ResourcesThe Political Science Colloquium Foreign Study Programs Research Opportunities for Graduate Students Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program Career Placement Services Career Paths of Recent Graduates The Political Science Computer Classroom Comparative Law and Society Studies (CLASS) Center Graduate Fellows Program Center for Social Science Computation and Research Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences The Graduate School Homepage Thesis and Dissertation Format Templates Graduate School Application for Admission Campus Tour The Political Science ColloquiumThe Political Science Colloquium is a series of lectures given throughout the year by visiting professors, University of Washington faculty and graduate students, as well as leading political analysts from the United States and abroad. The presentations, which focus on recent developments in social science research, are held in a seminar setting which stimulates interaction between the speaker and audience. On occasion, a lecture is jointly sponsored with another discipline such as economics, sociology, or women studies. The department typically sponsors two to four colloquia per month.
Foreign Study ProgramsThe University has established formal student exchange programs with a number of major foreign universities. Graduate students in political science are eligible to apply for financial assistance to spend a year of study at such eminent institutions as the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris, Kobe University, and the University of Tubingen.Research Opportunities for Graduate StudentsGraduate students are often involved in research projects led by department faculty members. To the extent that funds permit, this participation takes the form of research assistantships, which are normally half-time appointments for one or more quarters. Departmental, Graduate School, other University moneys, and external grants are used to support such appointments. Student-faculty collaboration has generally led to opportunities for dissertation research and the publication of joint articles. Current research projects that involve graduate participation are as follows:
Career Placement ServicesAs graduate students near completion of their degrees and prepare to enter the job market, the department actively aids their job search. Placement activities involve the faculty chair and his or her placement committee (an annually appointed group of faculty) who advise students on the job market. The department also maintains a current file of job-finding resources. Each prospective job candidate establishes a placement file--curriculum vitae, letters of recommendation, teaching evaluations, etc.--which the department mails to potential employers. Candidates are encouraged to present a departmental colloquium before job interviewing, and to participate in academic conferences. To the extent possible, the department extends financial assistance to students who present their research at academic conventions. The department is proud of its placement record. In recent years, students have been placed in teaching positions in a variety of public and private institutions. Although a majority of Ph.D.s have chosen academic employment, others have secured professional appointments in the public sector, in private business and industry. 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 Placement for Political Science
Average Time to Degree: 6.66 years (range from 4.33 to 11 years) Career Paths of Recent GraduatesColette C. Carter received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Washington in August, 1991. Her research interests centered around the responsiveness of state and local government to citizen interest and demand. Her dissertation, "A Study of Decision-Making Patterns and Organizational Factors Influencing Responsiveness of Municipal Agencies to Citizen Demands" was written under the supervision of Professor Peter May. Currently, Dr. Carter is in the initial stages of designing a study of the structure of local government, minority political incorporation and service provision in the face of fiscal strain. Upon completion of her Ph.D., Carter was a visiting professor for three years at Duke University. She received a tenure-track position at the University of Southern Colorado at Pueblo in 1994, where she will teach courses in American government. Alec Stone completed his Ph.D. in 1989 under the supervision of Professor John Keeler. Stone entered the program with his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, where he won the Christian Herter Prize as the top-ranked graduate. While at the University of Washington, Stone co-authored an article with Prof. Keeler that was published in The Mitterrand Experiment (Oxford University Press), won a Linder A. Mander Prize for a paper later published in West European Politics, and contributed articles to Policy Studies Journal and Policy-Making in France from De Gaulle to Mitterrand (Columbia University Press). His doctoral dissertation, "The Birth of Judicial Politics in France: The Constitutional Council in Comparative Perspective," won both the Western Political Science Association's Dissertation Award and the Georges Lavau Prize (from the Conference Group on French Politics and Society). The dissertation was published as a book in 1992 entitled: The Birth of Judicial Politics in France (Oxford University Press). In addition to writing several more articles for French and American journals, Stone co-edited a special issue of Comparative Political Studies on Comparative Judicial Politics with Professor Martin Shapiro of the University of California, Berkeley. In 1991 Stone received a German Marshall Fund Fellowship to begin research on his second book in Germany. He received a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship to support another year of research in 1995. In 1994 he received a National Science Foundation Grant which will support four years of research on Europe Legal Integration. Professor Stone teaches courses in comparative and judicial politics at the University of California, Irvine, where he was recently awarded the 1994 Distinguished Assistant Professor for Research. Sara Singleton, who received her Ph.D. in June, 1994, has accepted a tenure-track appointment at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, where she will be teaching courses in environmental politics, public policy and American Politics. While completing her degree, Singleton co-authored articles with Professor Michael Taylor and Professor Margaret Levi. In 1990 she won the Philo Sherman Bennett Prize for best graduate paper. In 1992 she was awarded a Graduate School Dissertation Fellowship which supported dissertation research for one quarter. Her dissertation, "Common Problems, Collective Action and Efficiency: The Evolution of Institutions of Co-management in Pacific Northwest Tribal Fisheries" focuses on cooperation and conflict between local Indian tribes and the State of Washington in the management of Pacific Northwest salmon. John Ryan Gilliom, began his Ph.D. program in Political Science in 1984 and completed his course work in 1986. His dissertation, "The Dangers of Safety: Drug Testing, Social Control, and the Law" was written under the supervision of Professors Stuart Scheingold and Michael McCann. Grounded in a multi-dimensional empirical study of mandatory workplace drug testing, his analysis inquired into patterns of domination and resistance in contemporary processes of social control, giving special attention to the role of legal ideology. The study will be published as a book in 1993 by the University of Michigan Press. Gilliom also has published several essays, including an article in Polity on his dissertation research and a book chapter (co-authored with Lief Carter) on critical theories of constitutional interpretation (in Michael McCann and Gerald Houseman, eds., Judging the Constitution). Gilliom's present research concerns political struggles over computerized surveillance in welfare administration. Gilliom holds a position as Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ohio University, where he teaches in the areas of constitutional law, law and society, and American political culture. Helena Silverstein, who received her Ph.D. in May, 1992, has accepted an endowed chair as the Kirby Assistant Professor of Law in the Department of Government and Law at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Her graduate school training cultivated a long standing interest in law and social movements generally, and in the contributions of activist lawyers to struggles for human rights in particular. Her innovative dissertation, "Unleashing Rights: Law and the Politics of the Animal Rights Movement" (supervised by Michael McCann and Stuart Scheingold, demonstrated through case studies the important but often unacknowledged ways that legal tactics can contribute to effective political mobilization and action. Silverstein has co-authored (with Michael McCann) a book chapter on "Law and Social Reform: Contemporary U.S. Experiences" (Oxford University Press). Her current research is affiliated with the Cause Lawyers Project (organized by Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold) and explores the varying roles of lawyers in grassroots political movements. Silverstein teaches courses on law and society, constitutional law, jurisprudence, and political culture. TechnologyThe department is committed to innovative uses of technology in the field of Political Science. We are working hard to develop one of the finest computer classrooms at any Political Science department in the country. Comparative Law and Society Studies (CLASS) Center Graduate Fellows ProgramGraduate students across the University of Washington campus may be invited to participate as CLASS Graduate Fellows. The primary requirement for eligibility as a fellow is an intellectual interest in socio-legal study and a demonstrated commitment to participation in CLASS-sponsored graduate seminars, colloquia series, conferences, and related activities. Graduate students may be nominated for the Fellows program either by themselves or by affiliated faculty; conferral of the Fellows status and graduation certificate will be made by the CLASS faculty standing committee.
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