IPSA NEWSLETTER – May 2026

IPSA is pleased to present the official logo of the 29th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, which will be held at Luiss Guido Carli in Rome, Italy, as a fully in-person event from 24 to 28 July 2027. The official World Congress website will be launched in early June 2026. The website will feature details on the World Congress theme and program, important deadlines, registration fees, venue information, the procedure to apply for a Schengen visa, and useful information about Rome.

The 151st IPSA Executive Committee Meeting (EC) was held in Rome, Italy, from 17 to 18 April 2026. IPSA extends its thanks to the event hosts, Luiss Guido Carli and the Italian Political Science Association (SISP), for their support and hospitality. On 16 April 2026, the eve of its 151st EC meeting, IPSA also presented a workshop on Academic Freedom and Global Trends in Autocratization at Luiss Guido Carli.

At its recent Executive Committee meeting held in Rome on 17-18 April 2026, IPSA adopted a revised Statement on Academic Freedom based on its previous statement issued in 2016. This revised Statement reaffirms our core mission to support the academic freedom necessary for the social sciences to flourish. A critical addition to the revised Statement is the explicit recognition of how war, armed conflict, and organized violence gravely undermine the social sciences through the killing of academics, the destruction of research infrastructure and the forced displacement of scholars.

IPSA's new open-access volume, IPSA Companion to Political Science: A Practical Introduction to the 200 Most Important Concepts (Springer, 2025), was launched at the 2026 Congress of the Société québécoise de science politique (SQSP), held at the Université de Montréal, on 6 May 2026. The roundtable was followed by a cocktail reception sponsored by IPSA, celebrating the 20th anniversary of its Permanent Secretariat in Montréal.

IPSA Vice-President Magdalena Musiał-Karg presented an online IPSA lecture at the 2026 International Association for Political Science Students (IAPSS) World Congress on 5 May 2026. In her presentation, titled Academic Freedom Under Pressure: Between Formal Guarantees and Systemic Constraints, Prof. Musiał-Karg discussed contemporary challenges to academic freedom in democratic societies.

The 7th edition of the IPSA-ABU Summer School for Social Science Research Methods will be held virtually from 24 August to 4 September 2026. Designed for graduate students, academics, and professionals, the Antalya Summer School offers a unique opportunity to deepen your methodological expertise, sharpen your analytical skills, and expand your network in the field.

The first edition of the IPSA–PPSA Summer School: Transforming Politics and Media in the Age of Artificial Intelligence will be held from 14 to 19 September 2026 in Poznań, Poland. The program offers a series of workshops, each related to one of the cutting-edge techniques in political and communication research. 

The 3rd edition of the IPSA-AECPA Summer School for Political Science and Social Science Research Methods will be held at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, from 23 September to 2 October 2026. Detailed information will be available on the Summer School website shortly.