About Us
Our goal is to be one of the United States’ premier undergraduate political science departments in a public university. This will be accomplished by a talented, productive, and diverse faculty. More specifically, we endeavor to:
- recruit top students from across the country, including those with additional substantive interests in STEM fields and a desire to double major;
- provide our students with enhanced academic experiences—such as small classes taught “seminar style”; hands-on advising; prominent speakers from academia, journalism, and public life; clubs that facilitate learning beyond the classroom; scholarships; research collaboration with faculty; and internships in government, politics, and the private sector;
- publish academic and applied research in books with top presses and superior peer-reviewed journals;
- engage with and extend to the university’s and SPIA’s constituents in the area, state, nation, and world by providing practical knowledge about politics and public policy through public appearances, media contributions, and consultancy;
- play a central role in graduate programs within SPIA and CHASS—especially the Masters in International Studies, the Ph.D. program in Public Administration, and SPIA’s efforts to establish studies in public policy.
