The Major
The curriculum prepares our graduates for advanced degree programs and a
wide variety of successful careers.
We encourage majors to pursue Ph.D.s in
political science to help sustain the professoriate. Selective liberal arts
colleges send a higher proportion of their graduates to Ph.D. programs than
research universities. The department embraces this mission through our
honors program. A government major also provides career opportunities in
public service, law, business, journalism and many other fields.
The government major at Wesleyan requires a concentration in American
politics, comparative politics, international politics, or normative
political philosophy. These links provide additional detail on the major,
application procedures and forms, and substantive descriptions of our four
concentration fields.
Our curriculum and
requirements for the major reflect five goals:
The curriculum represents the
major fields of political science. The curriculum is organized by the
four major fields of political science. Each field has its own
introductory course.
Majors develop substantial
knowledge and research skills in at least one of these fields. Majors
declare a concentration within the major, which ordinarily includes
completing the specified introductory course and four additional
upper-division courses in the concentration. We offer advanced seminars in
each of the four concentrations.
The department curriculum
serves general education as well as our majors. For students in their
first two years, we offer both our four field-specific introductory
courses and First Year Initiative (FYI) seminars. Our field-specific
introductory courses have typical enrollments of 35 to 55. We also offer
some introductory courses as FYI seminars with limits of 19.
The curriculum serves the best
aspirations of the liberal arts by developing capabilities for critical
thinking, clear writing, and effective speaking. As a component of
Wesleyan’s program in curricular renewal, the faculty developed a set of
essential capabilities for Wesleyan graduates. As a group, our courses
advance all of these capabilities except, perhaps, reading non-verbal
texts.
|
