Research
The Department of Political Science at Washington State University has 15 full-time faculty members on the Pullman campus. These faculty teach and conduct research in the major subfields of the discipline:
- American politics
- Comparative politics
- International relations
- Public policy
- Public administration
- Political theory
- Political methodology
In addition, faculty have specialized expertise in areas such as:
- Public law
- American political behavior
- Political psychology
- French and European politics
- American foreign policy
- Gender and politics
- The presidency
- The Congress
- Environmental policy
- State and local politics
- Qualitative methodology
- International security and defense policy
Reflecting a faculty that is highly engaged in the discipline, the department serves as the administrative home for a variety of research units and journals, and faculty members have taken a lead role in collecting and maintaining several prominent data sets that are housed in the department.
The Division of Governmental Studies and Services (DGSS) is an organized research unit that provides faculty and graduate students with access to research funded through grants and contracts. In addition, the department maintains close ties with the Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. The Institute for the Study of Intercommunal Conflict and the Political Science/Criminal Justice Methods Symposium are also affiliated with the department.
Two major disciplinary journals are housed in the department, Political Research Quarterly and French Politics, as well as several internationally and nationally renowned data sets on public opinion at the community level in the U.S. and Canada (see Leigh Stowell Data Set), on women's policy agencies and women's movements in western post-industrial democracies, and on public opinion about security issues in Japan and the U.S.
Faculty in the department also play leadership roles in groups affiliated with the American Political Science Association, including the Law and Courts Section and the French Politics Group. They are also actively involved, as organizers and as participants, with interdisciplinary groups at WSU such as Gendering Research Across the Campuses (GRACe), the Center for Social and Environmental Justice, the Environmental Studies Colloquium Group (ENSCOG), the Political Psychology Roundtable Group, and the Center for Environmental Research, Education, and Outreach (CEREO).
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