Overview
The George Washington University Political Science Department is a nationally recognized program with emphases in American Politics, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. Faculty and graduate student research is cutting edge and takes advantage of the Department's Washington location to leverage data and resources unique to this national and world capital.
The Department's faculty are leaders in their fields. Included in our number are faculty who have been named as among those scholars doing the most interesting research in the past five years (Martha Finnemore) and a "top congressional scholar" (Sarah Binder). Nathan Brown was recently selected by the Carnegie Corporation as one of 24 scholars offering new and compelling ideas. Faculty publications regularly appear in the discipline's top journals and presses. The cutting-edge nature of our faculty's research is routinely recognized by support from prominent foundations including the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. The department served as home to the American Political Science Review, the discipline's flagship journal, from 2001 to 2007 while Lee Sigelman acted as editor. Faculty and graduate students have also won numerous grants and awards.
The department continues this momentum by hiring outstanding scholars with active and promising research programs each year. Recently, we welcomed Stephen Biddle (Council on Foreign Relations; Harvard University, Ph.D.), Celeste Arrington (University of California, Ph.D.), Evgeny Finkel (University of Wisconsin, Ph.D.), Danny Hayes (University of Texas, Ph.D.), and Rachel Stein (Stanford University, Ph.D.) to the faculty.
Faculty Debate Health Care Policy
Bob Stoker and Robert Betz are shown participating in a health care policy debate, which was hosted by the Student Association and co-sponsored by College Republicans and College Democrats. The debate, which also involved questions from students, was held to demonstrate a spirited, civil exchange of ideas.