Project: Support for Conferences and Mentoring of Underrepresented Groups in Political Science

Support for Conferences and Mentoring of Underrepresented Groups in Political Science

This proposal requests resources to continue efforts by the Society for Political Methodology to support under-funded graduate students, expand mentoring and networking efforts for women and under-represented minorities, and to develop new inclusive programs for making the subfield more accessible to groups with historically lower participation in the activities of the subfield. We intend to leverage our strengths in conference organization, journal management, mentoring, and training, to help correct an imbalance whereby some groups have not or could not pursue scholarship in cutting-edge quantitative political science. While we have made documented gains in attracting and retaining women and minorities over the last four years as a result of the 2007 NSF award, we see room and considerable opportunity for additional progress. In the proposed initiatives, the Society for Political Methodology and our university partners provide a large part of the required resources, and we are asking for continued support from the National Science Foundation as the final piece that helps ensure continued and expanding success.