The Conference
The Sixth Annual State Politics and Policy Conference
will be held at Texas Tech University in Lubbock on May 19-20, 2006.
Please review the Call for Paper Proposals
if you are interested in presenting a paper at this conference. Note
that the Deadline for Proposals is December 15th, 2005. Any questions
you have about the conference should be directed to Nelson C. Dometrius
(nelson.dometrius@ttu.edu),
Brian Gerber (Brian.Gerber@mail.wvu.edu),
or Cherie Maestas (cmaestas@mailer.fsu.edu).
Conference Information
General conference information is provided below. You
can also learn more about the conference by going directly to the
Texas
Tech 2006 Conference Homepage.
Conference / Community Information.
Information about the Lubbock community, conference travel, and
the conference hotel is available through a link to the 2006 State
Politics and Policy Conference on the web page of the Texas Tech Department
of Political Science, http://www.depts.ttu.edu/politicalscience/.
Hotel & Local Transportation.
The conference hotel is the Embassy Suites Lubbock. It is an all-suite
hotel. Conference rates are for 1-2 people per room. A 3rd or 4th
person can be added for an extra $10. The hotel provides complimentary
cocktails in the evening and cooked-to-order (not pre-packaged cardboard)
breakfasts each morning. The hotel also provides shuttle service to
and from Lubbock International Airport. Cab fare from the airport
to the hotel is approximately $25 plus $2 for each extra person. Royal
Coach Towne Car Service (mostly Lincoln town cars) charges slightly
less, about $22-$24 plus $2 for each extra person. View the hotel
and its features at www.embassysuiteslubbock.com.
The conference will be held on the campus of Texas Tech University.
The conference will provide bus transportation from the hotel to the
conference center each morning and back to the hotel each evening,
as well as between the hotel and the Buddy
Holly Center for Friday evening’s dinner. Participants staying
at other hotels will need to arrange their own local travel to the
campus conference site and events.
Conference Times, Meals & Supplies.
The conference will begin at approximately 9:00 a.m. Friday morning
(leave the hotel between 8:30-8:45) and continue through approximately
5:00 p.m. that day. Participants will then be briefly returned to
the hotel and picked up again about 6:00-6:30 for a barbeque dinner
at the Buddy Holly Center. One bus will return from the Buddy Holly
Center to the Hotel at approximately 9:00 p.m. For those staying to
enjoy the Depot Entertainment District surrounding the Buddy Holly
Center, a second bus will leave the Center for the hotel later that
evening. The conference will continue starting at approximately 9:00
a.m. Saturday morning and conclude early afternoon approximately 2:00-3:00
p.m.
The conference organizers will provide lunch Friday and Saturday
and dinner Friday night. Refreshments will also be provided during
the conference.
Associated Conference on Redistricting
On Thursday afternoon, May 18, from approximately 12:30 – 5:45
p.m. an associated conference on redistricting will also be taking
place. The redistricting conference will be held at the conference
hotel. Those arriving early for the state politics conference are
welcome to register for and attend the redistricting conference panels.
Panelists for the redistricting conference will consist of a combination
of academics, journalists, and current or former elected officials.
There will also be a dinner from approximately 7:00-9:00 p.m. Thursday
evening for redistricting conference registered participants and attendees.
Click
Here for more information.
Poster Session / Graduate Student Participants
This year’s conference will feature a graduate student poster
session designed to showcase the promising new scholars in state politics.
Some senior scholars will serve as discussant / mentors for the session,
reviewing each paper with the presenters. The poster session will
have its own time slot, not conflicting with a panel, so that all
may attend. Members of the state politics and policy community are
encouraged to participate in the poster session, discussing with presenters
both their research and any upcoming job openings of which they may
be aware. A guide will be provided as part of the conference materials
listing all graduate student participants along with an abstract of
their research interests and accomplishments.
Closing Roundtable
The conference will close early Saturday afternoon with a wrap-up
panel and audience discussion. The roundtable will include a number
of current or former journal editors or section / association presidents
attending the conference. Members will comment on conference presentations
as a whole identifying topics, research strategies, methodological
approaches, and data resources that offer the greatest promise for
both near-term publication and long term knowledge-building in state
politics and policy.
Electronic paper postings
As authors complete their papers (including papers presented as posters)
they should be submitted electronically. Links to each full paper
will be included on the conference program and posted on both the
Texas Tech conference web site and the web site of the State Politics
and Policy section maintained at Florida State University.
Honoraria and Fees
Conference sponsors will provide honoraria for each paper presented
at the conference, including poster session papers. If a paper has
multiple authors, the authors will be invited later to declare how
the honorarium should be distributed among the authors. The exact
amount of the honoraria will be determined by the funds available
after the conclusion of the conference. If funds are available at
the conclusion of the conference, we will attempt to provide larger
honoraria for graduate student authored papers, particularly where
multiple graduate student authors of a paper attend the conference.
No registration fee will be charged to authors of papers presented
at the conference. Individuals participating on the program as invited
discussants or panel chairs only will not receive honoraria, but will
also not be charged any registration fee for the conference or its
activities. This applies to those on the program of either the State
Politics and Policy Conference or the Redistricting Conference. For
those attending as observers (not on either program in any role) there
will be a $45 registration fee will for the State Politics and Policy
Conference and a $20 registration fee for the Redistricting Conference.
A $60 fee will be charged for both conferences combined. The observer
fees are to cover the cost of meals, refreshments, and related services
provided by the conference. We desire to make conference attendance
as widely available as possible. Should anyone be interested in attending
the conference and able to forego some of these services, s/he should
contact the conference organizers and we will make every effort to
reduce the fees accordingly.