We invite you to join or renew your membership with the National Conference of Black Political Scientists.

Membership has its privileges and its responsibilities. NCOBPS embodies both notions.

Our members span the range of political science sub-fields – political theory, international relations, comparative politics, methods, public policy, and American politics. The professional pursuits of NCOBPS members are similarly varied, ranging from public policy analysis to international consultancies to elected office. Other NCOBPS members have held regional, national, and international leadership positions throughout the discipline.

We also strongly believe that our membership should be on the cutting edge of scholarship, teaching, mentorship, and community engagement. The benefits include:

• The Annual Meeting held in March in rotating cities, with panels spanning the range of disciplines offering members opportunities to participate as presenters, discussants, and chairs as well as offers workshops and roundtables on tenure and publishing.
• The National Political Science Review (NPSR), an annual journal of research featuring articles from all political science subfields.
• The NCOBPS online community network that
  • highlights the works of our members,
  • connects our membership throughout the world via organized online groups, blogs and email,
  • keeps them informed about relevant organizational and disciplinary happenings,
  • helps our members find employment via the “Career Center,” and assist employers seeking qualified candidates, and
  • provides an intellectual incubator for research groups dedicated to the exploration of specific topics to interact (e.g. "Race and Democracy in the Americas," “Voting Rights and Redistricting in the U.S.,” and the “Katrina Task Force” to name a few).
• Financial assistance through small travel grants to graduate students, who pre-register and attend the conference to present their research, through our Graduate Assistantship Program, Inc. (GAP, Inc).
• Receptions at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting as well as other regional political science meetings.
• A family of scholars and activists committed to attracting, retaining, and supporting each other in the profession.

Finally, we encourage all to remember why NCOBPS was founded. Our founding members understood that the depth of America's understanding about the problems of race turned on two things: (1.) the paradigms and practices evolving in the study of political science; and (2.) the exposure of the professoriate to new ideas and perspectives. The field of political science is only as strong as its professoriate is intellectually and racially/ethnically diverse.