The study of politics is concerned with the nature of power and related issues of justice and injustice. The discipline has conventionally been divided into the study of politics within states (often referred to as political science), and the study of politics in the international sphere (conventionally referred to as International Relations or IR). This distinction, however, is a fairly artificial one and tends to mask the very complex pattern of interactions between the two spheres. 

The units offered in Politics and International Relations generally take account of such complexities while providing focused units on a range of topics and issues in both branches of the discipline. Politics and International Relations combines well with broader humanities and social science programs such as history, philosophy, sociology, communications, economics and law and is a useful addition to a business studies program.

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Call for Papers have now CLOSED

IPSA RC14 (Research Committee on Politics and Ethnicity) Conference

July 11-14, 2013, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

The Politics of Indigenous Identity: National and Global Perspectives

The assertion of indigenous identity generally involves claims not just to recognition but to particular rights and interests usually based on prior occupation of territory, a valued way of life associated with the land, and a need to safeguard indigenous heritage for future generations. This further assumes that indigeneity is associated with a degree of dispossession and subordination within a larger sociopolitical sphere dominated by another larger and more powerful ethnic group which effectively controls the state. General questions raised by these issues include: How and by whom is 'indigeneity' defined and deployed? Is indigenity necessarily associated with minority status? How are indigenous claims to identity and/or rights theorized? How have different legal and political regimes attempted to reconcile indigenous interests with other interests? What forms might indigenous self-governance take? To what extent have indigenous movements become globalized? What can we learn from the history of indigenous movements?

Papers to be sent to the chair of the local organizing committee, Professor Stephanie Lawson, at stephanie.lawson@mq.edu.au.  The deadline for full papers (of no more than 8,000 words) is June 15^th, 2013.

For preliminary information in regards to the IPSA  RC14 Conference , please click here.