CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IN A RESEARCH PROJECT ON THE POLITICS OF FRANCOPHONE AFRICA, 2024-2027
FrenchPoliticsGroup
CONTACTS:
Jacob Lewis (Washington State University) js.l...@wsu.edu
Ragnhild Muriaas (University of Bergen) Ragnhild...@uib.no
Amy G. Mazur (Lead Editor, French Politics) ma...@wsu.edu
DESCRIPTION
The journal, FRENCH POLITICS (https://link.springer.com/journal/41253/volumes-and-issues) is seeking to publish current research on any aspect of the politics of Francophone Africa broadly writ in a special issue to be published in 2027, co edited by Jacob Lewis (Washington State University) and Ragnhild Muriaas (University of Bergen). The goal of this project is to promote a systematic scholarly dialog about the legacy of French/ Belgian colonialism in contemporary Francophone African politics and to disseminate that dialog in a journal that has more-or- less ignored postcolonial issues. As such, papers may focus on a wide range of levels of analysis– single countries, local level politics, multi-level politics, transnational politics, etc. and units of analysis - political behavior, social movements, institutions, public policy, intersectionality, gender, international affairs etc. within the Francophone African context.
The first step will be to hold a panel at the APSA meetings in Vancouver, Canada September 11-14th in 2025. There is already a guaranteed panel slot through the partner group of the French Politics Group and the Association Francaise de Science Politiques (https://web.apsanet.org/fpg/). FRENCH POLITICS is the official journal of the group. So once you agree to come, you will have a slot to present your paper on the panel.
We understand that meetings are expensive, but hope that you will be able to attend since this will be the opportunity to present rough drafts of ongoing research, discuss your research issues with other experts on the region and get feedback from Jacob and Ragnhild. We can also help you apply for travel funding through APSA and will have one complimentary conference registration, so please let us know your needs. As for the Special Issue in French Politics, if you are unable to attend APSA, we would still consider the inclusion of your paper for the special issue.
Please let us know if you are interested in being in the special issue. We would ask that you still prepare a draft of your paper by the APSA Meetings, even if you are not able to attend APSA. Once the editors have gone through the process of putting together a special issue proposal with all of the draft pieces, they will then get in touch with you for the next steps. Each article in special issues at FRENCH POLITICS must go through the double-blind review process applied to all research articles. Thus, there is a possibility for a piece to be rejected; most of the time articles are given R and Rs the first round.
PROPOSED TIMEFRAME
2025
Feb1 E-mail paper title and abstract. Let us know if you would like to be on the APSA panel or just the SI – or both. If you want to attend the meetings you need to be registered with MY APSA by the time panel is submitted to APAS in mid Feb.
September 1 Draft Papers are due
September 11-4 APSA Panel takes place
November 1 Ragnhild and Jacob will communicate with everyone the next steps for submitting the SI articles for review, which will be revised versions of your draft papers that will be ready to go through the journal’s rigorous review process.
2026
January Final articles to be ready to be submitted for review to the journal.
2027
June 2027 - Target date for SI publication. Typically, it takes a year for SI’s to go through the review process.