Welcome to Political Science at Northwestern University

Our department is a lively and diverse place to study politics and government. We are a group of over 35 scholars with training and other backgrounds and connections at the foremost educational and research institutions in America and around the world. Faculty publishing in the top journals and with the leading university presses offer courses in American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Methodology, and Political Theory.

An exciting aspect of Political Science at Northwestern is the way we are linked closely with other departments and disciplines at Northwestern, one of the nation's leading universities. Studying here in Political Science allows you to take advantage of our strong ties to other scholars of national and international stature in Economics, Sociology, History, Comparative Literature, English, the Kellogg School, and the Law School. Important interdisciplinary programs and research units like African-American Studies, the Center for International and Comparative Studies, Gender Studies, the Institute for Policy Research, and other intellectual enclaves provide institutional forums for shared research and intellectual exchange. We encourage our students to take advantage of all of these resources. And we welcome you to join us in our endeavor to understand the role of ideas, economics, power, history, law -- and more -- in world, national, and local politics.

I hope that this web site helps answer some of your questions about our faculty, courses, programs and events.

Best Wishes,
Hendrik Spruyt
Professor and Chair