Graduate Program

Graduate Studies Director: Professor Cathie Jo Martin
Graduate Program Coordinator: Linda Simons

The Graduate Program in political science offers a warm and nurturing environment for the training of Ph.D. candidates. A richly diverse community of scholars comprise the Graduate Faculty in Political Science at Boston University and students may also take advantage of the broader resources in the Boston Area. The Ph.D program admits around ten new students a year and includes about fifty students at various stages of their graduate studies. Various questions about financial aid are addressed on the department’s financial aid webpage.

Approximately thirty-five political science professors offer courses in the five core sub-fields of the discipline.

American Politics includes courses on the presidency, the judiciary, legislative process, political parties, interest groups and social movements, American political development and political culture.

Comparative Politics covers subjects such as comparative political development (and underdevelopment), political economy, democratization, institutional analysis and comparative public policy in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.

Public Policy analyzes U.S. national, comparative, and urban public policy, and methods in the study of public policy.

International Relations and Foreign Policy includes classes on the history and theories of international relations, foreign relations of selected areas (U.S., China, Latin America, the former Soviet Union, and Africa), strategy and arms control.

Political Theory surveys the historical and analytic approaches of the works of classical political philosophers; theories of justice, liberty, and authority; American political thought; and the philosophy of the social sciences.

In addition, the Department of Political Science is at the center of a larger community of political scientists at Boston University.