2026 APSA Theme Panel: Placing People Back at the Center of American Politics

Placing People Back at the Center of American Politics

Friday, September 4, 10:00 am to 11:30 am
2026 APSA Annual Meeting & Exhibition — Boston, MA |  Register here
In-Person |Roundtable

Participants:

• (Chair) Christine Marie Slaughter, Boston University

• (Presenter) Nicholas Carnes, Duke University

• (Presenter) Katherine J. Cramer, University of Wisconsin, Madison

• (Presenter) James R. Jones, Rutgers University

• (Presenter) Daniel Laurison, Swarthmore College

• (Presenter) Wendy Li, Johns Hopkins University

• (Presenter) Dara Z. Strolovitch, Yale Univerisity

• (Presenter) Vesla Mae Weaver, Johns Hopkins University

Session Description:
US democracy is in crisis. Economic and political power is concentrated in the hands of the few. All three branches of the federal government are controlled by leaders who rose to power by embracing racism, stoking fear of immigrants, and scapegoating queer and trans people. We have an increasingly authoritarian government that is subverting the rule of law, rolling back civil rights, and dismantling our civic and academic institutions.

For those of us who want to build a fully democratic society, the stakes could not be higher. Addressing this crisis requires thoughtful scholars across the social sciences partnering with people who work in politics to identify and implement strategies to defend and improve our democracy.

Scholarship on US politics too often ignores the social, relational, and organizational aspects of political phenomena, and is too often silent on the role of racial and economic inequalities in political processes. Moreover, good research is siloed, not only across different subfields and specialties within disciplines, but across disciplines and sectors.

In this roundtable, we invite scholars to reflect on the role of people in American politics. Peopling Politics means seeing politics through people first, taking a relational and dynamic approach to U.S. politics, and centering racial and class inequalities. It also means anchoring our work in people’s real experiences, observations, and actions. This approach strengthens the theoretical, methodological, and empirical foundations of the study of US politics, thereby improving the validity and reliability of our research. The invited participants are scholars of representation, democratic theory, public opinion, race-class subjugation, and interest groups who will provide insights into contemporary political dynamics to diagnose political crises and formulate actionable solutions to advance a more equitable and pluralistic democracy.

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