Call for Proposals: Teaching Political Science in an Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI)
APSA Teaching & Learning Symposium
Virtual, June 22-26, 2026
Application Deadline: April 5, 2026
The American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Teaching and Learning program and the Political Studies Association (PSA) Teaching & Learning Network are pleased to announce a call for proposals for a small cohort of political science/politics instructors to participate in a virtual teaching and learning symposium that will meet on Zoom between June 22-26, 2026. APSA’s teaching and learning symposia provide a workshop environment where scholar-educators with similar goals can come together to share their own practices and research related to teaching and create new teaching resources for their courses. Led by Simon Lightfoot (University of Leeds) and Charley Turner (California State University, Chico), the theme of this symposium is Teaching Political Science in an Age of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI). This joint symposium aims to bring together political science educators from APSA and PSA to share best practices.
Workshop Details
- Date: June 22-26, 2026
- Location: Online
- Registration fee: US$20 (approximately £15) for APSA/PSA members and US$35 (approximately £26) for non-members
- Application Deadline: Sunday, April 5, 2026
Political science instructors, whether they like it or not, must consider both the challenge and opportunity brought about by the ubiquity of GAI. This symposium seeks to bring together a small cohort of political science scholar-educators to workshop, co-create, and discuss teaching resources, techniques, and strategies for teaching politics in a world where students’ options for reading, writing, and information generally are rapidly changing.
This symposium is particularly interested in answering questions such as, but not limited to:
- How are students using GAI in their studies and what strategies are educators using to integrate GAI into teaching and the strategies for evaluation/assessment of student work?
- What are the limitations of GAI for politics teaching and assessment?
- What does the future hold for GAI in higher education?
- How are you changing the approach/structure of your course?
- How do we help students distinguish between ethical uses of AI and those that contravene policies?
The goals of the symposium are:
- To provide an inclusive space where participants can build supportive relationships with other scholar-educators from across APSA and PSA who are grappling with the shifting landscape of GAI.
- To present, discuss, and co-create innovative class activities, readings, or assignments that help students effectively navigate the ethical boundaries and learning potential of GAI.
- To contribute teaching materials to an APSA Educate resource collection on AI in political science education.
We are not looking for academic papers. Instead, we are looking for examples of teaching resources and approaches that can be shared and potentially replicated by others. Your teaching resource need not be publication ready, only something you have found useful in teaching and are interested in developing and sharing. The final resource collection will be shared on APSA Educate in advance of the fall 2026 semester for other faculty to browse and use in their own classes.
Application Deadline: Sunday, April 5, 2026
For more information, see our FAQs and/or contact teaching@apsanet.org or Michelle Allendoerfer at mallendoerfer@apsanet.org with any questions.
Meet the Co-Facilitators
Simon Lightfoot (University of Leeds) joined the School of Politics and International Studies at the University of Leeds in 2005 from Liverpool John Moores University and became a Professor in 2019. He is a visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana and has been a visiting fellow at the National Europe Centre, Australian National University and the Corvinus University of Budapest. He is co-convenor of the EADI Working Group ‘The EU as a Development Actor’.
He is interested in learning and teaching issues. In 2009, he won the Political Studies Association’s Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching and was awarded a full University Teaching Fellowship. In 2013, he won the prestigious award of National Teaching Fellow.
Charley Turner (California State University, Chico) has been a faculty member in the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice since 2000. Dr. Turner earned his doctorate in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University. His research and teaching interests include American political institutions (namely the Presidency, Congress, and the Courts) as well as state & local government. In addition to a book on American Indian policy (The Politics of Minor Concerns) and articles on American politics and on the scholarship of teaching and learning, he is also co-author of Introduction to American Government by BVT Publishing. He enjoys spending time with his cat and two little boys, walking, and nachos.
Visit APSA’s Teaching Symposia page for information about this program and to view past events.
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