Every year, we put together an annual report on what we’ve achieved for our members and for society to support and champion the study of politics. Given below are a few of our highlights!
Every year, we put together an annual report on what we’ve achieved for our members and for society to support and champion the study of politics. Given below are a few of our highlights!
Our Membership stands at 1821 (compared to 1847 in 2018). This included 775 standard members, 626 early career members as well as 120 student and 76 school members. Thank you for your continued membership. Our current target is to top 2000 members. Please encourage your colleagues and students to join us in 2020!
Published by SAGE since 2016, the Association owns four academic, peer-reviewed journals:
• Political Studies (2018 Impact Factor 1.624, ranked 73/176 in Political Science)
• The British Journal of Politics & International Relations (Impact Factor of 2.252 – ranking it a top 20 Journal (17/91) in the category of International Relations and 42/176 in Political Science)
• Politics (Impact Factor of 1.377 in 2018, ranked 44/91 in International Relations)
• Political Studies Review (Impact Factor of 1.185 in 2018 and ranked 103/176 in Political Science).
We are delighted that we will be working with SAGE until 2026 which helps keep the PSA on a sound financial footing. In 2019, we also published four issues of Political Insight – our brilliant full-colour magazine of topical articles aimed at making academic research accessible to practitioners, students and the general reader.
In 2019 these included:
• A public event on Brexit, young people and politics with the British Library in March
• Our 69th Annual International Conference in Nottingham from 15-17 April in partnership with convenors from Nottingham Trent University on ‘(Un)Sustainable Politics in a Changing World’. This attracted over 790 delegates from around the world and high-profile speakers
• A trustee, Dr Andy Mycock and in partnership with the PSA’s Young People’s Politics Specialist group public pre-conference event on “Is it Time to Lower the Voting Age to 16?” chaired by PSA
• An international conference on Teaching & Learning in Brighton in June
• Supporting the British Politics Group mini-conference before the APSA annual conference in August
• A conference for departmental leaders in September.
The PSA plays an important role in helping to inform the public, the media and policymakers with the research and evidence being produced by academics working in our field. In 2019 we did this through:
• Media and Social Media Engagement
We held three briefings for journalists on:
o The local government elections, in partnership with the Institute for Government, in April
o Brexit, in partnership with UK in a Changing Europe, in October
o the General Election in November.
These helped to boost our social media presence, especially on Twitter alongside our political awards ceremony, the relaunch of the PSA Blog and other general election content from our members. The account received over a million views between November and December (compared to the 400,000 views over the same period in 2018).
• Awards and Prizes
Alongside prizes awarded by our journals and some specialist groups, we awarded 15 prizes at our annual conference to mark the year’s outstanding books, PhD dissertations, teaching and career achievements. We held our annual political awards ceremony in November in partnership with SAGE and BBC Parliament and with the support of an expert jury of political journalists.
• International Links
We awarded £5500 in grants in 2019 to support members and other academics to present their research at international conferences. The PSA has also maintained its close relationship with the American Political Science Association (APSA) and the council of the International Political Science Association (IPSA).
In 2019 this has included:
• Holding a joint Research Excellence Framework (REF) working group with our colleagues at the British International Studies Association (BISA) to ensure that Research England and Higher Education Institutions are aware of our views.
• Being an active member of the Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) and the associated Campaign for Social Science to help ensure the voices of those involved in academic journal publishing was heard clearly in relation to Open Access and Plan S.
• Working with the Westminster Scrutiny Unit to arrange placements for two PSA member PhD students with the Welsh and Scottish Affairs committees.
In 2019 this has included:
• The Teaching & Learning Network was launched at the international conference on ‘Teaching Politics in the age of populism’ we held in partnership with BISA, the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) and APSA- which attracted over 140 participants from home and abroad.
• Schools
In June, we hosted a successful CPD day for over 70 teachers, in partnership with the Parliament Education Service. We also launched a new student blog competition in partnership with the Financial Times on the topic: ‘Is British Politics Broken?’. We welcomed 100 students and their guests to an award ceremony at Speakers’ House. The PSA also became an official partner of UK Parliament Week and supported the EducateGE resources hub.
• The Early Career Network (ECN)
The ECN hosted a number of events throughout the year including a series at the PSA annual conference; their own annual conference at the University of Exeter in June 2019; a talk and welcome reception for new members at Portcullis House in October; and a series of well attended one-day conferences at different locations across the UK around the themes of ‘Bridging the gap’ and ‘Demystifying and Navigating Early Career Academia’.
• Undergraduates
The 2019 Undergraduate Conference was a one-day event that took place after the PSA’s Annual Conference at Nottingham Trent University. The 60 participants from across the UK and abroad participated in 10 panel sessions around the main conference theme of ‘Politics of our Times’.
2019 was another productive year for our 60 Specialist Groups (SGs). The PSA Annual Conference in Nottingham saw over 100 panels convened by them with the Greek Politics and German Politics Specialist Groups jointly awarded the Specialist Group of the Year Prize in recognition of their successful collaboration. We welcomed three more groups on Turkish Politics, Spanish Politics and Political and Social Movements.
We also supported the Parliaments Specialist Group to attend the APSA Annual Meeting in Washington D.C. and to run ‘Holding the Executive to Account in the Twenty-First Century’ in partnership with APSA’s Legislative Studies Section.
2019 saw the continuation of the successful ‘Pushing the Boundaries’ funding competition which funded 20 innovative projects that reached out beyond the academy to engage the media; policy makers; activists; youth; and the wider public.
We held the PSA’s flagship public Specialist Group event What’s Happening..? in January 2019 at the British Academy: Brexit: Towards the Break-up of the Union? chaired by Stephen Bush (Political Editor, New Statesman).
For the full version of our report and accounts and more details on our trustees and how we are governed please take a look at the About Us pages of our website. The PSA trustees and staff team would love to hear from you if you have any queries or suggestions on what the PSA does. Please tell us more at [email protected] on what we should keep doing, start doing and stop doing!
