Introduction From the Chair

As 2015 comes to a close, it is clear that the world still needs people educated to explain and make better sense of the events happening around us every day. Read more.

Professor William Shively Retired

An invaluable asset and faculty member at the University of Minnesota since 1971, Professor Phil Shively has retired. Professor Shively’s path to teaching was anything but calculated, "I first got involved the field of political science because I was young and idealistic and wanted to change the world.” In his attempt to do so, he unexpectedly caught a bug for teaching political science, something that would change his life forever. Read more.

Meet Our New Professor!

The Department of Political Science is proud to announce the addition of a new faculty member, Professor Robert Nichols. Before coming to Minnesota, Professor Nichols held pre and post-doctoral positions at the University of Alberta and Humboldt University of Berlin. He received his PhD at the University of Toronto for political philosophy and intellectual history, as well as a masters degree in philosophy from the University of Wales. Read more.

What Can Political Science Do For You?

Jennifer is a fervent individual whose dedication to learn, develop, and entertain new and diverse perspectives renders her as a marque example of what it means to be a top scholar and an individual ready to embark on the journey of the post-undergraduate life. “During my first semester at the U, I took Global Politics with John Freeman and was completely enraptured by everything we learned.” Read more.

Emotion and Political Judgment

When are citizens willing to put political party allegiances aside in order to think more deeply and even handedly regarding salient policy issues? Through their collaborative research, University of Minnesota political psychology professor Howard Lavine, Duke University professor Christopher D. Johnston, and University of Missouri-Kansas City professor Benjamin Woodson, seek to answer this question. Read more.

The Afro-Cuban Experience

Professor August Nimtz and Tomás Fernández Robaina were invited to speak at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change this past November. Their lecture addressed the prevalent racial affairs experienced in Cuba over the last 55 years. Titled “The Complexity of the Struggle of African Descendants in Cuba Today,” Nimtz and Robaina took their audience back in time to the Cuban Revolution to consider how Black experiences were then, and compared them to the present.  Read more.