Opportunities
There are a number of opportunities for Political Science majors and minors to build research skills, and to carry out research of their own.
- Learn about Political Science research in POL S 285: Political Science as a Social Science. You can also seek out courses in other departments to build research skills. You may want to look at classes in the Center for Statistics and the Social Sciences (CS&SS), Sociology, and Statistics departments.
- Political Science honors program: as part of the honors program, students get the opportunity to design and conduct their own research project under the supervision of a faculty adviser.
- CAPPP Undergraduate Fellows Program: the Center for American Politics and Public Policy (CAPPP) undergraduate fellows program offers opportunities to participate in ongoing research, design and complete an independent research project, and present at the Undergraduate Research Symposium.
- The undergraduate research page is a great place to start looking for opportunities to work on a research project at the University of Washington. You can attend info sessions, meet with an undergraduate research advisor, or search their database of opportunities (hint: filter by Political Science).
- Centers at the University of Washington such as the Center for Labor Studies and the Center for Communication & Civic Engagement sometimes have opportunities for undergraduates to carry out research.
- The Undergraduate Research Symposium is an annual event where you can present research you have completed, or learn about research other students have done. This can be a good place to start thinking about research you might be interested in.
- Talk to professors: If you are interested in conducting research, you can talk to your professors or professors you know who do research in that area. They may know if there are any opportunities to get involved in research in that area.
What kind of research do Political Science undergraduates do?
Students who complete the CAPPP Undergraduate Fellows Program present their work at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. This sample of undergraduate Political Science research provides an example of the type of topics some Political Science majors research at the University of Washington. Some titles from recent presentations at the Undergraduate Research Symposium include:
- The Effect of State-Level Immigration Policy on Populations of Undocumented Immigrants and Immigration Flows
- The New Battleground for Party Politics: Comparing State Legislators’ Online Partisanship with Roll Call Votes
- Impact of Perceived Government Legitimacy on the Use of Taliban Court Systems
- Public Transit and Private Car Ownership: How to Best Help Low-Income, Urban Workers