Affective Polarization and Depolarization: Insights and Innovations II

This mini-conference aims to bring together a diverse group of scholars to explore the latest research on the causes and consequences of affective polarization. The conference will also focus on addressing measurement challenges and methodological advancements across individual, elite, and country-level analyses. Furthermore, it will examine interventions and policies aimed at reducing affective polarization and fostering more cohesive societies.

Convenors: Yunus Orhan (Denison University) and James Adams (University of California-Davis)

---

Association for Politics and the Life Sciences Annual Conference

The 2026 Annual Meeting of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences (APLS) will be held on Friday afternoon at the MPSA conference. APLS is dedicated to the advancement of research pertaining to the following broad categories: new directions in politics and the life sciences, biopolitics, life science policies (e.g., health policy, genetically modified foods, stem cell research), neurobiology and politics, bioethics, bioterrorism, environmental policy and communication (e.g., media coverage and public opinion about climate change), genetics and politics, biotechnology, and other biopolitical topics. This year’s conference features new research in politics and the life sciences, along with a keynote and reception on Friday afternoon.

Convenors: Matthew P. Motta (Boston University) and Patrick A. Stewart (University of Arkansas)

---

China’s Development and Governance Workshop

The China Development Workshop Series is a scholarly platform designed to support researchers conducting China studies with comparative perspectives. Its mission is to help scholars present rigorous, high-quality work in English to the international academic community. The workshop series promotes international academic exchange by connecting scholars based in China with those working internationally, as well as facilitating collaboration between researchers affiliated with the Harvard University Asia Center and scholars from other institutions worldwide.

Convenors: Chunying Yue (Harvard University) and Dapeng Wang (Harvard University)

---

Crime and Society Mini-Conference

This mini-conference brings together scholars of organized crime and comparative political behavior to examine how citizens form political attitudes and engage in political behaviors in response to both organized crime and common crime. Moving beyond top-down analyses of state-criminal relationships, this event focuses on bottom-up societal responses, political attitude formation, and civic engagement patterns that emerge from lived experiences with different forms of criminality.

Convenors: Margaret (Meg) Frost (University of Rhode Island), Óscar Álvaro Montes de Oca (University of Massachusetts-Lowell), and Marco Alcocer (University of California-Merced)

---

Cultural Theory Working Group

The Cultural Theory Working Group is an international gathering of scholars who employ the political cultural theory developed by Mary Douglas, Aaron Wildavsky, and others to advance subfield understandings and explanations in political science. The group will attend several panels featuring papers that engage with cultural theory and will hold a meeting on Saturday.

Convenor: Brendon Swedlow (Northern Illinois University)

---

Empires, States, and the Making of Power

This conference-within-a-conference brings together an unusually diverse set of papers that collectively push forward big questions about how states and elites negotiate power, build institutions, and confront resistance across very different historical and regional settings. What ties these projects together is a shared focus on the political work that coercion, elite competition, and institutional design perform in contexts where authority is incomplete, whether because states are weak, legitimacy is contested, or modernization projects collide with entrenched social structures. Across South Asia, Latin America, Africa, Europe, and the United States, the papers trace how rulers and elites confronted strategic dilemmas that remain central to political science: how dominant actors maintain cooperation from unreliable allies; how ordinary people resist predation; how bureaucracies emerge, stagnate, or get repurposed; and how elite networks structure long-run political and economic outcomes. The findings range from the English East India Company’s manipulation of allied courts, to the political economy of flight in colonial Peru, to the deep developmental imprint of racial violence in the American South. Methodologically, the research is equally wide-ranging, including novel archival collections, newly digitized historical datasets, spatial models, and formal theory, all deployed to map and understand the mechanisms that bound together states, elites, and citizens. Collectively, the panels highlight both common logics and important regional contrasts, offering a nuanced, historically grounded account of how political orders are built and remade.

Convenors: Adee Weller (Emory University), Daniel Baquero (New York University), Daniel Lowery (Harvard University), Shuyi Yu (University of Chicago), and Scott Gehlbach (University of Chicago)

---

Gaming Pedagogies Workshop

This invitation-based working group will bring together experienced as well as novice practitioners and researchers of gaming pedagogies across the discipline. Gaming pedagogies is interpreted as distinct from simulations, but as broadly constituting techniques that invite students to learn through play, be it competitive or cooperative traditional analog board games, mobile and video games, collaborative story-driven role-playing games, and using other gaming tools and technologies, such as toys. Over the multiple sessions of the working group, members will demonstrate gaming pedagogies and share resources that they employ, brainstorm research possibilities deriving from such pedagogies, as well as possible methodological approaches to said research, provide round-table discussion of best practices/troubleshooting activities, and explore the potential for an edited volume about the use of gaming pedagogies, including possible presses/existing book series or a special issue of a pedagogy journal.

Convenors: Petra Hendrickson (Northern Michigan University) and James Fielder (Colorado State University)

---

Politics and Political Economy of Eurasia Workshop

This is the seventh annual meeting of the Eurasian Political Economy Workshop at MPSA. The workshop brings together scholars of politics and political economy across Eurasia, from Eastern Europe to Central Asia. This year’s sessions cover information control and censorship, elite management under authoritarianism, gender and politics, local governance, public opinion and value dynamics, historical legacies, political violence and nation-building, rally-around-the-flag dynamics, accountability, decentralization, and public goods. The geographical scope includes Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, the Baltic States, and the post-communist countries in Eastern Europe. Panels will take place on Friday and Saturday.

Convenors: Valeria Umanets (Tulane University), Jordan Gans-Morse (Northwestern University), Guzel Garifullina (University of Richmond), Scott Gehlbach (University of Chicago), Pauline Jones (University of Michigan), Ora John Reuter (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee), Regina Smyth (Indiana University), and Susanne Wengle (University of Notre Dame)

---

Politics of AI Workshop

This mini-conference explores new research related to the political, legal, ethical, and social aspects of AI, machine learning, and related emerging technologies.

Convenors: Kaylyn Jackson Schiff (Purdue University), Daniel Schiff (Purdue University), Bao-bao Zhang (Syracuse University), and Jason Anastasopoulos (University of Georgia)

---

Politics of Identity Across the Subfields

This is the eighth annual meeting of the Politics of Identity Across the Subfields Mini-Conference at MPSA. The goal of this event is to bring scholars of identity from across the subfields of political science – American politics, comparative politics, international relations, and political theory – into conversation with one another. Panels will be held on Saturday morning.

Convenors: Cara J. Wong (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Avital Livny (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), and Yoshiko M. Herrera (University of Wisconsin-Madison)

---

Primary Elections Mini-Conference

The 2026 Primary Elections Conference-within-a-Conference at MPSA invites submissions on primary elections. Papers may address questions about primary voter preferences, primary election reform, the implications of two-stage elections on representation, of the role of party influence in nominating contests. We encourage submissions from all scholars including those from underrepresented backgrounds, graduate students, and junior scholars.

Convenors: Colin R. Case (University of Iowa), Rachel Porter (University of Notre Dame), Sarah Anderson (University of California-Santa Barbara), Dan Butler (Washington University in St. Louis), and Laurel Harbridge-Yong (Northwestern University)

---

Relocating to the Center: The Importance of Religion in Political Science

This mini-conference brings together scholars across career stages to highlight the centrality of religion in understanding politics. This day-long mini-conference explores three interconnected goals: advancing substantive research on religion and politics, examining the methodological tools best suited to studying religion’s role in political life, and fostering community among scholars of religion and politics. Panels will feature work on religious identity, rhetoric, measurement, and intersections with race, gender, and political behavior, as well as a professional development session on teaching religion and politics. The program concludes with informal networking opportunities to strengthen scholarly connections. By creating space for dialogue across research agendas and approaches, this mini-conference underscores why religion remains vital to the study of political science today.

Convenors: Alena Smith (Stanford University), Julianna J. Thomson (George Mason University), and Brookly Evann Walker (University of Tennessee-Knoxville)

---

Research on Three Decades of India’s Gender Quotas

Convenor: Tanushree Goyal (Princeton University)

---

Representative Bureaucracy Workshop

This annual workshop consists of a full day of panels featuring new research that is informed by or intersects with representative bureaucracy theory.

Convenors: Austin M. McCrea (Texas Tech University) and Danyao Li (University of Southern California)

---

Separation of Powers Mini-Conference

This mini-conference features new research on a number of topics related to the separation of powers in the U.S., including personnel, information, lobbying, rulemaking, and presidential politics.

Convenor: Nicholas Napolio (University of California-Riverside)

---