About APT

HISTORY OF THE ASSOCIATION, 2004-2009

Note: The second part of the history of the Association, from 2004-2009, was composed in 2009 by Dennis McEnnerney, with editing by Executive Co-Directors Elizabeth Markovits and Andrew Murphy, for publication on the new website, launched in the summer of 2009. For the first part, click here.

Building a Lasting Association

In the weeks leading up to the inaugural conference, the founding Co-Directors began exploring locations for a possible follow-up meeting. Around that time, Timothy Fuller offered to host a second conference at The Colorado College. The Calvin College business meeting voted to pursue the Colorado College option, and soon planning was underway for a second conference.

Meanwhile, the business meeting at Calvin College also empowered the Co-Directors and the Founding Committee to form a committee to draft a constitution so that APT would have a lasting formal structure. Andrew Murphy, then of Christ College at Valpariso University, agreed to head the committee, which John R. ("Randy") LeBlanc, Johnny Goldfinger, and Darren Walhof soon joined.

The Second Conference

The second conference was made possible, in large part, thanks to the efforts of Ed Wingenbach of the University of the Redlands, who co-chaired the Program Committee with Dennis McEnnerney. As the program came together -- with approximately 130 people participating -- the Association also made progress on several other fronts. The website, which initially had been a simple page, soon developed into a relatively complex site (for the era), including an online membership application page and a password-secured membership directory. With over 350 members by the start of the second meeting, the Association had begun to grow into a substantial organization.

Meanwhile, for the Colorado College conference, APT embarked on a new experiment: requiring the archiving and pre-circulation of papers. The conference itself was a big success, leaving APT with both a solid financial surplus, thanks to conservative planning by Association officers and our host, Timothy Fuller. In addition, at the conference, the Association moved forward organizationally when the business meeting unanimously voted to revise and adopt the Interim Governance Committee's draft of the APT Constitution.

By the spring of 2005, membership surpassed 450.

Continued Conference Successes, 2005-2007

Three successful conferences at large universities followed the 2004 Colorado College meeting. In 2005, the Association met at Washington University in St. Louis, with Andrew Rehfeld hosting and Ed Wingenbach chairing the Program Committee. APT met in 2006 at Indiana University Bloomington, where Jeffrey Isaac hosted and Elizabeth Markovits and Rob Martin co-chaired the Program Committee. In 2007, the Association held its first meeting in Canada, at the University of Western Ontario, hosted by Harvey Brown, with Elizabeth Ellis chairing the Program Committee.

Each conference introduced innovations. At Washington University, the first plenary sessions were staged and discussions on pedagogy were organized at the Saturday lunch. For the 2006 conference, APT added a formal workshop on pedagogy, as well as plenary sessions on book reviewing and book publishing. Emily Hauptmann, in preparation for the Indiana meeting, recruited the first Chairs and Discussants Committee, which subsequently became a standard feature of Association conference planning. At the 2007 meeting in London, Program Committee member Mika Lavaque-Manty organized the first "Theoretical Run/Walk" for conferees seeking some early morning communal exercise, an event that also has become a regular part of our meetings. And host Jeff Isaac arranged for any interested conferees to spend Saturday night out at a jazz bar, setting the precedent for organizing fun expeditions on Saturday nights, also now a regular feature of the conference.

Stable Governance Emerges

As mandated by the new Constitution, APT's first regular officers were elected at the 2005 Washington University conference to staggered terms of up to three years. Co-Founders Emily Hauptmann and Dennis McEnnerney were elected as Executive Co-Directors, and Johnny Goldfinger of Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis was elected Secretary-Treasurer. A Governance Committee consisting of Simona Goi (chair), Ed Wingenbach, and Darren Walhof was also elected. Then in 2007, after completing an abbreviated two-year term, Emily Hauptmann stepped down as Executive Co-Director, and was replaced by Elizabeth Markovits of Saint Louis University (now of Mount Holyoke College). In 2008, Dennis McEnnerney (who had moved to Colorado College in 2004) also stepped down, to be replaced by Andrew Murphy (now of Rutgers University), who returned to office after a three-year hiatus.

The 2007 and 2008 elections marked a generational shift in the Association: whereas most of the officers up to then had been faculty involved in the founding of the Association, many of the of new officers joined later, including Liz Markovits, Howard Lubert, Clarissa Hayward, Mark Rigstad, Alisa Rosenthal, and Erin Taylor. All told, by 2008 more than half of the elected officers were members who joined the Association after its founding.

Association work also became more formal and specialized. Duties previously managed by the Executive Co-Directors were given to specific committees or new officers. As noted earlier, a Chairs and Discussants Committee was created for the 2007 conference, taking over work formerly done by the Co-Directors alone. In 2008, Alisa Rosenthal accepted appointment as Interim Membership Secretary; Erin Taylor was designated Interim Newsletter Editor; and Dennis McEnnerney was appointed Interim Webmaster. All three offices involve duties formerly performed by one of the Executive Co-Directors.

While APT's organization matured, its membership continued to grow: 550 (summer 2006), 650 (December 2006), 700 (summer 2007), and 950 (summer 2009).

APT Goes East - Wesleyan University Conference, 2008

The Association's most successful conference to date came in 2008, when APT met at Wesleyan University. Hosted by J. Donald Moon with a Program Committee co-chaired by Clarissa Hayward and Mark Rigstad, the meeting attracted a record turnout of 175 on 29 panels. The conference also featured the most well-attended business meeting in the Association's history, in part because the meeting time was shifted to the more accessible Saturday evening. The Association received more than 300 submissions in response to its call for papers and could only accept 134 -- or about 45%.

The Wesleyan conference, with its large turnout, put APT into solid financial position, just before the economic crisis of 2008-2009 hit the nation and academia. Five of the six conferences held broke even or generated a surplus. Unfortunately, unexpected expenses at the London conference, led to a large loss, which ate significantly into the Association's reserves. The Wesleyan conference restored and added to those reserves, leaving the Association on solid financial footing -- despite its never having charged membership fees.

Promise of a Second Decade

In 1999, APT's founding members began planning to start an association for political theorists and political philosophers without any sense of what might develop. As APT enters its second decade, following six successful national conferences, the Association's future looks bright. The website, which provided an inexpensive means for organizing scholars across the continent and globe, has undergone a major overhaul. Moved in December 2007 to Colorado College from SUNY Oneonta, a substantial redesign of the site began in the summer of 2009.

With a dedicated Membership Secretary, in addition, APT is ready to expand its recruitment of philosophers and scholars in other disciplines to build on its now-traditional depth in political science. The Association's communication with members and the public has also been raised to a new level, with the appointment of a Newsletter Editor and the publication of the professional-quality newsletters.

Finally, the Association's record of success in staging conferences that engage a wide array of scholars in provocative deliberations has attracted strong interest, as demonstrated by commitments to host future conferences at Texas A&M University (2009), Reed College (2010), and the University of Notre Dame (2011).