Doctoral conference

Held on Wednesday 10 September 2025, the Doctoral Conference is free of charge and is open to all doctoral students studying at member institutions.

The conference will run from 9:00 am to 17:30 pm on Wednesday 10 September 2025 in Boardroom (BD-07-004), 7th floor in BD Building on Belfast Campus. The conference will close with a reception with UKAPA Executive at 18.00, followed by a Doctoral Conference Dinner which will also be free of charge.

The doctoral conference will offer participants opportunities to discuss, critique and share ideas on researching public administration and related areas; it will also provide opportunities to discuss the PhD experience. The Doctoral Conference will provide doctoral researchers with an opportunity to present papers on conceptual critiques, early-stage research, progress in fieldwork or research findings and impact.

At the Doctoral Conference, each paper presentation will receive comments from a peer doctoral researcher and senior academic in order to strengthen the paper.

Doctoral conference schedule

Time

Session

09:00 – 9:30

Welcome, Icebreaker and Introduction to the Programme
Paul Carmichael & Elke Loeffler

9:30 – 11:00

Session 1: Digitalisation in Public Services

Nora Poloni-Gallagher, Queen’s University Belfast

AI vs. Human Advice: How Public Servants Interact with AI-enabled Systems

Discussant 1: Athanassios Gouglas

Discussant 2: Talya Oztop

Talya Oztop, King’s College London

Participatory Budgeting: Representation, Inclusivity and Digitalisation

Discussant 1: Elke Loeffler

Discussant 2: Nora Poloni-Gallagher

Session 2: Trust issues

Riska Marlinda Darmanti, University of Exeter
Does Information on Right to Appeal and Communication Affect Citizens’ Trust? Experimental Evidence from Tax Data Sharing Policy in Indonesia

Discussant 1: Karl O’Connor

Discussant 2: Sen Lin

Sen Lin, University of Exeter

Beyond Perceived Trustworthiness: Unpacking the Interactive Impact of Self-Efficacy and Trust-Related Concepts on Public Service Coproduction

Discussant 1: Elke Loeffler

Discussant 2: Riska Marlinda Darmanti

11:00 – 11:15

Tea and coffee

11:15 – 12:00

Session 3: Democracy at the local level

Sean Tyrrell, University of Birmingham

What is Local Democracy? A Conceptual Exploration of Democratic Theory, Urban Scale, and Governance Tensions

Discussant 1: Amanda Crompton

Discussant 2: Brian Morgan

Brian Morgan, Ulster University

Analysing design-led democratic localism: a case study of a democratic mini-public on Rathlin Island

Discussant 1: Alice Moseley

Discussant 2: Sean Tyrrell

12:00 – 12:30

Getting published in peer-reviewed academic journals – Elke Loeffler and Karin Bottom

12:30 – 13:15

Lunch break

13:15 – 14:00

Session 4: Women’s issues

Anna Theresa Schmid, Ulster University

Rethinking Abortion Governance: Abortion Accompaniment and the Limits of Public Provision
Discussant 1: Karin Bottom
Discussant 2: Chloe Munro

Chloe Munro, Northumbria University
Feminist Approaches to Organising: A Study of Women and Girls in the North East of England
Discussant 1: Karin Bottom
Discussant 2: Anna Theresa Schmid

14:00 – 14:45

Session 5: Public service reforms in healthcare

Shaymaa Alotaibi, University of Birmingham

Adopting Public–Private Partnerships in Saudi Arabia’s Healthcare Sector: Understanding Political and Institutional Drivers

Discussant 1: Elke Loeffler

Discussant 2: Paul McCay

Paul McCay, Northumbria University

A new social contract for the integration of the health and social care workforce?

Discussant 1: Amanda Crompton

Discussant 2: Shaymaa Alotaibi

14:45 – 15:00

Tea and coffee

15:00 – 16:30

Session 6: Irish politics

Ross Wilson, University of Liverpool

Public Policy and Conditional Support for Irish Unification

Discussant 1: Paul Carmichael

Discussant 2: Katy Haskins

Katy Haskins, Ulster University

Narrating Northern Nationalism: The voices and experiences of voters on the ground in Northern Ireland

Discussant 1: Paul Carmichael

Discussant 2: Ross Wilson

Session 7: Policy responses to crises and failed reforms

Mark Finn, Kings College London

Crises and the determinants of the policy response: A comparative study of Healthcare and Housing Policy in Ireland and England

Discussant 1: Karl O’Connor

Discussant 2: Chris Southeran

Chris Southeran, University of Nottingham

On the wrong track: lessons from the profit-maximising era of UK rail privatisation

Discussant 1: Edoardo Ongaro

Discussant 2: Mark Finn

16:30 – 17:30

Group Work: Sharing top tips for a successful dissertation (facilitated by Elke Loeffler)

18:00

Reception and Dinner in the Academy Restaurant,

Ulster University Belfast Campus

The conference will also provide doctoral participants with a session on publishing as a doctoral student.

Doctoral Conference Prizes

UKAPA awards two prizes at the Doctoral Conference which includes free attendance at the following year’s Annual Conference.

1. Richard Chapman Prize

The Richard Chapman Prize (£500) is awarded for the best overall paper presented at the Doctoral Conference.

2. The Public Administration Prize

The Public Administration Prize is awarded for the most publishable paper presented at the Doctoral Conference. Following the Doctoral Conference, the author will receive editorial support so the paper can be published in Public Administration.

Both prizes will be awarded at the conference and presented at the conference dinner.

For enquiries, contact: Dr Elke Loeffler, e.loeffler@bham.ac.uk

or Prof Paul Carmichael, p.carmichael@ulster.ac.uk

Questions?

All questions, suggestions, or other comments, should be directed to Professor Paul Carmichael in the first instance: p.carmichael@ulster.ac.uk