About APT

HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION, 1999-2003

Note: The following history, covering 1999-2003, was written by Dennis McEnnerney and Emily Hauptman in 2003 and edited by early Founding and Governance Committee members. When moved to this website in 2009, that history was updated slightly. The 2004-2009 history was drafted in 2009 by Dennis McEnnerney and edited by Executive Co-Directors Elizabeth Markovits and Andrew Murphy.

Origins and Founding

Inspired in part by discussions held at a conference honoring Hanna Pitkin upon her retirement, Dennis McEnnerney and Emily Hauptmann decided to found an association dedicated to promoting scholarly and convivial interaction among American political theorists. Their work was initially supported and encouraged by several theorists who attended the Pitkin conference. Then during the spring of 2000, an informal group of theorists from across the country began working on a mission statement and organizational plan for the Association. That informal group grew into a more formal Founding Committee. Building on their support, the Association hoped to grow gradually, with the aim of embracing a wide array of scholars, students, and teachers of political theory. For details on the organization's initial plans, see the initial mission statement, "The APT Manifesto" (below).

APT Co-Founders
Dennis McEnnerney, Political Science, State University of New York, Oneonta
Emily Hauptmann, Political Science, Western Michigan University

The APT Founding Committee
Robert W. T. Martin, Government, Hamilton College
Greg Streich, Political Science, Central Missouri State University
John Medearis, Political Science, University of California, Riverside
Amy McCready, Political Science, Bucknell University
Dan Sabia, Government & International Studies, University of South Carolina
Ed Wingenbach, Government, University of Redlands

The APT Manifesto

Association. The founding members of APT believe that political theorists need more opportunities to meet each other, to work together, and to develop dialogues on the political, historical, and philosophical questions central to their inquiries. While national and regional professional organizations in political science, history, and philosophy do attract the participation of political theorists and philosophers, these meetings primarily serve the purpose of building the scholarly communities of those broader disciplines.

APT seeks to offer political theorists a different kind of intellectual opportunity: the opportunity to join a group dedicated to forging connections among scholars of political theory from across the disciplines. It is our hope that building an organization that is both more intimate than the larger disciplinary organizations and that is focused primarily on political theory and philosophy will promote regular interaction and dialogue among scholars associated with the various traditions or approaches to political thought and philosophy. The Association believes building an organization that links political theorists from all fields is especially important in an era in which political science and philosophy departments may have only one faculty line in political thought. For such scholars a national association could prove vital to their continued intellectual development. To these ends, APT aims to encourage wide participation within North America, not only by leading scholars in the field, but also by faculty and graduate students just beginning to make contributions to the field.

Teaching and Scholarship. The Association seeks to bring faculty, students, and independent scholars together in order to promote the teaching and writing of political theory. As an initial step toward this end, APT plans to construct a website on which members will be able to share ideas for courses and syllabi, review books and articles in print, and discuss pedagogical issues. As the organization expands and as the financial pressures on university presses grow, APT may also explore new ways to support opportunities for publishing in the subfield. More generally, the Association plans to encourage discussions among scholars about how best to teach and publish in political theory and philosophy in the 21st century.

Conferences. APT will sponsor conferences focused solely on political theory, the history of political thought, and political philosophy. Ultimately, the Association hopes to organize an annual conference that attracts faculty, graduate students, and independent scholars associated with all traditions and approaches and from all types of colleges and universities. It is hoped that this conference would encourage dialogue across disciplines, traditions, and approaches, while also bringing together influential scholars and dedicated teachers, leaders in the field and relative novices, researchers at elite universities and scholars at liberal arts colleges and lesser-known institutions. The organizers of APT conferences will seek to accommodate as many participants as possible.

The size and format of the annual conference will develop over time. During the first two years, financial and organizational constraints may limit APT to sponsoring a small conference, restricted largely to individuals interested in helping to build the Association. The format of these meeting - panels, pedagogical workshops, plenary talks, and the like - will depend largely upon the interests of those participants. Eventually, however, APT hopes to sponsor larger conferences that offer members a variety of formats in which to participate. The basic principle guiding the development of the APT conferences will be encouraging inclusive dialogues.

Advocacy. Finally, advocacy is a vital element in the mission of APT. The Association, by building bonds among political theorists and political philosophers, and by encouraging scholarly excellence and innovation, will aim to highlight the value of political theory and political philosophy in university and college curricula, while also working to strengthen the position of the subfield in political science, philosophy, and interdisciplinary programs across North America.

Further Information and Membership. For further information on the Association for Political Theory, or to join us, click on "About APT" in the frame to the left.

Membership is free. If you have comments, suggestions, or specific questions, or if you would like to contribute to helping build the organization, please feel free to contact the association's co-founders:*

Dennis McEnnerney, Department of Political Science
State University of New York, College at Oneonta

Emily Hauptmann, Department of Political Science
Western Michigan University

*Note: This document is presented here for historical purposes. Aside from altering the reference to the left navigation frame to fit the current website, it is unchanged from its original presentation in April 2001. Anyone interested in contributing to the Association today should contact the current Executive Co-Directors at associationforpoliticaltheory@gmail.com.

First published: 5 April 2001; latest reformatting: 25 May 2009.

APT Growth, 2001-2002

In order to recruit an effective core membership, the committee decided to draft a common e-mail message describing the APT, inviting people to visit our website, and encouraging them to join the Association. Members of the committee agreed to forward the message to 10 to 20 colleagues they thought would be interested. In order to encourage a diverse membership, it was agreed that no more than three should be friends, or alumni of the same graduate program, and that all should make an effort to contact individuals who represented the spectrum of approaches to political theory and political philosophy. In addition, the committee agreed to attempt to target individuals who seemed willing to work in a collegial manner with people who embraced different perspectives. While the group aimed to recruit members from all relevant disciplines, including philosophy, it was decided to focus on political scientists initially, since the Founding Committee was composed of political scientists who, for the most part, had relatively few contacts in other disciplines. Over time, the Association would aim to recruit more widely.

By the end of that summer, APT had grown from a handful of members to more than 30.

APSA Planning Meeting for the Inaugural Conference
At the 2002 American Political Science Association convention in Boston, a dozen members of APT met to begin planning a first conference. Simona Goi volunteered to host the conference at Calvin College, and a Program Committee was appointed. By November, the Program Committee had issued a call for papers and began actively spreading news of the conference via e-mail and through announcements to related organizations.

New memberships began to roll in from all across the nation and globe. By early spring, another 50 or so theorists and philosophers had joined APT.

Inaugural Conference, Fall 2003

Then the proposals began coming in. More than 130 people expressed interest in participating, with broad representation from individuals at different ranks and types of institutions. A wide range of perspectives were also present in the applicant pool. Suddenly, the Program Committee found itself organizing a good-sized conference.

Over 100 Theorists Meet at Calvin College
When the Inaugural Conference opened at the Prince Conference Center of Calvin College, 103 presenters, chairs, and discussants were on the program. Another ten or so scholars from the surrounding area drove in to take part in the meetings. In addition, senior scholars across the country wrote to Emily Hauptmann and Dennis McEnnerney noting how impressive the final program looked for a fledging organization.

Strong Support for a Second Conference
"I've never seen so many political theorists in one place!" That remark was heard more than once, and as the conference wound down, a consensus emerged among participants: another conference should be planned for 2004. More than 30 conferees wrote or sent comments on the conference, almost all positive and enthusiastic. About 25 people turned out for the business meeting on Sunday morning after the conference, and about 15 people volunteered to work on a new program committee.

By the fall of 2003, over 200 in scholars in political theory, philosophy, and related disciplines had become active in APT.

First published: 2 November 2003. Revised and reformatted, 25 May 2009.

HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION, 2004-2009