Designed to complement a policy internship, this two credit course will focus on content and skills that are likely to be useful in typical Washington offices. Students will develop literacy on the most pressing domestic policy topics and will work on writing and presentation skills. All students will participate in a public policy internship for at least ten hours a week.

Assignment to faculty members for directed reading, research, or participation in a joint research project. Section number must be obtained from the Political Science office.

Political polls are a central feature of elections and are ubiquitously employed to understand and explain voter intentions and public opinion. This course will examine political polling by focusing on four main areas of consideration. First, what is the role of political polls in a functioning democracy? This area will explore the theoretical justifications for polling as a representation of public opinion. Second, the course will explore the business and use of political polling, including media coverage of polls, use by politicians for political strategy and messaging, and the impact polls have on elections specifically and politics more broadly. The third area will focus on the nuts and bolts of election and political polls, specifically with regard to exploring traditional questions and scales used for political measurement; the construction and considerations of likely voter models; measurement of the horserace; and samples and modes used for election polls. The course will additionally cover a fourth area of special topics, which will include exit polling, prediction markets, polling aggregation, and other topics. It is not necessary for students to have any specialized mathematical or statistical background for this course.

The objective of this course is to provide Political Science Ph.D. students with statistical tools useful for making inferences about politics. We will cover fundamentals of probability theory, estimation, and hypothesis testing, emphasizing application to research questions in American Politics, positive Political Theory, Comparative Politics, and International Relations.

The primary goal of the first-year seminar program is to provide every first-year student with the opportunity for a direct personal encounter with a faculty member in a small class setting devoted to a significant intellectual endeavor. First-year seminars also fulfill College General Education Requirements.

The goal of this class is to expose students to the process by which quantitative political science research is conducted. The class will take us down three separate, but related tracks. Track one will teach some basic tools necessary to conduct quantitative political science research. Topics covered will include descriptive statistics, sampling, probability and statistical theory, and regression analysis. However, conducting empirical research requires that we actually be able to apply these tools. Thus, track two will teach us how to implement some of these basic tools using the computer program R. However, if we want to implement these tools, we also need to be able to develop hypotheses that we want to test. Thus, track three will teach some basics in research design. Topics will include independent and dependent variables, generating testable hypotheses, and issues in causalit You are encouraged to register for both this course an PSCI 107 at the same time, as the courses cover distin but complementary, material. But there are no prerequi nor is registering for PSCI 107 necessary, in order to take this course. The class satisfies the College of A Science Quantitative Data Analysis (QDA) requirement.

Consult department for detailed descriptions. More than one course may be taken in a given semester. Recent titles have included: Race Development and American International Relations, Hegel and Marx, and Logic of the West.

Whether America begins with the Puritans and the Mayflower Compact, or with the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution, it is founded in resistance to empire. In the generations between, Americans have desired, dreaded and debated empire. This course will focus on empire and imperialism in American political thought. We will read primary texts addressing empire: from the departure and dissent of the Puritans, and Burke's Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, to twentieth and twenty-first century debates over America's role in the world. These texts will include political pamphlets and speeches, poetry, novels, policy papers and film.

Whether America begins with the Puritans and the Mayflower Compact, or with the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution, it is founded in resistance to empire. In the generations between, Americans have desired, dreaded and debated empire. This course will focus on empire and imperialism in American political thought. We will read primary texts addressing empire: from the departure and dissent of the Puritans, and Burke's Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, to twentieth and twenty-first century debates over America's role in the world. These texts will include political pamphlets and speeches, poetry, novels, policy papers and film.

Whether America begins with the Puritans and the Mayflower Compact, or with the Declaration of Independence and the Revolution, it is founded in resistance to empire. In the generations between, Americans have desired, dreaded and debated empire. This course will focus on empire and imperialism in American political thought. We will read primary texts addressing empire: from the departure and dissent of the Puritans, and Burke's Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies, to twentieth and twenty-first century debates over America's role in the world. These texts will include political pamphlets and speeches, poetry, novels, policy papers and film.