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Join us in Birmingham to Explore 'What Next?' in 2025
The PSA is delighted to announce that our 75th Annual Conference will be convened by the University of Birmingham and Aston University and held between 14-16 April 2025.
With sponsorship from our lead partners SAGE Publishing, this academic conference will ask ‘What Next?’
The world has faced a series of ongoing economic, environmental, health and (geo)political crises over the past two decades. In 2025, the year after the ‘year of elections’, we will know the latest electoral and ideological responses to such crises, and whether any new ones have been provoked. It is in this context that we ask, ‘What Next?’ (with whichever intonation you prefer).
Birmingham will provide an ideal venue for such discussions: the UK’s second city is “a true city of the future: endlessly becoming, never arriving” (C.D. Rose). One of the youngest and most diverse cities in Europe, Birmingham has retransformed itself over the past thirty years with extensive redevelopment and regeneration of the city centre and beyond. It has also found itself at the sharp end of austerity and budget cuts with the city experiencing a series of crises of its own. Birmingham is thus once again asking itself ‘what next?’ and is responding, in line with its motto of ‘Forward,’ with its usual stoic determination.
The convening team will be led by Dr May Chu and Dr Stephen Holden Bates at the University of Birmingham and Dr Parveen Akhtar and Dr Patricia Correa at Aston University. Head of Department of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Birmingham and PSA Trustee, Professor Stefan Wolff said: “We look forward to welcoming you here to participate in a dynamic and thought-provoking conference in the heart of our brilliant city.”
The Chair of the PSA, Dr Rose Gann, added: “On behalf of the PSA, I warmly thank the Birmingham and Aston teams for convening this flagship conference at the heart of the city.”
The PSA will keep you up to date with developments including the call for papers in due course as well as details of other events for undergraduates and the public to take part in.
Please note that PSA25 will be an entirely in-person conference.
For general conference enquiries, please contact the PSA Team via conference@psa.ac.uk. For enquiries about sponsorship opportunities for PSA confernces, please contact events@psa.ac.uk.