If you are looking for a great teaching and learning conference in the US, look no further than APSA TLC, the biannual conference dedicated to all things teaching in political science. This time it is in Portland Oregon, 5-7 February 2027. The submission deadline is coming up on October 7th, so if you have a paper, workshop, or roundtable idea, definitely get those submissions in soon.
For those new to TLC, it’s a small, dedicated teaching and learning conference that follows a track-based system. Attendees stay with their track the entire conference, getting to focus on a single area and to really get to know their fellow track members, but can also attend workshops and roundtables throughout the event. Examples of tracks include simulations and games, civic engagement, America @250, AI in teaching, and many others.
TLC is a great place to meet others who care deeply about teaching and to exchange ideas. It’s also a great way to get constructive feedback on your scholarship of teaching and learning papers prior to submitting to a journal. The vive is encouraging, positive, and sharing-friendly, and newcomers are welcomed enthusiastically. ALPS itself got its start at a TLC, after the original founders attended it and determined a need for an online resource to share teaching ideas. ALPS has now been running for 15 years, and many other great teaching practices and important scholarship owe their success to a past TLC.
This year, the theme is: “Building Bridges: Dialogue and Discovery in Political Science”. From the announcement: “America democracy and American higher education are facing significant challenges today. Partisan polarization is at all time highs, and the value of higher education, the liberal arts, and social science knowledge is under scrutiny, Political Science is in a unique position to address both threats by building bridges across differences.
With this backdrop, colleagues from diverse departments, campuses, institutions, and states must build bridges with one another. Building bridges requires two sides to meet in the middle, and while that chasm has grown, it just means greater effort needs to be made to dialogue with one another across our differences and disagreements. Only through dialogue can we continue to discover the commonalities that we share, the differences we have, and the respect that is necessary to actually, eventually, meet in the middle of these widening chasms.”
I’m on the planning team this year, and while the submission process refers only to papers, panels, roundtables, and workshops, the team is open to alternative proposals, such as author meets critics, ‘here’s how to teach with my textbook/sotl book’, or innovative formats. Anything you want to do to open up conversation or share ideas on teaching is worth submitting for consideration. For more information, head to: https://apsanet.org/events/teaching-learning-conference/