Conferences worth attending

[Ingunite]

Greetings:

As a first year PhD Pol Sci (IR) student, I am a bit overwhelmed by the list of "must do" things, among which attending conferences seems to be pretty important. Hence my question to older and wiser folk: How many conferences (with presentations or without) are you able to fit in your yearly schedule? And a score of follow up queries: How do you decide which ones to attend? APSA? Mid-West? Syracuse? Does geographical proximity matter to you? Who pays your travel expenses? How far ahead do you plan? I could go on and on...

If you feel like sharing your insights, I'd appreciate it.

[IRTheoryNerd]

I would definitely recommend ISA and ISA-Northeast (the latter of which has some pretty awesome less than mainstream stuff going on that might be nice to get your feet wet with). ISA-Northeast has a $150 travel grant for students whose home universities don't provide funding. I'm applying for funding for ISA's main conference through my home university but if that does not come through, I will pay out of pocket. As for fitting it into the schedule, well I just told myself long ago that I have to make it fit somehow. Often it takes the shape of some very late night writing sessions as deadlines loom. I usually go to conferences with newly formed ideas so that I can get feed back on them and decide which to invest more time to edit and submit to journals eventually. Since papers hardly have to be perfect at conferences, it is easier to pump something out. Geographic proximity matters insofar as funding matters, otherwise, go with your interests. I intend to make ISA-Northeast a part of my annual conference travels even though I'll be in Chicago starting next year, but there is a network of faculty and students who regularly attend relationships with whom I want to cultivate and grow. I also have not yet gone to any conferences to which I have not presented. I plan as far ahead as the submissions deadline requires. for ISA-Northeast that is about 4 or so months. For ISA it is about 9-10 months.

[Pol]

IPSA and maybe the APSA but I doubt it.

[AmericanQuant]

You can get some advice from faculty at your program on this question, but the conventional wisdom is that there's no reason to pay to go to a conference you're not presenting at.

[catchermiscount]

People in conflict love Peace Science; people in IPE love IPES. 

[RWBG]

People in conflict love Peace Science; people in IPE love IPES. 

I'll second the IPE people loving IPES. I haven't been yet, but most of the people I know who have attended have been suggesting I go even I'm not presenting.

Edited March 11, 2014 by RWBG

[Ingunite]

Thank you all for your input. This helps to plan ahead.  I earmarked ISA conference in Baltimore, November 2014.

[Ingunite]

To keep this thread alive, a follow-up question. Is anyone presenting at ISA Northeast conference in Baltimore in November? The paper submission deadlines were not very obvious on their web page. Are we past the deadlines for proposals already?

[AuldReekie]

To keep this thread alive, a follow-up question. Is anyone presenting at ISA Northeast conference in Baltimore in November? The paper submission deadlines were not very obvious on their web page. Are we past the deadlines for proposals already?

 

I don't think so, last years deadline was ~June. Although like you said the website is bad, but I think they've simply not uploaded the information for 2014.

[IRTheoryNerd]

To keep this thread alive, a follow-up question. Is anyone presenting at ISA Northeast conference in Baltimore in November? The paper submission deadlines were not very obvious on their web page. Are we past the deadlines for proposals already?

 

I intend to submit a proposal for ISA-NE, yes. And RLemkin is correct, deadlines are usually in the early summer.