Welcome to the Charles and Louise Travers Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley!
The systematic study of politics could not be more important today. We live in a time of intense polarization and political disaffection, not only in the United States but around the world. Political institutions and processes are being contested daily, and our global order is being remade before our eyes. Politics can feel depressing and liberating. For political scientists, politics is also fascinating, and we hope to impart a passion for understanding and analyzing it.
At Berkeley, our faculty seek to answer fundamental questions about politics with rigor, cutting edge methods, and creativity. The professors in the department research a huge range of topics, everything from affective polarization and inequality in the United States; to elections and conflict around the world; to thinkers like Aristotle and Booker T. Washington. We are a big department with strengths across the major subfields in the discipline: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, Political Methodology, and Political Theory.
The faculty in the department are of the highest caliber. We consistently rank as a top department in the country and are one of the few public universities in the top ten. Our faculty regularly publish in leading outlets and win with prestigious awards.
Graduate training is a priority in the department. The current roster of graduate students represents the future of the discipline, as well as the corners of industry and the public sector where PhD analytics are welcome. Our graduate student alumni teach in departments of political science across the United States and internationally, and many are the leading scholars of their generation in their areas of specialization.
Teaching undergraduate students at this public university is a joy. Our students are remarkable for their energy, intelligence, and curiosity, but also for the diversity of life experiences and interests that they bring to the classroom. We offer a range of classes, including large lectures with several hundred students, small seminars with less than 20 students, and much in between. The topics range from an introduction to American Politics to gender and politics to climate change. We are proud to be one of the largest majors at the university, with more than 1000 declared majors. We aim to prepare our students for a variety of careers, but also to stimulate a lifelong interest in politics at home and abroad.
The department is lucky to have an outstanding administrative staff who bring professionalism and dedication to their jobs, and who make the wheels turn in the department.
I am honored to serve as Chair of this department. I received my PhD from the department more than 20 years ago, and my own ideas and intellectual orientation were deeply shaped by the people I encountered while a graduate student here.
As chair, I aim to maintain the excellence of this department in all its facets of research, teaching, and advising, while also upholding the department’s core principles of community and ensuring the department is a welcoming environment for all. I strive to foster an open space for debate, for asking and answering the hardest questions, and for pushing the boundaries of what we know, all in the context of context of mutual respect and inclusivity. In whatever way I can, I hope to make sure all members of our Political Science community feel valued and have rewarding and productive careers at Berkeley.
Whether you are a current student, alum, peer political scientist, fellow Berkeley community member, or someone generally interested in politics, I encourage you to explore our department and to be in touch if you have questions.
Sincerely,
Scott Straus, Professor and Chair