Government

Field Description

Students are expected to acquire a thorough knowledge of the discipline, including substantial theoretical, conceptual, and substantive competence in a major subject; to provide a clear demonstration of the methodological, linguistic, and other skills needed to conduct original scholarly research; and to acquire at least one semester's experience as a teaching assistant. Students who have not had equivalent course work are expected to take three of the four field seminars in the major subjects.

Numerous interdisciplinary programs are available, and include the Cornell Institute for Social and Economic Research, the Peace Studies Program, the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, and various area programs.

Early in their first semester, doctoral students meet with the director of graduate studies and several faculty members to discuss the first year's program. At the end of the first year, students form their Special Committee, which guides and supervises subsequent academic preparation and dissertation research.

By the end of the third year of residence, or sooner if possible, students are expected to have taken the Admission to Candidacy examination. The exam is given in three parts: a written exam in the student's major and minor subjects; an extended research paper in the student's specialized field of interest; and an oral exam conducted by the Special Committee. The written exam is normally taken before the end of the second year; the oral exam, at the beginning of the third. At the oral exam, the student presents a thesis proposal outlining the hypothesis, data, methods, and resources needed to carry out the dissertation research.

Contact Information

Website: http://government.arts.cornell.edu
Email: cu_govt@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-3567

213 White Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

Field Manual

Subject and Degrees

Government

Concentrations by Subject

Government

  • American politics
  • comparative politics
  • international relations
  • political methodology (minor)
  • political thought
  • public policy (minor)

Faculty

Begum Adalet

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: contemporary political theory, history of Cold War political and social thought, Colonialism and development, U.S. - Middle East

Santiago Anria

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: Latin American politics; political parties; social movements; labor unions

Oumar Ba

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: aw and violence, humanity and world

David Alexander Bateman

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: My research focuses on American politics, often from a comparative or historical perspective. development of voting rights in the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, with particular attention to periods of disfranchisement; analyses of preference formation, change, and measurement in the U.S. Congress; American political institutions with a close attention to the substance of political conflicts and the meanings that have been conferred on these by participants.

Richard F Bensel

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: American political development; political economy; state theory

Mabel M. Berezin

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: Europe; France and Italy; old and new forms of anti-liberal politics; nation-state building with reference to the European Union; emotion and politics

Dina Bishara

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; political thought
  • Research Interests: authoritarianism, state-labor relations, social and protest movements, regional focus, Middle East and North Africa

Alexandra Blackman

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: Politics of the Middle East, including gender, political party development, the evolution of authoritarian institutions, and the role of foreign and transnational forces in the region

Allen R Carlson

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: international relations

Alexandra E. Cirone

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: historical political economy, democratization and party systems in new democracies, multi-level governance in European politics

Richard T. Clark

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: International political economy; international organizations; international finance

Stephen Coate

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: political economy; formal theory; campaigns and elections; electoral system

Peter K. Enns

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics; political methodology
  • Research Interests: American politics; public opinion; representation; quantitative methods

Matthew Anthony Evangelista

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: international relations; comparative foreign policy; transnational politics; Russian politics

Gustavo A. Flores-Macias

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; political methodology
  • Research Interests: comparative political economy; state building; migration; organized crime

Jason Frank

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: modern and contemporary political theory, democratic theory, American political thought, historical approaches to the study of political culture

Jill Frank

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: History of Political Thought, Constitutional Democracy, Social and Political Philosophy

Siba Grovogui

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics

Will Hobbs

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: political methodology

Sabrina M Karim

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: conflict, state-building, gender, security sector reform, peacekeeping, field experiments

Peter Joachim Katzenstein

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: security policy, political economy; relation between international and domestic politics

Jonathan David Kirshner

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: international relations; international political economy; political economy and national security

Sarah Kreps

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: interstate and intrastate conflict; international cooperation and institutions; nonproliferation studies; post-Cold War international order; international law and the use of force

Douglas L. Kriner

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: American political institutions and the separation of powers

Alexander Livingston

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: contemporary political theory, pragmatism and American Political though, nineteenth century political thought, politics and morality

Jospeh Margulies

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: American political culture; the national security state; race and criminal justice

Patchen Markell

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: European (particularly German) political thought and philosophy and its historical contexts from Kant forward; twentieth-century (particularly postwar) American political thought, including but not limited to the work of European emigrants such as Hannah Arendt; the modern receptions of classical political theory and literature; Marxism and critical social theory; critiques of imperialism and racial domination; democratic theory; theories of power, agency, freedom, and unfreedom; the history of political theory as an academic field; and colleges and universities as social and political institutions.

Suzanne B. Mettler

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: American political development; public policy; political behavior; gender and politics; race and politics

Jamila Michener

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: American politics, poverty and inequality, political participation, race and ethnic politics, urban politics, public policy.

Victor Gilbert Nee

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: sociology

Thomas B. Pepinsky

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: comparative and international political economy; authoritarianism; southeast Asian Politics; Islam

Isabel M Perera

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics; comparative politics
  • Research Interests: Health, Labor, and Social Policy in Comparative Perspective

Kazi Sabeel Al-Jalal Rahman

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: political thought
  • Research Interests: His academic research focuses on issues of democracy, governance, economic power, political economy paradigms, racial equity, and inequality. He works extensively with a range of think tanks, advocacy organizations, and foundations to develop novel approaches to addressing these issues in practice.

Judith Voris Reppy

  • Campus: Ithaca - (Graduate School Professor)
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: problems of war and peace; arms control and disarmament

Rachel Beatty Riedl

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: Democracy and Autocracy, Regime Transitions; Religion and Politics; Political Party Systems; Historical Institutionalism; Governance and Decentralization, African Politics

Kenneth M. Roberts

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: Latin American politics; comparative political economy; party systems and political representation; labor and social movements

Bryn Rachel McCammon Rosenfeld

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: public opinion, political behavior, democratization, protest, survey methodology, authoritarian regimes, past communism politics

Edward Stiglitz

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: American politics
  • Research Interests: law, courts, bureaucracy

Nicholas Van de Walle

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations
  • Research Interests: comparative politics; political economy of development with a special focus on Africa, democratization, and the politics of economic reform; the John S. Knight Professor of International Studies

Jeremy Lee Wallace

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics
  • Research Interests: authoritarianism, Chinese politics, urbanization, redistribution, and information

Christopher Robert Way

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: comparative politics; international relations; political methodology
  • Research Interests: international relations; international and comparative political economy; econometrics; game theory; comparative politics

Jessica Chen Weiss

  • Campus: Ithaca
  • Concentrations: Government: international relations
  • Research Interests: domestic politics in international relations, Chinese politics and foreign policy, nationalism, xenophobia and popular protest, state society relations in authoritarian regimes, US-China relations