Thanks to our Opportunity and Innovation grants, I was able to attend a Political Science conference that had long been on my radar. The American Political Science Association has an annual Teaching and Learning conference, and this year it was in Alexandria, VA Feb 7-9th. Several of my colleagues in the Politics, Policy, and International Relations section of ACRL have attended in the past and this year there was a whole track called “21st Century Skills: AI, Literacy, Analysis, Research and Writing.”

There were two types of sessions – discussion sessions and paper panels. In the discussion sessions there was a broad topic and the moderators posed questions to the group and the discussion went from there. In the paper panels faculty did short 10-15 minute summaries of in-progress research and took questions and feedback from the audience. Both sessions types were fascinating but perhaps the most interesting thing was to be around political scientists in this particular moment of American History. the NIH funding announcement came out on the Friday evening of the conference, so as you might expect the Saturday conversations had a sense of urgency and anxiety that was palpable.

The best discussion session I attended was about how to teach American History in this particular moment and it was sobering. Many faculty expressed how difficult it was to teach students who no longer felt democracy was a good thing, or even a standard the government should be trying to uphold. Others found themselves in new roles – having spent their careers in healthy skepticism and pushback against our democratic institutions to one where they were defending the same institutions against what is happening currently. But they also talked about how many students now have an increased interest in politics (numbers of majors are going way up) and how students who used to be uninterested in some topics (think separation of powers, the US bureaucracy, the courts, etc.) now sit up straight and realize how important it is to understand these things. The ability to bring in real life situations to class discussions can make it all seem more relevant and important. But there was a sense that in the future they may have to rewrite huge parts of their syllabi to keep up with the moment.

Several of the paper sessions I went to were interesting as well. There was one about a First Year Seminar that was called ‘What Can Pop Culture Teach Us About Politics’ where she used films to discuss political issues. Several were about using AI in the classroom – from teaching the ethics of it, to teaching prompt engineering, to using AI features in CMSs – there was good thinking and healthy skepticism all around. It was also fascinating to hear from folks in university systems across the country and how current and proposed policies will impact their institutions and potentially even their curriculums.

All around this was a great conference and while I may not go every year (it moves around and so may be too far afield to go next year) I will keep my eye out for it to be back in driving distance for sure!