The 45th annual meeting of the Arkansas Political Science Association (ArkPSA) was held on the campus of Arkansas State University (ASU) in Jonesboro, Arkansas on March 2-3, 2018. Dr. Carol Strong of the University of Arkansas-Monticello served as President (2017-2018). Dr. Christopher Housenick of Arkansas Tech University served as Vice-President (2017-2018). Dr. Michael Rogers of Arkansas Tech University served as Secretary-Treasurer (2017-2018). Dr. Matt Evans of Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) served as Secretary (2017-2018). Dr. Hans Hacker of ASA served as Program Chair for the 2018 annual meeting. Dr. Ronald Keith Gaddie, Professor of Political Science at the University at Oklahoma, gave the keynote address following the Friday evening dinner on March 2nd. Congressman Rick Crawford, 1st Congressional District of Arkansas, spoke following the Saturday noon luncheon on March 3rd.
Several UCA Department of Political Science faculty members participated on one or more panels during the annual meeting, including Dr. Tom McInnis, who served as Moderator of the American Politics Roundtable, “The U.S. Federal Courts in Review,”; Dr. Clay Arnold and Dr. Mary Beth Sullivan, who were panelists on the Political Theory Roundtable, “Applying Insight from Vaclav Havel’s ‘Power of the Powerless’ to Current Trends in Minority Politics,”; Dr. Heather Yates, who presented the paper, “An Analysis of Voters’ Emotional Responses and Attribution in the Highly Negative Presidential Campaigns of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton,”; Dr. Clay Arnold, who served as chair/discussant for the Public Administration Panel, “Administrative Law, Language, and Politics,”; and Dr. Clay Arnold, who served as chair/discussant of the American Politics Panel, “Citizenship & Civic Literacy in Arkansas”.