Call for Proposals

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

Canada in an Uncertain World

The Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association (APPSA) invites proposals for its annual conference to be hosted by St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick on October 13-October 15, 2023.

This year’s conference theme focuses on how Canada is navigating an increasingly uncertain and unstable international and domestic political situation. At home, tensions have grown as political partisanship and personality politics have become more intense. Domestic politics has directly intersected with foreign policy as Canada’s increasingly hostile relationship with China has led to China’s alleged interference in Canadian elections becoming a serious issue and culminated in both countries ejecting each other’s diplomats. Canada is also navigating the complexities of the war in Ukraine, and political destabilization in the United States and the European Union.

Canada’s conflicts are happening in the context of a world that is increasingly dividing along economic, political, and even technological lines. The full consequences of these divisions remain to be seen and felt. Do they spell the end of “globalization” and/or a fractious shift towards a more multi-polar world? What effect will the political, social and economic tensions in the US, which are driving many of these developments, have on Canada’s domestic situation?

Overshadowing all of this is the increasing reality of climate change and its catastrophic effects on the environment. At a time when the world needs cooperation more than ever to deal with a truly existential global threat, major powers are exacerbating regional and global conflict.

What role has Canada played in facing these threats and uncertainties? What role should Canada play? These are some of the questions that are relevant to the conference theme.

We invite scholars, practitioners, activists, and students to submit paper, workshop, and panel proposals that explore this theme, or any others connected to the many challenges and problems faced at home and abroad. We also encourage papers in the fields of Indigenous scholarship and decolonization, gender and politics, race, equity and social justice scholarship, and political theory.

Please submit your paper title and a short abstract (maximum 300 words).

Panel proposals are welcome. When submitting a panel or workshop proposal, include a short description (maximum 300 words). If submitting a panel/workshop proposal, please clearly list the names, affiliations, and titles of the papers that the participants wish to present. Include a short (50 words) description of each paper/presentation as part of the proposal.

Following APPSA precedent, there are no conference fees for graduate students (both MAs and PhDs). MA students interested in participating in the conference should also include a brief letter of approval from their Supervisor. All conference-related inquires can be sent to Shaun Narine (narine@stu.ca) and Jamie Gillies (jgillies@stu.ca).

The deadline for proposals is July 14, 2023.

All paper and panel proposals should be sent to appsa2023@stu.ca

An email will follow in June with the updated APPSA website and more information about hotels and accommodations.