MA Program in Political Science (POSC)

Marquette University offers one of the top MA programs in Political Science in the United States. The program is at the same time rigorous and flexible, and it provides a strong foundation for further graduate or law study, as well as for careers in government or in non-governmental organizations which require an understanding of politics and public policy.

The MA program requires 30 credits of graduate-level work. The Department offers course work in the following fields:

• Political Philosophy (classical, modern, contemporary, and American thought, as well as additional specialized subjects).
• American Politics (Congress and the presidency; constitutional law; political parties, interest groups, and voting behavior; urban politics; politics of race, ethnicity, and gender; public policy; and political economy).
• Comparative Politics (behavior and institutions, political economy, development, public policy, nationalism, and democratization; area specializations include Western Europe, East and South Asia, Russia and Eastern Europe, Latin America; on an occasional basis, the Middle East and Africa).
• International Politics (international relations, organizations, law, and human rights; international political economy; globalism and crime; national and international security; nationalism; and foreign policies of countries and regions listed above).

Students are required to take two types of graduate seminars -- core seminars and research seminars -- although students also have ability to take 100-level courses in the Political Science Department and “cognate” courses outside the Department.

Core Seminars and Research Seminars

Core seminars in Political Philosophy (POSC 200), American Politics (POSC 202), Comparative Politics (POSC 204), International Politics (POSC 206), and International Political Economy (POSC 208) survey the scholarly literature in each field, while the research methods course (POSC 209) provides students with an overview of various data collection and analysis techniques. Research seminars concentrate on a more narrowly-focused research question or questions in a particular field. Political Science MA students are required to take three of the following core seminars: POSC 200, 202, 204, 206; they also take POSC 209.

Cognate Courses and 100-Level Courses

Of the 30 credits counted toward the MA degree, 9 can come from outside the Department of Political Science. These “cognate” courses allow students to pursue topics related to their field of study in other disciplines through courses taught by other departments at Marquette University. Our MA students can also take a number of upper-level undergraduate courses on topics of particular interest to them. The student and professor agree on an additional set of requirements for the course in that case, and the credits count toward the 30 required for the MA degree.

Additional information on our graduate programs can be found in the Overview of the Graduate Program page. For a more detailed explanation of the requirements for this degree, see Degree Requirements. For the authoritative statement of university rules and regulations, see the latest edition of the Graduate Bulletin.

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