Politics and Leadership, Leadership Studies and Politics

Politics and leadership: two subjects that are commonly known, yet also deeply misunderstood. Politics is not merely the activities of official decision-makers and the ideas (and people) that give rise to them, but also, more broadly, how human groups determine who gets what (and under what circumstances—by consent or coercion). What if leadership is not entirely a person or position? Perhaps, leadership is a negotiation— a complex moral relationship between people that is predicated on role agreement. We might say, then, that leadership is a dynamic process that cannot be separated from the politics of human groups. Leadership, in this way, is very fundamentally political.

In times increasingly characterized by deepening polarization, partisan gridlock, humanitarian crises, climate change, and any number of national/international conflicts, for our fourth issue, The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership studies invites scholars to think about the relationship between politics and leadership. We are currently seeking papers that question how we imagine politics and leadership more generally and think about the centrality of political thinking to leadership studies. This edition also encourages papers that contemplate and question how politics and leadership got us to this point. We are also interested in submissions that consider what politics and leadership might look in the future, particularly in the light of the present.

The Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. In addition to the Open Call for Papers, the Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies, with the University of Richmond’s Jepson School of Leadership Studies, publishes a wide range of high-quality scholarship. For our journal’s fourth volume, we are currently accepting paper proposals that question the state of leadership and politics.

We welcome both collaborative and individual-based papers. Submissions must be received by or before September 1, 2025 for inclusion in the 2025 issue (Volume 4). Papers must be submitted using this online portal and follow the guidelines outlined at Submission Guidelines.