Sparse But Spectacular: APSA 2025

 The consensus in Vancouver was that every American Political Science Association annual meeting should be in Vancouver.  The weather was terrific, the views were amazing, the food was great, and it cost Americans about 25% less than they thought.  Usually, the APSA is somewhere on the east coast in a swamp with excessive heat and humidity.  Not this year.  

But the downside was that it was as smaller conference.  Why?  Some guesses:

•  Lots of American academics have lost funding due to their universities losing NIH funding and other federal $ streams.
• Those from American military academic institutions may not have been able to get permission to go since SecDef "Too Drunk to Function" Hegseth is opposed to all knowledge-related events.
• East coast bias--there are simply more schools on the east coast and Vancouver is far, far away.
• Border challenges--non-Americans working in the US may be concerned about what might happen when they try to return from the conference after APSA.
• Border challenges, part deux: Canada absolutely sucks in processing visas so many folks may not have gotten visas to come for the conference.
• And maybe a bit of an illusion given the spread of the event between two wings of the convention center and a handful of hotels.

Maybe it is a one-off, but I can't help but think of an academic conference career arc: that when I started, I barely knew anyone, and would walk around searching for a familiar face [again, folks don't buy it, but I am shy in large crowds of people I don't know].  Then, as time went on, I didn't have to search as much.  And then I could just stand still and have many interactions with so many people that I have met in previous jobs, workshops, conferences, and my dance card would be full even before I arrived.  And now with friends retiring or passing, and perhaps because of the aforementioned shrinking of APSA, I had more openings in schedule, far fewer familiar faces, and more time to exercise.

Still, it was a good and valuable experience.  I got good feedback on my paper, I talked to an editor about an edited volume project, I met with a co-author about our next survey, I met sharp emerging scholars and served as their discussant, participated in a panel memorializing Brandon Valeriano, and didn't do much tourism as I have been here before.

The big topic hanging over the event was the backsliding of the US into autocracy. The Charlie Kirk assassination happened immediately before the conference, so it was a focus, but the larger concerns focused on the decline of academic freedom (personified by Kirk), the odds of civil war in the near future, Trump's declining health, and how much comparative politics has to say at this moment to the Americanists who have not really been trained to think about autocracy.  The pace of events makes it easy to forget that just a week ago, we faced the real possibility of the Texas National Guard confronting Illinois authorities and the public.  

We have dodged a lot of bullets (sorry, Charlie), that reichstag fire type events are now like streetcars--coming along every few minutes, and our luck is running out.  The right wing is talking about using the Kirk killing to justify suppression/persecution of the left and that does not just mean the far left commies, but everyone pretty much but themselves.  I just read a great piece by Jeffrey Isaac that speaks to our moment and what he has to fear.  I did react to the Kirk killing by noting that political violence is bad and that Kirk incited political violence, noting my privilege to do so as a Canadian.  We have seen Americans lose their jobs because they spoke about Kirk's deplorable stances and activities including his systematic effort to crush academic freedom.  And now Isaac has me thinking a bit about fear and how none of us are immune from either violence or the cowardice of university administrations.

One of the topics of conversation at the conference was, of course, the events at Texas A&M where a lecture, their department chair, and their dean were all fired because they had the temerity to talk about gender in a way that might not be approved of by the Trump regime.  Given my six years in west Texas long ago, yeah, I sighed relief that I got out of there.  I am pretty sure I would have been fired by now.

Anyhow, it was great to see friends, learn about new research, and celebrate Brandon.  We shall see if there is much of an international crowd at the ISA in Columbus in March.  Time to go back home to teach and revise a grant application.