Graduate Program

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The Department of Politics ranks fifth in the nation in the publication of books (see article in "PS: Political Science & Politics," Dec 2002). The doctoral program is distinguished by a methodological emphasis on qualitative methods, and comparative case analysis, rather than formal or statistical analysis, although expertise in the latter approach is also required. Our substantive emphasis is on the theory, politics, and policies of democratic and democratizing regimes. The graduate curriculum emphasizes linkages among the patterns of American political development, contemporary American politics, and the politics of other developed and developing democratic systems. The graduate curriculum also addresses the advanced industrial democracies of Western Europe and Japan, the democratizing states of Eastern Europe, and the international political, economic and military-security relations among these states.

Graduate Curriculum

Graduate coursework in the department is carried out in many forms: a set of five required graduate "field seminars," topical and specialized graduate seminars; tutorials and independent readings courses; and a required proseminar for dissertation research in progress (schedule for Spring 2007). The five field seminars cover four substantive sub-fields and one covers research methods. These are offered on an alternating basis: in odd years, American political Development, comparative political institutions and public policy, and qualitative research design and analysis; in even years, international relations, and liberalism and its critics. Graduate students may, with permission of the graduate director, also enroll in advanced undergraduate courses for graduate credit. Faculty offer separate graduate-level reading and discussion sections or tutorials (and assign graduate research and writing tasks) for each undergraduate course in which one or more graduate students are enrolled.

Ph.D. students gain teaching experience and mentoring by serving as teaching fellows under the supervision of faculty for the larger, introductory survey courses for undergraduates. Service as teaching fellows is a key component of their training for professional academic careers. Brandeis University provides institutional support for graduate students concerned with housing, health care, English language training, and teaching and professionalization, for example. (see Graduate Student Services website).

Here are some Useful Links for prospective and registered graduate students. The majority of our recent Ph.D.s have gone on to academic careers, at institutions ranging from small liberal arts colleges to major research universities. Consider our Recent Students' Accomplishments.