Call for Papers for RC53 - Indigenous Politics Panels

The IPSA Research Committee on Indigenous Politics (RC53) warmly invites proposals for the 29th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, taking place at Luiss University in Rome from 24-28 July 2027. We encourage you to submit your paper proposal to the RC53 Indigenous Politics track by 4 November 2026.

IPSA membership is not required to submit a paper or panel proposal, but it is required to participate in and attend the World Congress. Before submitting, please review the relevant membership and registration fees.

RC53 Panels

Governing Indigenous Futures: Political Agency, Democratic Inclusion and Institutional Change in the Global South

The panel explores Indigenous political agency in the Global South, examining how Indigenous peoples navigate and challenge political, economic, and institutional inequalities. It focuses on their engagement with states, customary authorities, civil society, private actors, and transnational networks, asking when these interactions enable meaningful inclusion and when they reproduce exclusion or control. Contributions may address political representation, land and territorial rights, customary governance, environmental politics, social movements, gender and youth participation, and development. The panel ultimately considers how Indigenous perspectives and collective action can reshape democratic institutions and strengthen Indigenous influence over decisions affecting their futures.

Indigenous Electoral Politics, Representation, and Identity

This panel examines Indigenous people as voters and political candidates within state and colonial electoral systems. It considers the intersecting dimensions of diversity, ideology, representation, identity, and political mandates, including questions of who can represent an Indigenous group and what constitutes an Indigenous politician. Contributions may examine Indigenous voting behaviour, voter blocs, Indigenous representation within general and Indigenous political parties, election studies, and questions of Indigenous identity and political representation. The panel also welcomes research on representations of Indigenous peoples in the public sphere, including media and other forms of leadership within colonial systems.

Indigenous Governance, Self-governance, and Self-determination

This panel examines Indigenous governance, self-governance, and self-determination in relation to states and beyond state-based models of political authority. It welcomes research on state recognition of Indigenous self-determination, Indigenous sovereignty and nationhood, Indigenous governance, and the relationship between Indigenous institutions and the colonial state. Contributions may also explore political alternatives that seek to revalue, reconstruct, and strengthen Indigenous cultural and political practices through self-determination. The panel welcomes research from any Indigenous context or comparative work across contexts.

Indigenous Mobilization, Organization, and Political Participation

This panel examines Indigenous political mobilization, organization, and participation at local, national, and international levels. Contributions may explore historical and contemporary mobilization, Indigenous voter turnout and political knowledge, Indigenous NGOs, claims to sovereignty and rights, and strategies for addressing injustice. The panel also welcomes research on political participation in non-conventional spaces, including art, popular culture, media, and museums, as well as legal mobilization and the use of settler legal institutions and discourses. All methodological approaches and geographical contexts are welcome.

Methods and Knowledge in the Study of Indigenous Politics

This panel explores the diverse positionalities, theoretical approaches, and methodologies used to study Indigenous politics. It welcomes research examining whether conventional political science theories and methods adequately capture Indigenous political interests and experiences, particularly given the discipline's frequent focus on states and state institutions. Contributions may consider Indigenous knowledges, epistemologies, methodologies, Indigenous-led research, Indigenous data sovereignty, and research conducted by Indigenous and non-Indigenous scholars. The panel seeks to encourage methodological pluralism and dialogue between conventional political science approaches and research that centres Indigenous knowledge systems.

Rethinking Democracy and Development in Africa: Making Room for Indigenous Governance

The panel examines how Indigenous systems of governance shape democracy and development in Africa, challenging the dominant focus on formal institutions such as elections, constitutions, and political parties. It explores traditional leadership, community decision-making, consensus-building, customary institutions, accountability, conflict resolution, and citizen participation, including how these systems interact with state institutions. Rather than assuming Indigenous governance is inherently democratic, the panel critically considers its strengths, limitations, and contemporary relevance. It asks whether locally grounded and historically informed governance can deepen participation, strengthen accountability, and support development that reflects African political and social realities.

Temporalities in Indigenous Politics and Collective Action: Disputed Pasts, Presents and Futures

The panel explores temporality in Indigenous political life, examining how Indigenous actors connect and contest relationships between past, present, and future. It challenges linear and developmental understandings of political action by considering Indigenous approaches to history, memory, responsibility, resurgence, sovereignty, and future-making. Contributions may examine memory politics, treaties, reconciliation, resistance, crises, waiting and urgency, Indigenous futurisms, climate justice, prefigurative politics, and conflicts between state and Indigenous temporal narratives. The panel asks how Indigenous temporalities shape collective action and self-determination, and how they can broaden understandings of political struggle, decolonisation, and alternative futures.

The Political Economy of Indigenous Knowledge Systems in a Changing Global Order

The panel examines the political economy of Indigenous Knowledge in a changing global order, focusing on how power, institutions, markets, technology, and governance shape its recognition, protection, use, and valuation. It challenges approaches that treat Indigenous Knowledge as something to extract or incorporate into existing systems, instead considering how Indigenous knowledge systems and authorities can transform research, innovation, governance, and development. Key themes include Indigenous data sovereignty, AI, epistemic justice, intellectual property, benefit sharing, innovation, and political economy. Contributions may draw on diverse global contexts and conceptual, empirical, methodological, comparative, or policy approaches.

Further information on the proposed panels can be found here: https://wc2027.ipsa.org/wc/track/rc53-indigenous-politics.