Political Science Weekly Digest for Friday, March 6, 2026
March 06, 2026
We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.
POLITICAL SCIENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
ANDREW WENDER IN THE MEDIA
Andrew was interviewed on CBC Newsworld and CBC Radio with Gregor Craigie about the conflict in Iran
REETA TREMBLAY IN THE MEDIA
Reeta was interviewed on the CBC about the recent trade negotiations between Canada and India.
CONGRATS TO PhD STUDENT, SARAH STILWELL!
Congratulations to Sarah Stilwell who has been awarded the Faculty of Social Sciences 2025-26 Graduate Excellence Award, specifically the Community-Engaged Research and Knowledge Mobilization Award for Graduate Students!
SPRING 2026 POLI SPEAKERS SERIES: Antoaneta Dimitrova and Bernard Steunenberg, Leiden University
Tuesday, March 24, 2:30-4 pm, DTB A357
“Discourses about the next enlargement of the EU: Are we all meritocrats now?”
European Union (EU) enlargement has been fundamentally altered by the war against Ukraine. As the EU embarks on ‘geopolitical enlargement’, the negotiation processes and potential accession of Ukraine and Moldova—and Albania and Montenegro—remain fraught with trade-offs and risks. One key tension lies between the pursuit of a relatively rapid, geopolitically driven accession process and the imperative to secure and reinforce the rule of law in candidate countries and within the enlarged Union.
We identify and explore competing elite discourses and arguments within the EU concerning the future of enlargement. Some attempt to reconcile internal EU cohesion with geopolitical and security imperatives, while others perceive these goals as fundamentally at odds. By identifying key discourses and the role they play, we aim to contribute to the theoretical understanding of EU decision making. Empirically, we demonstrate that policy officials engage in a bridging but non-coordinative discourse around the concept of merit.
Antoaneta Dimitrova is Professor in the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs at Leiden University. She researches effect of the EU on the democratic and market transformations of the post-communist states of Central and Eastern Europe.
Bernard Steunenberg is Professor Emeritus in the Institute of Public Administration of the Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs, Leiden University. He researches European politics and policymaking, including the relationship between the EU and its Member States and implementation of European policy.
UVic ANNOUNCMENTS
11TH BIANNUAL LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP (LARG) WORKSHOP
Saturday, March 7 (in-person only) CLE A127
Workshop 9:30-4:00: Keynote speaker: 1:15-2:45
LARG invites you to our biannual interdisciplinary workshop on Latin America. Panels cover topics including human rights, film, environmental sustainability, literature, history, education, and indigenous knowledge.
Keynote speaker: Dr. Maxwell Cameron “Democracy without parties or state capacity? Peru's 2026 election”
Dr. Cameron is Latin American Studies Association (LASA) President and 2022 Guillermo O’Donnell Democracy Award and Lectureship winner. He is professor of political science in the Department of Political Science and School of Public Policy and Global Affairs, at UBC.
Co-Sponsored by Latin American Studies (UVic), the Centre for Global Studies (UVic), and the Latin American Landscapes Research Cluster (UBC)
CAPI: BOOK LAUNCH
Monday, March 16, 1-4 pm, FRA A168a (CAPI Boardroom)
Neilesh Bose, UVic History, and Iftekar Iqbal, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, launch new books with panel discussions.
PANEL 1: 1-2:30 pm
Neilesh Bose: Chips from a Calcutta Workshop explores the development and nature of comparative religion in nineteenth-century India. It focuses on the ideas and intellectual currents behind a range of thinkers who explored comparative religion in India, drawing on a variety of inspirations from Indian religions. https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/refining-religion/D24C1D07C1BC2FED1E252325FFF99151#fndtn-metrics
Panelists: Andrew Wender, History and Political Science, Director, RCS, UVic. Kathryn Chan, Law, UVic
PANEL 2: 2:45-4 pm
Iftekar Iqbal: The Range of the River: A Riverine History of Empire across China, India, and Southeast Spanning nearly 4 million square kilometers, the Tibetan river system—including the Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Salween, Mekong, Red, and Yangzi—forms the largest contiguous network of rivers on the planet, stretching across eastern South Asia, mainland Southeast Asia, and southern China.https://www.sup.org/books/asian-studies/range-river
Panelists: Deborah Curran, Law, Executive Director, Environmental Law Centre, UVic
ann-elise lewallen, Pacific and Asian Studies, UVic
CAPI: PANEL DISCUSSION
“Constitutions and Emergency Powers: Toward a new Research Agenda”
Friday, March 20, 3:30-5 pm, FRA A168a (CAPI Boardroom)
A panel discussion with Arun Thiruvengadam, Maartje De Visser and Victor V. Ramraj
With the changing nature of contemporary crises, formal, constitutional emergency powers do not always seem well-suited to respond. Emergency powers are often open to abuse—and historically have been used to concentrate political power in the executive and to oppress political opponents—the classic concern of emergency powers scholarship, and the subject of ongoing and renewed concern. At the same time, the sheer variety of global crises, not only political, but relating also to public health, climate, financial, technological, migration, as well as their interconnection in the form of a polycrisis, require novel ways of framing and limiting, emergency powers, formal and informal. The participants will consider the trajectory of constitutions and emergency powers in the decades ahead.