Events

2020 Annual Meeting

Your AAR staff continues to work toward holding the Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 21-24, 2020. We are aware of the uncertainty and contradictory projections related to the COVID-19 pandemic and with health and safety as a priority, we will continue monitoring the guidance of governments and health experts as we plan and make decisions. Should any changes need to be made related to the 2020 Annual Meeting, we will promptly notify you.

2020 Regional Meetings

Open Registration:

All remaining regional meetings for 2020 have been canceled

AAR Endorses ACLS Statement on NSF Funding for Political Science Research

The American Academy of Religion supports a diversity of approaches to the study of religion, including those used by political scientists. Recently Congress severely cut National Science Foundation funding for political science research. In response, the April 2013 meeting of the AAR Board of Directors endorsed the following American Council of Learned Society statement about this important matter:

The American Council of Learned Societies urges the Congress to restore adequate funding for research in political science by the National Science Foundation and to remove restrictions on peer-reviewed judgment of the value of the research to be supported.

Democracy is a complex, living phenomenon, and like all such complexities, it demands study. Funding from the National Science Foundation has been essential to producing and maintaining data on electoral behavior and public opinion that not only are essential resources to scholars in many fields, but crucial to public debate. The recent budget amendment proposed by Senator Coburn aims to limit federal funding to topics related to national security and economic competitiveness. Our democratic polity is the ultimate source of both. Peer-reviewed research offers a way to understand dispassionately and fearlessly what may be difficult or controversial about our common life and our politics, for the benefit of all.

When the Congress established the National Science Foundation in 1950, it wisely safeguarded the integrity of the research process by mandating that independent experts evaluate the merit of projects to be funded. This principle of peer-review has served the nation well in the funding of research in science, medicine, the social sciences, and the humanities. We urge the Congress to continue its support of this essential practice without limitation.

As an ACLS member, the AAR will continue to advocate for federal funding of political science research, along with our advocacy for research and teaching in all the Humanities, particularly in these difficult days of shortsighted budget cuts.