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

2019 Pajari Paper Call for Submissions

The GPSA Pajari Award is awarded annually to the best undergraduate paper presented by an undergraduate student as part of the Pajari Undergraduate Research Panel at the annual conference. In order to be chosen for the Pajari Undergraduate Research Panel, Professors must nominate undergraduate students for inclusion on the panel. Students may not self-nominate. Group papers are acceptable; however, faculty members may not be co-authors. Nominations should be sent by a Political Science faculty member to the GPSA Immediate Past President who chairs the Pajari Committee.

Unlike a regular conference paper proposal, consideration for the Pajari panel requires the completed paper as part of the application. A full, finished research paper is required as part of the nomination process. The paper needs to have been an undergraduate paper, though the student can be a grad student this semester, as long as the paper was done as an undergrad. The Pajari Award Committee selects the papers to be presented at the Pajari Panel Session at the annual Conference and chooses the best paper at the conference from those submitted each year to receive the award. Winners are judged by the paper itself, and the presentation of that paper. All papers must be formatted as an MS Word or PDF document file. The file must be sent via email attachment to the Immediate Past President and the Program Chair. The winner(s) will be posted on the GPSA site each year.

Deadline: Oct. 1, 2019. Please include “Pajari Proposal Submission” in the subject line. For more information, and to submit, contact Matthew L. Hipps, mhipps@daltonstate.edu.

2019 Student Poster Session Call for Submissions

The Georgia Political Science Association is now accepting proposals for a special session dedicated to student scholarship during the 2019 annual meeting. The conference will be held in the historic district in Savannah, GA, from Wednesday, Nov. 6 – Friday, Nov. 8. Work from both undergraduate and graduate students will be considered. The submission deadline is Oct. 1.

The Georgia Political Science Association annual meeting provides students the opportunity to showcase their hard work while networking with a diverse group of political scientists and public administrators from across the state. Furthermore, the conference experience can play an integral part in their professional development as it offers the opportunity build their confidence in their research and ability to communicate their ideas.

Student Poster Session

The 5th Annual Student Poster Session will showcase the work of both individual students and/or class based projects.

  • Individual Posters- These posters may describe applied or theoretical research that is completed or in the process of being completed; discuss interesting projects on which students have worked; or a report on a project or educational experiences (e.g., public outreach, volunteerism, internships). Submissions should focus on research or activities conducted within the past academic year.
  • Class Based Projects- These posters may describe class activities or simulations dealing with any area of politics and government. These presentations can focus on an individual experience, or the overall class experience. Any proposal focusing on a class based project is required to have an academic sponsor who signs off on the submission (including their title, rank and contact information).

Submission Instructions and Deadlines

The submitted poster abstracts will be selected on the basis of the clarity and the novelty of the ideas they present. Selected poster presenters will be given space to present their posters in a “Poster Presentation Session” at the beginning of the conference. The main idea of the “Poster Presentation Session” is to create a lively and intellectually challenging environment for undergraduate and graduate students to relate their ideas to a sophisticated audience and to invite discussions of their ideas during the conference.

Please send poster abstracts of 150-200 words along with a short bio of the author(s) to mhipps@daltonstate.edu by Oct. 1, 2019. Decisions regarding selected posters will be emailed to presenters by Oct. 10, 2019.

2019 Teaching and Learning Consortium Call for Submissions

One Nation Divided: Quieting the Echo Chamber!

Submission Deadline: Oct. 15

This year’s Teaching and Learning Panel will focus on teaching in an age of political divisiveness and acrimony through the principals of democracy. Close attention can be focused on encouraging and promoting one’s political opinion but tempering it with some degree of understanding for other viewpoints. Not only are our social networks turning into echo chambers, but partisan animosity is also higher than it has been in decades. How do faculty teach undergraduate students to be independent thinkers while balancing their opinions with relevant information that encourages inclusiveness and community?

To be accepted for the teaching and learning session, we ask that you submit a proposal, with title, that works the theme into your presentation. This year, we really want to have substantive sessions on the theme in question. We ask that you prepare an overview of the teaching activity, with some supporting literature, to be shared with the group, and potentially posted on-line. We have a peer-edited teaching and learning consortium/newsletter/outlet which is on the website. If you wish for your presentation to be reviewed for this, following the conference, forward a short essay focusing on the project you presented to acraig4@gsu.edu.

Submissions should include an overview of the teaching method, and a short, supporting literature review. These should be less than ten pages in length and will be due Dec. 31, 2019. Please note, you do not need this for participating in the panel, and not all need to submit; only those wanting to share their work in our online teaching and learning consortium, where we can all see, replicate, adjust, and use each other’s teaching pedagogies!

Additionally, the teaching and learning committee is proud to announce it is keeping with the tradition of the GATE and GASOTL teaching awards! The GATE Award is given for innovation in teaching based on a presentation at this teaching and learning session. The recipient of the GASOTL Award is selected by the committee and based on application criteria. More information on awards is below.

Please send teaching and learning session proposal ideas to this year’s Program Chair and Teaching and Learning Coordinator: Ann Robinson, at acraig4@gsu.edu.

Please include Teaching and Learning Panel in the subject line. Please e-mail your conference proposal by Oct. 15, 2019 to acraig4@gsu.edu