Brown University’s Department of Political Science stands as a robust community of scholars dedicated to the core pillars that define our community: research, teaching, and public engagement.  Our 34 faculty conduct research devoted to tackling some of the most enduring and urgent challenges facing political systems in the U.S and globally. Departmental faculty achieve the highest level of honor, including prestigious fellowships, leading awards for books and articles, and competitive external grants.

The vibrancy of our departmental research extends to our teaching.  Undergraduates in our popular Political Science concentration benefit from dynamic instruction, research opportunities, and preparation for a range of careers.  Our graduate program provides students with thoughtful and rigorous training organized around 4 subfields: theory, international relations, comparative politics, and American politics.

The innovation that defines Brown’s Department of Political Science arises in part from our partnerships with other units on campus.  Faculty hold joint appointments and affiliations with Africana Studies; the Annenberg Institute for School Reform; Modern Culture & Media; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Urban Studies; and the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. 

We invite you to learn more about our community through this website.  

Susan Moffitt
Chair, Department of Political Science

The Political Science Department at Brown is a diverse community of scholars, students, and staff dedicated to research and teaching about politics in a climate of mutual respect and inclusion. We are mindful of the barriers that have excluded particular groups of people from full membership in political life and from the discipline of political science on the basis of race, color, class, sex, age, national or ethnic origin, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, disability, veteran status, political perspective, and other categories. We believe that a diverse community, one that brings a wide range of perspectives and experiences to the study of politics, is crucial to our mission of advancing knowledge about political life through the very best research and teaching. We are therefore committed to pursuing the study of politics through free and critical inquiry that brings a multiplicity of perspectives and experiences to bear, that recognizes the importance of many topics and concerns that have historically been marginalized in the field, and that welcomes everybody to the table, in the classroom and beyond.

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