Graduate Student Handbook, 2025-2026

Introduction and Program Overview

The MA degree in Political Science was first awarded in 1932 by the History and Political Science Department at the State College of Washington (renamed Washington State University in 1959). In 1982, the Criminal Justice Department was reorganized into the Criminal Justice Program and was housed within the Political Science Department, with History becoming its own department. For the next twenty-eight years, the Criminal Justice Program was part of the Political Science Department until it left to become a stand-alone department again in 2011. At this point, the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Political Science merged into one school, along with the MA Program in Public Affairs in Vancouver. From this, the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs (PPPA) was born, a program offering undergraduate majors in Political Science, Philosophy, and Public Affairs, a graduate certificate in Bioethics, an MA in Political Science, an MA in Political Science with a certificate in Global Justice and Security Studies, and a PhD in Political Science. The Pullman campus awards the graduate certificates, MA, and PhD

Over the years, WSU has granted more than 243 MA degrees and over 116 PhD degrees in Political Science, and in an average year, there are approximately 30 political science students on the Pullman campus. In recent years, the graduate program has gone through a great number of changes. Responding to the growing number of applicants and the goal of a smaller, higher quality program, we have become increasingly selective. With the competitive student body and research-active faculty, we are enhancing an already strong reputation. The major aim of all our graduate degree programs is to provide students with a broad and thorough training in the theories and methods of political science so that they can be successful professionals in a variety of applied, educational, and scholarly settings. Our graduate program is explicitly designed to respond to the realities of a highly competitive job market. From 1989 to 2020, we have placed the great majority of our PhD graduates who have been on the market. Faculty members have been selected through a highly competitive process and come from some of the top doctoral programs nationally and internationally. A general overview of the faculty and their interests, along with current faculty curricula vitae can be found on the PPPA website. In addition to being highly active in their fields, our faculty work closely with graduate students in teaching, advising, research and publication. Indeed, most of our faculty have co-authored publications with graduate students.

The graduate program is implemented through a committee advising system, in parallel with a comprehensive examination system by departmental committee. Upon entering the program students can select a faculty advisor. This faculty member will normally come from the field or area of student interest. Students should rely upon their faculty advisor or on the Graduate Director for advice and direction during their first year in the program. As soon as possible, and before the beginning of their second year, students must select at least three graduate faculty to serve on their formal advising committee (this may or may not include their original faculty advisor). This committee will help students design their program, prepare for their written and oral exams, and otherwise aid in their professional development.

Our PhD is designed to give students substantive flexibility in mapping out their program of study. Currently, 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) as well as a specialization field (American Politics; Global Politics; Public Policy/Public Administration). The foundational training areas allow students flexibility in structuring the courses they take in order to allow them 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. We strive to maintain an atmosphere of collegiality, diversity of ideas, respect, and tolerance, and to prepare our students for the rigorous demands of a career in academia or another chosen profession.