Prizes awarded at the ECN Online Conference, July 2024
Outstanding paper:
- Victor Y. Wu and Yusaku Horiuchi, ‘The Supreme Court’s Partisan Composition Affects How Americans Evaluate Nominees’
- Lilly Barker, ‘The “Prevent Duty” and Post-16 Education’
- William Favell, ‘Trust Resilience in Conflict Zones: Investigating the Impact of Violent Extremism on Social Trust in Northern Ghana’
Outstanding contribution:
- Robert Swetlic
- Abhishek Choube
Due to the generosity of Manchester, Bristol, and Princeton University Presses, these winners received books which will help them with their studies.
We arranged the following eleven pre-recorded panels:
1. Autocratic Regimes
Chaired by Professor Barbara Piotrowska
Niranjan Nampoothiri, ‘Protest Event Analysis: Grievances, Triggers and Strategies in Authoritarian and Hybrid Regimes’
André Leite Araujo, ‘Autocratisation without coups: evidence from Latin America’
Krishna Satish, ‘Football and Nation Branding: Exploring Saudi Arabia’s Digital Strategy for its Global Country Recognition’
2. Political Behaviour and Elections
Chaired by Dr Zack Grant
Gal Bitton, ‘The Premium of Familiarity: Experimental Evidence on Financial Interactions Between Foreigners’
Victor Y. Wu and Yusaku Horiuchi, ‘The Supreme Court’s Partisan Composition Affects How Americans Evaluate Nominees’
Yuichi Igarashi, ‘The Effect of Election on Elite Polarization: Evidence from the U.S. House of Representatives’
Abusalah Sakender, ‘The Role of Big Power in the 2024 National Election of Bangladesh: Who Won? Why?’
3. British Politics
Chaired by Dr David Jeffery
Robert Swetlic, ‘Exploring Regional Representation in the Upper Chamber Through Territorial Designations of Peerages’
Zeena Mistry, ‘The Legacy of Margaret Thatcher and British Indian Identity: A Complicated Relationship’
Thomas Lockwood, ‘“Brexiting” Representative Democracy? Insights & Tensions from the UK’s 2017–19 Parliament’
4. Environmental and Climate Politics
Chaired by Dr Heather Alberro
Abhinav Bajpai, ‘Eco Warriors or Eco Terrorists? Exploring the juxtaposition between Eco-Terrorism and Environmental Activism across the Western and South Asian countries’
Meredith Warren, ‘Constructing climate change litigation: how legal storytelling shapes our political imagination’
Victor Y. Wu, ‘Increasing stated climate mitigation behaviors without increasing belief in climate change’
5. Far Right and Populism
Chaired by Dr Vladimir Bortun
Yashwant Zagade, ‘Bharatiya Janata Party: Consolidation of OBCs in Maharashtra’
Deepak Kaswan, ‘Unveiling Syama Prasad Mookerjee’s Vision: A Historical Analysis of “Awake Hindusthan”
Muhammed Jahfer, ‘The Decline of Coalition Forms of Government and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism in India’
6. History
Chaired by Dr Robert Saunders
Ewan Hearns, ‘Contested historical narratives and the failure of British diplomacy in Mandate Palestine (1917–1948)’
Chandini Jaswal, ‘Memories of 1947: ordinary voices, extraordinary stories’
Ewan Hearns, ‘Historical Competing Narratives and Conflict Resolution: A case study of Mandate Palestine’
7. Intersectionality and Identity
Chaired by Dr Lydia Ayame Hiraide
Lilly Barker, ‘The “Prevent Duty” and Post-16 Education’
Leah Rachel Rea, ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before: Analysing the implementation of the Identity and Language (Northern Ireland) Act 2022’
Chrysi Koundouraki, ‘Exploring National Identity: A Case Study of Greek Migration in Scotland’
Gabriel G. Bello and Roi Perez-Boquete, ‘National identity and party politics in Galicia’
Maria Khan, ‘Pashtun Women Choices in the Institution of Marriage A Case Study of District Bannu KP’
8. Law and Social Justice
Chaired by Professor Thomas Prosser
Amaan Ullah Siddiqui, ‘Bringing Citizen and Government Closer: A Study of Direct Bank Transfers’
Ioana Cerasella Chis, ‘Contesting The Service Model of ‘Care’ from a Disability Politics Perspective’
Swarati Sabhapandit, ‘Fundamental Rights of the Indian Constitution: Locating Judicial Autonomy in India (2014–2022)’
Scott Downham, ‘Attitudes to Public Sector Data Use’
Shambhavi Mani, ‘Evaluation of National Rural Health Mission and its impact on Maternal Mortality Rate: An analysis of its implementation in the state of Madhya Pradesh’
Abhishek Choube, ‘What is Humane in Human rights?’
9. Security
Chaired by Professor Rob Dover
Vaibhav Verma, ‘India as a Maritime Security Provider to the Islands of WIOR’
Mansi Srivastava, ‘China’s Cyber Espionage and National Security: India’s Concern and Response’
Ashutosh Bajpai, ‘NATO’s eastward expansion: a threat to nuclear proliferation and nuclear war’
William Favell, ‘Trust Resilience in Conflict Zones: Investigating the Impact of Violent Extremism on Social Trust in Northern Ghana’
10. Social Media
Chaired by Dr Liam McLoughlin
Nicky Armstrong, ‘Visual communication and the #MeToo effect’
Sanjana K. Sitaraman, ‘Hindutva Memes: The Online Right-wing ecosystem in India’
Ploykamol Suwantawit, ‘Fandom in action: The mobilisation of Thai youth in the 2020-2021 anti-government protests’
Anna Nordstrom, ‘References to violence in Facebook content: the case of Leave.EU’
Leila Adamzad, ‘Social media and propaganda in Iran’
11. Turkey
Chaired by Dr Begum Zorlu
Daniel Schulte, ‘Rallying around the Mosque or Flag: The Effects of Morality and Security Agenda-setting in Turkey’
Pelin Aliyev, ‘The Instrumentalization of Food in Turkish Foreign Policy’
One of the presenters, Thomas Lockwood, very kindly volunteered to provide feedback on the conference. These are his thoughts.
The PSA’s Early Career Network Conference – The View from a Participant
Thomas Lockwood (York St John University)
The Political Studies Association (PSA) held their annual Early Career Network (ECN) conference, virtually, between 15 and 19 July 2024. This was my second PSA conference of the year, and first time presenting, after attending the 74th PSA conference in Glasgow in March. Whereas I used the in-person event in Glasgow as a unique and insightful opportunity to branch out and meet other academics from across the world, and ascertain a feel for conference life, the PSA’s ECN conference was one I felt ready to present at.
I undertake my PhD in Politics at York St John University, which has a very small research community compared to other institutions, not least in Politics, where I make up one-third of enrolled postgraduates. This means that I rarely have the opportunity to share my research and experiences with others in a similar boat, and likewise, to learn from others in familiar positions. In April, Matthew Hepplewhite, the ECN President, whom I met in Glasgow, reached out to me with information about the ECN conference and suggested I consider presenting. Albeit a little nervous at the prospect, I knew it was the right time to get some of my research, and name, out there; and what better way to start than by doing so with a worldwide community of like-minded early career researchers and panels of supportive academics?
The global nature of the conference was brilliantly enabled by it being hosted virtually, which allowed a great range of participants to contribute their research presentations and provide feedback on others’. The other benefit of an online conference, for postgraduates in situations like mine, was of course the little-to-no cost to the participant of attending. No expensive accommodation, or rip-off train fares, just a functioning computer and internet access required. Removing these barriers to attend was warmly welcomed by myself and others I talked to at the conference, although we acknowledged nothing quite beats an in-person get together to make the most of meeting new people! I did not need to take any further Annual Leave from my job, with the conference panels accessible in an asynchronous format by being hosted on a dedicated platform, that is to say, presentations could be viewed and engaged with at whatever time of day best suited the attendee.
Fortunately, I already had a rough outline of the abstract I would submit for a conference paper presentation ahead of being reached out to by Matthew, so ran with this and got a presentation together. After debating and sprucing up the title, I settled on presenting a paper entitled ‘Brexiting’ Representative Democracy? Insights & Tensions from the UK’s 2017–2019 Parliament. I have had experiences of presenting original research before, for instance at internal university symposiums and similar research showcases, but not to an academic audience drawn from my discipline. Recording pre-panel came with the aforementioned benefits, for example presenting in my own time and at low cost, but also proved challenging, as I grappled with how best to present to a blank screen with just my own PowerPoint on it. Not being able to sense audience vibes or engage real-time with audience questions left a lot of guesswork which I tried to pre-empt and overcome, whilst being mindful of the very real challenge all academics can relate to: keeping to time! The eventual presentation I submitted was well-received by those who left me feedback, which felt rewarding, though clearly the presentation would have been more robust had more of my 15 minutes of presenting focused on the “so-what” implications of my research, which was admittedly compromised by me spending too much time attempting to illuminate broad implications, but not clearly emphasising the new insight on offer. Of course, the paper itself spends more time on the “so what” question, although it has been greatly improved by the experience of presenting and receiving honest, supportive feedback – another benefit of attending.
Away from the panels, the live events/workshops were also incredibly useful opportunities to learn some ECN essentials, such as applying for grants, and the keynote especially provided a unique opportunity to hear from one of the leading academics in our subject area. I wish to thank the committee and organisers of the Conference week, as it was brilliant to watch and engage with such a great variety of early career researcher presentations. I have come away with enhanced skills in presenting virtually, and importantly, as I’m sure other ECN’s will concur, with a renewed sense of reassurance in my own work and abilities.
Looking forward to next time!