Workshops in St. Pete Beach, Florida
January 13-16, 2027
In collaboration with the Southern Political Science Association (SPSA) we are offering several professional development workshops at the SPSA's 2027 Annual Conference in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
Choisissez des ateliers dans l’un des trois domaines suivants* :
*all workshops can be taken either within or outside of the KiND/SPSA Professional Development Certificate program.
January 13th to January 16th, 2027
9:30am - 6:15pm (EDT)
Join us in St. Pete Beach, Florida in January. We are currently scheduling sessions, check back regularly for updates.
While you wait, you can also update your KiND Institute profile and upload your conference registration confirmation. This way, we can email you as soon as workshops are posted and registration has opened.
Professionalization
Presenting your Research: The Conference Challenge
with
Dr. Diana L. Gustafson
January 13th, 2027
2:30pm - 6:30pm (EST)
This workshop comes at the perfect time, right at the start of the SPSA conference. During this session, participants will gain important insights about what to expect during the conference, as well as tips on how to engage more confidently and productively during each of their sessions. Whether you are a student, an emerging scholar, or a seasoned conference goer, this workshop will help you polish your presentation skills and elevate your conference experience.
Dr. Gustafson will begin by leading participants through a series of discussions and exercises, offering practical guidance on presenting their work clearly within a 10 to 15-minute format, strategies for responding to live feedback and giving constructive feedback on others’ presentations, as well as tricks for how to make networking less intimating and how to build lasting and productive connections at conferences like the SPSA. The session will highlight other important aspects and benefits of participating in academic and non-academic conferences, including the value of serving as a discussant or chair, how to volunteer in advance, and how to step in at the last minute, if necessary. The workshop will end with a brief orientation to the SPSA conference, including an overview of conference logistics and other opportunities available to participants.
Make sure you arrive to St. Pete Beach early enough on Wednesday, January 13th, so that you do not miss out on this experience and the important information that comes along with it!
Rethinking Methods Publication in the Social Sciences
with
Dr. Jeff Gill
January 14th, 2027
11:00am - 1:45pm (EST)
Drawing on his extensive experience teaching and publishing methods in the social sciences and as former Editor-in-Chief of Political Analysis, Dr. Jeff Gill will explore how methods publication has evolved and what the future demands. In this workshop, Dr. Gill will discuss some of the established publishing practices and expectations of publishers. He will also discuss how new and emerging methods and research approaches require that we rethink how methodological contributions are made. Dr. Gill will present a different approach to publishing methods and elaborate on how such an approach can lead to greater methodological innovation and improved research outcomes.
The workshop will be reflective, exploring past approaches and gaps, but will also focus on practical strategies. By exposing the major gaps and limitations of methods publications currently dominating the social sciences, Dr. Gill invites participants to reconsider how methods publications may be approached moving forward. He will dig into strategies that researchers can employ to shift away from more traditional methods manuscripts towards publications that will have greater impact and make more meaningful contributions to the literature. He will discuss ways for researchers to refine their writing and how to target their submissions, including strategies to improve their success with publishers and ways to make their work more accessible to readers.
The workshop is intended for scholars at all career stages, whether preparing their own work or advising others.
This workshop is cross-listed in Research Methods and Professionalization.
Pitching to an Editor
with
Ze'ev Sudry
January 16th, 2027
9:30am - 10:45am (EST)
In this workshop, Ze’ev Sudry, Acquisitions Editor at DeGruyter Brill will meet with participants to discuss the best way to pitch their work for publication. He will take participants through the process, from choosing the right outlet for their work to assembling all the necessary components of a submission. In this session, participants will receive important insights that will help them to streamline their path to publication, improve the quality of their submissions, and maximize their likelihood of securing a publishing contract.
Leadership
Inter-Disciplinary Teaching: From Classroom to Community
with
Dr. Mary R. Anderson
January 16th, 2027
11:30am - 12:30pm (EST)
This workshop will introduce you to some of the skills you need to successfully integrate interdisciplinary expertise and research into your teaching practices. It will also offer practical tips and strategies for seeking out and building community partnerships that promote greater civic engagement among your students, as well as fruitful collaborations between your institution and the broader community.
By connecting classroom learning to the broader issues and interests of communities, students can gain important insights and a deeper understanding of the subject matter and the impact their education can have on their communities. From integrating other disciplines into your teaching to involving community voices and building mentorship and engagement programs, this workshop offers a variety of approaches to diversifying your teaching practices and bringing new thinking into your classroom.
In this workshop, Dr. Anderson will guide participants through a series of important considerations for using an interdisciplinary approach in teaching. Drawing on her own work studying communities, identities, and political behavior, she will discuss the benefits and challenges of integrating theories and methodologies from other disciplines into political science. She will also share insights from her own experience building partnerships with individuals and organizations outside the university, offering tips on how to identify the right partners, how to build meaningful relationships and engagement opportunities, and how to ensure maximum long-term benefit for students and for the community.
This workshop is cross-listed in Leadership and Professionalization.
Research Methods
Surveying Vulnerable Populations: Lessons from the Field
with
Dr. Piotr Modzelewski
January 16th, 2027
2:00pm - 6:15pm (EST)
Whether you are preparing your first field survey, adapting an existing questionnaire for in-person interviews, or working with community organizations to reach respondents, surveying vulnerable populations requires careful planning and flexibility. In this workshop, you will explore what is involved in adapting a major cross-national online survey of the general population to one-on-one in-person interviews with vulnerable populations. The lessons shared will draw on interviews with approximately 300 respondents recruited through civil society organizations addressing needs such as food security and housing.
Dr. Modzelewski will unpack the core components of the field research process, from questionnaire adaptation to interviewer recruitment and training, scheduling and completion tracking. Participants will also hear from Polish field interviewers, who will share challenges they encountered along the way and the approaches they used to address them. Through this workshop, participants will gain practical insights into planning and adapting field surveys, recruiting, hiring and managing a team of field interviewers, and documenting procedural and methodological choices.
Foundations and Utility of Generalized Linear Models
with
Dr. Jeff Gill
January 16th, 2027
9:30am - 1:45pm (EST)
In the social sciences, we are often faced with the reality that our data and the variables we use do not fit neatly into standard linear models that predict simple straight lines or normally distributed errors. To accommodate such data, better understand relationships between variables, and answer the big questions we want to ask, generalized linear models are introduced. For historical reasons, such models in the social sciences are referred to as “maximum likelihood models”.
Through his review of the foundations of the linear model, Dr. Gill will build on participants’ common understanding of the standard linear model, by introducing and elaborating on the basics of generalized linear models. A strong theoretical basis for these models will be presented and explained and distinctions drawn that highlight how the standard linear model can be adapted to accommodate a broader class of outcomes (including counts, dichotomous outcomes, bounded variables and more). Dr. Gill will guide participants towards a clearer understanding of the contexts in which different regression types should be considered and different models employed so that participants can make more informed analytical choices to better understand their data and interpret their findings.
The workshop will close with a brief introduction to traditional machine learning and deep learning. Dr. Gill will explain how maximum likelihood (or generalized linear) models can feed machine learning and how these models compare to the neurons forming deep learning neural networks. He will also discuss the human input components of each type of learning, and the potential errors such models can produce as a result of the way they are structured.
Prerequisites: basic statistics, some linear modeling, some matrix algebra.