Shape the Future of Politics and Governance

Master of Arts in Political Science

Our master’s students are intellectually curious about political influences and structures that govern our society. They investigate questions spanning the interplay of religion, money and politics while comparing political systems on a global scale.

Program Overview

The master of arts (M.A.) in political science program focuses on analyzing interrelationships between political, economic, social, cultural and historical forces in the field of political science. You will develop and express ideas through original writing, research and presentations.

Degree Requirements

The M.A. degree requires a total of 30 graduate credits, including:

one methodology course
nine graduate-level courses in political science or other fields of interest, upon approval from the graduate studies director

Visit the Course Catalog for more details

Sample Courses

As a master’s student, you will have multiple courses to choose from when selecting your methodology and elective courses. Below is a small sample of course options, allowing you to draw from a range of foundational topics and skill-building courses.

American Parties and Elections

This course focuses on political parties, interest groups and electoral behavior in the American political context.

Public Opinion and Communication

Learn more about opinion formation; political communication systems; impact of news media, propaganda, and methods; including opinion surveys and content analysis.

Global Migration

Why do people move across international borders, and where do they go? This course looks at how local communities, national governments and international institutions respond. What are the goals of these policies, and are they effective?

Contemporary Normative Theory

Major debates in contemporary democratic theory is the focus of this course. Topics covered include the extent of and rationale for political participation, relation of material and political equality and tension between liberty and equality.

Introduction to Quantitative Political Analysis

Cover fundamental quantitative analysis skills such as basic statistics, including measures of central tendency and dispersion, hypothesis testing, indices of association, and bivariate analysis; as well as the application of statistics to political science data.

Fundamentals of Post-Conflict Reconstruction

The goal of this course is to provide a broad overview of the field of post-conflict reconstruction (PCR) from both a theoretical and applied point of view.

Impacting the public dialogue

At Maxwell, contributing to the public dialogue is a vital form of active citizenship. Political science Ph.D. candidate Nathan Carrington’s commentary on Confederate statues, Brexit and other topics appears in the Washington Post. Nathan’s dissertation investigates Supreme Court legitimacy in an era marked by extreme polarization.

Nathan Carrington ’18 M.A. (PSc)

Ph.D. student, political science; research associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Read “Legally, Confederate statues in public spaces aren’t a form of free speech”

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