IPSA Holds its 147th Executive Committee Meeting in Naples

Photo from left to right (bottom row): Kim Fontaine-Skronski, Yuko Kasuya, Pablo Oñate, Dianne Pinderhughes.
Second row from bottom: Fortunato Musella, Magdalena Musiał-Karg, Annika Hinze, Madalena Meyer Resende, Vanessa Elias de Oliveira, Irasema Coronado.
Third row from bottom: Carmelo Cattafi, Ajin Choi, Paul Godt, Florence Haegel, Emilia Palonen, Daniel Stockemer, Azul A. Aguiar-Aguilar.
Fourth row from bottom: Keiichi Kubo,  Serge Granger, Berk Esen, Jesús Tovar.
Top row: Euiyoung Kim, Kgothatso Shai,  Francesca Longo, Mauro Calise.

The 147th IPSA Executive Committee (EC) Meeting was held in Naples, Italy, from 12-13 April 2025. Federica Web Learning hosted the meeting at the University of Naples Federico II. IPSA extends its heartfelt gratitude to Federica Web Learning, the University of Naples Federico II, and Prof. Mauro Calise and his team for their generous support and warm hospitality. 

The Naples EC meeting provided an opportunity for the IPSA leadership and the IPSA Secretariat to hold a series of meetings and site visits in preparation for the 29th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, which will be held in Rome in July 2027. 

Workshop on AI Enhanced Digital Education

Members of the IPSA Executive Committee and the IPSA Secretariat team participated in the AI Enhanced Digital Education Workshop, organized by Federica Web Learning at the University of Naples Federico II on 11 April 2025. The workshop, held at the historic Complex of Saints Marcellino and Festo, offered a platform to discuss how artificial intelligence can revolutionize educational processes. The workshop featured two thematic sessions:

Session One: The Federica AI Lab

Introduced by IPSAMOOCs Coordinator Mauro Calise and chaired by IPSA President Pablo Oñate, with IPSA Executive Committee member Jesús Tovar serving as discussant, the first session explored how artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the production of multilingual MOOCs through tools such as ChatGPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and Heygen. Speakers Marco Cerrone (CEO & Co-Founder of Piano Alto) and Laura Passarelli (Learning Manager at Federica Web Learning) presented the Teaching with AI online course, developed in collaboration with Carlos Delgado Kloos (Carlos III University of Madrid), as a case study.

Session Two: The IPSAMOOC4Africa Project

Chaired by IPSA President-Elect Yuko Kasuya, the second session focused on e-learning opportunities for the African continent. Speakers Valentina Reda (Head of R&D Operations and Strategic Partnership at Federica Web Learning) and Annalisa Squillante (R&D, Federica Web Learning) presented an overview of the main online education experiences in Africa, analyzing data from IPSAMOOCs political science courses offered on edX and Coursera with a focus on African students. Discussants Fortunato Musella (IPSAMOOCs Co-Coordinator and IPSA EC member) and Kim Fontaine-Skronski (IPSA Executive Director) also contributed to the discussion with the goal of building a more inclusive, accessible, and intelligent digital education.

Visit to Federica Web Learning Centre

While in Naples, the IPSA Secretariat team took the opportunity to visit one of IPSA’s key partners, Federica Web Learning, and meet with Valentina Reda (Head of R&D Operations and Strategic Partnership at Federica Web Learning). IPSA and Federica Web Learning collaborate on several initiatives, including IPSAMOOCs, the IPSA Portal, and the IPSA-Federica Summer School on Digital Thinking.

Photo (left to right): Kim Fontaine-Skronski (IPSA Executive Director), Valentina Reda (Head of R&D Operations and Strategic Partnership at Federica Web Learning), Ekaterina Kuzmenko (IPSA Administrative Director), and Yee Fun Wong (IPSA World Congress and Events Senior Director).

Site Visit of the 2027 IPSA World Congress Venue: Luiss Guido Carli 

Prior to the Executive Committee meeting in Naples, an IPSA delegation - including Yuko Kasuya (IPSA President-Elect), Kim Fontaine-Skronski (IPSA Executive Director), Yee Fun Wong (IPSA World Congress and Events Senior Director), and Ekaterina Kuzmenko (IPSA Administrative Director) -  traveled to Rome for a site visit of Luiss Guido Carli, the host venue of the 29th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, to be held in July 2027.

During the visit, the IPSA delegation toured the Luiss Guido Carli campuses and met with university representatives, including Paolo Boccardelli (Rector of Luiss University), Raffaele Marchetti (Luiss Representative for the IPSA World Congress), Giovanni Orsina (Dean of the Department of Political Sciences), and Claudio Passalacqua (Office of the Deputy Rector for International Relations).

Photo (left to right): Raffaele Marchetti (Luiss Representative for the IPSA World Congress), Yuko Kasuya (IPSA President-Elect), Giovanni Orsina (Dean of the Department of Political Sciences), and Kim Fontaine-Skronski (IPSA Executive Director).

The delegation also held meetings with representatives of the Italian Political Science Association and the 2027 World Congress Local Organizing Committee (LOC), including Daniela Irrera (LOC Co-Chair and Chair of ECPR), Francesca Longo (IPSA Executive Committee member), and Fortunato Musella (SISP Representative for the 2027 IPSA World Congress and IPSA EC member).

Additionally, the IPSA team met with Laurence Fouquette-L’Anglais, Delegate of Québec in Rome, to explore potential collaboration opportunities between the Québec government and IPSA for the 2027 World Congress in Rome.

Photo (left to right): Laurence Fouquette-L’Anglais (Delegate of Québec in Rome) and Yuko Kasuya (IPSA President-Elect).