Political science summer classes 2026

The United States is the most powerful country in the world. This means that how the United States behaves in the world is hugely important. As a result, we should all try to better understand U.S. foreign policy: why the U.S. behaves in the way it does, how the U.S. should behave, and how it has behaved in the past.

Politics and the law have played major thematic roles in American films. This course analyzes eight films that focus on justice, the law, and the legal system, to see what they tell us about political and legal culture, and what messages they have for contemporary politics.

This course serves as an introduction to the study of political theory. Political theory analyzes the meaning and significance of fundamental concepts in politics. Starting from such basic concerns as the nature of politics, humans, power, and justice, political theorists explore how these basic starting assumptions organize the norms, practices, and institutions of political and social order.

This course fulfills the Civic Life and Ethics and Historical Perspectives Liberal Education requirements.

Students search for and arrange an internship with an organization or office working in government or politics, and then complete academic coursework in association with their internship.

Learn how to study politics scientifically and be introduced to how to use quantitative analysis to answer political questions. By the end of the class, students should be able to ask and answer political questions using quantitative data and fluently evaluate statistical analyses of political phenomena in the media and many academic articles. No math or statistical background required.

This course fulfills the Mathematical Thinking Liberal Education requirement.

This course considers the nature of contemporary democracy and the role that members of the political community do, can, and should play. Students can expect to read historical and contemporary texts, and see films and vides, to approach questions about the nature of democracy, justifications for democracy, and challenges faced by contemporary democracy.

This course fulfills the Civic Life and Ethics and Writing Intensive Liberal Education requirements.

This course applies a psychological approach to understanding how average people think about politics, make political decisions, and decide how and if to take political action. Explore arguments about the role that ideology, biological and evolutionary factors, personality, identity and partisanship, racial attitudes, and political discussion play in shaping the opinion and behavior of members of the mass public.

This course fulfills the Social Science Liberal Education requirement.

Examine four key themes in the study of international relations: causes of global violence, consequences of global violence for political communities, modes of local and global resistance to violence, and methods of reconciliation that communities deploy in response to violence. Understand the underlying causes of violence and its consequences in the long- and short-term; process of mass mobilization and social movements in solidarity with victims and survivors of violence and oppression to the State and other forms of organized violence; and how communities have used and deployed instruments of reconciliation and justice in response.

This course fulfills the Global Perspectives and Social Sciences Liberal Education requirements.

The Capstone is a required course that provides students with a unique opportunity to reflect on, articulate, share, and build on their individual experiences in the major.