The Department of Politics curriculum represents five major fields of study: political theory, American politics, comparative politics, global politics, and political economy. Faculty and students pursue projects across fields in courses that reflect our faculty’s main areas of research in contemporary and historical context, including:
- Democracies in theory and practice
- History of political thought
- Political economy and capitalism
- Mobility and migration
- Social movements
- The Anthropocene and political ecology
- Laws, rights, and constitutions
The MA is an immersive two-year experience that leads students to both top doctoral programs as well as careers in policy, government, and NGOs. The selective PhD program is home to award-winning students whose scholarship, public writing, and activism often go hand in hand.
Workshops and events are an important and regular part of departmental intellectual life. They include the Politics Speaker Series, the Theory Collective, the Global Politics Workshop, and the Comparative Politics Initiative. Faculty also help lead interdisciplinary institutes, including the India China Institute; the Graduate Institute for Design, Ethnography, and Social Thought; and the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility, which provide important venues for students to engage with intellectual currents around the university. The Union of Political Science Students helps organize graduate intellectual exchanges and graduate student social life.
Distinguished visiting scholars regularly join our faculty to assist with dissertation supervision and other student work. Faculty members and closely affiliated faculty have included Hannah Arendt, E. J. Hobsbawm, Ira Katznelson, Charles Tilly, and Aristide Zolberg. Learn more (PDF) about becoming a visiting scholar.