Our mission is to create and disseminate knowledge though undergraduate instruction, graduate training, research, and community service. Our undergraduate program broadly represents the fields of contemporary Political Science. While some specialized courses have immediate utility in practical settings – and we offer opportunities to link academic study with internships and study abroad – the undergraduate mission of the Department is to impart the knowledge and intellectual skills that enrich lives and permit active citizenship.
Graduate study in small seminars and faculty mentorship is designed to produce new generations of scholars and teachers who create and disseminate knowledge. The diversity of the substantive focus of the faculty, theoretical orientations, and methodological skills provides a rich educational experience that maximizes the opportunity for our PhDs to make distinctive contributions in their fields.
We have an award-winning and relatively young faculty who are standout scholars in their fields. They are the sources for the knowledge and insights about government and politics that are the content of instruction at many other colleges and university. Students in our classes hear it from the sources, and there is no better way to receive a university education. Welcome to Mizzou!
John Petrocik, Department Chair
William Horner won the 2013 Kemper Award
Justin Dyer speech at the December 2012 Commencement
Department of Political Science Video
