GPSA Mourns the Loss of Ann Marie Robinson

The Georgia Political Science community mourns the loss of Ann Marie Robinson, along with her husband Jamar, who died on Sunday, November 8, 2020 while vacationing in Puerto Rico (AJC story). A GoFundMe has been set up by her family to raise the money necessary to have the couple flown home to give their children immediate resolve and closure. The couple must be retrieved by Saturday, November 14, 2020. 

Ms. Ann Marie Robinson was a wife and mother of 2 boys 14 & 15. She began teaching at Perimeter College as a part time Instructor of Political Science in 2005, the following fall she was hired in a tenure-track position. In August 2015 she was promoted to Assistant Professor, earned tenure in August 2018, and was up for promotion to Associate Professor this year. She has been serving as Assistant Chair of Social Science on Clarkston Campus since August 2019. 

Ann Marie chaired the Partners in Education Program at Decatur Campus, arranging programs for elementary and middle school students. She conducted Constitution Day Celebrations for the past several years and as faculty advisor of the Civic and Political Awareness Club led student delegations to the International Model African Union in Washington, D. C. 

She was an active member of the Board of Georgia Political Science Association. She was also involved with the NAACP and was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. 

She will be missed by all.

GPSA 2020 SoTL Call for Submissions

GPSA 2020 Teaching & Learning Consortium

Online: Nov. 11-13

Zooming from One Lecture to the Next: Political Science Pedagogy in the Age of COVID-19.

The political science classroom changed dramatically in the waning months of Winter, 2020.  Due to the outbreak and subsequent global spread of COVID-19, universities across the world, and here in Georgia, closed campus doors and moved operations fully online.  This included converting fully seated, synchronous, campus courses to online, asynchronous instruction in a matter of a week or two.  Due to this unprecedented mid-semester shift in delivery, much can be learned from our collective experiences and such information can be used to prepare for future situations that may make such changes again necessary.

We invite and encourage faculty, independent scholars, practitioners, and graduate students to submit their SoTL research on this delivery change, or any other topic in regard to political science pedagogy, for discussion and review at the 51st Annual Georgia Political Science Conference, Teaching & Learning Consortium, to be held virtually Nov. 11-13, 2020.  Papers will be accepted from all fields of Political Science, History, Criminal Justice, Psychology, Sociology and all other related disciplines. Once presented, scholars and faculty members are encouraged to submit their papers for publication consideration in our peer-edited conference proceedings of the Teaching & Learning Consortium.

This year we ask you to submit your proposal directly to the SoTL Coordinator, Joshua Meddaugh. The deadline for submission of proposals is October 4, 2020. Applicants will be notified of acceptance by October 11, 2020

2020 GPSA conference to be held online

The executive board has decided to cancel the in-person meeting and will be developing a plan to meet online. As you are aware, colleges and universities across the state have begun issuing their decisions regarding 2020-2021 budgets and many, if not all, include dramatic cuts to travel. Furthermore, we cannot predict the nature of the pandemic in November and the health and wellbeing of the GPSA community is important. I have been in contact with our liaison and the hotel has agreed to shift our 2020 contract to 2021.

The plan, as of now, is to hold the online conference Nov. 11-13 as scheduled. The number of days needed will depend on the number of panels scheduled which will be determined by the number of proposals received. The online conference will be conducted using either Zoom or Microsoft Teams (specific details will be released closer to November). The goal is to have virtual panels set up with 4-5 presenters, a chair, and a discussant. Audience participation is encouraged. The executive board will meet prior to the conference and we plan on holding a general body meeting at the end of the conference on Nov. 13 at 12:30 p.m. (which would have been our scheduled meeting time). We strongly encourage student participation and hope that the virtual format makes this more accessible for students, especially from schools that typically lack travel funds for student research. Paper, panel, and roundtable proposals will follow the guidelines outlined on the website.

Finally, awards will be provided, and framed awards will be mailed to the winners. Papers presented at this year’s conference will be eligible for submission to Questions in Politics.

Please feel free to email me with any questions, comments, concerns, and/or suggestions. We certainly hate that we will not be able to see you Savannah but hope you will join us online in November.

Sincerely,

Keith E. Lee Jr.

GPSA President