Reflections from #TheTimeIsNow22

From 4-8 July, the PSA Early Career Network hosted and attended our annual conference for PhDs, postgraduate students, and early career researchers (ECRs) across the discipline. This year’s conference The Time is Now, held online, brought together a diverse set of presentations over 12 panels, each video presentation exploring a different topic. Our programme was jam packed with exciting events and our online format ensured that we could offer all of this to an international audience for free.

We saw ECRs, postgraduates, and PhDs present on topics as wide-ranging as space travel, online activism, anti-fracking policy, and drag artistry! Our presenters made the conference a platform for some of the most cutting edge, current research going on within the discipline.

The ECN is all about coming together, sharing our research, and supporting each other generously as we did all throughout the week of the conference.

Highlights from the Conference Week

The week began with a one-day symposium, The State of Things, which interrogated the ways both the form and content of our scholarship can affect, push, and pull. At a virtual roundtable, Dr Aylwyn Walsh, Silvia Olvera-Hernandez, and Dr Juan Mario Díaz shared their reflections on conducting participatory research in countries across Latin America. As a complement, we were also pleased to host a fantastic presenters’ panel exploring the  contestation of epistemic and methodological boundaries.

From Wednesday to Thursday, we also enjoyed some further brilliant and useful sessions: 

• Workshop: Writing Your First Research Grant Application with Dr Natalie Papanastasiou

• Keynote ”Brexitland”, delivered by Professor Maria Sobolewska

On the final day of the conference, we put on our Career Development Day and were excited to offer a range of free workshops and sessions tailored specifically to ECRs. Highlights of the day included:

• Early Career Panel exploring academic life as PhDs and ECRs with former ECN Presidents Dr James Weinberg and Dr Heather Alberro and our current ECN President Taylor Borowetz, chaired by Caroline Leicht

• Workshop: Knowledge Exchange and Impact 101 with our EDI Officer Katie Pruszysnki

• Workshop: Introduction to Media Engagement with our Communications Officer Caroline Leicht

• Workshop: Abstract Writing - Tips and Tricks with Dr Manjeet Ramgotra

• Workshop: Stakeholder Mapping and Initiating Contact with Katie Pruszynski

• Keynote “Navigating a Career as an ECR: Things I Wish I'd Known”, delivered by Dr Sam Power

Celebrating our Paper Presenters

Finally, we were thrilled to be able to continue the tradition of awarding prizes for papers at the conference. Panel chairs commented on the high calibre of presentations this year and we wish we could have awarded prizes to absolutely everyone who presented. 

Congratulations again to our winners:

• Best Methodological Contribution: Kelli Kennedy (University of York) - who wins a book of their choice from Bristol University Press. 

• Best Paper in International Relations: Sam Parry (Cardiff University) - who wins a book of their choice from Polity. 

• Best Paper in Political Science: Sarah Ledoux (University of Manchester) - who wins a book of their choice from Harvard University Press.

• Best First Year Paper: Agni Poullikka (City University) - who wins a 1-2-1 online mentoring session with a PSA trustee.

• Best Overall Paper: Ploykamol Suwantawit (University of Liverpool) - who wins a physical copy of Feminist Democratic Representation by Karen Celis and Sarah Childs.

• Most Effective Use of Video: Laura Serra (Royal Holloway, University of London) - who wins a 1-2-1 online mentoring session with a PSA trustee.

• Outstanding Relevance to Current Events: Sarah Elmammeri (University of Liverpool) - who wins a 1-2-1 online mentoring session with a PSA trustee.

• International Contribution Award: Marina Slhessarenko Fraife Barreto (University of São Paulo) - who wins a 1-2-1 online mentoring session with a PSA trustee.

• Best Overall Contribution: Leah Rachel Rea (Transitional Justice Institute, Ulster University) - who wins a book of their choice from Harvard University Press. 

Winning prizes at the PSA ECN conference is a great way to keep building your portfolio and CV - and to enjoy a great prize. We hope you’ll be hanging your certificates up somewhere for everybody to see!

It was so exciting to meet so many people at the symposium, various keynote addresses, panels, and workshops. And we really hope that everybody attending made some new connections and learned something new along the way too.

We hope that everybody had a fantastic time - we certainly did. Thank you, all, for contributing to this generative space and dedicating your time and energy to The Time is Now!

A word of thanks from the PSA ECN Committee

This conference could not have happened without the support and input of the staff at the Political Studies Association, our generous chairs, panellists, keynote speakers, workshop leaders, and all of our attendees. The ECN Committee would like to extend our sincere thanks in no particular order to: Joan Fisher, Adam Brown, Eleni Hagisoteri, April Stockings, Dr Manjeet Ramgotra, and everybody else at the PSA, Dr Stefanie Reher, Dr Emmy Eklundh, Dr Emily Harmer, Dr Kate Dommett, Dr Murray Leith, Dr Ashley Dodsworth, Dr Eva Heims, Dr Dafydd Townley, Dr Liam McCarthy, Dr Natalie Jester, Dr James Weinberg, Dr Heather Alberro, Dr Sam Power, Professor Rob Ford, Professor Maria Sobolewska, Dr Aylwyn Walsh, Silvia Olvera-Hernandez, Dr Juan Mario Díaz, Dr Natalie Papanastasiou, Professor Sarah Childs, Professor Karen Celis, Harvard University Press, Bristol University Press, Oxford University Press, Polity, and, of course, all conference presenters and attendees!

If you're not already a member of the PSA ECN, you can join the PSA for just £20 a year with a shed load of benefits and opportunities to keep engaging with us and each other.