BCPSA Mission, Constituencies, and Activities

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This document was prepared by the 2026 BCPSA Board of Directors to guide its work over the coming two years. Comments are welcome by email to BCPSA President Fred Cutler (fred.cutler@ubc.ca).

1. Introduction: The BCPSA at a Crossroads

The British Columbia Political Studies Association (BCPSA) was founded in 1994 and held its inaugural conference at Simon Fraser University in May 1995. It emerged from a distinctive institutional context: the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) Political Science Articulation Committee, which brought together representatives from the province's diverse post-secondary institutions to coordinate curriculum and facilitate student mobility. The BCPSA therefore combined the functions of a regional scholarly association — providing a venue for the presentation and discussion of research — with a practical mandate to support teaching, learning, and institutional collaboration across a highly differentiated post-secondary system.

Thirty years on, the BCPSA retains its annual conference and its student essay prizes, but has not substantially expanded its activities or its reach. Conferences have been staged irregularly, with varying degrees of success. The association is alive, but has been dormant for long stretches. Yet the conditions that gave rise to the BCPSA — a large and diverse post-secondary sector, a geographically dispersed membership, and a discipline with genuine public relevance — remain as compelling as ever.

This document sets out a renewed statement of mission and value proposition for the BCPSA. It identifies the association's principal constituencies, articulates what the association can meaningfully offer each of them, and proposes a range of activities and programming through which those commitments might be realized. It is intended as a working document for the association's executive and membership in the recognition that any renewal of the BCPSA will depend on the sustained engagement of its members and the institutions they represent.

2. Constituencies and Their Needs

The BCPSA has the potential to serve four overlapping constituencies: faculty, students, departments and institutions, and the broader public. Each has distinct needs.

2.1 Faculty

The faculty membership of the BCPSA is itself heterogeneous. It includes tenure-track and tenured faculty at research-intensive universities, faculty at primarily teaching-focused universities and university-colleges, sessional and contract instructors who constitute a substantial share of the post-secondary teaching workforce in BC, and retired/emeritus or adjunct members who retain professional connections to the discipline. These groups share some interests but differ considerably in their circumstances and priorities.

For faculty at all career stages and institutional types, the BCPSA can provide:

A regional conference that is more accessible — in terms of cost, travel, and institutional support — than the national CPSA meeting and international conferences, and that offers a collegial venue not just for presenting work in progress, but also for exchange on all of the members’ professional, pedagogical, and civic activities.
Networking and professional community, particularly valuable for those at smaller or more isolated institutions, for sessional instructors who lack the departmental infrastructure of permanent faculty, and for those new to the profession.
A teaching and learning community: A space to develop communities of practice and a forum for sharing pedagogical approaches, course materials, and strategizing responses to common challenges specific to the institutional context of BC post-secondary education.
Mentorship structures, both formal and informal, that can support graduate students entering the profession, early-career faculty, and sessional instructors seeking pathways to more stable employment.
A connector for research collaboration: the BCPSA is well-positioned to facilitate introductions among faculty working on related questions across different institutions, and to support the formation of research partnerships that might not otherwise emerge.
Facilitation of media engagement: the association can help connect journalists and media organizations with faculty expertise, raising the public profile of political studies in BC and supporting members in translating their research for broader audiences.
Representation to the BC Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills to emphasize the value of political studies in the program and course offerings of BC institutions.

2.2 Students

Students represent the constituency with the greatest unmet potential for the BCPSA. The association currently offers essay prizes for undergraduate and graduate students. The annual conference is open to student participation, though the conditions of that participation limit its accessibility. A renewed BCPSA should consider what it can offer students at different stages of their academic careers and should recognize that its relationship with students as a constituency in fact even if they don’t know the BCPSA exists.

One of the most consequential things the BCPSA might do is contribute to the efforts of institutions and faculty toward impressing upon students why political studies matters, what they can do with education in political studies, and how to navigate the post-secondary system to pursue their interests. BC's transfer system is among the most developed in Canada, yet many students are unaware of the pathways available to them, or lack the information needed to make informed decisions about transfer, specialization, or graduate study. The BCPSA, with its roots in the articulation committee system and its connections across the full range of BC institutions, is well-placed to address this gap. Going further, helping students connect with a broader scholarly and professional community can be a genuine contribution to the quality of political studies education in the province.

For undergraduate students, the association can provide:

Recognition of academic achievement through essay prizes and conference participation, including low-stakes formats such as poster presentations that are appropriate for students at earlier stages of their development.
Online resources and events — webinars, virtual panels, introductory workshops — that are accessible to students at institutions across the province, including those at smaller colleges where programming may be limited.
Clear, accessible information about transfer pathways between BC institutions for students interested in political studies, public policy, and law: which credits transfer, how to plan a degree across institutions, and how to make the most of BC's articulation system.
Foregrounding of graduate study in political studies and related fields within BC, such that students learn about graduate programs in BC and are encouraged to apply to them.
Information about the range of careers available to graduates in political studies and policy studies — in government, the public service, civil society, journalism, law, and beyond — that helps students understand the practical value of their studies and make informed decisions about their futures.
Connections to the BC Legislative Internship Programme (BCLIP) and similar opportunities that bridge academic study and public life, giving students a tangible sense of where their education can lead.
Potentially, a peer-reviewed publication venue — whether a dedicated undergraduate journal or a broader student-facing outlet — that provides an opportunity for students to experience the scholarly publication process.

For graduate students (both MA and doctoral), the association can provide:

A accessible, lower-cost regional conference that offers a supportive environment for presenting research, receiving feedback, and beginning to build a professional network.
Thematic webinar series and virtual mini-conferences that allow graduate students to engage with current debates in the discipline without the cost and logistical demands of travel.
Mentorship connecting graduate students with faculty across BC institutions, supporting both academic career development and the navigation of non-academic pathways in government, policy, and the broader public sector.

2.3 Departments and Institutions

BC's post-secondary system is unusually diverse. It includes research-intensive universities, teaching-focused degree-granting institutions, and colleges and university-colleges that offer political studies courses as part of broader liberal arts or social science programs from which some students transfer to political studies programs at the degree-granting institutions. The interests and capacities of these institutions differ substantially, and the BCPSA must be attentive to that diversity if it is to serve as a genuinely provincial association.

For departments and institutions, the BCPSA can provide:

Professional development opportunities for faculty, including workshops on pedagogy, curriculum design, and the scholarship of teaching and learning, that are tailored to the specific challenges of teaching political studies in BC's institutional and societal context.
A platform for promoting student success: the association can serve as a clearinghouse for information about student achievements — prize winners, conference presenters, graduate school placements — that supports departmental recruitment and profile-building.
Articulation support: the BCPSA's historical connection to the BCCAT Political Science Articulation Committee positions it to facilitate ongoing dialogue about curriculum alignment, transfer credit, and the coherence of political science and studies programming across the system.
Advocacy to government: the association can represent the collective interests of political studies departments to the provincial Ministry of Post-Secondary Education and Future Skills, particularly on matters affecting curriculum, enrolment, and the conditions of academic work.
Communities of practice: the BCPSA can facilitate ongoing working groups or communities of practice that contribute to faculty and Department success, particularly around shared pedagogical or research interests that allow faculty across institutions to collaborate and share resources.

2.4 The Broader Public

The study of politics has obvious connections to the community, which should be integrated in almost all Association activities. The discipline produces knowledge that is directly relevant to the conduct of democratic politics, the design of public institutions, and the formation of public policy. The BCPSA is well-positioned to contribute to knowledge mobilization and knowledge translation as a bridge between the academic community and the broader public — including Indigenous nations, government, civil society, the media, and secondary education.

For the broader community, the BCPSA can provide:

A point of contact for government and non-governmental organizations seeking academic expertise on questions about politics, social justice, political economy, international relations, local and provincial government, political ethics, public services, and so on.
Translation of scholarly research into an accessible format (blog posts, news items, Q&A, podcasts) that attracts members of the public and organizations, increasing the reach impact of the research.
Facilitation of media appearances by member faculty, helping to ensure that political studies expertise is accessible to journalists and the public during elections, policy debates, and moments of political significance.
Outreach to secondary education: political studies and civics are teachable at the high school level, so the BCPSA might develop resources and connections that support secondary teachers in incorporating political studies content into their courses, building a pipeline of students who arrive at universities and colleges with an informed interest in the discipline.
Public events — lectures, panels, roundtables — that bring academic expertise to bear on questions of current political and policy significance in BC, and that are designed to be accessible to non-specialist audiences.

2.5 Membership: Defining and Reaching the Community

A challenge for the revitalization of the BCPSA is that it has never had active membership list. Conference attendance provides a periodic point of contact, but it reaches only a fraction of the potential membership and leaves no durable connection. A current, well-maintained roster of members — with institutional affiliations, research interests, and teaching areas — would enable the association to communicate effectively, to connect members with relevant opportunities, and to represent the community credibly to government and the media. Building and maintaining this list should be treated as a core organizational function.

Addressing this requires a deliberate membership strategy — one that makes the value of membership clear and joining the BCPSA easy and affordable.

Membership fees should be tiered to reflect the diversity of the constituency. A suggested structure might include:

A nominal undergraduate student tier (e.g., $10/year), designed primarily to establish a relationship and provide access to association communications, resources, and events rather than to generate revenue.
A graduate student or unwaged tier (e.g., $25/year), with access to conference fee subsidies, mentorship programming, and virtual events.
A regular full-time faculty tier (e.g., graduated $70–100/year), with full access to association programming and a partial subsidy toward in-person conference attendance.
A sessional/part-time faculty tier at a reduced rate (e.g., $40/year) recognizing the financial constraints of contract academic work.
A retired/emeritus tier at a reduced rate (e.g., $50/year).
An institutional membership tier for departments and colleges (e.g., per full-time faculty for a total of $100–400/year), establishing a formal relationship with the association that supports departmental advocacy and profile-building.
A practitioner tier (e.g., $100/year) for those not affiliated with or teaching or learning at a BC higher education institution.

Membership revenue might be used, at least in part, to subsidize conference attendance — particularly for students and those at institutions with limited professional development funding and for faculty without institutional support who wish to travel to the conference. The conference is the association's most visible activity, and barriers to attendance undermine its value as a community-building event.

2.6 Expanding Scope: Public Policy and Public Administration

The BCPSA's current mandate is focused on political science and political studies. There is a strong case for expanding this to include public policy and public administration. Public policy and public administration are taught at many BC institutions, often in programs that sit adjacent to or within political science departments. The intellectual terrain they share with political science is substantial. Practitioners in these areas — policy analysts, public servants, non-profit managers, consultants, lobbyists, social science researchers — constitute a large and professionally active community, many of whom would likely welcome the opportunity to stay connected to a community-relevant academic association.

Expanding the Association’s scope to encompass public policy and public administration would offer several concrete benefits:

A substantially larger membership base, drawing in faculty from schools of public policy and administration, professional programs, and applied social science departments that are not currently affiliated with the BCPSA, as well as practitioners who want to keep their connections to the academic world alive.
Increased conference attendance and vitality, with panels and sessions that speak to the interests of both academic researchers and policy practitioners — a combination that tends to produce more dynamic and publicly relevant programming.
Richer connections between academics and practitioners, creating genuine two-way enrichment: researchers may obtain access to policy problems and data; practitioners could gain access to research findings and emerging analytical frameworks. This benefits teaching (through case studies, guest speakers, and applied assignments), research (through access to practitioners and policy processes), and students (through internship opportunities, career connections, and a clearer sense of where their education leads).
New pathways for student career development, including connections to the BC public service, Crown corporations, regulatory bodies, and the non-profit sector — pathways that are currently underdeveloped in the association's programming.
Enhanced credibility in dealings with government and civil society, as an association that speaks for a broader community of scholars and practitioners engaged with questions of governance and public life in BC.

Such an expansion would need to be managed carefully. It should not dilute the association's identity or displace the interests of its existing political science/studies membership. A reasonable approach would be to begin by inviting public policy and public administration faculty to participate in the annual conference and in virtual programming, to assess the level of interest, and to consider a formal expansion of the mandate only once a critical mass of engagement has been established.

3. Strategic Activities and Programming

The following activities represent a range of possibilities for a renewed BCPSA.

The Annual Conference

A renewed BCPSA should consider how the conference can better serve its diverse constituencies. The conference format could include remote and hybrid participation, a conference website where papers are posted and comments are given even by those in attendance, and community-relationship-building activities. The conference might include: more deliberate programming for graduate students, including mentorship sessions and career panels; a poster stream that is genuinely welcoming to MA and undergraduate participants; workshops on teaching and learning that are integrated into the conference program rath; and a public-facing event — a keynote or panel open to the broader community — that raises the association's profile beyond the academy. The APPSA's practice of including a public plenary open to non-academics offers a useful model in this regard. Conference fees should be structured to reflect membership tiers, with subsidies available for students and those with limited institutional support.

The Canadian Political Science Review (CPSR)

As one of the three regional associations that jointly founded the CPSR, the BCPSA will continue contributing support to the journal. The CPSR provides a second Canadian publication venue for research work across the discipline and therefore serves the interests of BCPSA members. The BCPSA may continue to show leadership, hosting the editorial team of the CPSR in British Columbia.

Digital Programming and Virtual Events

BC's geography makes in-person participation in association activities genuinely difficult for many, no matter where they are held. A program of regular virtual events — thematic webinars, virtual mini-conferences, online workshops — would substantially extend the association's reach and provide value to members who cannot easily attend the annual conference. Such events are relatively low-cost to organize and can be archived for members who cannot attend in real time.

Teaching and Learning Community

The BCPSA's origins in the articulation committee system give it a distinctive mandate in the area of teaching and learning. A dedicated teaching and learning ‘channel’ for BCPSA members —workshops, a resource repository, and a community of practice — would serve faculty across the full range of institutional types and would address needs that the CPSA does not meet. This might include resources on the integration of Indigenous content into political studies curricula, on teaching quantitative methods to students with limited mathematical backgrounds, on the use of simulations and experiential learning, and on the particular challenges of teaching in large introductory courses. In doing some of this, we would be mindful not to duplicate efforts by other Canadian and international organizations.

Student Engagement and Recognition

The existing BCPSA essay prizes are a valuable but underutilized asset. A renewed BCPSA should increase their visibility and reach, ensuring that students at smaller institutions are aware of and encouraged to enter the competitions. An affordable undergraduate membership tier, a student-facing newsletter or online presence, online publication of the winning entries, and a mentorship program connecting graduate students with faculty mentors would all contribute to a more robust student constituency. The association could also develop a suite of resources specifically aimed at helping students navigate the BC post-secondary system: information about transfer pathways, degree options, graduate school preparation, and career trajectories.

Advocacy, Liaison, and Public Engagement

The BCPSA is the natural representative body for faculty and students of politics in BC to liaise with government, media, and civil society. We could provide a current directory of member expertise for media and government use, develop relationships with the provincial Ministry of Post-Secondary Education, and establish an advisory presence in public debates about BC politics and policy. The association might also consider whether it has a role to play in supporting the BC Legislative Internship Programme or in developing new pathways connecting students and graduates to public sector careers.

Communities of Practice and Research Collaboration

The BCPSA can serve as a facilitator of research collaboration and communities of practice in ways that require relatively little ongoing organizational capacity. A simple mechanism for connecting faculty working on related research or pedagogical questions — a directory, a listserv, or a periodic research-matching exercise — could generate significant value. More formally, the association might sponsor or co-sponsor working groups or research clusters around themes of particular relevance to BC: Indigenous governance, resource politics, municipal and regional government, or the politics of post-secondary education itself.

4. Governance, Administration, and Relationship to the CPSA

The association has historically operated with a lean executive and minimal administrative infrastructure. A more active association will require more sustained commitment from its executive, and the association should consider whether its governance structures — including the composition and responsibilities of the executive, the role of institutional members, and the relationship between the BCPSA and the BCCAT articulation committee — are adequate to support a broader program of activities.

The administrative and activity-development capacity of the BCPSA will rely on the work of the Board. However, if a membership drive is successful it may be possible to fund a year-long ‘work-learn’ position for an graduate student in one of the member departments. Such a resource would allow for accelerated and more robust development of some of the kinds of activities noted above.

The BCPSA must be complementary to the role of the national CPSA. A regional or provincial organization can generate community and facilitate activities that a national organization cannot.

The experience of comparable associations is instructive. The Prairie Political Science Association (PPSA), formed in 2007, has developed a distinctive identity through its annual conference at the Banff Centre and its parallel Indigenous Relationality Workshop — a model that combines scholarly programming with a commitment to Indigenous-settler relations in the discipline. The APPSA, which served as the original model for the BCPSA, has maintained a robust annual conference that includes public-facing events and draws participants from across the Atlantic region. Both associations demonstrate that regional associations can provide genuine value that is distinct from, and complementary to, what national associations offer.

5. Conclusion

The BCPSA can provide a forum for political scientists in BC, support for teaching and learning across a diverse post-secondary system, and a connection between the discipline and the broader public life of the province. What is needed is a more deliberate effort to realize those purposes — to make the association genuinely useful to the full range of its potential members, and to demonstrate that membership provides value that cannot beu obtained elsewhere.

The priorities that emerge from this document are:

Build a membership base
Make the annual conference more accessible and more inclusive
Develop a program of virtual events that reaches members across the province
Invest in student engagement and the resources that help students understand their options, and
Connect the association more deliberately to government, media, and the broader public.