The School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs offers the following degrees:

• Ph.D. in Political Science
• M.A. in Political Science (General)
• M.A. in Political Science (Global Justice and Security Studies Certificate)
• M.P.A.: Master’s in Public Affairs (Vancouver Campus only)

The Pullman campus awards the M.A. and Ph.D. in political science. The Vancouver campus grants the M.P.A., independently from Pullman. Over the years, WSU has granted more than 225 M.A.’s and more than 100 Ph.D.’s in political science.  In an average year, there are approximately 30 political science students on the Pullman campus and 25 on the Vancouver campus.

Our Ph.D. is designed to give students substantive flexibility in mapping out their program of study.  Students choose from one major foundational training area within which they will focus for their preliminary exams:

• Institutions and Processes
• Behavior and Psychology
• Theory and Philosophy

Students also choose a specialization field:

• American Politics
• Global Politics
• Public Policy/Public Administration

The foundational training area allows students flexibility in structuring their course loads  to take advantage of the areas of particular strength within our department, such as political psychology, global justice and security studies, philosophy, and gender, while building critical skills in research and methodology.