SGLR Blog News

Over the last several months, articles published in State and Local Government Review have received increased attention as featured content on state, national, and international blogs.  Most recently, an article by Kathleen Marchetti entitled “Consider the Context: How State Policy Environments Shape Interest Group Advocacy” (Volume 47, September 2015 issue) was the subject of a blog post on the London School of Economics (LSE), US Centre’s daily blog on American Politics and Policy (USAPP).  Earlier this year, the same blog highlighted research from Marcia L. Godwin’s article “Civic Engagement and Fiscal Stress in American Cities:  Insights from the Great Recession” (SLGR 2014 Special Issue: Volume 47, December issue). 

SLGR’s Young Scholars Research Program

As word continues to spread about State and Local Government Review’s Young Scholars Research Program, we constantly are receiving encouragement and positive feedback as well as praise for recognizing the need for this program and launching it two years ago.  To date, we have received a steady stream of inquiries about how the program works and whether one’s research would be of interest to State and Local.  Even if a manuscript is not something that we think would be of interest to State and Local’s audience, Editor Mike Scicchitano provides feedback to authors about such critical matters as presenting a clear research question early on in the manuscript, providing a sound and complete literature review from which to generate hypotheses, carefully selecting appropriate data to test hypotheses, crafting valid and reliable measures of independent and dependent variables, choosing appropriate an methodology and statistics, providing a clear presentation of one’s findings, delineating the implications of one’s findings for existing theories or practitioner consumption, and offering ideas for future research.  

Please welcome Brianne Heidbreder, New SLGR Reviews & Essays (R&E) Editor

Dear SIAM Members,

I am Brianne Heidbreder and would like to briefly introduce myself as the new Editor for the Reviews and Essays section of State and Local Government Review.  I am currently serving as an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at Kansas State University in Manhattan, KS, where I live with my husband and daughter.  I received a BA from Minnesota State University, Moorhead (2001), a MA from Kansas State University (2004), and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee (2008).  My teaching and research interests fall at the intersection of state and local politics and policy and public administration, and I have published in scholarly outlets such as State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Politics & Policy, and State and Local Government Review. Needless to say, I am excited and eager to begin my work at SLGR. 

Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management – Call for ASPA Conference Panel

In recent years, ASPA has provided sections with an opportunity to sponsor one panel at the annual meeting.  This provides our section with the opportunity to contribute to the ASPA program and promote intergovernmental research above and beyond our Deil Wright Symposium.

We invite members to propose a panel submission for SIAM sponsorship at the conference.  The ASPA annual meeting will take place from March 18 – 22, 2016 in Seattle.  The conference theme is “New Traditions in Public Administration: Reflecting on Challenges, Harnessing Opportunities.”  At least two tracks at the conference may be relevant to SIAM members: “Track 2 – Managing Complexity: Intergovernmental and Intersectoral Contracts Collaboration and Partnerships;” and “Track 6: Engaged Governance: Maximizing the Benefits of Citizen and Stakeholder Involvement.”

We must submit our panel to ASPA very soon.  If you are interested in organizing the section sponsored panel, please send a proposal with panel title, description, and interested participants on or before Sunday, September 20.  Please include the names, institutional affiliations, and contact information for panel participants.  Submit your proposal to both Jered Carr (jbcarr@uic.edu) and Eric Zeemering (zeem@niu.edu).  The proposals will be reviewed expeditiously so that members still have time to submit the panel proposal to ASPA directly if it is not selected as the one section sponsored panel.

Even if you do not plan to propose a section-sponsored panel, we encourage you to individually and collectively submit proposals to the ASPA conference.  We hope to see an excellent representation of research on federalism, intergovernmental management, and governance at the 2016 meeting.

Best regards,

Jered Carr, University of Illinois, Chicago

Eric Zeemering, Northern Illinois University

Member News: Cheryl A. Camillo

ASPA/SIAM member Cheryl A. Camillo (UMBC) is spending the 2015-2016 academic year at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy in Saskatchewan, Canada on a Fulbright Fellowship.  A scholar-practitioner, Camillo will be performing a case study of how multiple levels of government within the province partner to monitor the health of the provincial population with the aim of identifying lessons for U.S. states.  Earlier this summer, Ms. Camillo published a think piece in Governing.com on the U.S. public's mindset toward government aid programs.  Members interested in collaborating or learning more about her research can contact her at camcher1@umbc.edu. 

DEIL S. WRIGHT SYMPOSIUM ANNOUNCEMENT

The Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management (SIAM) invites ASPA members to submit proposals for papers to be presented at the 2016 Deil S. Wright Symposium. The symposium honors the career and contributions of Professor Deil S. Wright, who was a charter member of SIAM and remained active until his passing in 2009. The Wright Symposium will be held as a preconference event at the 2016 ASPA national conference in Seattle. The all-day meeting will feature morning student research sessions, and workshops on research and academic careers in intergovernmental management.   The afternoon symposium will feature roundtables and research paper presentations as well as panel discussion on the Section’s mission. The afternoon sessions will feature research panels (up to 12 papers).

The theme of the afternoon symposium is “Intergovernmental Management in Transition” Proposed workshop and research panel paper topics are invited relating to the following topical questions:

How prepared are local managers to deal with ethical and accountability issues arising from the abuse of discretionary authority by public safety personnel?

Has public administration education kept abreast of developments and related competencies in collaborative governance?

What are the latest theories, emerging issues, and research results in metropolitan governance?

What trends and innovations, in the United States or other countries, could significantly affect the future course of intergovernmental management?

  Proposals should be sent to Carl Stenberg (stenberg@sog.unc.edu), David Hamilton (david.hamilton@ttu.edu), and Richard Feiock (rfeiock@fsu.edu) by October 1, 2015. 

Member News: Harry P. Hatry

Harry P. Hatry recently authored a report for the Urban Institute entitled Transforming Performance Measurements for the 21st Century. The abstract and full report can be found at http://www.urban.org/research/publication/transforming-performance-measurement-21st-century