Welcome to OSU Political Science

The Department of Political Science at The Ohio State University is a comprehensive department with programmatic strength in all of the main fields of the political science discipline -- especially in American Politics, International Relations, and Political Methodology where US News and World Report recently ranked us 5th in American Politics, 12th in International Relations, and 10th in Political Methodology.. The department also offers extensive opportunities for training in research methods and statistics, one of the nation's leading programs in political psychology, a new program in political economy, and a developing presence in formal theory and political philosophy. Our facilities include state-of-the-art computerized teaching and long-distance learning classrooms, an experimental lab, and a research and teaching consultation lab for faculty and students. With a recent Selective Investment grant from the central administration to add a significant number of new faculty positions, the department will be growing and becoming even more comprehensive over the next several years.

Among the department's faculty are senior scholarly leaders in various fields of the discipline as well as promising younger scholars recruited from the best graduate programs in the nation. Our faculty are well known for the excellence of their teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels and for their collaborative work with students on research projects. They, and many of our students, participate in the activities of the University's Mershon Center and other interdisciplinary programs on the campus.

Consequently, the department combines the research excellence and standing of one of the nation's top political science department with a commitment to student instruction which is unusual among large universities -- all of this within a university which offers as many different opportunities for study and extracurricular activity as any university in the nation.