University of Minnesota
Department of Political Science
polisci@umn.edu
612-624-4144


Department of Political Science

Department of Political Science

The Department of Political Science is dedicated to the creation and transmission of knowledge about politics and political science. Read more »

Meet a Professor

News & Research Highlights

  • Professor Lavine's New Book Wins Another Award

    After taking home the David O. Sears Award from the International Society of Political Psychology for the best book on the political psychology of mass behavior in April, Professor Howard Lavine's new book, The Ambivalent Partisan, was just named recipient of the Robert E. Lane Award, given by the Political Psychology Section of the American Political Science Association for the best book in Political Psychology in the past year. His book offers a novel approach to the two overarching questions that have dominated the study of mass political behavior over the past half century: How do ordinary citizens form their political judgments, and how good are those judgments from a normative perspective? Taking aim at decades of received wisdom, the central claim of this book is that high-quality political judgment hinges less on citizens' cognitive ability than on their willingness to temporarily suspend partisan habits and follow the "evidence" wherever it leads.

     June 18th, 2013

  • Elizabeth Troolin Wins 2012 John Turner Award

    The winner of the John Turner Award for the outstanding Honors thesis in the College of Liberal Arts for the 2012 calendar year is Elizabeth Troolin, a major in Political Science. Her thesis, "Party System Transformation in Brazil: Evidence from Textual Analysis of Manifestos, 1988-2012," was completed under the supervision of Professor David Samuels. Elizabeth is currently on a Fulbright Fellowship and woking at La Universidad de Cartagena in Colombia.

    Political science professor Emeritus John E. Turner, a globally recognized leader in social sciences, received his master's degree (1949) and his Ph.D. (1950) from the University of Minnesota. His distinguished career at the University of Minnesota spanned nearly four decades. His outstanding scholarship was underscored in 1974 when he was made a Regents' Professor. During his tenure he was also awarded the Morse-Alumni Award for Undergraduate Teaching. He authored, co-authored, and edited approximately thirty publications during the course of his career. He was instrumental in the creation of the International Studies Association, the premier scholarly association for the study of international relations. In his numerous leadership roles he served as an influential public figure who contributed to the world of social science in countless ways.

    May 14th, 2013

  • Professor Freeman Wins Wallerstein Award

    Professor John Freeman of the Political Science Department has won a major award from the American Political Science Association. It has been announced that Professor Freeman, and his coauthor Dennis Quinn (Georgetown University), have received the Wallerstein Award from APSA's Political Economy Section. The Wallerstein Award is for the best article in political economy published the previous calendar year. Their article, "The Economic Origins of Democracy Reconsidered," was published in the American Political Science Review in February 2012. This is a major honor and a terrific tribute to John's outstanding work in political economy.

     April 30th, 2013