Organizers

Co-Convenors: Holly Ann Garnett (Royal Military College / Queen's University, Canada), Toby James (University of East Anglia, UK), Gabriela Tarouco (Federal University of Pernambuco, Hungary)

Conference Administrator: Sofia Caal-Lam (EIP, Project Coordinator)

*This is a free conference

Call for Papers and Presentation Proposals

Deadline: March 31st, 2025

Theme

Elections are crucial to achieving democratic governance. We welcome workshop papers that fall into any of the following themes:

  • Elections should distribute power by allowing a wider range of groups, individuals and parties to contest the election. Papers are welcome on issues including (but not limited to): candidate selection, party dynamics, and electoral systems.

  • Elections provide a unique opportunity for deliberation on key policy issues. Papers are welcome on issues such as campaign finance, the information environment, and traditional and social media.

  • Wide and even participation is needed to ensure that the whole population has the power to direct and influence representation and policy. We invite papers that consider issues such as enfranchisement, accessibility, registration, voting methods, and voter turnout.

  • Electoral Justice provides an essential pathway for citizens, candidates, parties and other stakeholders to seek legal address where there have been defects in the delivery of elections.  We welcome papers on topics on election monitoring, electoral justice, disputed elections and public trust.

Types of Paper

Papers are welcome from all disciplines, including but not limited to political science, law and legal studies, development and contemporary political history.

We take a pluralistic approach to research – and welcome papers from all types of research methods. This might include studies using narrative case-studies, process tracing, experimental designs, mass and expert panel surveys, systematic aggregate data, or political theory. Studies could be based on a single country or be cross-national in nature.

We also welcome practitioner papers which highlight recent policy innovations and other perspectives from the field of elections.

PRACTICAL LOGISTICS

Our fourth annual virtual conference will take place online, the week of July 8, 2025. Panels will be arranged to accommodate multiple time zones with panels taking place across the week.

As well as standard thematic paper panels with discussants, there will be practitioner and civil society roundtables and opportunities to connect with old/new colleagues and friends around the globe.

Conference registration will be free to all paper presenters and delegates.

All accepted paper-givers are asked to upload a copy of their written papers to the workshop website by 23 June, as a condition of inclusion in the program. This requirement allows discussants and all other participants to read work in advance, maximizing time and opportunities for feedback and discussion.