MSC05 3070
Social Sciences Building 2059
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Phone: (505) 277-5104
Fax: (505) 277-2821
polsci@unm.edu
Thank you for your interest in the Department of Political Science at UNM. We are a relatively small and highly productive department, and we pride ourselves on being strongly supportive of our students. Our faculty currently includes seventeen professors and two senior lecturers. A central theme of our work is the politics of under-represented and under-served groups. This takes a variety of forms, including research on political representation of women and ethnic minorities in the U.S. and Latin America; the political prospects, choices, and strategies of minority and female politicians; the dynamics and resolution of civil conflicts; the political dynamics of countries recovering from armed conflict; and the political-economy of development in highly unequal societies.
The Department offers major and minor curricula in its undergraduate program leading to a bachelor of arts degree granted by the College of Arts and Sciences. Our exciting assortment of undergraduate courses ranges from large general lecture courses to focused seminars. Our undergraduate honors program gives highly qualified and motivated students a chance to experience graduate level coursework and conduct a sustained, independent research project under the direction of two faculty members. We offer a range of challenging internship opportunities for undergraduates, including the Legislative Internship in Santa Fe, the Fred Harris Congressional Internship in Washington, D.C., and a variety of opportunities to gain academic credit while interning for government agencies at all levels, political parties, and advocacy organizations.
At the graduate level, the Department offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in five substantive fields of study. The graduate program counts among its strengths its intensive, multi-method training from an accessible faculty, a select cohort of graduate students (approximately 35), state of the art computer facilities, and strong ties with complimentary research units and affiliated institutes on and off campus. The effectiveness of this approach is evident in the success of our students in winning highly competitive dissertation-stage awards such as National Science Foundation, Social Science Research Council, Fulbright, and Fulbright-Hays awards. Only three (much larger) departments in the country have won more such awards in the past decade. Our doctoral graduates are employed at a range of institutions, including the University of Missouri, Duke, University of Vermont, SUNY-Albany, Marquette, the University of South Dakota, Bucknell, and the College of Wooster.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me or our helpful department staff if you cannot find the information you seek on this site.
William Stanley