left border

Graduate Program

Brochure

Table of Contents:

Please also visit our faculty directory, under the People section of this website, or by clicking here.

Political Science at Chicago

From the very beginning, the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago has been a pioneer in the development of social scientific understandings of government and politics. Harold Gosnell, Harold Lasswell, Grant McConnell, Duncan MacRae, Charles Merriam, Hans Morgenthau, Herbert Storing, Leo Strauss, Leonard White, and Quincy Wright all taught at Chicago. Gabriel Almond, V.O. Key, Harold Lasswell, Robert Martin, Herman Pritchett, David Truman, and Herbert Simon-the only political scientist ever awarded a Nobel Prize for his intellectual achievements-all received their doctorates from Chicago. "The Chicago department was the cutting edge of development of the field of political science," Pritchett recalled of his days as a graduate student. "The students who were graduate students when I was became the leaders of the profession."

Much has changed at Chicago since Pritchett studied here, but fortunately the most important things have not. The University of Chicago and its Political Science Department have maintained the unabashed intellectualism, the disregard for disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries, the commitment to diversity of approach and method, and the pure appreciation of fine scholarship that have always been the distinguishing features of this institution. David Easton's recollections of the department ring true even today: "Chicago seemed like the Tiber River-violent rapids, churning, exciting, adventurous, and bubbling over with ideas. I felt as though I had come alive intellectually . . . . It was just one great intellectual high."

We the members of the department believe that Chicago is the most exciting and challenging university in the world. We hope you will come see for yourself.

Graduate Study in Political Science

The University of Chicago is one of the world's leading centers for the study of political science. Its faculty and students are engaged in critical inquiry on a wide range of topics, from American elections to the origins of the modern state. This breadth of scholarship is valued at Chicago. So, too, is an emphasis on the profound questions of political life, from the sources of war and the meaning of justice to the development of representative democracy. It is this commitment to understanding fundamental issues that distinguishes the University of Chicago and its graduate program.

To foster such scholarship, the department has developed a sophisticated and flexible program of graduate training, built around seminars with leading scholars and tutorial guidance for student research. Students can select courses of considerable diversity, supplemented by guest lecturers and special seminars throughout the year.

Apart from completion of coursework, the most important project in the first two years is the Master's paper, a substantial piece of original research, which students complete under the direction of two faculty members. By the end of the third year, students take two exams.

Students distribute their coursework among at least three of the five fields of the discipline, choosing among political theory, U.S. politics, comparative politics, international relations, and methodology. Many choose the department's introductory sequence in quantitative methods, followed by more advanced seminars in data analysis and model building. Students with more advanced methodological skills can take further coursework in the department or related courses in economics, public policy or statistics. Others take coursework in related social sciences, history, or foreign languages. For students who have not taken many undergraduate courses in political science, there is ample opportunity to survey the subject through core concentration courses and develop graduate-level competence in research-oriented courses. For students with more extensive backgrounds, the department offers advanced seminars and opportunities for individual research. In the process, all students can sample a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and develop essential research skills.

Doctoral research is the culmination of graduate study, marking a transition from taking courses to becoming an independent scholar, doing original and significant work. Students select several faculty members to discuss research questions and supervise the Ph.D. Working with this committee, they develop a dissertation proposal and begin research. Frequently, they also join faculty and fellow graduate students in advanced workshops, which meet throughout the year to consider new research. This active involvement for advanced graduate students is another of Chicago's strengths. Advanced students can shape their own research programs and have regular opportunities to discuss and present their ideas.

Chicago Faculty in Political Science

Superior graduate programs are ultimately based on the collaboration of dedicated students and outstanding teacher-scholars. Graduate students are best equipped to make their own contributions when they work closely with faculty at the leading edge of research.

Chicago's faculty has made fundamental contributions in all major areas of political science. Their teaching naturally reflects this range of interests. Nathan Tarcov, Patchen Markell, Julie Cooper, Sankar Muthu, Jennifer Pitts, Robert Gooding-Williams, and John McCormick all offer courses on the classic texts of political philosophy as well as an intensive workshop for advanced graduate students. Nathan Tarcov, a leading scholar of the work of Locke, Machiavelli, and Leo Strauss, also offers courses on ancient Greek and Roman authors, Rousseau, and the American founders, and has written on the principles and practice of American foreign policy. Patchen Markell's research and teaching range widely across the history of political thought and across a variety of problems in contemporary political theory. His first book, Bound by Recognition, dealt with the political significance of the idea of recognition in Hegel's philosophy, in Greek tragedy, and in recent neo-Hegelian political theory; more recently he has begun a project on the conceptual structure of Hannah Arendt's The Human Condition, and another on ideas of rule, power, and activity in democratic theory, which engages Aristotle, Arendt, Marx, and the American pragmatists as well as a variety of contemporary democratic thinkers. John McCormick's teaching and research interests include the history of constitutional government, 20th century continental social and political thought, democratic theory and contemporary European politics. He recently published the book, Weber, Habermas and Transformations of the European State and is presently working on a book titled Machiavellian Democracy.

Julie Cooper's research and teaching interests include early modern political theory (especially Hobbes and Spinoza); Jewish political thought and modern Jewish thought more generally; and religion and politics. Robert Gooding-Williams is a leading scholar of the work of Nietzsche and Du Bois, with research and teaching interests that include 19th and 20th century continental philosophy, African-American political thought, democratic theory, critical race theory, and aesthetics. The author of Zarathustra's Dionysian Modernism and Look, A Negro!: Philosophical Essays on Race, Culture, and Politics, he is currently completing a book on Du Bois and Douglass as political philosophers. Jennifer Pitts's teaching and research interests include modern political thought, especially eighteenth- and nineteenth-century British and French thought, and historical and contemporary debates about global justice, with a particular emphasis on global inequalities as well as the history of empire. Her first book, A Turn to Empire: The Rise of Imperial Liberalism in Britain and France, examined the dramatic shift in ideas about empire that unfolded in the years straddling the turn of the nineteenth century; she is currently at work on a book about theories and debates about the scope of international law and the international legal community, and about legal relations between European and non-European states, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Sankar Muthu's research and teaching interests include Enlightenment political philosophy and its legacies; modern theories of international justice, global commerce, cultural pluralism, and cosmopolitanism; and historic debates about conquest, occupation, and just war. The author of Enlightenment Against Empire, he is currently writing a book about globalization in Enlightenment thought. In addition to these scholars, the University boasts a number of other internationally recognized political theorists in the Law School, the Department of Philosophy, the Divinity School, and the Committee on Social Thought, who regularly interact with political scientists.

American politics is naturally a major concern of many Chicago faculty. The institutional features of American politics-from the budget process to race relations-are also well represented in departmental research. Cass Sunstein and Gerald Rosenberg are both interested in American legal processes (and both hold law degrees). Rosenberg focuses mainly on the judiciary, especially the courts' impact on larger political processes such as school desegregation and abortion rights. His important book on the Supreme Court, The Hollow Hope, overturns a generation of conventional wisdom about the impact of court decisions. In addition to his scholarship, Rosenberg has been recognized as one of the University's top teachers. Sunstein is widely recognized for his sophisticated studies of constitutional law, administrative regulation, race and gender. He has also written extensively on related topics at the intersection of law, politics, and philosophy. Michael Dawson is recognized as one of the country's leading scholars of African-American politics. His work combines sophisticated data analysis with a deep understanding of community institutions that serve to mobilize opinion and organize political action. Mark Hansen makes use of rational choice models to examine phenomena ranging from political participation to interest group mobilization to interest group influence in Congress to the political economy of government revenue policy. Eric Oliver studies urban and suburban politics, racial attitudes, health policy, and political psychology. He has written two books, Democracy in Suburbia and Fat Politics: The Real Story behind America's Obesity Epidemic. His third book, The Paradoxes of Segregation, will be released next year. Cathy Cohen is interested in the politics of marginal groups, especially as they engage in non-traditional forms of political activism. While much of her research focuses on the politics of African American communities, she also works in the areas of queer theory, lesbian and gay politics, social movements and political activism and socialization among young people. Betsy Sinclair's research interests are in political networks, causal inference, and the focus of her research is on understanding the social context which influences the political behavior of both voters and candidates. John Brehm studies American political behavior, focusing on public opinion and political organizations. Brehm also conducts research in statistical methods for political science. John Padgett is best known for his models of the federal budget process and for his studies of organizations, decisionmaking and social-political networks. Jeff Grynaviski's research interests include American political parties, political history, and quantitative methods.

Chicago founded the modern study of international politics, under the leadership of the late Quincy Wright and Hans Morgenthau. Today, the department's faculty includes some of the leading scholars in the field. Their interests in both subject matter and methodology are diverse. John Mearsheimer has done pathbreaking work on conventional deterrence and international relations theory, and has recently co-authored a book on the Israel lobby that was on the New York Times best seller list. He is considered one of the leading realist thinkers in the world. Robert Pape has done provocative work on strategic air power and economic sanctions, and has recently published a book on the strategic logic of suicide terrorism. Charles Lipson and Duncan Snidal concentrate on international economic cooperation and conflict. Snidal uses game theoretic models to study international cooperation and institutions. His particular interest is on the reasons states choose to legalize their relations, and the role of international organizations in making international legalization effective. Lipson has worked extensively on the politics of international corporations and banks, and on international agreements. Jong Hee Park studies international political economy and Bayesian statistics. Focusing on the interplay of domestic coalitions, political institutions, and international constraints, his ongoing research explains the politics of agricultural subsidy and industrial subsidy in developed countries.

Chicago has long been concerned with the distinctive features of national political systems and the theoretical problems of comparing them. Comparative inquiry is particularly demanding since it requires both a broad conceptual sweep (crucial in identifying issues for comparison) and a detailed knowledge of countries and regions. A well trained scholar must not only understand local politics but also culture, language, and national history. This breadth is emphasized in Chicago's graduate training and is reflected in the faculty. Dali Yang has written extensively on China's political economy and institutions. His earlier book, Calamity and Reform in China, provides both a rigorous dissection of the causes of the worst famine in human history and a new perspective on China's rural reforms. A recent book, Remaking the Chinese Leviathan, offers a provocative examination of China's ongoing governance reforms and how these reforms might affect the exercise of governmental authority and China's future political development. Bernard Silberman has written extensively on Japanese government and has recently compared state-building in 19th century Japan and Europe. These scholars are all active participants in the University's area study centers, which bring together students and faculty from across the social sciences and humanities.

William Sewell has written extensively about the history of revolutions and labor movements in France. His recently published Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation attempts to reconcile historical methods with contemporary social theory. He is currently working on a book on eighteenth century French capitalism and the cultural origins of the French Revolution. Lisa Wedeen's book, Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria, argues that official iconography can be politically fundamental even in the absence of belief or emotional commitment. Her work combines insights from comparative politics with interpretive methods from political theory and anthropology. Her current project explores questions of identity and political membership in Yemen. Gary Herrigel is interested in the political economy of advanced industrial states and combines methods of historians, social theorists, ethnographers and economists in his research. He is currently completing a comparative historical sociology of the relationship between industrial organization and democracy in the United States, Germany, and Japan. He is also a founding member of a research consortium on the transformation of the manufacturing economy in the Midwest that brings together scholars and research institutes from Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, and Michigan. Steven Wilkinson's research interests are in ethnicity and nationalism; patronage politics and the politics of distribution; and the long term effects of colonization on governance and conflict. In the theoretical study of all these areas, he draws upon his continuing research interests in the society and politics of South Asia. Dan Slater's current book project examines how patterns of contentious politics have shaped the long-term development of parties, states, and regimes in seven Southeast Asian countries. He also has ongoing research projects relating to the role of nationalism and religion in sparking and strengthening democratization movements, the challenges of imposing effective accountability on political elites in new democracies (with a focus on Indonesia), and the contributions of Southeast Asian political studies to theoretical knowledge in comparative politics.

The University of Chicago prides itself on such innovative work that overcomes traditional subdivisions in political science and borrows from related fields. Our graduate education reflects these ideals. Our students tend to do work with distinctive theoretical breadth and depth, often with historical and comparative dimensions. While all students explore several areas of the discipline, those with clear-cut initial interests have room to specialize. Other students may find that their eclectic interests, when carefully explored, produce intriguing and novel research questions. The department is flexible enough to accommodate both approaches.

A Community of Scholars

The first years of graduate school are filled with class assignments and seminar discussions as well as concentrated individual work on the Master's paper and exams. When students begin their dissertations, however, their world changes dramatically. They often work alone, conducting library research or fieldwork, and then meet individually with faculty advisors. In many universities, they have no regular forum to meet other students and faculty, and no place to talk about their discoveries and try out their ideas. Yet discussion and constructive criticism can be extremely valuable at this stage. Equally important, these advanced graduate students are well equipped to offer sophisticated comments and advice to others.

To meet these special student needs and to take full advantage of graduate student capabilities, the political science department has designed several workshops for advanced graduate students. Within the department, there are workshops in American politics, comparative politics, East Asia, organizations and state building, political theory, Middle East politics, security studies, and international relations. In addition, there are literally dozens of interdisciplinary workshops throughout the University--from law and economics to Judaic studies--all of them open to political science students. There are also several centers with strong ties to the department. Together, they produce an active intellectual environment for advanced graduate students.

The Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security (PIPES) is a particularly active group with strong ties to the department. Directed by Charles Lipson and Duncan Snidal, PIPES meets weekly to discuss research issues in international politics. Visiting scholars present work-in-progress, as do faculty from around the University. Graduate students are central to PIPES: they present their own work, conduct study groups, and serve as discussants at most faculty presentations. The students, among the best in the social sciences, represent a broad array of research interests, from international monetary affairs to international environmental institutions, from the renegotiation of treaties to nuclear proliferation.

The Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory (3CT) is an interdisciplinary research center that counts two members of the Department, William Sewell and Lisa Wedeen, among its seven Faculty Fellows. Proceeding from the sense that contemporary theory is lagging behind historical events, the center's programs--including graduate seminars, workshops, conferences, and symposia--aim to "theorize the present" through sustained comparative, interdisciplinary investigation of disparate local and translocal social and political forms in the context of the rapidly evolving global order.

For students interested in public opinion and survey research, the data files and computer facilities of the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) can be invaluable. Located on campus, NORC is one of the country's leading institutes for survey research, with senior researchers drawn from political science, economics, psychology and sociology. Students and faculty from the department have always played an active role in NORC's research.

These centers and workshops are important sites for discussion and debate. But they are not enclosed universes, segregating scholars in small fiefdoms. Quite the contrary. Most students and faculty are involved in several programs and seminars, creating a larger dialogue within the department.

This dialogue is strengthened by close contact among students and faculty. Faculty offices are located near each other in Pick Hall, along with graduate student common rooms and computer facilities. This proximity might seem like a small matter. In fact, it means that students and faculty meet frequently and informally to talk about the full range of political phenomena. The various Centers and Programs reinforce this active discussion. The result is that our advanced graduate students not only master their specialties, they often achieve broad (and fresh) perspectives on the field as a whole.

Taken together, the department's programs have created an active community among advanced graduate students, one engaged in lively debate about current research. Graduate students at Chicago play a vital role in this discourse, and their education reflects its importance. In the end, it is this lively debate and original scholarship that define graduate education at Chicago.

Interdisciplinary Studies

Besides the department's own courses and tutorials, students can take advantage of the University's other rich resources. Chicago is one of the world's great centers for social science, and the department encourages interdisciplinary work. Indeed, several of our faculty hold joint appointments in related disciplines. Just within the Social Sciences Division, the University has world class departments in sociology, economics, anthropology, and history. It has outstanding professional schools in business, public policy, and law. The Committee on Social Thought, with its faculty of philosophers and social theorists, is unique among American universities. Nearly all our students take advantage of these opportunities and take courses outside the department. For example, students with a special interest in methodology can easily supplement the department's offerings with additional courses in econometrics, statistics, game theory, or model-building in other social science departments. Students interested in policy issues can draw on resources at the Irving B. Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies. An extraordinary variety of foreign languages is taught, and the University is known for its interdisciplinary centers on South Asia, East Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. All these opportunities enrich a strong program in political science.

Such broad training ultimately produces young scholars with solid grounding in the social sciences and a genuinely original perspective on larger questions. Fostering such originality, and matching it with well developed research skills, is the central aim of graduate education at Chicago.

Research Facilities

The University of Chicago is fortunate to have superb library facilities, well suited to student and faculty scholarship. Regenstein Library's print resources total more than seven million printed works, increasing at the rate of 150,000 volumes per year. Over thirty million manuscripts and archival pieces, 420,000 maps and aerial photographs, and large sets of microform materials complement the printed collections. The distinctive rare book, manuscript and archival holdings of the Special Collections Research Center are available for your study. Aggressive growth in the Library's electronic assets ensures a balanced representation of resources in all formats. The Library Catalog, Web pages, indexes and abstracting tools, digital maps, and images can be accessed from computers in the Library, on campus, and remotely. Major electronic resources include 40,000 licensed full-text serial titles, 170,000 licensed monographs, and 500 licensed reference databases. It holds a full range of social science periodicals and has excellent specialized collections, such as those on South Asia and the Far East. "The Reg" is also a comfortable and pleasant place to work, no trivial matter when conducting a major research project. Its reading rooms are well furnished with reference materials and numerous study carrels, and include permanent student lockers to store books and research materials. This major library is the very heart of the University, and it is well designed for graduate needs.

Graduate study requires strong research facilities, especially libraries and computers. The department has a cluster of personal computers linked to central workstations and the Internet. The PCs are specifically reserved for graduate students and are located in the department's offices in Pick Hall. In addition, several centers associated with the department provide additional computing for specific research projects. Most important of these is Social Science Divisional Computing, with its extensive clusters of both DOS/Windows and MacIntosh computers.

Graduate Degree Requirements

To meet these varied student needs, the graduate program in political science offers rigorous training without a rigidly structured curriculum. Courses reflect current faculty research and their sense of what is theoretically significant. With the exception of PLSC 30500, Introduction to Data Analysis, there are no compulsory courses, although we encourage students to take concentration courses that provide overviews of the respective subfields and methodology courses appropriate to their research interests. In comparative politics, for example, students can take a variety of courses on specific countries or regions, each raising basic issues for comparative study. In international politics, students can choose an initial course, such as Charles Lipson's "Introduction to International Relations," or begin with a more specialized course, such as John Mearsheimer's "War and the Nation State," which has no prerequisites. In quantitative methods, where a carefully structured program is particularly valuable, the department has developed an optional sequence to prepare students for empirical research. Students can best engage the compelling questions by taking courses that reflect on-going faculty interests.

The department offers a variety of courses that effectively introduce students to major research issues, plus others that encourage advanced research. Regular courses last ten weeks, and students usually take two or three each quarter; advanced workshops usually meet throughout the academic year. In the autumn and winter quarters of the first year, students are required to take three courses for quality grades.

The department offers courses and exams in four fields. At present, they are theory, U.S. politics, comparative politics, and international relations. To meet the course distribution requirement, students must complete three courses for quality grades in three fields. Overall, twelve courses for quality grades are required by the end of the sixth quarter.

First year students submit proposals for the Master's papers in the spring (their third quarter at Chicago). To help students write Master's papers, mandatory workshops are organized by department-appointed advanced graduate students. The Master's paper is limited to 8,000 words. The Master's paper should be modeled on a journal article and address an important research question or debate in the concentration area. By the end of the first year, students must also write a research paper of 25-30 pages as part of the normal writing requirement of a class. The department uses the Master's paper, course grades and faculty assessments of future scholarly potential as the basis for deciding whether to pass students on to the Ph.D. phase of the program during their sixth quarter. Most students with strong grades and good research skills pass at this level and continue their studies toward a Ph.D.

Students are required to pass comprehensive exams in two fields. The exams are offered twice a year and they may be taken at any point but the final deadline by which the exams must be taken is the ninth quarter (normally Spring Quarter of the third year).

After completing courses and exams, students turn to the Ph.D. dissertation. The first step is a dissertation proposal that briefly outlines the research question, significance, argument, hypotheses, and methodology of the dissertation. A proposal seminar, taken normally in the winter quarter of the third year, is a weekly seminar devoted solely to presentation and collective discussion of several drafts of each student's dissertation proposal. The proposal must be approved by a committee of three faculty who agree to supervise the dissertation research and present the proposal for department approval.

Writing a dissertation is usually an extended process of going back and forth with committee members on drafts and redrafts of chapters. Upon receiving final approval by the dissertation committee, the candidate gives a formal presentation based on the dissertation. Following the presentation, which is open to the public, the candidate is questioned by an examining committee of three faculty members (usually the dissertation committee).

Admission

In recent years, the department has aimed for incoming graduate classes of 15-20; admission is very competitive. A faculty committee makes admission decisions based on an assessment of all of the material required in the University application: biographical data, statement of interests and goals in graduate school, transcripts of grades, letters of recommendation, Graduate Record Examination scores, and a brief writing sample. Committee members want to know what applicants find intellectually exciting and why they want to study at the University of Chicago.

Students Entering with Advanced Degrees

The department encourages applications from students who hold advanced degrees who wish to pursue a doctorate at Chicago. Students may use a prior Master's paper as the basis for the Master's paper with the consent of faculty readers. The final Master's paper must meet regular department requirements and standards. Other requirements remain the same.

Each year, some students apply to transfer to political science with Master's degrees from other departments at Chicago, such as the Committee on International Relations and the Master of Arts Program in the Social Sciences. Such students can be passed on to the Ph.D. phase of the program if they have already completed six or more political science courses with high quality grades and have had their Master's paper approved by two faculty readers (one reader must be from the department's faculty). In this case, the student will not receive a second M.A. degree from the University.

Encouraging Minority Enrollment

Minority admissions are a high priority for the department, thus, we engage in a number of initiatives and programs to encourage applications from outstanding African-Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. For example, we participate in the APSA Minority Identification Project. Most importantly, however, is the centrality of issues of race, ethnicity and equality to the research and teaching of our faculty. A number of our faculty members study issues vital to students interested in race and politics, including civil rights law, education, immigration, employment policy, health and political participation. Gerald Rosenberg, for example, has done important work reinterpreting the role of federal courts in school desegregation. Cass Sunstein's work in constitutional law also deals with these issues. Michael Dawson's principal focus is on racial issues in American Politics. His book, Behind the Mule, explores the relationship between race and class in African-American politics. Dawson is a former director of The Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture (CSRPC). The Center is an interdisciplinary program dedicated to promoting engaged scholarship and debate around the topics of race and ethnicity. Cathy Cohen's work focuses on issues of identity and the politics of marginal communities. Also, Lisa Wedeen and Patchen Markell do work in democratic theory and group politics, identity, and multiculturalism. Beyond the political science faculty, we also encourage students to take important courses in other departments and schools. This might mean working with historians Thomas Holt, Mae Ngai, or Julie Saville or with Tracey Meares at the Law School or with sociologist Omar McRoberts. The university and our department is committed to interdisciplinary work and we therefore encourage students to take advantage of educational opportunities throughout the University.

Finally, this is a school, a neighborhood, and a city that welcomes and encourages all students. The University is committed to a diverse student body and currently has over a dozen campus organizations for students of color and students interested in issues of race and ethnicity. The Hyde Park neighborhood, where the University is located, is an integrated community with a tradition of political activism and diversity. The larger city is a mosaic of ethnic groups with minorities making up the majority of the city's population. Neighborhoods are distinctively Polish, Chinese, Korean, Lithuanian, and on and on. Chicago has one of the largest and most vibrant Black communities in the country, with a full range of cultural and political organizations. It also has an important Latino community - several communities, in fact. Unique among American cities, it has large neighborhoods of both Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans. The city, like the University, has a lot to offer.

Financial Aid and Tuition Costs

Most of the department's incoming students receive financial aid. Awards range from tuition scholarships to fellowships with substantial stipends. Aid is distributed on academic merit. In awarding aid each year, Chicago presumes that scholarships and fellowships will be renewed for students who have demonstrated strong performance.

Some graduate students work part time. Some work on research projects in their field; others find jobs throughout the University, from the Library to the Business School. The University Hospitals, located on campus, are also a major employer for students and spouses. The department, with some federal funding, sponsors an extensive work-study program for students who are financially eligible. Many others work at businesses throughout Chicago. The University's Office of Career and Placement Services maintains extensive listings of jobs at the University and in Chicago, and administers a Graduate Intern Program that places advanced students in part-time internships with businesses and non-profit organizations.

Student teaching is particularly attractive since it combines employment with professional training. These jobs provide a chance to work closely with faculty and students and polish teaching skills. Many of our fellowships have a teaching component. Students serve as teaching assistants in undergraduate lecture courses and several serve as teaching assistants in the department's methodology sequence. A few advanced graduate students, selected as Grodzins Prize Lecturers, offer their own undergraduate courses. Others serve as course assistants and instructors in the College's undergraduate core curriculum; still others are preceptors who assist other students in writing B.A. papers and M.A. papers. Some graduate students teach introductory courses in nearby universities and colleges in the Chicago area.

Federal student loan programs are an important source of student support. These loans are available to U.S. citizens and permanent residents.

Jobs After Graduate School

Chicago graduates regularly compete for the country's top academic jobs. The University has long been considered the nation's "teacher of teachers" and the political science department follows in that tradition. It is one of five or six schools whose graduates fill the country's leading political science departments. One reason is that the department gets excellent students to begin with. It then offers them the kind of serious professional training that produces outstanding young scholars. Each year, our advanced students are leading contenders for national fellowship awards and dissertation prizes.

Jennifer Rubenstein, a political theorist, is a new faculty member at the University of Virginia. Sarita Gregory joins the faculty at Vassar College. After spending a year at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, Adria Lawrence will join the faculty at Yale. Bethany Albertson, an Americanist, is at the University of Washington. Sebastian Rosato, who teaches international relations, joined the faculty at Notre Dame and Milan Svolik, who teaches political economy, joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. Other recent placements include Michael Heaney at the University of Florida; Moto Saji at the International University of Japan; Breena Holland at Lehigh University; and Michael Reinhard at Millsaps College, to name a few.

Among recent postdoctoral fellowship winners, Leigh Jenco and Emily Nacol are postdoctoral research associates with the Political Theory Project at Brown University; Neil Roberts in the Department of Africana Studies and Department of Political Science at Johns Hopkins University; Shang Ha at Yale University; Lora Viola at the Social Science Center, Berlin; and Yasmin Dawood at the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council at the Centre for Ethics at the University of Toronto. Other recent Chicago graduates can be found on college and university faculties throughout the country.

The promising scholarly careers of these recent Chicago Ph.D.s began with graduate seminars and workshops and culminated with important thesis research.

The department recognizes that some Ph.D.s seek employment outside the traditional fields of teaching and research. The University's office of Career Advising and Planning Services (CAPS) can help students evaluate these options and supports a full range of placement services with corporations, non-profit institutions, and government agencies. In the past decade, several graduates have entered the State Department and moved into senior policymaking positions. Other recent graduates have been involved in state and local government, academic administration at colleges and universities, or work at major international consulting firms.

The City and the University Neighborhood: My Kind of Town

Students who have never visited Chicago are often surprised by what they discover. Chicago is a vital city, stretched out along twenty miles of Lake Michigan beachfront, combining ethnic neighborhoods and a cosmopolitan city center. Chicago's downtown (The Loop and North Michigan Avenue) includes some of the country's most interesting architecture, from the earliest skyscrapers to post-Modernist designs. The performing arts play a major role in city life. Dozens of smaller repertory companies have created the most dynamic theater scene in the country-from Second City comedy to gritty plays by David Mamet. The University's own professional theater, which emphasizes the classics, is among the best. There is also a lively art and gallery scene, and, for those who like song and dance, almost every imaginable type of music club. Chicago is the home of urban blues, created by legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf and Willie Dixon; but it is also home to a varied array of folk music, classical chamber music and avant-garde. The city's major cultural institutions have well-deserved reputations for excellence: the Chicago Symphony, the Lyric Opera, and the Art Institute, with its exceptional collection of Impressionist paintings. All are about 15 or 20 minutes from Hyde Park by car and can be reached easily by bus or rail. The city has a full complement of professional sports teams-the White Sox, Cubs, Bears, Blackhawks, and Bulls--whose fortunes are a source of perpetual hope and lamentation. A typical department scene finds several faculty and graduate students standing next to the department coffee machine, agreeing that the mere addition of two or three pitchers (and some hitting) would bring a pennant within reach. The University has an excellent intramural sports program and very good sports facilities for student use. Chicago is anything but homogeneous. The city's neighborhoods-Polish, Irish, Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, Italian, Greek, Chinese, African-American, and the elite Gold Coast-produce some of the country's most tumultuous and fascinating politics. Incidentally, they produce a wonderfully varied choice of restaurants, filled with local customers who know the taste of homemade linguine (or, ten blocks away, chow foon). All in all, it is a big, active city-and it is not boring. Equally important, it is accessible on a graduate student budget.

The University itself is surprising to some. Perhaps they expect a high-rise urban university. Instead, they find a campus of tree-shaded quadrangles in one of the city's nicest neighborhoods. The older buildings are collegiate Gothic; the newer ones exemplify the best in modern architecture, from Eero Saarinen to Mies van der Rohe. The student body is relatively small, especially in comparison to faculty size. There are about 4,000 undergraduates and another 3,300 in the various professional schools. The graduate divisions (in the social sciences, biology, physical sciences, and humanities) have about 3,500 students, nearly half of them in the social sciences. Despite its international reputation, the University of Chicago has never had more than 14,000 students. Its faculty of nearly 2,100 (including several hundred in the Medical School) is disproportionately large-but it facilitates a research atmosphere and allows most classes to be taught as seminars. The University's neighborhood of Hyde Park, located on the lake, was once a southern suburb of Chicago. Since the late 1800's, it has been an integral part of the city. Its streets are a mixture of single-family homes and rowhouses, some of them dating to the turn of the century and now carefully restored, along with three- and four-story apartment buildings and high rises along the lakefront with spectacular Loop views. Hyde Park is stably integrated and has some of the city's best public schools (plus several private schools, including the University's Laboratory School, running from nursery through high school). There are two or three commercial streets, with the usual mixture of computer stores, Thai restaurants, and coffee shops. The bookstores are extraordinary--some of the best in the country. The Seminary Cooperative Bookstore (5757 South University) deserves special mention since it not only is a wonderful scholarly bookstore, but it offers significant discounts to student members. One of the University's unique features is that virtually everybody lives in the neighborhood. The University forms a genuine community in the city. In the morning or afternoon, along University Avenue or 57th Street, you can find most of the faculty and students walking to or from school or gathered for a beer at Jimmy's. Nearly all the department's faculty live in Hyde Park or neighboring Kenwood, as do many students. Most walk or bike to school, but many use the University's neighborhood bus system. Students frequently share rental apartments with a roommate or two. Others take advantage of the University's housing system. These housing alternatives are discussed in a University pamphlet for newly admitted students.

Selected Recent Dissertations

Boucoyannis, Deborah - Lands, Courts, and Parliaments: The Hidden Sinews of Power in the Emergence of Constitutionalism

Choi, Wooseon - Structural Explanation of Alliance: U.S.-China Relations 1949-1972

Cyrenne, Chad - From Fox to Hedgehog and Back Again: Political Liberalism from John Locke to Isaiah Berlin

Davis, Leniece - Motives and Motivation: Social Context, Civil Organization and Political Behavior

Germain, Kimberly - From Household to Empire: Gender and Power in Victorian Britain and Colonial India

Holland, Breena - Environment and Capability: A New Normative Framework for Environmental Policy Analysis

Huang, Grace - Chiang Kaishek's Uses of Shame: An Interpretive Study of Agency in Chinese Leadership

Kim, Hee-Kang - Women's Luck? Women's Choice? Toward a Feminist Theory of Equality

Kim, Joon Suk - Making States Federatively: Alternative Routes of State Formation in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe

Ozturk, Mustafa Bilgehan - Corruption, Job Patronage, and the Political Economy of Human Capital Investment

Rolfe, Meredith - A Social Theory of Voter Turnout

Rosato, Sebastian - The Strategic Logic of European Integration

Rubenstein, Jennifer - Just Samaritans? The Politics and Ethics of International Private Aid

Sen, Ronojoy - Legalizing Religion: The Indian Supreme Court and Homogenization of the Nation

Seo, Jungmin - Nationalism in the Market: The Chinese Publishing Industry and Commodification of Nationalistic Discourses in the 1990s

Siman, Yael - The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict 1967-2004: Breaking Down the Occupying State's Refusal to Negotiate with Insurgents

Svolik, Milan - Incentives and Institutions in Comparative and International Politics

Conclusion

Chicago offers one of the country's leading graduate programs, with a broad range of seminars and workshops in all major areas of political science. The quality of this program depends on outstanding graduate students, working closely with faculty on new research. It is strengthened immeasurably by being part of a University that is profoundly committed to serious scholarly inquiry. This is a University and a department filled with active research and lively debate on important issues. Graduate students are vigorous participants in every aspect of this intellectual discourse. Thank you for your interest in graduate study at Chicago. If you have questions about teaching and research at Chicago, admissions policy, financial aid or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

In keeping with its long-standing tradition and policies, the University of Chicago, in admissions, employment, and access to programs, considers students on the basis of individual merit and without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age, national or ethnic origin, handicap, or other factors irrelevant to participation in the programs of the University. The Affirmative Action Officer is the University official responsible for coordinating its adherence to this policy, and the related Federal and state laws and regulations.

right border