Reflections from the outgoing PSA ECN Committee members

This summer, there was a changeover on the PSA Early Career Network committee. As the new committee takes over, the outgoing members reflect on their tenures.

As many of you will already know, the elected terms of five of the current PSA Early Career Network committee members came to an end this summer. These excellent early career researchers served on the committee for two years and have done incredible work for our members and the wider discipline. Five new members have been elected to the Early Career Network committee for the next term (2023-2025) and have now officially taken over their roles. One of the current members, our Communications Officer Caroline Leicht, joined the committee last year and will serve out her elected term until the end of April 2024.

As we take over as the new committee, we wanted to take a moment to thank the outgoing committee members for their brilliant work and tireless efforts to advocate for and support early career researchers during their tenures on the ECN committee. As they step down from their positions, we asked them to reflect on their time on the committee. Read on below to find out what they told us:

Taylor Borowetz, President

I am humbled as I reflect on the team and the community that I have been so privileged to be a part of. I ended up in this role by chance, and what luck it was. I owe thanks to our members, who gave us their time and trust, and to the rest of the committee for their dedication and enthusiasm.

To write, one last time, in my official capacity: I am proud to stand by the work of this committee. They’re kind and hard-working people and brilliant, intelligent academics, and I’m confident that we did our best to represent and do right by our membership. I could not be more certain of the exceptional character of this executive, and their willingness to try again, to help, to change direction, and to stay the course.

Writing in my personal capacity: this experience has challenged and changed me. It pushed me to develop leadership skills that were, until now, uncultivated. More than that, being surrounded by this type of comradeship made me more courageous than I knew I could be. At the same time, I’ve become more aware of my own shortcomings; l look back on difficult situations with a clearer eye, imagining what I could have done better. I have learned about what it means to have a voice. I have become more aware of the functions of power and dynamics of exclusion that I might participate in. I have learned that there is nothing more important than standing up for someone else.

I am sad to leave but grateful to have taken part; nervous to let go but excited to see where the new committee goes from here. More than anything, I am confident. I have a clearer view of the challenges we face, but I have come to know and share in an incredible solidarity among early career scholars, and their drive, creativity, and clarity of commitment fuels my optimism that we can shape a more just discipline, and more just politics.

Lydia Ayame Hiraide, Secretary

Being the Secretary of the PSA Early Career Network over the past two years has been a real honour and privilege. It seems like a cliché to say it - but it’s true! I have relished this opportunity to make new friends, expand my network, and organise events which I sincerely hope have been positive, fruitful spaces for early career researchers to connect whilst developing and sharing their skills and ideas.

Both within and beyond the PSA, the early career community is crucial to the continuation and growth of political studies. I look forward to seeing the fabulous and fresh energy that the new committee will be bringing to PSA ECN and wish them nothing but the best for the next two years.

Elsa Bengtsson Meuller, Treasurer

It has been an amazing and enriching experience to be part of the PSA ECN committee, and work with the kind and supportive PSA Team, for the last two years. I am so grateful for the friendships and connections we have cultivated as a committee, both personally but also for the Early Career Network as a whole: we have been able to put on many tailored events for PhDs and ECRs, events that have been supported by generous senior & early-career scholars and professionals who have dedicated time to share their experiences and expertise - and through all of these events, we have continued to work towards providing a community for PhDs in the discipline of politics (and beyond).

I am particularly proud of how we have been able to provide most of our events without any extra costs for our membership (and more often than not, for non-members too) to contribute to a more juste academia. This is, of course, not a mission that we have fully accomplished (not to mention the culture of working for free in academia), but I hope we have been successful in showing how important it is to lift each other up - particularly since many of us cannot lean on institutional reputation or financial security. I am looking forward to continuing to be a member of the PSA and the Early Career Network - and seeing and taking part in the events and opportunities the new committee will share with us.

Katie Pruszynski, EDI Officer

Why does anyone volunteer to take on additional work or responsibilities in an age when we are all juggling huge workloads, work/life balance, caring responsibilities and the general energy you need to get through a day reminded of inequalities, climate emergencies, political violence and disease? Maybe it’s because you spot an opportunity to do make a small contribution in service of one of those things.

To be honest, that wasn’t quite what happened in my case- although I wish I could say it was. In fact it was my supervisor that pointed me in the direction of the ECN committee elections and suggested I take a good look. In the end the EDI role- a new addition to the committee- was what caught my eye. Less because I thought I had lots of answers, but rather because I thought it was high time I better understood the questions.

It’s been such an important learning experience to understand the challenges better and to try to be part of the solution. I couldn’t get nearly enough done, and there remains so much that our whole field can do to improve the equality of outcomes- not simply opportunities- for those marginalised for so long.

Being part of the ECN committee has been a privilege. I have met capable and dedicated colleagues, and I have seen early career researchers who are bringing so much energy and curiosity to our field. And I hope that I can take the things that I have learned in the last couple of years and build them into my own practice and principles as I navigate beyond my PhD.

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We are immensely grateful for the incredible work the 2021-2023 PSA Early Career Network Committee has done for the network, our members, early career researchers and the wider discipline. We wish them all the best in their future endeavors and know they will remain fierce advocates of early career researchers and equality, diversity and inclusion in our discipline and beyond.