ISA Workshop Grant Program

The International Studies Association announces the deadline for 2007–2008 grants to support workshops for collaborative research that is new and innovative and involves scholars who are drawn from the global international studies community.

Scope of Awards
    ISA created the Workshop Grants program in 1992 to promote the interaction of scholars from different parts of the global international studies community. At the annual ISA meeting in Chicago in 2007, the Governing Council substantially expanded and restructured the Workshop Grant Program, more than doubling the total amount of funds available. Two categories of grants were established: Venture Research Workshop Grants of up to $25,000 each and Catalytic Research Workshop Grants of up to $5,000 each. Venture Research Workshop Grants are targeted for projects that venture into emerging and potentially transformative research areas or preliminary work on untested and novel and path-breaking ideas. Catalytic Research Workshop Grants target projects that aim to apply new expertise or new approaches to established research topics and are likely to catalyze rapid and innovative advances. Funds may be used to support several types of workshops: to bring together authors for an edited volume; to plan for a collaborative research project; or to stimulate new approaches to the substance and analysis of a topic. Both types of grants aim to bring together small groups of participants focusing on a significant research problem that stimulates cross-national examination or perspectives and engages the interests of several disciplines. Topics should be sufficiently well focused to allow in-depth exploration during the time proposed for the workshop. All participants are expected to present a fully-developed scholarly paper on a relevant topic in order to attend the workshop. The workshop, itself, is expected to result in significant scholarly outputs, such as a book-length manuscript and scholarly articles.

Eligibility
    Proposal submitters and all proposed workshop participants must be ISA members. Proposals from junior scholars are particularly encouraged. Workshop participants should be drawn not only from ISA's North American membership, but also from other parts of the world and should include junior scholars. All workshops must be held in junction with and at the time of the ISA 2008 Annual Convention. Other requirements are listed in the Workshop Grant Proposal Guidelines (doc).

Funding
    Grants will be awarded annually by ISA's Workshop Grant Committee. Funding may be used to provide honoraria for paper writers, provide per diems, pay for travel [when compelling justification is given] as well as other workshop costs. Please consult the Workshop Grant Proposal Guidelines for limitations and restrictions. Funds will generally be available for up to eighteen months from the time grants are made. A proportion of the grant award may be held until the final Workshop Grant Report has been received at ISA headquarters.

Format
    Core proposals should be not more than five pages (single-spaced) in addition to the three-page coversheet document, budget and budget justification and other supporting materials as required. Proposals must specify (1) the theme, purpose and objectives of the workshop, (2) the need for and intellectual significance of the meeting and how and in what ways the project is new, innovative and/or path-breaking and will expand knowledge and understanding in one of more fields; (3) how it relates to previous research and theoretical developments, including a list of any recent meetings or publications on the same topic; (4) the format of the workshop, including a statement of how the meeting will be organized and conducted as well as how other ISA members (especially  junior scholars, scholars from various disciplines and nationalities and underrepresented minorities) who are interested in the topic may be included on a space-available basis; and (5) how the results of the meeting will be disseminated in order to benefit the larger ISA community and contribute to the enhancement and improvement of knowledge in the field. Complete proposals must also include: (1) all coversheet documents, (2) the five-page core proposal; (3) budget and detailed itemized budget justification; (4) complete references in proper standard citation form; (5) statement of the amount of support (if any) requested and/or committed from any other sources; (6) statement on letterhead or in the form of personal emails from each proposed collaborating individual or organization confirming a commitment to participate in the form proposed; (7) CV(s) of the proposer(s), and (8) two-page biographical sketch(es) for each participant (use the U.S. National Science Foundation guidelines on the information to include in the biographical sketch).  Items 1 and 3–8 need not be included in the five-page limit.

Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals electronically to ISA using a PDF document format. The entire proposal must be contained in a single document file; please do not send multiple files containing various components of the proposal since these are difficult to manage. Proposals on paper are also accepted; please provide six (6) copies of all materials. The proposal, with all required accompanying materials, must be received by 15 August 2007 via e-mail to ISA: International Studies Association / isa@u.arizona.edu.

When you send the proposal to ISA, also send a complete copy to the committee chair:

Roger Coate, Chair
Department of Political Science
University of South Carolina
Columbia, SC 29208 USA
tel.: (803) 777-7833; fax: (803) 777-9308
email: roger.coate@sc.edu

If you do not receive a confirmation within seven days (email) or three weeks (conventional mail) that your proposal was received, please attempt to contact us again since there may have been problems transmitting the proposals. (We are using this method of dual notification to reduce the possibility that proposals get lost due to email or mail disruptions.)

DEADLINE: 15 AUGUST 2007

All applicants should expect to receive notification as to whether the proposal will be funded by 1 October.

Earth System Governance

Workshop Chair: Michele M. Betsill, Colorado State University
Location:  San Francisco Hilton, Yosemite B      
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 9:00 am – 6:00 pm

We propose to hold a workshop to develop a research agenda for the study of earth system governance. This new area of study draws on previous work in the social sciences on the role of institutions in global environmental change and responds to demands from the emerging worldwide earth system science community for an understanding of how governance systems influence the co-evolution of human and natural systems. It draws in particular on research undertaken by the project on the Institutional Dimensions of Global Environmental Change (IDGEC), which ran from 1998 to 2006. The workshop will bring together members of the Scientific Planning Committee for a new long-term international project under the International Human Dimensions Programme on Global Environmental Change (IHDP). The primary goal of the workshop is to finalize the draft Science Plan for this new initiative. Assuming the Science Plan is accepted by the IHDP Scientific Steering Committee (following an external review in April/May 2008), the Earth System Governance project will be formally launched at the October 2008 Open Meeting of the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change Research Community in New Delhi, India.

Workshop Participants:

• Michele Betsill, Political Science Colorado State University
• Frank Biermann, Political Science & Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Ken Conca , Political Science University of Maryland
• Bharat Desai, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
• Joyeeta Gupta, Climate Policy and Law Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• Norichika Kanie, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
• Louis Lebel Di, Unit for Social Chiang Mai University Thailand
• Diana Liverman, Environmental Change Institute Oxford University UK
• Andreas Rechkemmer, International Human Dimensions Programme, Germany
• Agus Sari, Ecosecurities, Indonesia
• Falk Schmidt, Int’l Human Dimensions Programme, Germany
• Heike Schröder, Oxford University, UK
• Bernd Siebenhüner, Ecological Economics University of Oldenberg Germany
• Simon Tay, Singapore Institute of International Affairs, Singapore
• Oran Young, Bren University of California-Santa Barbara
• Ruben Zondervan, Institute Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Registration has closed. Thank you for your interest.

Complexity Science in IR

Workshop Chair:  David C. Earnest, Old Dominion University
Location:             San Francisco Hilton, Franciscan D       
Time:                  Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 8:30 am – 6:00 pm

The purpose of this proposed workshop is to elaborate a research agenda in International Relations for complexity science. The volume of recent scholarship illustrates that complexity science today appeals more broadly to International Relations scholars than ever before. Yet this research reflects both different research traditions and disparate findings. There seems, therefore, to be a genuine need for a forum and subsequent body of work to pull some of this research activity together and provide a core focus to the topic which can stimulate future scholarly investigation.

It has been over a decade since three scholars of international relations separately published influential works that sought to call our discipline’s attention to “complexity” in world politics. Robert Jervis’s System Effects (1997) explored how a new scientific corpus known as “complexity science” might change the ways we think about international politics. That same year Robert Axelrod published The Complexity of Cooperation, in which he applied the new methods of complexity science to his research agenda of understanding dilemmas of interstate cooperation. Prior to these two works, James N. Rosenau published Turbulence in World Politics (1990), one of the earliest works in international relations that highlighted the promise of complexity science for understanding the dynamic changes we witnessed after the Cold War.

Despite these promising beginnings, international relations researchers have still to articulate a coherent research agenda for complexity science in international relations. Yet complexity science clearly has profound ramifications for our understanding of both the physical and social worlds. Through a flurry of concepts, including networks, open systems, distributed agency, non-linearity, feedback loops, self-organisation, and emergence, this new research paradigm has challenged established scientific wisdom and its claims about predictability, control, and the very nature of physical reality. These concepts have been fruitfully applied across a vast range of natural sciences from meteorology, ecology, molecular biology, and neuroscience to chemistry, physics and zoology. Numerous thinkers in a variety of disciplines have either adopted ideas drawn directly from complexity, or connected existing concerns to those concepts and applied them fruitfully in areas as diverse as economics, sociology, architecture, business and art. These ideas have lingered at the very margins of debate in international relations, but have failed to generate a significant groundswell of complimentary research despite a growing interest in their promise (Rosenau 1990; 2003; Axelrod 1997; Cederman 1997; Hoffmann 2005).

Considerable disagreement exists among researchers over whether complexity science offers a new method of inquiry or merely a useful set of metaphors. To date, scholars are yet to systematically elaborate their points of agreement and disagreement, nor have they identified areas of research that might intermediate their disagreements and yield theoretical progress. This workshop is proposed to provide an important forum for delineating and catalyzing a research programme for complexity and International relations.

Workshop Participants:

• Antoine Bousquet, Birkbeck, University of London, UK
• Simon J. Curtis, London School of Economics, UK
• David C. Earnest, Old Dominion University
• James Rosenau, George Washington University
• Colin Wight, University of Exeter, UK
• Paul Cilliers, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Neil Harrison,Sustainable Development Institute
• Patrick Meier, Tufts University
• Robert Cutler, Carleton University, Canada
• Christine Brachthäuser, University of Tübingen, Germany
• Matthew Hoffmann, University of Toronto, Canada
• Kim Holloman, Science Applications Intl Corporation

This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.

Post-Imperial Futures

Workshop Chair: Jacqueline Lasky, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
Location: San Francisco Hilton,    Yosemite C   
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 8:00 am – 4:30 pm

Although there is a ceaseless proliferation of research on global politics within critical  international relations theory, a considerable gap remains within the areas of indigenism, anarchism and feminism, the intersectional analysis therein, and the praxis of these theories.  By bringing together scholars from diverse intellectual traditions, this workshop will explore an emerging field that builds a more critical analytical framework in international relations.  The significance of this workshop lies in breaking down the hierarchical structures and concepts, “unsettling” state authority within the inter-state system, and being attentive to multiple/plural ways of being in the world.  As an intersection between the academy inquiry and activism (theory and practice), the examination of the legacies of colonial power relations toward the visioning of post-imperial futures and the potentiality for improving global relations are empowering of indigenous nations and cultural and political communities.  This venture research workshop will focus on interdisciplinary examination of transversal feminist, indigenous, and anarchist struggles (relations that transverse the boundaries of, within and between nations and states) and the ways in which they are prefiguring alternative and innovative political practices in their/our global locale(s).

Workshop Participants:

• Jacqueline Lasky, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
• Richard Day, Queen’s University
• Todd May, Clemson University
• Kathy Ferguson, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
• Nevzat Soguk, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
• Andrea Smith, University of Michigan
• Glen Coulthard, University of Victoria
• Makere Stewart-Harawira, University of Alberta
• J. Marshall Beier, McMaster University
• Jason Adams, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
• Noelani Goodyear-Ka’opua, University of Hawai’i, Manoa
• Alex Khasnabish, Dalhousie University

This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.

Framing a Research Frontier

Cyberinfrastructure Policy in Global Perspective
Workshop Chair: Nanette Levinson, American University
Location: San Francisco Hilton,    Yosemite A   
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Cyberinfrastructure policy is still in its infancy, somewhat similar to where Internet-related policy was a decade ago. There has been very little theoretically grounded social science research on this topic; and scant treatment regarding the role of developing nations or of non-state actors. A review of the last two years’ paper abstracts at the Annual Meetings of the ISA and the APSA indicates no papers using the term ‘Cyberinfrastructure’. The purpose of this Workshop, then, is to contribute to shaping a whole new generation of communication technology policy research— multidisciplinary works that benefit from some of ISA’s most innovative thinkers and theories and from models in related areas such as internet governance, international trade and finance, and international health and environmental issues. Participants will also consider and identify appropriate research methods and levels of analyses.

Workshop Participants:

• Derrick Cogburn, Syracuse University
• Maura Conway, Dublin City University, Ireland
• Elisabeth Hanson, University of Connecticut
• Nanette Levinson, American University
• Elena Pavan, University of Trento, Italy
• Ken Rogerson, Duke University
• Laura Roselle, Elon Universit

Registration has closed. Thank you for your interest.

Explaining IO Performance

Workshop Chair: Tamar Gutner, American University
Location: San Francisco Hilton,    Continental 7   
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

International organizations (IOs) are essential but controversial actors in world politics today. They are increasingly relied upon to manage what former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan famously called “problems without passports,” which states cannot easily address on their own. But instead of being praised for their contributions, IOs face relentless attacks from critics who believe they are ineffective - or worse, that they exacerbate the very problems they are supposed to ameliorate.

While it is widely recognized that IOs often produce ineffective results or unintended consequences, the IO literature is underdeveloped in its ability to explain why this occurs. Current scholarship, which focuses on distinct questions of why states create institutions, and how states pursue their interests through institutions, is largely removed from the lively debates in the policy world on the performance of individual IOs. At a time when many argue that major IOs are collapsing under the weight of globalization and new security threats, and therefore require reform, it is critical that scholar are not sitting on the sidelines of these debates.

Workshop Participants:

• Alexander Thompson, Ohio State University
• Tamar Gutner, American University
• Manfred Elsig, Graduate Institute International Studies, Geneva
• Susan Hyde, Yale University
• Michael Lipson, Concordia University, Canada
• Mark Pollack, Temple University
• Duncan Snidal, University of Chicago
• Katherine Weaver, University of Kansas
• Rorden Wilkinson, University of Manchester, Great Britain
• Emilie Hafner-Burton, Princeton University

This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.

Who Governs The Globe?

Workshop Chair: Susan Sell, George Washington University
Location: San Francisco Hilton,    Continental 9       
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 10:00 am – 4:00 pm

Academics and policy makers speak frequently about global governance but do so in the passive voice. Global governance is something that happens; no one, apparently, actually does it. The literature generally treats governance as structure or process. In this project, we focus on agents. We identify them, explain what they do, and introduce a framework for theorizing about them. Our goal is to animate a new research trajectory focusing on global governors.

For purposes of this inquiry, we define global governors as actors who exercise power across borders with some degree of legitimacy and continuity, for purposes of affecting policy in an issue area. Governors thus: create issues, set agendas, establish and implement rules or programs, and evaluate and/or adjudicate outcomes. Focusing on the agents that govern global issues requires rethinking common assumptions in international relations theorizing – including statism, instrumentalism and functionalism.

To the extent that international relations (IR) scholars speak of “governors” they mean states and thus IR theory is designed to understand states. Little theoretical guidance exists about the powers, interests, and behavioral proclivities of the variety of other actors governing on the global stage: multinational corporations harmonizing markets, activist networks changing rules to promote their causes, professional associations codifying international standards, or international organizations implementing new programs to alleviate poverty. Without conceptual equipment, it is hard to anticipate the effects these various actors might create in the world and why.

Workshop Participants:

• Deborah Avant, UC Irvine
• Clifford Bob, Duquesne University
• Tim Buthe, Duke University
• R. Charli Carpenter, University Pittsburgh
• Alex Cooley, Barnard College/Columbia University
• Dan Drezner, Tufts University
• Henry Farrell, George Washington University
• Martha Finnemore, George Washington University
• Tamar Gutner, American University
• Virginia Haufler, University of Maryland
• Matt Hoffman, University of Toronto, Canada
• Margaret Keck, Johns Hopkins University
• Loren Landau, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
• Duncan Matthews, University of London, UK
• Kathleen McNamara, Georgetown University
• Abraham Newman, Georgetown University
• Louis Pauly, University Toronto, Canada
• Aseem Prakash, University of Washington
• Anitha Ramanna, University of Pune, India
• Susan Sell, George Washington University
• J.P. Singh, Georgetown University
• Erik Voeten, Georgetown University USA
• Geoffrey Underhill, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Paul Wapner, American University

This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.

Long-term Environmental Policy

Workshop Chair: Detlef Sprinz,  University of Michigan
Location: San Francisco Hilton,  Franciscan C   
Time: Tuesday, March 25, 2008; 9:00 am – 5:30 pm

Academic as well as policy studies often conclude that transboundary and global environmental problems merit a long-term response and offer case-specific guidance for potential strategies to cope with such challenges. Surprisingly, there is little research on long-term policy problems as a class of problems. In this proposal, we wish to break ground in a series of related articles by highlighting the theoretical, methodological, and empirical challenges involved in long-term environmental problems. More generally, we aspire to advance potentially generalizable knowledge across the subfields of international studies. The journal Global Environmental Politics has agreed to dedicate its August 2009 issue to the topic of long-term environmental policy with the workshop proposer serving as guest editor.

Long-term policy problems can be generally characterized as being (i) surrounded by considerable degrees of uncertainty, (ii) will persist for at least a generation if the causes operate unabated, (iii) the option of “solving” the issue in one or two legislative periods is not politically feasible, and (iv) maximum political effort offers the chance to substantially ameliorate the welfare of most actors. Curbing transboundary air pollution, global climate change, or the preserving biodiversity over longer periods of time are good examples of the strategic challenge we face in the environmental field. While we have a range of specialized studies of specific long-term environmental problems, we do – surprisingly – not yet find research and publications on long-term environmental problems as a specific class of environmental problems.  The aim of this workshop proposal and its related stream of publications is to remedy the situation by proposing a feasible set of contributions that cover theoretical, methodological, and empirical aspects of long-term environmental problems from a purposefully diverse set of perspectives. Each of the papers aims to speak to the larger class of long-term environmental problems, i.e., the contributions are overwhelmingly conceptually driven, thereby providing guidance for future research across the diverse spectrum of long-term environmental policy challenges.

Workshop Participants:

• Jon Hovi, The University of Oslo Norway
• D. Marc Kilgour, Wilfrid Laurier University Canada
• Robert Lempert, RAND
• Thomas Princen, University of Michigan
• Jürgen Scheffran, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• Detlef Sprinz, University of Michigan
• Paul F. Steinberg, Harvey Mudd College
• Randall W. Stone, University of Rochester
• Arild Underdal, University of Oslo Norway
• Oran Young, UC Santa Barbara
• Elinor Ostrom, University of Indian

This workshop is sold out. Thank you for your interest.