The 2009 Minnesota Political Science Association (MNPSA) annual conference will be held on Saturday, November 7 at the College of Saint Benedict in St. Joseph, Minnesota. Please try to join us. The conference is a great opportunity to meet with colleagues from around the state, to attend interesting panels on a wide range of topics, to see some outstanding student research at our poster session, and to hear a dynamic and thought-provoking keynote address.
The Program
The tradition continues, with the Student Poster session kicking off the conference beginning at 8:30 a.m. Please plan to arrive in time to walk through and view the poster presentations, and to talk to the students about their research. There is still time to encourage your own students to submit strong research, as the deadline is Wednesday, October 21. Complete details can be found on this website's home page.
We’re trying something new this year, by having two concurrent panels in the morning. As you can see from the attached conference schedule, we’ll have an International Relations and Comparative Politics panel and a National Issues in the Age of Obama panel in the first time slot.
The luncheon keynote speaker will follow, and we are delighted to have one of our own, Professor James Read, deliver the address: “Doorstep Democracy: Candidate Doorknocking as Civic Engagement.”
“Doorstep Democracy: Candidate Doorknocking as Civic Engagement”
Every election year in Minnesota hundreds of candidates for legislative or local office campaign by personally going door to door, engaging voters in conversation, and winning or losing the election one vote at a time. Candidates doorknock because they consider it effective campaign strategy. But doorknocking is also an important and insufficiently-appreciated form of civic engagement. Doorstep conversations enable candidate and voter to persuade one another and learn from one another, and provide an important niche for democratic deliberation amid a media-dominated culture that provides scant resources for deliberation. James Read will draw from his 2008 book Doorstep Democracy: Face to Face Politics in the Heartland, an account of his own experience as a doorknocking candidate for the Minnesota legislature in which he personally visited 7500 households and kept detailed notes of conversations with voters. He argues that candidates should practice doorknocking, voters should welcome it, and political scientists concerned with civic engagement should give it serious attention.
James Read is Professor of Political Science, and Joseph P. Farry Professor of Public Policy at the College of St. Benedict and St. John’s University. He is a specialist in the history of American political thought. In 1992 he was the DFL candidate for the Minnesota House in District 14A, losing by 98 votes after recount. In addition to Doorstep Democracy he is the author of Majority Rule versus Consensus: The Political Thought of John C. Calhoun (2009) and Power versus Liberty: Madison, Hamilton, Wilson, and Jefferson (2000).
In the afternoon, we’ll continue to explore topics of great interest to MNPSA members, with a roundtable discussion on Minnesota politics followed by a panel on teaching and the profession.
How To Register
To register for the conference, complete the registration form and mail it with your check to MNPSA Treasurer Patrick Donnay (whose address is on the form). The registration deadline is October 30, but earlier registrations are greatly appreciated. Complete conference schedule can be found here.
Share this invitation with your colleagues and consider encouraging a student to participate in the student poster session.
We look forward to seeing you on November 7.
Angela High-Pippert
MNPSA President
ahighpippe@stthomas.edu