The University's Department of Politics and International Relations will host the 58th UK Political Studies Association Annual Conference, from April 1-3.

This year's conference, on the theme of Democracy, Governance and Conflict: Dilemmas of Theory and Practice, will feature over 150 panel discussions, with over 500 individual papers presented by politics academics.

One of Europe's leading diplomats, Dr Wolfgang Petritsch, the Austrian Ambassador to the UN, will give the conference's annual address at a civic reception and dinner in the city's Brangwyn Hall.

Dr Petritsch, a former EU High Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the EU's Chief Negotiator at the Kosovo peace talks in 1999.  He will address delegates on the subject of Conflict resolution and keeping the peace in Kosovo and the Balkans.

Professor Andrew Gamble, Head of the Department of Politics at Cambridge University, will give the conference's opening plenary – the Government and Opposition Leonard Schapiro Memorial Lecture – on The Western Ideology.

And there will be a plenary panel on the subject of Iraq and After, featuring Professor Eric Davis of Rutgers University, Professor Anoush Ehteshami of Durham University, and Dr Gareth Stansfield of Exeter University.    

The conference's panel sessions will feature research from most of the UK's politics departments, as well as leading scholars from North America and Europe.  

The conference's academic convenor, Dr Jonathan Bradbury, Senior Lecturer in Politics at Swansea, said: "We are delighted to be hosting this prestigious conference, and we very much look forward to welcoming Ambassador Petritsch and our other distinguished speakers. 

"It is the second time that the Department has hosted the Political Studies Association's annual conference, the first time being in 1994.  It follows on from a string of research conferences organised by colleagues in recent years and we hope that this is every bit as successful."

For more information about the 58th Annual Conference of the UK Political Studies Association visit the Association's website and for more information about Politics and International Relations at Swansea University, visit the Department's website.