, or propaganda. Both can include fake news, conspiracy theories, and rumors, and be spread by ordinary individuals, influencers, governments, public-relations firms, internet bots, or human-curated fake social media accounts.  

Mis- and disinformation are not new, but these phenomena are becoming increasingly prevalent and problematic across the world. Advances in communication technologies mean that they can spread faster and wider than fact-based information. Polarized publics are especially eager consumers. Further innovation is producing “deep fakes” that make the distinction between fakes and facts even harder.  

On one hand, spreading information–whether false or true–can be expressed in the terminology of rights. Efforts to address mis- and disinformation take place in the context of the internationally recognized human rights of freedom of thought and expression. Engaging in mis- and disinformation can be seen as exercising the right to freedom of thought and speech. In this vein, limiting or regulating information flows can be portrayed as overstepping or infringing upon these rights and controlling people’s actions. Governments may use tackling mis- and disinformation to justify infringing on these rights. At the extreme, critics have linked information-monitoring to the kinds of oppression we see from authoritarian governments. Read the full statement here.