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Conference Information

Washington University in St. Louis is proud to host the 39th annual meeting of the Society for Political Methodology. The conference will take place from July 21-23, 2012 at WashU in the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center. You can find helpful travel information here.

The conference will include panel presentations and poster sessions for faculty members and graduate students that will provide ample opportunity for rich interaction and scholarly interchange. You can find the program here.

Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, attendees can participate either in-person or online, though most panelists will attend in person.

Please keep these key dates in mind:

  • July 6: Accepted papers and posters to be submitted
  • July 20: Arrive for the conference

VENUE

Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center

Throop Drive and Snow Way Dr, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA

There will also be an online option for attendees. Details will be announced closer to the conference date.



Sponsors

We would like to thank our sponsors for making the Summer Meeting possible:


National Science Foundation
Department of Political Science
Weidenbaum Center on the Economy, Government, and Public Policy
Office of the Chancellor

Meta
Cambridge University Press
Springer


Conference Program

You can find a pdf of the most recent program here.



Recordings of selected panels available to the public can be found below.


Jacob Montgomery Opening Remarks
 
 
Yiqing Xu, Albert Chiu, Xingchen Lan What To Do (and Not to Do) with Causal Analysis Using Time-Series Cross-Section Data
Discussant: Anton Strezhnev
 
 
Joseph Ornstein, Elise Blasingame, Jake Truscott How To Train Your Stochastic Parrot: Deep Language Models for Political Texts
Discussant: Gary King
 
 
Matthew Simonson Causal Inference in Heterogenous Networks
Licheng Liu, Xun Pang Causal Inference with Longitudinal Network Data: Model-Based Approach for Presence of Interference and Interdependent Outcomes
Discussant: Naoki Egami
 
 
Santiago Lopez-Cariboni, Catherine Reyes-Housholder Parallel Conjoint Experiments for Measuring Gender Stereotypes and Analyzing Preferences
Korhan Kocak, Asya Magazinnik, Scott Abramson Ideology, Electibility, and Valence
Discussant: Dan Hopkins
 
 
Matthew Blackwell, Adam Glynn, Hanno Hilbig, Connor Halloran Phillips Difference-in-Differences Designs for Controlled Direct Effects
Kirk Bansak, Tobias Nowacki Effect Heterogeneity and Causal Attribution in Regression Discontinuity Designs
Discussant: Dean Knox
 
 
Yuki Shiraito, Saki Kuzushima, ByungKoo Kim Paragraph-citation Topic Models for Networked Text Data
Discussant: Christopher Lucas
 
 
Aaron Kaufman, Chrisopher Celaya, Jacob Grumbach Intersectional or Inseparable? Disentangling Multiple Identies in Studies Discrimination
Discussant: Ariel White
 
 
Monika Nalepa, Barbara Piotrowska Clean sweep or picking out the 'bad apples': The logic of secret police purges with evidence from Post-Communist Poland
Discussant: Korhan Kocak
 
 
Danny Ebanks, Jonathan Katz, Gary King If a Regression Model Predicts Common Events will occur only once in 10,000 Elections, Maybe it's the Wrong Model
Discussant: Patrick Brandt
 
 
Frederick J. Boehmke, Regina Branton, Richard C.Witmer A FIML Estimator for Estimating Spatial Decay in Regression Analysis
Discussant: Robert Franzese
 
 
Josh McCrain, Scott Mourtgos, Ian Adams, Daniel Schiff, Kaylyn Jackson Schiff Police Executive Support for Civilian Review Boards: A National Survey Experiment
Discussant: Zhao Li
 
 
Cory McCartan, Jacob Brown, Kosuke Imai Measuring and Modeling Neighborhoods
Shiro Kuriwaki, Stephen Ansolabehere, Angelo Dagonel, Soichiro Yamauchi The Geography of Racially Polarized Voting: Calibrating Surveys at the District Level
Discussant: Mayya Komisarchik
 
 
Thomas Leavitt Bayesian Learning from Randomized Experiments
Discussant: Yiqing Xu


Additional panesl are available to participants (password required).


Matthew Tyler, Justin Grimmer, Sean Westwood The Dangers of Disengaged Respondents: Identification Bounds for Survey Experiments and Population Means
Yaoyao Dai, Robert Pinka, Benjamin Radford Towards Better Human Annotation: Methods to Decrease Random and Systematic Measurement Errors
Discussant: Jane Sumner
 
 
Hannah Waight, Yin Yuan, Margaret Roberts, Brandom Stewart Strengthening Propaganda and the Limits of Media Commercialization in China: Evidence from Millions of Newspaper Articles
Discussant: Emily Hencken Ritter
 
 
Michelle Torres, Alex Pugh Beyond Prediction: Inferential Tools for Image Analysis
Discussant: Justin Grimmer
 
 
Nicole Pashley, Luke Keele, Luke W. Miratrix Improving the Precision of Instrumental Variable Estimators with Post-stratification
Discussant: Teppei Yamamoto
 
 
Karen Nershi How Strong Are Anti-Money Laundering Regulations in Practice? Evidence from Cryptocurrency Transactions
Discussant: Margaret Roberts
 
 
Naoki Egami, Martin Devaux Quantifying Robustness to External Validity Bias
Tarah Slough, Scott A. Tyson Adjudicating Causal Mechanisms
Discussant: Walter Mebane
 
 
John Londregan, Eugenio Guzman, Juan Pablo Couyoumdjian Family Networks in Chile's Congress and the Chilean Civil War
Elissa Berwick, Devin Caughey Multidimensional Group-level Latent Prefences in Multinational States
Discussant: Alexandra Cirone
 
 
Xiaobo Lu, Ding Li, Shuang Ma, Wenhui Yang The Shadow of Social Desiribility Bias: Assessing Estimation Bias in Sources of Regime Support in China
Margaret Roberts, Seth Hill Acquiescence Bias Inflates Estimates of Conspiratorial Beliefs and Political Misperceptions
Discussant: Matthew Tyler
 
 
Erin Hartman, Melody Huang Sensitivity Analyses for Surveys
Discussant: Carlos Cinelli
 
 
Ye Wang Understanding Shift-share Designs from the Perspective of Interference
Sergio Montero, Galileu Kim, Matias Iaryczower Representation Failure
Discussant: Tara Slough
 
 
Max Goplerud, Iza Ding Visualizing Democracy Using Covariate Adjusted Principal Curves
Discussant: Yaoyao Dai
 
 
Anna Wilke, Cyrus Samii To Harmonize or Not? Research Design for Cross-Context Learning
Discussant: Adam Glynn
 
 
Patrick Wu, Richard Bonneau, Joshua A. Tucker, Jonathan Nagler Dictionary-Assisted Supervised Contrastive Learning
Discussant: Laura Jakli

Travel Information

Arrivals

Conference participants should plan to arrive in St. Louis on Wednesday, July 20, as the meeting begins early the next morning. Departures are recommended for the afternoon of Saturday, July 23 after the morning panels have finished.

Visitors traveling by air are encouraged to fly into St. Louis via the Lambert International Airport (STL). Note that Southwest often has the best fares. The fastest way to the WashU campus is a taxi or ride-share, which is typically around $30. There is also a public transit option (MetroLink) from the airport using a 2-hour transfer pass ($3). While the MetroLink is generally safe during the day, we recommend caution when travelling alone at night.

There is also an Amtrak and Greyhound station in downtown St. Louis (on 15th street). A taxi/ride-share or public transit take about the same amount of time from downtown to campus.

The nearest MetroLink stop to the Knight Center and Rutledge House on WashU campus is on the Blue Line at University City-Big Bend. The nearest MetroLink stop to the Moonrise Hotel is on the Red Line at Delmar Loop, but is also walkable from the Blue Line stop at Skinker.

Parking

The Charles F. Knight Executive Education and Conference Center has a substantial amount of parking on the fourth levels of the Milbrook Garage or the Snow Way Garage that is available on a first come, first serve basis. Parking passes are required 7 AM to 5 PM Monday-Friday and are $9 per day. All parking prices are subject to change without notice.

For the Moonrise Hotel, there is a free public parking lot directly behind the hotel.

There are no visitor parking garages near Rutledge House, but there are parking options available for $9 per day (pass required 7 AM - 5 PM Monday-Friday) on the main campus.

Information

The conference will take place at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center, at the heart of the main WashU campus. Registration will be located on the first floor of Bauer Hall, which is also connected to the Knight Center.

Online participants will be able to access all of the main panels listed on the program as well as the virtual poster session. The panels will all be simulcast on Zoom. Simply click on the appropriate link below (see the program for room assignments) and enter in the password we send you via email. See this sheet for additional tips on using Zoom. After the conference is over, we will also post recordings of all panel sessions for conference participants.

If you are presenting or discussing on a panel, you will be sharing your screen.

  • Emerson Auditorium: Link
  • Knight Center Room 200: Link
  • Knight Center Room 340 or 210 Link
  • Knight Center Room 220 Link

During the Q&A, simply raise your "hand." The discussant will call on you at the appropriate time. To ask your question, be sure to unmute.

The virtual poster session will take place in real time (see the program) on the virtual platform Gather. We will provide a link and password to all online participants before the conference. You can join up to 15 minutes before the start time.

Click on the event link to the load event landing page, and then click "Join Event." You will be prompted for the event password. When requested, allow your browser to access your camera and microphone. Enter your name so that other participants know who you are. If you like, click on "Edit Character" to customize the look of your avatar. Once you are ready to join, click "Join the Gathering." You can edit your name and character later as well if you change your mind (see the pencil icon over your video in the lower left corner of your screen).

You will enter a brief tutorial on how to use Gather. You can either skip the tutorial, or work through it and then walk through the virtual door into the lobby.

Follow the arrows to one of the three poster session rooms (the "doors" at the top of the image below). Information boards with the room layout will be posted outside of each room to help you find the poster you are looking for.

Please note that all reserved lodging options are very limited, since we are unsure about attendance given the pandemic. If all options are booked, please email us at polmeth@wustl.edu.

These rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis and may sell out before the deadline. We strongly encourage booking early. The Society for Political Methodology does not handle individual reservations. Changes and/or cancellations to hotel reservations should be made with the hotel directly.

Knight Center

A block of rooms has been reserved at The Knight Center on the WashU main campus. It is also where the majority of the conference will take place. You can book by calling the number below (please mention the conference) or using the provided link:

Note that as of June 2 any rooms for "2 Adults" are sold out. If you search for rooms for "1 Adult," there are rooms left.

  • Rate: $139
  • Deadline: June 29, 2022
  • Phone: 866-933-9400
  • Reservations: Click here

Moonrise Hotel

A limited number of rooms at a discounted rate have been arranged at the Moonrise Hotel, which is a few blocks from campus. You can book by calling the number below (please mention the conference) or using the provided link:

Note that as of June 2 it may appear that there are only rooms available for Wednesday night, but this is not the case. While booking your room select "Edit Dates" and you will be able to book for the full conference at the special rate.

  • Rate: $149-$179
  • Deadline: June 30, 2022
  • Phone: 314-721-1111
  • Reservations: Click here

There will be a shuttle service in the morning and afternoon to and from the Moonrise Hotel and the Knight Center, or it is a pleasant 20-25 minute walk:


Dormitory Rooms

The deadline for booking a dormitory room has passed.

We will follow WashU's COVID-19 policies. Although masks are currently not required, they are strongly recommended. Extra masks and rapid Covid test will be available.

Please be prepared to submit your paper by July 6. You may email your submission to polmeth@wustl.edu as well as to your discussant directly.

We will then add a link to the paper to the online program. We will do our best to accommodate papers that come in later than this, but cannot guarantee they will be posted in time. However, at the very least we ask that you send your draft to your discussant by July 6 to give them time to prepare.

As this is a hybrid conference, we will be working hard to ensure that our nearly 100 online participants can see and hear the presentations. There will be technical staff assigned to each room to keep the cameras, audio, and Zoom all working together. We also hope to record presentations for conference attendees to watch. To facilitate this, please send us your slides by noon on July 20th so they can be set up in advance. If this is not feasible, we ask that you provide your slides no later than 7am (central) the morning of your presentation.

For single-paper panels, presentations are typically about 35 minutes. For two-paper panels, you should plan on 15-20 minutes.

PDF files are preferred. The filenames for your slides should include the panel number and letter (e.g., 9A or 3C) followed by the surname of the main presenter. Again, these files should be sent to: polmeth@wustl.edu

Discussion comments at PolMeth typically last about 20 minutes and are a highlight of the conference. Typically (but not always) discussants make slides. To make high-quality discussions possible, we have asked presenters to send you their papers by July 6 (two weeks before the conference begins). Please feel free to contact us if you have not heard from your assigned paper(s) after this deadline.

As this is a hybrid conference, we will be working hard to ensure that our nearly 100 online participants can see and hear the panels. There will be technical staff assigned to each room to keep the cameras, audio, and Zoom all working together. We also hope to record the sessions for conference attendees to watch. To facilitate this, we are asking you to send your discussion slides earlier than is normal. Ideally, we would love to have them by noon on July 20th so they can be set up in advance. If this is not feasible, we ask that you try to provide your slides no later than 7am (central) the morning of your presentation. In either case, please try to show up to your panel location about 10-minutes early so we can make sure all of the AV is set.

PDF files for your slides are preferred. The filenames for your slides should include the panel number and letter (e.g., 9A or 3C) followed by your surname. These files should be sent to: polmeth@wustl.edu

During the Q&A, online participants will have the opportunity to join the discussion. We are asking that discussants help moderate the Q&A by keeping an eye on Zoom and "calling on" online participants who wish to participate. Participants will be able to unmute themselves, so no additional steps are needed.

To make it a rewarding experience, we wanted to assign two discussants for each poster. This usually means stopping by the poster during the reception and offering some feedback. No additional work is required and the goal is to make sure everyone gets some engagement. However, to make things easier for you we have asked the poster presenters to send their poster in advance.

If you would like us to provide a link to your poster from the conference website, please send us a PDF version of your poster by July 6th. However, this is only required if you want your poster placed online. All file names should be named as "LastnameFirstnamePoster". These files should be sent to: polmeth@wustl.edu

We do ask that all participants send their poster files to their discussants by noon on July 20th. Discussants are listed on the program.

Approximately 50 easels will be placed in Frick Forum as well as the 2nd floor atrium of Bauer Hall. All posters will be numbered, and posters will be assigned to a specific position on the final (printed) program. The maximum size is 36x48 inches. We will provide poster board and tacks to mount your poster.

Easels will be set up before the beginning of the panel session preceding the poster sessions. You can set up the posters at any time after they are put in place. Food and drink will be served during the poster session. Presenters are encouraged to arrive promptly to get these (although you can also leave your poster temporarily if needed as well).

There are some options to print near the WashU campus, but note that all require the poster file multiple days in advance to print to that size. We recommend that you print the poster in advance and bring it to the conference. The closest place to print posters is Hi/Tec Copy Center (https://hiteccopy.com/), but please pay attention to the required lead time.

If you would like us to provide a link to your poster from the conference website, please send us a PDF version of your poster by July 6th. However, this is only required if you want your poster placed online. But we do need your poster no later than 7 am Central Time on Thursday, July 21. All file names should be named as "LastnameFirstnamePoster". These files should be sent to: polmeth@wustl.edu

The virtual poster session will take place in real time (see the program) on the virtual platform Gather. We will provide a link and password to all online participants before the conference. You can join up to 15 minutes before the start time.

Click on the event link to the load event landing page, and then click "Join Event." You will be prompted for the event password. When requested, allow your browser to access your camera and microphone. Enter your name so that other participants know who you are. If you like, click on "Edit Character" to customize the look of your avatar. Once you are ready to join, click "Join the Gathering." You can edit your name and character later as well if you change your mind (see the pencil icon over your video in the lower left corner of your screen).

You will enter a brief tutorial on how to use Gather. You can either skip the tutorial, or work through it and then walk through the virtual door into the lobby.

Follow the arrows to one of the three poster session rooms (the "doors" at the top of the image below). Information boards with the room layout will be posted outside of each room to help show you where your poster is located and your room number will be listed on the final program. Find your poster and stand your avatar next to it. When other attendees come near your poster you will be able to see and talk with them. You can also circulate to see other posters during the session.

Virtual Poster File Tips
  • Must be a .png or .jpg file
  • Use a 16:9 aspect ratio:
  • Minimum width is 1000 px (24.46 cm)
  • Minimum height is 600 px (15.88 cm)
  • Landscape orientation
  • Maximum file size is 3 MB.
  • Do not use a transparent background.
  • Consider numbering/lettering your sections and key graphs, since you cannot point with your hands or a cursor.

As with all SPM-sponsored activities, we aim for the conference to be free of harassment, including but not limited to: harassment based on race, ethnicity, gender, religion, age, color, physical appearance, national origin, ancestry, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and socio-economic background. Harassment includes, among other actions, degrading verbal comments, discriminatory jokes and language, deliberate intimidation, stalking, harassing photography or recording, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Anyone who experiences harassment or hostile behavior may contact the SPM's Climate Liaison Teppei Yamamoto (teppei@mit.ed).

For more more information, see the SPM website.

The attire for the conference is very casual. T-shirts are much more common than ties for men. No one wears suits. Dress in something that makes you feel comfortable.

We do recommend you dress in layers: St. Louis in the summer can be quite hot and humid, but the inside air conditioning can get chilly.

If you plan to go to the social event at the City Museum, please bring long pants that you do not mind getting dirty (you will most likely be crawling at some point at the museum) as well as sturdy closed-toe shoes.

WashU and the Knight Center are walking distance to Delmar and "The Loop", which has several popular establishments. Some nearby WashU favorites we recommend are:

  • Salt and Smoke is known for its barbeque, but also serves hearty salads and a vegetarian burger. They have outdoor seating.
  • Mission Taco Joint is the place to go for tacos on Delmar, and has vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options. They also have outdoor seating.
  • Three Kings Pub has good food and a wide selection of beers on tap, including many beers from local breweries. They have one of the best happy hour specials on Delmar. They also have outdoor seating.
  • Bluberry Hill is a classic mainstay of Delmar with a fun bar atmosphere, darts, and strong drinks.
  • Banh Mi Shop serves Vietnamese sandwiches stuffed with meats and fresh vegetables.
  • NuDo House is a fast casual Vietnamese restaurant.
  • Chicken Out is a quirky and tasty fried chicken restaurant.
  • Turmeric is an Indian restaurant and bar with lots of vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free options.

If you are interested in exploring the city, these are some WashU favorites by cuisine with neighborhood noted:

Barbecue:
  • Pappy’s – Midtown
  • Bogart’s – Soulard
Chicken:
  • O! Wings Plus – Overland
  • Grace Meat + Three – The Grove
Chinese:
  • Cate Zone – Olive
  • Tai Ke Shabu Shabu – Olive (Taiwanese street food and hotpot)
Mediterranean:
  • Medina’s – Central West End
  • The Vine – Tower Grove
Mexican:
  • Mission Taco – The Loop or Central West End
  • Taco Buddha – Clayton
  • Terror Tacos – Tower Grove (vegan)
  • Mi Ranchito - University City
Pizza: "St. Louis style Pizza" is unique and can be an acquired taste. If you want to try it order from Imo's, otherwise:
  • La Pizza – Delmar/I-170 (take-out only)
  • Union Loafers - Tower Grove
  • Sauce on the Side – Clayton or The Grove (calzones)
  • Many places on "The Hill", the Italian neighborhood, serve great pizza
Sandwiches:
  • Gioia’s Deli – The Hill (named a James Beard Award American Classic)
  • Adriana’s – The Hill
  • Hi Pointe Drive In – Demun (serves great burgers)
  • Vivola Express - Maryland Heights (note that this is farther than our other recs, but it's fantastic)
Healthier options:
  • Crazy Bowls and Wraps – Forsyth near Clayton
  • Lulu’s Local Eatery (Vegan) – Tower Grove
Fancier options:
  • Charlie Gitto's – The Hill
  • INDO – Tower Grove
  • Frazer’s Restaurant and Lounge - Soulard

All nursing caregivers are welcome to bring their infants to the meeting. The Knight Center provides infant nursing rooms that will be available to participants.

Individual childcare sitters can be hired from TLC Family Care or College Nannies + Sitters.

For older children, another option of interest are many short "day camps" that are just a short drive near campus. If you are interested in these options, please be aware that they are typically reserved for a whole week and you should make your reservations early to secure a spot.

If these do not meet your needs, please email us at polmeth@wustl.edu.

About

The 39th annual meeting of the Society for Political Methodology will be held at the Charles F. Knight Executive Education & Conference Center on the Washington University in St. Louis campus and online from July 21-July 23, 2022.

Keynote Speaker

The Keynote Speaker is Prof. Susan Athey, The Economics of Technology Professor at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Professor of Economics (by courtesy) at Stanford University, Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, Founding Director of the Golub Capital Social Impact Lab at Stanford, Associate Director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, President of the American Economic Association, and Research Associate of NBER.

Host Committee     

  • Dan Butler
  • Dino Christenson
  • Ted Enamorado
  • Christopher Lucas
  • Jacob Montgomery
  • Lucia Motolinia
  • Betsy Sinclair

Program Committee

  • Emily Ritter (Chair)
  • Jacob Montgomery (Local Host)
  • Marisa Abrajano
  • Tiffany Barnes
  • Erin Hartman
  • Ines Levin
  • Xun Pang
  • Molly Roberts

Diversity Committee

  • Melissa Rogers (Chair)
  • Kirk Bansak
  • Ted Enamorado
  • Adeline Lo
  • Molly Offer-Westort
  • Tara Slough
  • Clay Webb
  • Leah Windsor

Organizers

Jacob Montgomery and Annamaria Prati.

Contact

Email polmeth@wustl.edu and follow on Twitter @PolMeth2022.

Society for Political Methodology

Check out the website of the Society for Political Methodology for news, information on future conferences and publications.