Political Science at Rutgers is the joint enterprise of a diverse faculty and students from all parts of the nation and the world. They share the use of extensive resources, joining together in classes, informal and spontaneous activities, and collaborative research.

Over the last two decades, the national and international reputation of the Political Science Department has risen dramatically. From a collection of good but separate departments that existed prior to 1980, there has emerged a unified Department of exceptional strength which is in the top tier of Political Science Departments in the country. While programs in Political Theory, Public Law, and Women and Politics are especially well known, recent faculty additions in American Politics, Comparative Politics and International Relations have raised the stature of these fields to a comparable level. Affiliated centers whose various activities focus on Political Theory, International Relations, and Women and Politics, have also markedly improved the visibility of the Department.

The quality of the Department is illustrated by recent American Political Science Association awards. In recent years these have included the Leo Strauss Award for the best dissertation in Political Philosophy, two Michael Harrington Awards from the Caucus for a New Political Science, the Samuel Eldersveld Career Achievement Award, the Jack Walker Award recognizing an article that has had lasting influence on Political Science, an Excellence in Mentoring Award, the Charles Merriam Award for significant contributions to the art of government through the application of social science research,the Victoria Schuck Award for the best book in Women and Politics, and the Luebbert Award for the best book in Comparative Politics (Political Economy). In addition, our graduate students have won National Science Foundation, AAUW, SSRC, Fulbright, and Charlotte W. Newcombe Awards for dissertation research. Our faculty serve on the Editorial Boards of the most prestigious journals in the discipline and are recipients of numerous awards in the form of fellowships and grants for research.

Graduate students quality has been recognized by their placement at top colleges and universities throughout America and the world. Recent graduates from the Department are now members of the faculties of Princeton University, Haverford College, the University of Iowa, the University of Illinois, NYU, the Ohio State University, the University of Minnesota, Victoria University (Wellington, New Zealand), the University of Arizona,the University of Southern California, and Seoul National University, among others.

Undergraduates have gone on to prominent careers in business, the law, and a variety of different professions. They have continued their educations at a variety of prestigious institutions including Oxford University (a Rhodes Scholar), the Harvard Law School, the Princeton Department of Politics, and the Kennedy School of Government, to name but a few.