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Department of Political Science

Department of Political Science

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News & Research Highlights

  • Kathryn Sikkink Receives Robert F. Kennedy Book Award

    Kathryn Sikkink, University of Minnesota Regents Professor and Human Rights Program Advisory Board Chair, has been named winner of the 2012 Robert F. Kennedy Book Award for The Justice Cascade: How Human Rights Prosecutions Changed World Politics.

    Offered by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, the award recognizes a book which "most faithfully and forcefully reflects Robert Kennedy's purposes - his concern for the poor and the powerless, his struggle for honest and even-handed justice, his conviction that a decent society must assure all young people a fair chance, and his faith that a free democracy can act to remedy disparities of power and opportunity."

    Having chosen Sikkink's book top among more than 90 nominations, Selection Panel Chair John Seigenthaler said, "Sikkink...has provided readers with compelling evidence that the cause of human rights finally is taking hold in the international community. She documents a trend clearly demonstrating that tyrannical dictators who, in the past, murdered, brutalized, and imprisoned citizen-dissidents and political opponents with impunity, now more frequently face criminal prosecutions and punishment. The result: Justice, once routinely vagrant and still often delayed now finds both traction and viability."

    Professor Sikkink is slated to receive the award from Ethel Kennedy at a ceremony on Thursday, May 24, at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, DC.

    We celebrate with Kathryn as she joins the ranks of previous award winners and distinguished authors, Vice President Al Gore, Congressman John Lewis, Taylor Branch, Toni Morrison, Jonathon Kozol, and Michael Lewis.

     May 11th, 2012

  • The Political Psychology of Protest and Collective Action

    The Center for the Study of Political Psychology and the Department of Sociology present "The Political Psychology of Protest and Collective Action." This is a symposium featuring speakers presenting on the Tea Party Movement, the Arab Spring, and Occupy Wall Street. Christopher Parker of the University of Washington will present a lecture on "Tea Party Supporters as Movement Symathizers." Bert Klandermans VU-University in Amsterdam will present a talk titled, "Contextualizing Contestation: Cleavages, Organizers and the Internet." Finally, W. Lance Bennett of the University of Washington will present, "Occupy this Lecture! The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Organization of Protest Politics." This symposium will occur on Friday, May 4th from 2:30-5pm at 230 Anderson Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Undergraduate students are especially encouraged to attend.

     April 20th, 2012

  • The Center for the Study of Political Psychology Welcomes Diana Mutz

    The Center for the Study of Political Psychology will be hosting a lecture by Dr. Diana Mutz of the Political Science Department at the University of Pennsylvania. She will be giving a talk titled "In Your Face Politics: Televised Incivility and Political Discourse." The abstract is as follows: "Does incivility in political discourse have adverse effects on public regard for politics? If so, why? Dr. Diana Mutz, Samuel A. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss how incivility in political discussion affects trust in government and how an "in-your-face" television videostyle contributes to perceptions of legitimacy (or illegitimacy) of opposing political viewpoints. The talk will take place on Friday, April 27 from 3-5pm at 184 Humbert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The presentation is free and open to the public.

     April 20th, 2012