Graduate Program
The Political Science Department offers a flexible program that concentrates on significant practical and theoretical questions.聽聽
The small size of the program鈥攁pproximately five to six students are admitted to the doctoral program each year鈥攁llows for personal attention and close contacts with the faculty. Informal colloquia and more formal presentations supplement the regular order of scholarly exchange, and advanced students have an opportunity to teach under faculty supervision.
There are four traditional fields of Political Science: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory.
Thirty-three full-time professors鈥攂oth junior and senior faculty鈥攖each in the department. This results in a wide diversity of subject matter and of academic approach.
Many of the graduate courses are seminars in which a considerable amount of responsibility is placed upon the student to analyze readings, prepare written and oral presentations to the class, and guide discussions. These are experiences we encourage generally in our courses, but the seminar, with 15 or fewer students, is ideally suited to this purpose. The classes are small, which fosters not only conversation but close associations among students and faculty. The atmosphere is informal and collegial. As an academic community, both graduate students and faculty display an unusual blend of practical and philosophical concerns within a tradition of friendly but serious debate and scholarly exchange.
Policies & Procedures
The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and the University set standards for students' academic work.
Political Theory
Members of the Department specializing in Political Theory include:
Robert Bartlett is the first Behrakis Professor of Hellenic Political Studies at Boston College. His principal area of research is classical political philosophy, with particular attention to the thinkers of ancient Hellas, including Thucydides, Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle. He has published articles in the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Politics, Journal of Politics, Review of Politics, and other leading scholarly journals. He is the author or editor of seven books, including The Idea of Enlightenment, Plato's Protagoras and Meno, and Xenophon's The Shorter Socratic Writings. He is also the co-translator of a new edition of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and the author of a forthcoming study of Plato's Protagoras and Theaetetus.
Nasser Behnegar teaches early modern political theory, contemporary political theory, and political economy. He is the author of Leo Strauss, Max Weber, and the Scientific Study of Politics, as well as articles on Strauss, social science, and Shakespeare. He is currently at work on a study of Hume and Locke.
Ryan Patrick Hanley聽teaches early modern political philosophy, with particular interests in the Scottish Enlightenment (especially Hume and Adam Smith) and the French Enlightenment (especially F茅nelon and Rousseau). He is most recently the author of聽Our Great Purpose: Adam Smith on Living a Life聽(Princeton, 2019) and聽The Political Philosophy of F茅nelon聽(Oxford, 2020), and the editor and translator of聽F茅nelon: Moral and Political Writings聽(Oxford, 2020).
Christopher Kelly teaches early and late modern political theory, with special emphasis on French thought. He is the author of Rousseau's Confessions: an Exemplary Life, and, most recently, Rousseau as Author: Consecrating One's Life to the Truth. He is also the editor, with Roger Masters, of the definitive English edition of Rousseau's works.
Susan Meld Shell teaches late modern political theory and contemporary political theory and post-modernism, with special emphasis on German thought. Her most recent book is the The Embodiment of Reason: Kant on Spirit, Generation and Community. She is currently completing a book on Kant's "true politics."
Paul Wilford joined the Political Science Department of Boston College in 2016. His principal areas of research are German Idealism (especially Kant and Hegel), Ancient Greek Philosophy (especially Aristotle), and the Philosophy of History."
David M. DiPasquale studies the intersection between Islamic law and political thought in pre-modern and contemporary contexts; the transmission and recovery of Greek science by Arabic-speaking Muslims in the Middle Ages; and the political philosophy of Alfarabi, Avicenna and Averroes.
Robert Faulkner聽while retired from teaching, consults with students and leads the occasional reading group.鈥� He is author of聽The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics听(2007),听Francis Bacon and the Project of Progress听(1993),听Richard Hooker and the Politics of a Christian England聽(1981), and聽The Jurisprudence of John Marshall听(1968).
American Politics
Over the last several years the Boston College department has built a strong and wide-ranging American Politics faculty:
Dennis Hale, whose teaching and research interests focus on American political thought and institutions, teaches a graduate seminar on The American Founding, and an undergraduate elective on American Political Thought from the Puritans to Lincoln. He is the co-editor (with Marc Landy) of the essays of the French political scientist Bertrand de Jouvenel, and is the author of The Jury in America: Triumph and Decline (University Press of Kansas, 2016).
Michael Hartney teaches and writes on the politics of public policy, American political institutions, and U.S. sub-national politics. His research is primarily focused on the politics of K-12 education and speaks directly to the interplay between political and educational inequality in American democracy. Hartney's most recent publications appear in journals such as American Journal of Political Science and Public Administration Review. He is currently at work on a book project that examines the political power and influence of teachers unions in the postwar U.S.
David Hopkins teaches courses on American political parties and elections, the U.S. Congress, public opinion and voting behavior, and research methods. His book聽Red Fighting Blue: How Geography and Electoral Rules Polarize American Politics聽(2017) was named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine. He is also the co-author of聽Asymmetric Politics: Ideological