Research
The Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois was founded in 1904. From its very beginning, the Department has offered high quality education at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. Over the course of its history it has awarded more than 20,000 bachelor degrees, several thousand masters’ degrees, and over 350 Ph.D.’s. The Department’s baccalaureates have gone on to make important contributions in the fields of law, business and government, as well as in the not for profit sector. The Department’s Ph.D.’s have gone on to careers in teaching and scholarship at some of the most prestigious institutions in the U.S.
Research Areas
American Politics
American politics faculty currently study public opinion and political psychology, racial and ethnic politics, national political institutions, campaigns and elections, and political communication. Much of this research focuses on the linkages between ordinary citizens and politicians. The study of political communication, broadly conceived, has become a particular strength that draws on students and faculty from the political science and speech communication departments.
Comparative Politics
Faculty research within the advanced world focuses on Western Europe work and questions pertaining to institutional design and political economy. Within the developing world, Illinois faculty carry out research on issues of democratization, regime change, state formation and decay, ethnic conflict, social movements and globalization, and the political economy of economic reform and development.
International Politics
All international relations faculty members share a commitment to broad, theoretically-based inquiry. Several have published major books on international relations theory. Specific faculty research expertise is concentrated in two subfields of international relations: international conflict and political economy.
Political Theory
Faculty research in political theory endeavors to explain, interpret, and evaluate political transformations. During periods of dramatic change especially, we need not only to describe the ordinary functioning of politics, but also to theorize the political itself, that is to say, the fundamental assumptions that structure our own and other societies.
Recent publications of current and past graduate students written on their own, in collaboration with another graduate student, or written in collaboration with Political Science Faculty.