The department has hosted a number of academic conferences.
- 2010 Annual Meeting of the Peace Science Society (International)
- 2007 Latin American Democracy symposium
- 2006 Hierarchical Modeling conference
- 2005 Taiwan/East Asian Democracy conference
- 2005 Postwar Peace conference
- 2004 Postwar Peace conference
- 2003 Oil and Politics conference
- 2002 Markets and Democracy conference