Across Borders, Beyond Certainty:Comparative Perspectives on Governance, Capacity, and Resilience

 

In conjunction with the theme of the 2027 American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Annual Conference, “Navigating Public Service in Uncharted Territory,” the SICA Fred Riggs Symposium Committeeinvites scholars, practitioners, and students to submit paper and panel proposals for the 14th Annual Fred Riggs Symposium.

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The Fred Riggs Symposium brings together scholars and practitioners from around the world to examine contemporary challenges in public administration through international and comparative perspectives. The symposium will be held on April 9, 2027, as part of the ASPA Annual Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, taking place April 9–13, 2027.

 

Theme:

Public service is increasingly carried out amid conditions that are uncertain, contested, and difficult to predict.Governments and communities face overlapping pressures from democratic backsliding, polarization, and declining public trust, climate-related and complex emergencies, fiscal uncertainty, digital transformation,artificial intelligence, migration, conflict, public-health threats, and shifting relationships among government, market, nonprofit, and community actors.

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Although the terrain may be uncharted, public administrators do not navigate it alone. Past experience, institutional learning, comparative inquiry, and collaboration across jurisdictions and borders offer essential resources for understanding emerging challenges and identifying promising practices. Comparative public administration is especially well positioned to illuminate how institutional arrangements, political systems, administrative cultures, and local realities shape governments’ capacity to adapt, learn, maintain legitimacy,and deliver equitable public services.

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This symposium invites proposals that investigate how public institutions and their partners around theworld navigate uncertainty while sustaining core public-service values, including equity, accountability,integrity, responsiveness, democratic legitimacy, and public trust. We

welcome studies that compare countries, regions, governments, administrative systems, policy sectors, orlocal contexts; critically assess the transferability and limits of governance practices; and connect global developments to the realities of public administration on the ground.

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The symposium encourages theoretical, empirical, and practice-oriented contributions using qualitative, quantitative, mixed-methods, historical, and comparative research designs. Papers examining successful adaptation as well as institutional failures, unintended consequences, and contested forms of institutional change are particularly welcome.

 

Topics of Interest:

• We welcome proposals that analyze public-service systems, governance structures, administrative frameworks, public policies, institutional cultures, or public-service practices from international and comparative perspectives. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Comparative approaches to governing amid uncertainty, disruption, and rapid institutional change

• Government reform, state capacity, administrative adaptation, and institutional learning

• Democratic resilience, democratic backsliding, the rule of law, and institutional legitimacy

• Public trust, accountability, transparency, disinformation, and citizen engagement

• Comparative civil service systems, public-sector leadership, and workforce capacity

• Human resource management, workforce modernization, employee well-being, burnout, and telework

• Artificial intelligence, digital government, automation, and the ethical use of emerging technologies

• Digital inclusion, data privacy, cybersecurity, accessibility, and technology-related trust

• Climate adaptation, environmental justice, disaster governance, and complex emergencies

• Comparative emergency management, public-health crises, disaster recovery, and community resilience

• Intergovernmental relations, multilevel governance, decentralization, and cross-boundary coordination

• Civil society, nonprofit organizations, mutual aid, and cross-sector collaboration in public-service delivery

• Comparative public finance, fiscal capacity, budgeting, public debt, aid, procurement, and accountability

• Public-sector innovation, infrastructure, service delivery, and performance management

• Migration, displacement, conflict, nationalism, and transnational governance challenges

• Equity, diversity, inclusion, gender, and representation in public administration across contexts

• Street-level bureaucracy, public-service ethics, and administrative discretion

• Public-affairs education and pedagogical approaches for preparing administrators to navigate uncertainty

• Comparative theories, methods, and research ethics in the study of public administration.

 

Submission Invitation:

The SICA Fred Riggs Symposium welcomes individual paper proposals as well as complete panels,roundtables, and practitioner–scholar dialogues. Submissions that bridge research and practice, incorporate diverse geographic perspectives, or foster dialogue across disciplines, sectors, and national contexts are especially encouraged.

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By bringing comparative evidence and global experience to bear on contemporary public-service challenges, the symposium seeks to illuminate not only how administrators navigate uncharted territory, but also how they can help build more equitable, capable, legitimate, and resilient systems of governance across borders.

 

Submission Guidelines:

Individual Paper Proposals, please submit:

• A paper title

• An abstract of no more than 300 words

• The author’s or authors’ institutional affiliation(s)

• Contact information for at least one author

The abstract should clearly state the paper’s purpose, theoretical framework, methodology, and potential implications for comparative public administration.

Panel Proposals, please submit:

• A panel title

• Titles and abstracts for three to four papers

• Names, institutional affiliations, and contact information for all paper authors

• The name, institutional affiliation, and contact information for the panel discussant

• Each abstract paper must not exceed 300 words.

 

Submission Process:

Submit all individual paper and panel proposals through the ASPA website. Please include “Riggs Symposium/SICA” in the title of your submission and select the Riggs Symposium option in the ASPA submission system.

The submission deadline is September 18, 2026.

For questions or additional information, please contact the symposium co-chairs:

Jungwon Yeo: Jungwon.Yeo@umbc.edu

Charlene M.L. Roach: Charlene.Roach@uwi.edu

 

If a paper abstract or panel proposal is accepted, all presenters must register for the ASPA AnnualConference through the ASPA website. Full papers presented at the Riggs Symposium will be considered for SICA’s Garcia-Zamor Best Paper Award.

 

Important Dates:

• Abstract and panel-proposal deadline: September 18, 2026

• Notification of acceptance: Mid-November 2026

• Conference registration opens: Early February 2027

• Fred Riggs Symposium: April 9, 2027

• ASPA Annual Conference: April 9–13, 2027

 

Selection Criteria

Proposals will be evaluated based on:

• Relevance to the symposium theme

• Theoretical and methodological rigor

• Potential contribution to comparative public administration

• Overall quality and clarity of writing and analysis

 

We look forward to your contributions to this important international dialogue on comparative public administration, governance, and resilience.

 

2027 Fred Riggs Symposium Committee

Co-Chairs:

Jungwon Yeo, Ph.D., University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Maryland, USA (USA & Asia)

Charlene M. L.Roach, Ph.D., The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago (Caribbean)

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Committee Members:

Ricardo Andrés Bello-Gómez, Ph.D. Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA (Latin America & USA)

Atta Ceesay, Ph.D. SUNY Buffalo State University, New York, USA (Africa & USA)

Diana - Camelia Iancu, PhD, National University of Political Studies and Public Administration, Romania (Europe)

Sombo Muzata, Ph.D. James Madison University, USA (Africa & USA)

Meghna Sabharwal, Ph.D. University of Texas at Dallas, Texas, USA (South Asia & USA)

Cristina Stanica, Ph.D. Northeastern University, Massachusetts, USA (Europe & USA)

Ruechagorn Trairatananusorn, Ph.D. National Institute of Development Administration, Bangkok, Thailand (Southeast Asia)

Youlang Zhang, Ph.D. Renmin University, Beijing, China (East Asia)