Learning Aims

Students majoring in political science will demonstrate mastery in the following areas:

1. Students demonstrate evidence-based argumentation. In writing students make assertions, judgments and claims using evidence. Students provide proof to support written judgments and claims; writing is not merely reflective or rhetorically persuasive. Evidence takes the form of reference to a body of research findings; reference to a legal case or set of cases; or reference to the pattern or logic of a foundational text.
2. Students demonstrate the ability to apply concepts from a theoretical text or argument to a tangible political dilemma, proposal or event. Student achievement is the ability to apply an abstract political concept to political decisions in the past, present or future. Examples include “party identification,” “search and seizure,” and “political ideology.”
3. Students demonstrate an in-depth, critical understanding of American political institutions and processes.
4. Students demonstrate an in-depth, critical understanding of foundational ancient and modern Western texts on the formation of the state and the political community.
5. Students demonstrate an in-depth, critical understanding of at least one non-Western political text, perspective, or system.