Overview and Mission

The Department offers a comprehensive and rigorous program in the discipline of political science, focusing on four of the discipline’s traditional subfields: American government, international relations, comparative politics, and political theory. In a series of introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses, the faculty cover such diverse subjects as electoral and legislative processes, political behavior, and federalism; U.S. foreign policy, international conflict, and European integration; area studies, including politics of Africa, Latin America, Western Europe, Asia, and the Middle East; and the political thought of the ancient Greeks, Enlightenment thinkers, Modernists, the Founding Fathers, and contemporary theorists. The Department also has special commitment to teaching law and politics, offering four constitutional law courses, as well as courses on the Supreme Court, law and society, and law and social movements. The Department is committed to broad coverage and, at the same time, aims to expose students to the basic intellectual strategies of the discipline.

Mission

The mission of the Government and Law Department within the College’s liberal arts tradition is:

• to educate students in the theories, processes, institutions, and historical development of domestic and global politics, law, and governance.
• to provide students with intellectual tools and knowledge for informed citizenship and political participation.
• to provide students with a sound basis for pursuing further study or undertaking professions in government, public policy, law, non-governmental organizations, and related fields.
• to promote faculty research