Message from the Co-Chairs

‌Welcome. Here you will find information about our programs, our faculty and our courses.

The Political Science department’s goal is to provide a learning environment that can produce liberally educated citizens who are fluent in the language of politics and political analysis and thereby have the foundation for both citizenship in a democratic society and successful training in a job, in a graduate school, or in a professional school. Such people will have the capacity to recognize and evaluate assumptions, implications, and causal relationships pertaining to government and politics and, by extension, to other realms of human experience.

Our courses are taught by full-time, professionally accomplished faculty members who work closely and carefully with their students. The typical introductory politics course enrolls approximately thirty-five students. Upper-level classes typically enroll twenty-one or fewer students. Such class sizes ensure that academic work receives the attention it deserves, and our faculty regularly meet individually with their students to discuss and evaluate their progress, extracurricular experiences, and personal and professional goals.

We hope you will explore our website, and if you have questions or concerns, feel free to contact us.

Rachel Paine Caufield and Kieran Williams
Co-Chairs, Department of Political Science