Author: Dr. Aruni Samarakoon
This blog aims to share my perspective, as a member of the Early Career Network (ECN), on my experience at the Political Studies Association general conference 2026, and to explore its connection to the future of Political Studies. While grounded in my individual reflections, this piece also engages with broader ECN perspectives, bringing them into a more collective conversation around key questions, why, what, and how the future of Political Studies can be reshaped. In doing so, the blog moves beyond a simple description of the event and instead critically engages with expectations of the discipline, examining the role of the ECN in rethinking and reshaping the future of Political Studies.
The primary query to be addressed here is what ECN is within the Political Studies Association (PSA). It is a collective form of representing the interests of postgraduate students and early career researchers in the PSA. These interests consist of exploring political knowledge, organising it into materials through publications, and assisting with networking to connect knowledge-based degrees to the labour market. Therefore, I define the ECN as a phase of exploring and establishing academic and research engagement within the subject.
In that case, regardless of age, colour, nationality, class, or gender, if a person holds the passion and desire to be engaged in academic and research work, the ECN is an ideal space for that. It is worth describing the term “engagement,” as the ECN can be understood as a paradigm subject to constant change, from doctoral research to post-doctoral stages, and towards establishing oneself in academia. This process requires not only professional mentoring, but also inspiration, support, and a collective dimension rather than a purely individual one.
In that context, what role can the PSA play in shaping the ECN?
Normatively, PSA-ECN is one of the collective groups, quantitatively large, sharing interests in career, research, and professional development, while guiding novice scholars to engage with political science. By looking at contemporary politics, the need for novice knowledge, new perspectives, and fresh scholars becomes essential to understand the ground realities of politics, organise them into knowledge, and bring them into institutionalisation.
From a feminist political perspective, novice scholars can help bridge the gap between the normative and reality by bringing in narratives of everyday life through which politics determines its nature. In that way, the PSA and ECN are strongly bonded to reinforce each other in the journey of exploring politics for a peaceful and democratic world.
Then, how does PSA-ECN function to achieve this?
However, the presence of novice scholars in political science academia has been challenged, as discussed in the PSA-ECN session on Academic Job Market Trends in Politics and International Relations. The causal relationship between structural adjustments and human employment in the UK contemporary higher education sector has been highlighted through quantitative data, particularly focusing on the post-pandemic context, the doubling of labour due to redundancies, and retrenchment in hiring.
Although the report has yet to map the anxiety of livelihood insecurity, the gender–race ratio in the division of labour within the structurally adjusted higher education sector, and the empirical narratives, it serves as a surface-level awareness-raising for the PSA–ECN and the wider higher education sector. It helps to identify the existing situation and begin to map a way forward, which is necessary for the ECN to engage in the sector with greater confidence and less anxiety.
The session of meeting with editors is another event that PSA-ECN has been carrying out to enhance the subject engagement of novice scholars. As discussed, particularly in today’s publishing world, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is moving into a dominant role, regulating data and, in some cases, assigning human creativity and innovation to machine learning system. This has led to extensive critical discussion on academic integrity.
The emergence of AI as an industry, its integration into publication processes, and the challenges it introduces, such as integrity, accuracy, and the pressure to publish research work, were all examined. The discussion also went beyond the competitive nature of publishing, focusing instead on knowledge establishment and scholarly contribution.
Then the most popular session is mentoring. Mentoring is not a space or activity of hierarchical top teachers delivering a preaching system or commands to novice participants; rather, it is a space where novice and experienced teachers meet and greet, and engage in two-way communication in relation to the “do and don’t” list for career development. Having a round table symbolises this concept.
Is ECN not fun at all?
The answer is NO, it is fun, as the social event has been organised with a selection of soft drinks, where participants could enjoy a nice glass of wine or a hot chocolate cup full of marshmallows, along with snacks and conversations about everyday life. After attending that session, I realised that, at the end of the day, ECN is simply a community of normal human beings who go through life like others: needing space to laugh, share views, and avoid loneliness.
Because the journey from doctoral to post-doctoral stages, and in some cases at early career stages, can be quite isolating, it requires some love, care, and laughter along the way.
When I was at the event, I met colleagues from Canada and the USA, and we talked about Anne of Green Gables. Imagine three political scientists still holding onto the nostalgia of their younger years, remembering Anne, a woman, full of mystery, passionate about nature, and deeply affectionate and caring
Concluding this blog, I want to emphasise that PSA-ECN is a necessary collective group that supports engagement in Political Studies to sustain democracy, promote peaceful order, and serve as a light in dark and uncertain periods, helping to maintain faith in political science and humanity.
So, what are you PSA-ECN waiting for?
Special thanks to Michelle Doyle, Joan Fisher, Claire Davis, Angeliki Martinou, Michael Bolt, and Sebastian Ziegler, and to my dearest friend, April Stockings.
