Graduate

Emerging Research in American Political Behavior Research Workshop

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Units
1
Section
1
Number
290PB
CCN
26565
Times
Wed 11am-12pm
Location
SOCS791
Course Description

The practice of carrying out research is an acquired skill. Everyone has to learn it, although traditionally most of it is self-taught. This course is designed to provide students with guidance, structure, and feedback that will help them to frame and execute well-specified and coherent research projects on American political behavior. The seminar also offers students an opportunity to work through their ideas and test their arguments in an informal, small, and collegial setting. Students will present their own research, comment on the research of their peers, and learn about different types of feedback mainly through example.

The workshop provides a forum for students to improve how they think about conducting research projects, to workshop early work, conference papers, and ideas for MA or PhD proposals, and, finally, to develop a community in which they can work through specific practices for research and problems that arise in conducting their projects. These main aims of the workshop are met through a forum in which faculty and graduate students at various career stages work closely together. It is an applied workshop with an emphasis on learning by doing and on learning how to be a more constructive colleague. Rather than segregate PhD students by cohort, the workshop is designed to bring cohorts together in order to facilitate the student-to-student transfer of skills and knowledge.

 

 

Graduate Student Instructor Training Seminar

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
2
Section
1
Number
375
CCN
22627
Times
Fri 10am-12pm
Location
SOCS202
Course Description

PS 375 is a two-credit course designed for first-time Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs).  The course seeks to introduce students to practical teaching methods and to foster discussion about effective pedagogy. It also focuses on professional development, in particular on developing skills that are closely related to effective teaching such as presentation skills. The course features student presentations on selected pedagogical topics, panels on key issues related to teaching and to professional development, and discussion of weekly assignments in relation to challenges encountered by GSIs in the course of their teaching.

RESEARCH WORKSHOP IN THEORY

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
1
Section
1
Number
291T
CCN
24182
Times
Mon 2-4pm
Location
SOCS749
Course Description

This course is a  seminar which can be taken for 0 - 2 units, Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory with the following course description:

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in progress by graduate students. To receive credit for the course, the student will participate fully, including, as asked, either making a presentation of work in progress or serving as lead  discussant for another student's work. Appropriate works-in-progress include  (but are not limited to) a paper in preparation for submission to a journal, a dissertation prospectus (including early drafts), a dissertation chapter, or a job market paper. Anyone working on theory is welcome.

 

https://polisci.berkeley.edu/research-and-teaching/lectures-colloquia/political-theory-workshop

COMPARATIVE POLITICS COLLOQUIUM

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
2
Section
1
Number
291AS
CCN
22610
Times
Thurs 12:30-2pm
Location
SOCS202
Course Description

This colloquium exposes graduate students and faculty to work by leading scholars of comparative politics working in diverse substantive areas. Graduate students are expected to read circulated papers of visiting speakers ahead of the colloquium and participate actively in raising questions and making comments.  They are encouraged to meet visiting speakers in their areas of interest in group or one-on-one sessions. 

 

 

This description is from Spring 2015

RESEARCH WORKSHOP IN AMERICAN POLITICS

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
1
Section
1
Number
291
CCN
19528
Times
W 12-1:30pm
Location
PHIL119
Course Description

A forum for the presentation and discussion of research in progress by graduate students. To receive two units of credit, a student must make at least one presentation of work in progress and serve as a discussant for another student's presentation. To receive one unit of credit a student must regularly attend class and participate in discussion, but will not be required to make a presentation. Appropriate works in progress include (but are not limited to) a paper in preparation for submission to a journal, a dissertation prospectus (including early drafts), a dissertation chapter, or a job market paper. Anyone working on American politics, political behavior, public law, or public administration is welcome.

Research and Writing

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Units
4
Section
1
Number
290A
CCN
19530
Times
Tues 11am-1:30pm
Location
SOCS749
Course Description

The goal of this yearlong course is to provide a forum in which students propose, develop, and complete a research project that produces a journal-length paper of publishable quality. This paper will typically serve as students' second-year M.A. essay, and the course is intended as a complement to that requirement. This course is primarily oriented towards second-year Ph.D. students in any subfield (students in other years may participate with the professors’ consent). The course meets regularly during parts of the fall semester and irregularly during the spring semester. In the first few weeks of the course, we discuss the process of moving from research topic to research question; and we survey published articles by recent Ph.D. students/assistant professors, focusing on the structure and nature of the writing and presentation as well the quality of the argument and evidence. We then move to students’ research proposals for the rest of the fall semester. During the spring semester, students meet individually with the course instructors and their advisors, develop and revise drafts of their papers, and present their work at a department “APSA-style” conference. In order to complete the course and receive credit, students must complete the requirements for both semesters.

American Government Field Seminar

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
4
Section
1
Number
271
CCN
24181
Times
Thurs 4-6pm
Location
SOCS791
Course Description

This seminar is designed to acquaint students with current research approaches in various subfields of American Politics. Particular attention will be given to debates over theory, methodology, and substance. The seminar is not designed to provide a complete survey of the field. Students planning to be examined in American Politics are expected to master recommended readings on their own and should review additional readings included in versions of this seminar offered in the past years.

Political Behavior

Level
Semester
Fall 2025
Instructor(s)
Units
4
Section
1
Number
261
CCN
23905
Times
Mon 10am-12pm
Location
SOCS749
Course Description

A comprehensive review of the major topics in political behavior through intensive examination of the theories, findings, and proceedings of the most significant studies in the field.