Political Science is about ...
Powerful International Institutions
such as the World Bank have a significant effect on national policies and the shape the possibilities of development. Their efforts are often sharply criticized. Political scientists contribute to these debates over the role institutions and how they might better address issues of development. Prof. Michael Allen is interested in these issues and teaches courses concerning the international organizations. Photo: World Bank protester, Jakarta, Indonesia, 2004. Photo by Jonathan McIntosh, 2004. Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License.
New Forms of Politics
The European Union is a new form of political organization, a supranational framework made by the member states which have consented to surrender some of their sovereignty to achieve common goals. Born from dreams, bureaucratic negotiation and compromise, the EU has revolutionized not only European politics but transformed the possibilities of individual rights in Europe. Prof. Carol Hager is interested in the EU and teaches courses on modern European politics. Photo: European Union Parliament, Brussels. Photo copyright Carola Hein, all rights reserved.
Women in Politics
While there are more women participating in the U.S. political process, numbers lag well behind those for male candidates. Women candidates continue to face different challenges and issues about personal aspects such as appearance and family tend to dominate their presentation in the media. Prof. Marissa Golden is particularly interested in women in politics and in U.S. politics and teaches several courses on these themes.
Image: Frontispiece from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, 1651. Wikipedia Commons, public domain.
Identity, Globalized
The politics of identity gains new salience when political actors use the global public space to make their claims. Prof. Marc Ross and Prof. Clark McCauley Jr. are concerned with the politics of culture, ethnicity and conflict. Photo: Kurdish demonstrators in London, 2003, showing their support for the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers Party, an organization of Turkish Kurds that has been labeled by the Turkey and the U.S. as a terrorist organization. By Francis Tyler, GNU Free Documentation License.
Bestsellers
Plato's writings from 400 BC are still in print. They deal with justice, power, the good life, death and desire, anger, and democracy. In his ancient and still living work,
the unfamiliar becomes familiar, and the familiar unfamiliar. Prof. Stephen Salkever teaches courses on Greek philosophy, including Plato and Aristotle.
Photo Fragment of Plato's Republic, about 3rd century BC and still in print.
Papyrus fragment, Papirus Oxyhynchus, 3rd century C.E, containing part of
Wikipedia Commons - Public domain
From the Consent of Many to a Fearsome Power:
Hobbes's Leviathan takes the
enduring questions of freedom and coercion; the power of the state and the
rights of individuals; sovereignty and language and crafts a practical theory
of power. Prof. Stephen Salkever's is interested in ancient and modern political philosophy, including the work of Thomas Hobbes.
Image: Frontispiece from Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan, 1651. Wikipedia Commons, public domain.
The U.S. Constitution as a Living Source of Law
The U.S. Constitution is central to struggles between the Administration and its opponents over the Constitutional obligations of the President in time of war, and the basic protections offered to prisoners under U.S. and international law. Important
Supreme Court decisions have confirmed the relationship between U.S. law and international law and refused to accept barriers to some forms of legal oversight. In Fall 2008, Alan Garfield is teaching a course on Constitutional Law. Prof. Jeremy Elkins's courses in public law, including Constitutional Law, and Administrative Jurisprudence, explore, in the context of particular legal controversies, broad themes of democratic theory—including the problem of how political regimes should treat various kinds of differences and various kinds of hierarchies, the relation of law and politics, and the nature of rights in the modern state. Photo: Demonstrators at the U.S. Supreme Court mark the sixth anniversary of the arrival of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. By Keith Ivey.
What Makes Stable Democracy Possible?
Is it a matter of the right history; get it
right in the 17th century or suffer? Or can policy makers and power holders make
better or worse decisions? Can outsiders help? How does the structure of elections
matter? Professor Carol Hager considers these basic questions of democracy and mantionalism in POLS 131 (Intro to Comparative Politics).
Photo: Iraqis voting, Janury 2005. U.S. Marines and Iraqi forces providing security for polling sites in Nasarwasalam. 050130-M-7981G-058 Nasarwasalam, Iraq (Jan. 30, 2005) - Iraqi citizens come out in masses to vote. U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Trevor Gift, public domain.
How should war crimes be investigated or prosecuted?
Will the truth contribute to a better future and the potential of reconciliation, or will demands for prosecution expand mistrust? These are not abstract issues but burning questions for societies after national traumas. Transitional Justice is a major concern of Peace & Conflict Studies.
Photo: Cynthia Ngewa testifying during the South African Truth and Reconciliation hearings, from the 2000 documentary Long Night’s Journey into Day, ©Iris Films
Election 2008
The Internet has changed how American elections are experienced; blogs and posted photographs offer a mediated but expanded coverage of the candidates. While the media offers enormous exposure to office seekers, image and interpretation are
constantly presented and represented by electronic media. David Chomsky is concerned with the American media and politics (Media and the Elections, fall 2008, Politics and the Mass Media, Spring 2009).
Photos: Senators Barak Obama and Chuck Hagel with Gen. David H. Petreus, in Iraq, July 2008. Photo taken by Staff Sgt. Lorie Jewell, Public domain; and John McCain speaking against a backdrop of the flag of the United States.