Announcements

Annual Meeting Moves Forward in San Diego

The 2016 meeting of the WPSA will be held at the Manchester Hyatt in San Diego, California, from March 24 to 26. The program is expected to have strong turnout, with nearly three hundred panels currently scheduled from Thursday morning to Saturday afternoon. In addition to the regular panels, the San Diego meeting marks the third year in which the WPSA has scheduled conferences within our conference. There are five scheduled for this year:

As in previous years, there will be workshops on Environmental Political Theory, Feminist Theory, Interpretive Methods and Methodologies, and Latina/o Politics on the day before the conference (Wednesday, March 23). There is also a new section this year devoted to Critical Perspectives on Higher Education, which the association leaders hope will expand in future years.

Julie Novkov, University of Albany, State University of New York (SUNY), is serving as Program Chair for this meeting. Vidya Nadkarni, University of San Diego, is serving as the Local Arrangements Chair. Casey Dominguez, University of San Diego, is also on the Local Arrangements Committee. Information about the conference, including its theme and the list of section chairs is available on the WPSA website: www.wpsanet.org.

Changes in the WPSA Executive Council

Louis DeSipio is serving as WPSA President through the March 2016 meetings. At the conclusion of the meetings, Julie Novkov, University of Albany, SUNY, will assume the presidency of WPSA. Stephen Nicholson, University of California, Merced, will become the new Program Chair. The following individuals have been elected to the Executive Council for the term 2016–2019: Lorrie Frasure-Yokley, University of California, Los Angeles; Ricardo Ramirez, University of Notre Dame; Maurice Mangum, Texas Southern University; and Andrew Aoki, Augsburg College. Their terms begin immediately prior to the March 2016 meeting. The terms of the following Executive Council members will conclude immediately prior to the San Diego meeting: Tony Affigne, Providence College; Martin Johnson, University of California, Riverside; Jessica Lavariega-Monforti, University of Texas, Pan American; and Chris Shortell, Portland State University. The Association thanks them for their valuable service.

Planning Begins for 2017 Victoria, British Columbia, Meetings

The Program Committee for the 2017 WPSA annual meetings is now being formed by the incoming Program Chair, Stephen Nicholson, University of California, Merced. A listing of the 2017 Program Committee will appear by June on the WPSA website. The meetings will be held at the Fairmont Empress Hotel in Victoria, British Columbia, from April 13 to April 15, 2017. Situated on Vancouver Island northwest of Seattle, Victoria is perhaps the most British city in North America, with double-decker buses, horse-drawn carriages, formal gardens, tearooms, and pubs. Numerous restaurants, art galleries, and museums are nearby. There are stunning views from the city of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Olympic Mountains in Washington. The Empress is a beautiful historic hotel that sits right at the foot of the inner harbor near the Parliament Buildings and Royal BC Museum. Victoria is easily reached by plane from across the United States and by ferry from Seattle, Vancouver, and Port Angeles, Washington. Following the Victoria conference, the schedule for future meetings is as follows: the Hyatt Regency in San Francisco, California, in 2018; and the Hyatt Regency, in San Antonio, Texas, in 2019.

Honoring Colleagues and Friends

The WPSA Executive Council approved its first two endowments in April 2014 as a way to honor the contributions of two of its longtime members. The first of these endowments is for an award honoring Betty Moulds, who served for twenty-five years as the chief administrator for the WPSA. The Betty Moulds Lifetime Service Award will be given to individuals who have made a long history of service and an extraordinary contribution to the WPSA. A second endowment is to honor Joel Olson, an associate professor of political theory at Northern Arizona University and a longtime WPSA member who passed away unexpectedly in March 2012. The Joel Olson Award will be given to activist-scholars whose work is at the creative intersection of radical political theory and practice. The awards honoring Betty Moulds and Joel Olson will be funded entirely by their endowments, so your support is essential for them to get off the ground. Please consider making a donation. The WPSA is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization; as such, your contributions are fully tax-deductible, as permitted by law. To make a donation, please visit the WPSA website at http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/about/donate.php.