Department of Political Science

Research & Teaching

Our faculty specialize in a variety of research areas within political science, including American politics, formal theory, international conflict, international political economy, methodology, and political theory. Across all these areas, faculty regularly bring their expertise to both undergraduate and graduate students in the classroom. We host several subfield-specific workshops where students and faculty collaborate on research in real time. Students regularly co-author publications with our faculty, and often continue those collaborations well after graduation.

Community

The department regularly hosts lectures, workshops, and conferences to foster our intellectual community. Our annual spring Speaker Series invites decorated scholars across the discipline to present research, as well as our year-long Workshop on Politics, Ethics and Society. In recent years, our department has hosted annual conferences for Visions in Methodology, the Society for Political Methodology, and the Peace Science Society, as well as our annual self-hosted Comparative Politics Annual Conference. 

Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

The Department of Political Science at Washington University is deeply committed to creating a diverse and inclusive learning environment, and to generating new scientific knowledge on diversity and equity in society. We believe that a diverse and inclusive academic community is essential to producing excellent scholarship and promoting student learning. We believe that all members of our community should feel welcome and respected, regardless of their background or identity, and we strive to ensure that all members of our community have the opportunity to succeed. We recognize that there have been systemic barriers that have prevented people from marginalized groups from participating fully in academia. We are working to dismantle these barriers and to create a more equitable environment for all. We are committed to creating a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive Department of Political Science- this is essential to our mission of producing excellent scholarship and preparing students to be informed and engaged citizens in a globalized world.