The graduate program of the Department of Political Science is designed for students who desire broad and rigorous training in the discipline of political science. To meet this objective, the department offers course work in six major subfields:

• American Politics
• Comparative Politics
• International Relations
• Public Policy
• Political Philosophy
• Theory and Methodology

In addition to substantive course work, the department offers courses to prepare students to teach. In most cases, the department incorporates an opportunity to teach, both with supervision and independently. Through a recently funded program, graduate students may be offered teaching opportunities at liberal arts colleges in the Bloomington area.

Graduate students are expected to present papers at scholarly meetings. To prepare students to meet these expectations, the department offers a colloquium series which focuses on such topics as participation in scholarly meetings, how to secure research funding, the publication process, and the nature of an academic career. The department also has funds available to help students cover their travel expenses for scholarly meetings.

Academic Requirements

The Graduate School requires doctoral students to complete 90 credit hours. Usually two-thirds of these hours are formal course work. The remaining one-third of the credit hours are earned through the dissertation, which must be defended in an oral examination. Students who have taken graduate work elsewhere may transfer up to 30 hours toward the 90 hours required for the Ph.D. Students must maintain a 3.0 (B) grade point average.

Students must take at least 10 political science seminars, including Y570 Introduction to the Study of Politics, and at least two core seminars in the six examination fields in political science. The balance of the courses are research seminars focusing on a particular topic. These courses prepare students for their preliminary exams, which they must complete before beginning their dissertations. Each student takes written preliminary exams in two of the six fields offered by the department.

Students must also complete an outside minor. One of the advantages of graduate work at Indiana is the wealth of choices for a minor field. Most of IU's social science departments were ranked high in the recent National Academy of Sciences study. The Schools of Business, Law, and Public and Environmental Affairs are also highly rated.

In addition, students must demonstrate competence in language and/or research skills. Dozens of languages are regularly taught at IU, from Arabic to Uzbek. Foreign area study programs offer language training, certificates of area studies proficiency, special library collections, and financial aid. The African, Central Eurasian, Russian and East European, and West European Studies Programs are top-ranked nationally. Other noteworthy international study programs focus on Latin America, the Near and Middle East, East Asia, and India.

Research skills can be gained within the department through a two- semester statistics sequence as well as advanced methods classes. Research methods courses in other social science departments are also available, as are special summer courses offered through the Interdepartmental Statistics Consortium and the Institute for Social and Political Research at the University of Michigan. Through the CIC Traveling Scholar program, students at Indiana who have fee remission scholarships may enroll in courses at other CIC universities (Big Ten and the University of Chicago) without paying additional tuition.

Students can complete their course work in two to three years and may take their written field examinations at any point. The department encourages the completion of all requirements for the Ph.D. within five years. It does not offer an independent master's program.

Financial Aid

Political Science graduate students receive levels of support that are fully competitive with those of other top-ranked graduate programs in the United States. Most incoming students and continuing students demonstrating satisfactory progress will receive some type of financial aid, though the type and amount of aid varies. The department offers a limited number of competitive stipend fellowships. It also awards associate instructorships to those who assist faculty in teaching undergraduate courses. Research assistantships may be available as well. The university and the department offer limited amounts of aid for dissertation field research. Many students also receive fellowships from area study programs.

Placement Services

The department provides free placement services for its Ph.D. graduates. Students may also use the placement services of the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Education, and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. During the past ten years graduates have been placed at a wide variety of colleges and universities, ranging from major research institutions and large state universities to elite liberal arts colleges. Most Ph.D. graduates have located positions at the type of institution which was of interest to them. The department has also assisted students in securing nonacademic positions in government, nonprofit organizations, and private industry.

Departmental Research Facilities

The department offers a wide variety of facilities to support faculty and graduate student research.

• The Data Laboratory and Archive contains over 2,500 data sets and machine-readable codebooks. The Archive is a member of the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research and the International Survey Library Association (Roper Center). The Lab offers consulting and instruction in the use of computer facilities on the campus as well as providing data sets for graduate student research.

• Departmental Computing Facilities include a cluster of microcomputers exclusively for graduate student use which has access to a range of central campus resources at no charge to students. Word processing, graphics, spreadsheet, statistical, and database software are available. All graduate students have access to the Internet as well as to all the departmental computer facilities. More information is available on the department home page (http://www.indiana.edu/~iupolsci/).

• The Research Collection contains research and teaching materials of interest to political scientists and is maintained by a professional, full-time librarian. This collection includes over 9,000 volumes, selected journals, maps for classroom use, and information on external funding opportunities for political scientists.

• The Center for the Study of International Relations (CSIR) promotes faculty and graduate student research in international relations. The center aids in the preparation and presentation of professional papers, grant applications, and a variety of professional and research-related activities. It also coordinates the graduate teaching program in the field of international relations. A third mission involves sponsoring external speakers and conferences in cutting edge areas for the theoretical and empirical study of international relations. The center faculty's research, while varied, emphasizes explaining structural change, analyzing the dynamics of conflict and cooperation, and clarifying how domestic and international processes are linked.

• The Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis emphasizes theory and its application to policy-related research. Research focuses on the effect institutional arrangements have on the incentives that people face and, consequently on the way people behave. Much of the empirical research has centered on the impact of institutions upon collective action in urban areas of the U.S. and upon those who extract resources from common-pool resources throughout the world. A major study of institutions and forests is giving researchers the opportunity to examine the inter-relationships between local and global commons. Empirical studies of small-scale fisheries, irrigation systems, grazing areas, and forests are being compared in similarly structured, small-group experiments. The workshop offers both pre-and post-doctoral fellowships and research appointments. The workshop facilities in Woodburn Hall contain a major archive of common-pool resource systems throughout the world and a Geographic Information System (GIS) lab.

• Individual Faculty Research Grants, which may be either internally or externally funded, offer graduate students an opportunity to work as research assistants. The topics and availability of these grants varies from year to year.

University Research Facilities

• The International Development Institute conducts research and provides technical assistance in the area of development problems and issues occasional publications on development issues.

• The Wrubel Computing Center gives students access to an e-mail account, the Internet, and a multitude of software packages for microcomputers through public computing clusters, one of which is in Woodburn Hall. The University Computing Service offers noncredit courses in the use of the IU network, as well as, e-mail, the World Wide Web, and many software packages.

• The IU Bloomington Library ranks in the top thirteen academic libraries in the U.S. and has a collection of over 5.5 million books and 12 million other print and media items, including 38,000 serials. It is a depository for all U.S. government documents, as well as European Community documents. The subject librarian for political science regularly offers a course on bibliographic research for political science.

Special Interest Programs

The Bloomington campus offers a wide range of programs that focus on concerns of traditionally underrepresented populations. Of special interest to African Americans and others with Afro-centered interestes is the African Studies Program, internationally recognized as one of the best programs of its kind. Additionally, there is a very active Afro-American Studies Department and the multifaceted Black Culture Center, which includes an important film archive.

The Office of Latino Affairs is concerned with the needs of Chicano-Latino students and through La Casa provides numerous social and cultural opportunities. International students maintain an active social and cultural program through the Leo R. Dowling International Center.

The Office of Women's Affairs is concerned with the status of all women on the campus. This office sponsors speakers and career workshops for graduate women. The Women's Studies Department offers a doctoral certificate as well as sponsoring a lecture series, brown-bag luncheons, and a collection of research materials. Assistantships are available for teaching and for bibliographic and editorial work.