Department of Political Science: Tufts University

Student Research

Classroom Research

Although there is enormous variety in the classes offered and the pedagogical approaches used, there is strong emphasis throughout the Political Science curriculum on writing and on the development of strong analytical and research skills. Underlying this philosophy is the belief is that the best way to learn political science is to do political science. That is, we want our students to conduct research as a means of testing ideas about how the political system works. There are some courses such as Professor Portney's class on public opinion where the entire class works together on a research project. In that class students choose a topic, design a public opinion survey, conduct the survey, and then analyze the computerized results. In Professor Berry's sophomore seminar on "Politics in the City," students are assigned to teams and each team spends the semester researching and writing a large-scale paper on a topic of immediacy in urban politics. Professor Sullivan's seminars on Machiavelli and Montesquieu emphasize close reading of original texts. Each week students read the assigned work and some will write papers for distribution to all before the weekly meeting. The remainder of the students will write short response papers critiquing one of the student papers. Class sessions debate these papers and the critiques.

Independent Research

The emphasis on research is not limited to regular course offerings. With permission and guidance by a member of the faculty, students can devise an independent research project for course credit. Students who have excelled during their first three years are eligible to write a senior thesis (two semester credits) under the guidance of a faculty mentor. All students writing a senior thesis in the Department also meet together weekly with a faculty instructor to discuss issues related to conducting advanced research in the disciplines and to their specific projects. Undergraduates are often hired when a faculty member needs a research assistant. Both internal (Tufts University) and external grants are often written with undergraduate research positions embedded in the proposal.

Research Guidance and Tutorials - please contact Connie Reik.

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Senior Honors Thesis Research

The Department offers the Honors Thesis Program for qualified majors in their senior year. Seniors work closely with a small committee of faculty members on a well-defined research project throughout the academic year. Senior thesis students also meet weekly in the Department's Honors Thesis Seminar to explore research and methodological issues in political science and to critique and improve each other's written work. Recent thesis topics have included the use of political satire on the Daily Show; the impact of the reformed United Nations Human Rights Council; the influence of Machiavelli on the Federalist Papers; and the role of son preference as an explanation for China's skewed sex ratio at birth.

Read abstracts of recent senior theses >

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