Return to: Academic Offerings

David Van Slyke, Dean
200 Eggers Hall
www.maxwell.syr.edu/

About the School

David Van Slyke, Dean
200 Eggers Hall

The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs was established in 1924 to teach citizenship and develop leaders with strong social science backgrounds and the practical skills required for public service. Today the School is the home to six social science disciplines, interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs, and graduate professional programs that educate students for diverse careers here and abroad.

With its 160 faculty members, 95 staff, 750 graduate students and 2,000 undergraduate majors, Maxwell is dedicated to disciplinary and multidisciplinary research and teaching excellence in the social sciences, public administration, and international affairs, educating students to pursue careers in the private and public sectors, including higher education.

Maxwell programs rank highly among their peers because the School attracts talented faculty and students, produces high quality scholarship, and develops already able students into eminent leaders, analysts, policymakers, and engaged citizens.

For a complete listing of faculty associated with the Maxwell School, see the “ Faculty” section of this catalog.

Graduate Degrees

The School offers master’s (M.A.) and doctoral (Ph.D.) degrees in anthropology, economics, geography, history, political science, and sociology, as well as a Public Administration PhD,  and an interdisciplinary Social Science PhD . In addition, four professional degrees are offered in: Public Administration (M.P.A.),  International Relations (M.A.I.R.), and, for mid-career executives, Public Administration (Executive  M.P.A.) and International Relations (Executive M.A.I.R.)

Executive Education

Through its Executive Education program, Maxwell offers several executive master’s degrees, certificates of advanced study, and training programs for mid-career professionals from across the globe. These students, scholars and participants study at Maxwell for a few weeks to a year or more. Additionally, Executive Education hosts the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship and Edward R. Murrow Fellows and also provides training programs for a wide array of U.S.-based and international NGOs, public sector organizations and agencies, governments and universities.

Centers and Institutes

Each department and program in the Maxwell School prioritizes research.

Many faculty members also participate in one or more of nine research centers and institutes that provide valuable resources to faculty clustered around significant topics. Among the research centers at the Maxwell School are the Aging Studies Institute, the Center for Policy Research, the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration, the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion, and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism. The Aging Studies Institute, the Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics and the Media, and the Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism all involve faculty from across the campus.

The Maxwell School also has two institutes that focus on major domestic and international issues: the Alan K. Campbell Public Affairs Institute and the Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs. Through the involvement of visiting scholars, reflective practitioners, and the broader Syracuse University community, the institutes contribute to understanding, cooperation, and ongoing dialogue in the areas of governance, law and politics, and citizenship in the United States and around the world. All the centers and institutes welcome interested students who want to learn the craft of research and work and write with faculty.

Aging Studies Institute

Director Janet Wilmoth
314 Lyman Hall

ASI is a collaborative initiative of the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs and the David B. Falk School of Sport and Human Dynamics.  Its mission is to coordinate and promote aging-related research, training, and outreach at Syracuse University. With over 30 faculty affiliates from more than a dozen departments, ASI provides multi-disciplinary research and education that is relevant to almost every academic discipline on campus. ASI is committed to developing the next generation of scholars and practitioners.  It provides education and training opportunities to undergraduate students and faculty members at Syracuse University.  ASI supports the undergraduate minor in Gerontology, where students are exposed to a variety of theoretical perspectives, research methodologies, and policy initiatives.  It also coordinates and promotes a range of age-related graduate-level coursework that is offered by various SU departments.  In addition, ASI hosts a seminar series, thematic conferences, and the Gerontology Education Workshop.

Campbell Public Affairs Institute (nondegree)

Grant Reeher, Director
306 Eggers Hall
315-443-9707  
 
Sunju Raybeck, Administrative and Outreach Assistant
Kelley Coleman, Administrative Assistant and Assistant to the Director
 
The Campbell Public Affairs Institute examines and promotes citizenship, public leadership, and governance.  We explore the relationships between and among leaders, citizens, private organizations, and governments in an effort to understand and contribute to the development and implementation of effective management, policy, and democratic practices. In that endeavor we also promote public engagement on the part of the Institute, its faculty, and students across the university.  The Institute sponsors a variety of programming related to these themes, including the Tanner Lecture Series on Ethics, Citizenship, and Public Responsibility; the State of Democracy Lecture Series; the Campbell Debates; and the Campbell Conversations, a public affairs radio program airing on WRVO Public Media.
 
Senior Faculty Associates: Lamis Abdelaaty, Kristi Andersen, Kenneth Baynes, Keith Bybee, Elizabeth Cohen, Christopher Faricy, Shana Gadarian, Jeffrey Gonda, Joe Julian, Thomas Keck, W. Henry Lambright, Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, Tina Nabatchi, Sean O’Keefe, John Palmer, Sarah Pralle, Robert Rubinstein, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Margaret Thompson, Emily Thorson, Steven White, Matthew Young.

Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (nondegree)

Faculty: Aherburne Abbott, Jacob Bendix,  A.H. Peter Castro, Matthew Huber, W. Henry Lambright, Allan Mazur, John McPeak, Susan Millar, Thomas Perreault, David Popp, Sarah Pralle, Jane M. Read, Rebecca Schewe, Saba Siddiki, Farhana Sultana, Robert Wilson

The Center for Environmental Policy and Administration (CEPA) is an interdisciplinary center within Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. CEPA explores environmental issues from an integrated perspective that considers technical, social, and humanistic aspects of environmental matters and prepares leaders who can blend those dimensions as they confront the world’s complex environmental challenges. It brings together faculty and graduate students from a range of Maxwell departments, including anthropology, economics, geography, political science, public administration, public affairs, and sociology.

Recent work by CEPA members has examined a wide range of topics, including climate change, international trade and the environment, technology and environmental policy, environmental governance and management, environmental issues in developing countries, land use changes, biodiversity conservation, energy policy, the role of environmental advocacy groups, and public attitudes toward the environment.

CEPA has a close working relationships with the Center for Policy Research, and with SU faculty from outside Maxwell, particularly those in biology, earth sciences, and the colleges of law and engineering. Also, CEPA members work with faculty at the nearby SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) and with the faculty and staff of the Syracuse Center of Excellence in Environmental and Energy Systems. maxwell.syr.edu/cepa

Center for Policy Research (nondegree)

Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs (nondegree)

The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs facilitates interaction among faculty and graduate students across the Maxwell School who are exploring the issues raised by an increasingly interdependent world composed of diverse cultures, economies, and political systems. With its interdisciplinary orientation, the institute encourages research that broadens our knowledge about how to improve the quality of governance and citizenship beyond the borders of the United States. An important goal involves translating knowledge into practice by arranging for dialogue and collaboration between institute faculty and students and visiting scholars and practitioners.

The institute fulfills its mission by supporting research projects, sponsoring lecture series, providing research fellowships and internship opportunities to graduate students, publishing the products of its working groups, and organizing conferences, credit-bearing seminars, and certificates of advanced study. Current activities focus on the following three themes: (1) The Transnational NGO Initiative, which works on understanding the challenges facing civil society organizations that work in a transnational context, and determining what kinds of skills are needed, to lead such endeavors; (2) The Mapping Global Insecurity Project which studies the geopolitical areas that insurgent, terrorist, and transnational criminal groups govern and the illicit economy that results; and (3) the Transboundary Crisis and Disaster Management Project which explores how such incidents are managed and the linkages between first responders, policymakers, and citizens in these endeavors.

The Moynihan Institute is also host to six regional centers: the South Asia Center, the East Asia Program, the Center for European Studies, the Program on Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle Eastern Studies Program, and the Korean Peninsula Affairs Center. The Regional centers provide the Syracuse University student body with changes to learn more about the world in which they live and will work, facilitating students gaining education, research, language, and internship experiences in these various regions. The centers also provide curriculum development grants for faculty to create new courses on regional topics and monies to hire language instructors in less familiar languages such as Turkish and Hindi. www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan.aspx

Institute for National Security and Counterterrorism

Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (nondegree)

More than 60 Syracuse University faculty members are associates of PARCC.

PARCC is an interdisciplinary program devoted to advancing the theory and practice of the analysis of conflict, the resolution of conflict, collaborative problem solving, and collaborative governance. The primary goals of the program are to develop knowledge about the context and stages of different conflicts and, on that basis, to assess and teach alternate methods of conflict resolution. A special interest is the emergence of collaborative problem solving as a critical skill set for the public sector. The diverse backgrounds of PARCC faculty members and graduate students reflect the program’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research and theory building. They are drawn from the departments of anthropology, geography, history, international relations, political science, public administration, social science, and sociology and from the schools of law, education, public communications, management, and human services and visual and performing arts.

The research interests of PARCC associates may be characterized by a series of questions: What are the significant differences and similarities of various kinds of conflicts? How can theory be made applicable to the work of practitioners and the experience of practitioners contribute to the refinement of theory? How can governments work more collaboratively with citizens? What are the appropriate strategies at different stages of conflicts? How can intractable conflicts be moved to the stage where de-escalation can take place? What kinds of conflict resolution and collaborative methods are effective for different circumstances?

Program associates are engaged in studies that relate to collaborative governance, collaborative public management, foreign policy decision making during crises, cultural aspects of conflict, geo-political ideologies, ethnic conflicts, nonviolent means of protest, gender and conflict, community organizing efforts, alternative dispute resolution methods, conflict transformation, interpersonal violence, prevention of disputes through increased public participation in environmental matters, and de-escalating initiatives and peacemaking in Arab-Israeli relations. Other activities of the program include a theory-building seminar, working groups organized around specific research topics, a conflict forum speaker series, and conferences focused on conflict related topics. PARCC is a base for graduate studies in collaborative governance, collaborative public management, conflict analysis and conflict resolution. A Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in conflict resolution is awarded to students who meet the established certificate requirements as they complete a graduate degree from SU or the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.  Mid-career managers may complete the certificate as an independent graduate program.

Global Programs

Most students pursuing the International Relations, MA degree take advantage of Syracuse Abroad offerings. Many students choose to find internships abroad and may choose to study at one of seven overseas centers.

Financial Aid

Academic departments and programs each have an array of financial aid, including University Fellowships, graduate assistantships, tuition scholarships, and grants-in-aid. Graduate admissions officers in each graduate program allocate financial aid based largely on merit.

Doctoral students generally receive tuition, stipends and health insurance coverage in exchange for teaching or research services. Some students receive University Fellowships.

Master’s students are eligible for financial awards, including fellowships, assistantships (partial or full), partial tuition scholarships, and grants-in-aid.

Anthropology Overview

Faculty: Douglas V. Armstrong, Hans C. Buechler, John S. Burdick, A.H. Peter Castro, Christopher R. DeCorse, Azra Hromadzic, Shannon A. Novak, Deborah Pellow, Guido Pezzarossi, Lars Rodseth, Robert A. Rubinstein, Maureen Trudelle Schwarz, Theresa A. Singleton, John Marshall Townsend, Susan S. Wadley

Courtesy Appointments: Tom Brutsaert, Gareth J. Fisher, Ann Grodzins Gold, Sandra Lane, and Rebecca Peters

Anthropology at Syracuse University is oriented primarily toward sociocultural studies and historical archaeology, with emphases on applied and interpretive research. As a department within the Maxwell School, the graduate anthropology program offers dual degree tracks that include public affairs or public policy.

Department strengths include language and power, religious systems, medical anthropology, the social use of terrestrial space, local-level globalization, culture change, indigenous environmentalism, and social movements. The department offers a strong focus on the African diaspora within its historical archaeology program. Interdisciplinary ties within the Maxwell School, with SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and with SUNY Upstate Medical University enhance offerings in environmental topics, historical preservation, policy planning, international relations, and health-related subjects.

Graduate certificates are available for qualifying anthropology graduates in Women’s Studies, South Asian Studies, Conflict Resolution, Cultural Heritage Preservation, Middle Eastern Affairs, and Latin American Studies.

Anthropology is primarily a Ph.D. program. A master’s degree may be earned as a step toward the doctorate. While some graduate students are self-funded, most are supported with teaching assistantships and fellowships.

Anthropology graduate students comprise a multiethnic international community. More than half are women. The department is sufficiently large to provide focused breadth, yet small enough to encourage graduate students to work closely with faculty mentors.

The department participates in the University-wide Future Professoriate Project, which trains graduate students for college teaching and otherwise prepares them for academic and professional careers. Anthropology graduates who have elected to pursue non-academic careers have found employment in governmental agencies and in NGOs.

The department of anthropology at Syracuse University encourages students from various backgrounds to seek admittance. Not all entering students have a degree in anthropology; some enter the program with backgrounds in public health, English literature, history, psychology, journalism, or biology.

Graduate students are expected to secure outside funding to help support their doctoral research. The department has a limited endowment, the Claudia De Lys Scholarship in Cultural Anthropology, which provides modest support for a few students annually. A formal course in grant writing has proved helpful to many graduates in obtaining funding.

The University offers nine-month teaching and research assistantships. Outstanding students are eligible for University Fellowships, and the Dean’s Summer Assistantship. U.S. citizens interested in studying South Asia are eligible for National Resource Fellowships through the SU South Asia Center.

A few doctoral projects are the following:

• The nature of childhood in a 19th century abolitionist congregation;
• Gender and land movements in Brazil;
• Resettlement experiences of Bosnian refugees in the United States;
• Sexual minorities and political activism in Pakistan;
• The politics of public space in India;
• Deconstructing culture, religion, and class among Irish tenant farmers;
• The archaeology of community, ritual, and politics in 17th c. Maryland; and
• Social networks and plantation slavery from colonial to modern in Brazil.

Economics Department Overview

Faculty: Merima Ali, Elizabeth Ashby, Badi Baltagi, Kristina Buzard, Carman Carrion-Flores, Donald H. Dutkowsky, Gary V. Engelhardt, Jerry Evensky, Alfonso Flores-Lagunes, William Horrace, Hugo Jales, Leyla Karakas, Jeffrey D. Kubik, Derek Laing, Yoonseok Lee, Chung-Chin (Eugene) Liu, Mengxiao (Michelle) Liu, Mary E. Lovely, Devashish Mitra, Inge O’Connor, Jan Ivar Ondrich, Stuart S. Rosenthal, Alexander Rothenberg; Amy Ellen Schwartz, Abdulaziz Shifa, Perry Singleton, Aron Tobias, Bhavneet Walia, Yulong Wang, Michael Wasylenko, John M. Yinger

The economics department offers separate programs leading to the M.A. and the Ph.D. degrees. The department’s faculty members have an orientation toward applied and policy-related economics that is built on a strong foundation of economic theory and statistical and econometric methods. The department teaches about 3,000 students per year, has approximately 40 doctoral students in residence, and enrolls 30-35 master’s students at various stages of study.

The department chooses to be selective in its acceptance of students to its programs and as a result has a low graduate student -to-faculty ratio. The average number of students in an entering Ph.D. class ranges from 8 to 12 with a somewhat larger number entering the M.A. program. This small size allows for more interaction between faculty and students than is found in other programs with larger numbers of students. The department enjoys strong loyalty from its many distinguished alumni, who have positions in academia, business, and government.

Geography Department Overview

Jamie Winders, Chair
144 Eggers Hall
315-443-2605

Faculty: Sherburne Abbott, Jacob Bendix, Peng Gao, Timur Hammond, Matthew Huber, Natalie Koch, Mark Monmonier, Anne E. Mosher, Thomas Perreault, Jane M. Read, Jonnell Robinson, Tod D. Rutherford, Farhana Sultana, John C. Western, Robert M. Wilson, Jamie L. Winders

The Syracuse University Department of Geography is an integral component of the Maxwell School and of the College of Arts and Sciences. Interdisciplinary work has always been a particular strength. In addition to expertise in cultural, economic, environmental, historical, physical, and urban geography, and in geographic information and analysis, we maintain active links to several Maxwell programs, including the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration, the Center for Environmental Policy and Administration, and the Moynihan Institute for Global Affairs. Strong links also exist with the departments of Food Studies, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Earth Sciences, as well as with Civil and Environmental Engineering, the School of Architecture, and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. The Geography department has long valued investigating geographical processes in a wide array of regions, places, and landscapes. Recent graduate students have conducted field research in Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, East Asia, Europe, Canada, and throughout the U.S.

The prospective student will find opportunities to develop an array of research skills and to study and conduct research with the faculty in the following specializations:

Culture, Justice, and Urban Space:

Syracuse geographers join the study of urban landscapes, politics, and processes to broader struggles for racial and gender equality, social justice, and political transformation. Through projects that range from constructing urban geographies of memory to examining the relationship between migration and changing racial formations in cities to analyzing struggles over and for urban public space and the right to the city, our faculty draw on a variety of methodological and theoretical perspectives, particularly critical social theory, to interrogate the production of urban spaces and experiences.

Gender, Identity and Citizenship:

At Syracuse, geographers study gendered spaces of everyday life as sites of oppression and resistance where identities are made and re-made across the landscape. We examine the gendering of geopolitical relationships that structure human migration, labor practices in the global economy, gender and the city, memory, social justice, historical geography, feminist methodologies, and other critical standpoints from which to study men’s and women’s places in the world. Central to each of these themes is a re-working of the concept of citizenship.

Globalization and Regional Development:

At Syracuse, geographers research the relationship between flows and networks of activity, interaction and power that are producing an increasingly interconnected world, and the historical and geographical contexts within which the lives of people, and places, are being transformed. By focusing on globalization processes, we examine the complex and often contradictory mechanisms through which flows of capital, people, information and knowledge are sped-up, spread-out and made more intensive. By focusing on development, we pay particular attention to the inequalities created by these flows among groups, and in spaces and places that have been historically marginalized or subject to control within national and international systems.

Political Economy:

Syracuse geographers understand political economy to be a social relationship. This social relationship is deeply geographical: our research starts from the understanding that social relations, social struggles, and social justice are all intricately related to the ways that political-economic processes are imbricated in and transformed through spatial relationships. In addition to understanding the relationship between political economy and geography, we seek to understand the relationship political economy and gender; political economy and labor; political economy and the restructuring of places and regions; political economy and culture. In all of these we want to understand how space, place, region, and scale structure and restructure political economic processes, even as political economic processes restructure space, place, region, and scale.

Nature, Society, Sustainability:

Syracuse geographers view nature-society relations dialectically.  Central to this vision is a focus on the relations of power through which particular forms of nature are produced and governed.  We share a commitment to critical scholarship and environmental justice.  We value both critical empirical - often field-based - investigation and critical social theory.  Nature-society scholarship at Syracuse University encompasses several clusters, including political ecology and the political economy of nature; environmental governance; environmental history; natural hazards and social vulnerability; environment and development; environmental justice; and the social dimensions of environmental change.  In recent years, Syracuse geographers have conducted research on the gendered dimensions of water governance in Bangladesh; climate change politics in the United States; the historical development of the US petro-chemical industry; extractive industries and rural livelihoods in Bolivia; forest fire dynamics and management in California; and environmental mapping and indigenous geographies in Guyana.

Environmental Science and Landscape Dynamics:

Physical geographers at Syracuse University focus on spatial and temporal aspects of environmental science, with the aim of clarifying the dynamic processes that shape the earth’s landscapes. Faculty conduct research in four broad areas: human and natural disturbance impacts on riparian habitats and forest ecosystems; development of field and analytic techniques for examining recent and Pleistocene environmental change; processes and implications of sediment transport in rivers; and climate - land-surface interactions. Graduate students have use of our Physical Geography Research Laboratory, which is equipped for a variety of soil and sediment analyses, and includes a Sedigraph 5120 for particle size analysis.

Geographic Information Technology:

Faculty in the Geospatial Information, Analysis and Modeling focus have a range of research and teaching interests, including cartography, applications and methods in geographic information technologies (i.e., geographic information systems, computer cartography, remote sensing, multimedia), spatial analysis and modeling, and hydrological and ecosystem modeling. Syracuse Community Geography involves students in working directly with community organizations to solve real-world problems.  Faculty and graduate students conduct research on a range of key social and environmental issues, with recent topics including spatial analysis of hunger and food justice in the city of Syracuse; mapping local nature preserves; geospatial surveillance technologies; modeling channel migration; and use of remote sensing to analyze tropical forest structure, demography, and certified forestry. Graduate students have access to two laboratory facilities: the Geographic Information and Analysis Laboratory in Eggers Hall, and the Integrated Spatial Analysis Laboratory in Crouse-Hinds Hall.

Within the framework of these principal clusters, students pursue individually designed programs, assisted by their advisor and advisory committee. The goal is to maintain and enhance an open intellectual environment with continuous interaction between graduate students and departmental faculty. In support of this, the department maintains strong collaborative relations with academic departments across campus, as well as with allied departments at other colleges and universities in the region.  We also organize a colloquium series every semester that brings distinguished scholars to the Department, and occasionally organize conferences and symposia across a range of topics.

We typically have about 35 students in the program, of whom 20-25 are in residence. Each student has an advisory committee, consisting of the principal advisor plus additional faculty members. The committee advises the student and regularly evaluates progress toward the M.A. or Ph.D. degree.

History Department Overview

Faculty Alan Allport, Susan Branson, Brian Brege, Craige B. Champion, Andrew W. Cohen, Albrecht Diem, Michael R. Ebner, Carol Faulkner, Jeffrey Gonda, Paul M. Hagenloh, Samantha Kahn Herrick, Amy Kallander, George Kallander, Osamah F. Khalil, Radha Kumar, Norman A. Kutcher, Chris Kyle, Elisabeth D. Lasch-Quinn, Gladys McCormick, Tessa Murphy, Mark G. Schmeller, Martin S. Shanguhyia, Junko Takeda, Robert Terrell, Margaret Susan Thompson

The history department has been granting M.A. and Ph.D. degrees since 1871. As part of the College of Arts and Sciences and, since 1924, the Maxwell School, the department has links to both the humanities and social science programs of the University.

The early development of the department received special impetus with the acquisition of the personal library of about 20,000 volumes of the great German historian Leopold von Ranke.

Today it is one of the major European history collections in the United States. There are also substantial collections of primary materials dealing the history of East Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

A major emphasis in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs is the development of skills necessary to pursue original research. The training in both programs is valuable for careers in business, law, government, the media, archival work, and education. The department has placed its recipients of graduate degrees in state and federal research positions, in local historical agencies, in libraries and archives, and in business, as well as in colleges and universities across the nation and abroad.

Political Science Department Overview

Brian D. Taylor, Chair
100 Eggers Hall
315-443-2416

Faculty:Lamis Abdelaaty, Kristi J. Andersen, Michael Barkun, Hossein Bashiriyeh, Kenneth Baynes, James P. Bennett, G. Matthew Bonham, Mehrzad Boroujerdi, Keith J. Bybee, Horace Campbell, Matthew R. Cleary, Elizabeth F. Cohen, Francine D’Amico, Renée de Nevers, David Kwame Dixon, Gavan Duffy, Colin Elman, Miriam Fendius Elman, Margarita Estévez-Abe, Christopher G. Faricy, Shana Gadarian, Ryan D. Griffiths, Dimitar D. Gueorguiev,Petra Hejnova, Margaret Hermann, Seth Jolly, Thomas M. Keck, Audie Klotz, W. Henry Lambright, Robert D. McClure, Daniel McDowell, Glyn Morgan, Sarah B. Pralle, Grant D. Reeher, Mark Rupert, S.N. Sangmpam, Yüksel Sezgin, Jeffrey M. Stonecash, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, Brian D. Taylor, Laurence Thomas, Margaret Susan Thompson Emily A. Thorson, Stuart J. Thorson, Simon W. Weschle, Steven M. White

Established in 1924, the department of political science is a national leader in graduate training.

The curriculum is divided into seven fields: American politics, international relations, comparative politics, political theory, public administration & policy, law & courts and security studies. Master’s students are not bound by any specific field requirements. Ph.D. candidates must declare a major and a minor field or two major fields; they must take at least four courses in each major field and three courses in a minor field. Most Ph.D. students in political science receive financial aid, most commonly department assistantships. Students may also be funded by SU fellowships.

Public Administration and International Affairs Department Overview

The Department of Public Administration and International Affairs offers management, finance, policy and international affairs coursework exploring a broad range of topics underlying contemporary global challenges. Modern society demands innovative leadership, highly skilled public managers, analysts and domestic and international issue experts. The faculty in this department educate students for careers that serve the public good across sectors, fields and nations.

Inaugurated in 1924, under the leadership of Dean William E. Mosher, Maxwell’s public administration program is the oldest graduate program of its kind in the United States. Since its founding, the program has exercised major influence in the growth and development of the field of public administration and policy. The school’s first dean was instrumental in the establishing the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and served as its first president. The journal Public Administration Review was also founded at Maxwell in 1937.

Maxwell’s Master of Arts in International Relations was established in 1993 to build on the School’s interdisciplinary breadth, and the professional degree programs were merged into one department to take advantage of their synergies. These synergies allow the department to offer master’s degrees in public administration and international affairs, as well as a doctoral degree in public administration.

Drawing upon the interdisciplinary strength of the Maxwell School as a social science research institution, the Master of Arts in International Relations provides proficiencies in research, analysis, and project management, as well as subject-matter expertise in peace, security, and conflict, international development, governance and diplomacy, and international trade, as well as a wide variety of area studies.

The Master of Public Administration coursework provides  proficiencies in public and nonprofit management, public budgeting and finance, public policy analysis and implementation, environmental policy and management, health policy and management, urban policy and city management, and collaborative governance.

Both degree programs provide experiential learning opportunities, ensuring graduates effectively apply core skills to management, budget, programmatic and policy challenges in international and national settings.

More than 8,000 departmental alumni are employed in federal, state, and local governments, foundations, private firms, non-governmental and international organizations worldwide. These alumni lead on international and domestic public policy issues. Graduates of the Ph.D. program serve on the faculties of many leading schools of graduate public administration and policy education as well as serve in think tanks and research organizations.

Sociology Department Overview

Faculty: Edwin Ackerman, Cecilia Green, Madonna Harrington Meyer, Prema Kurien, Scott Landes, Andrew London, Amy Lutz, Yingyi Ma, Shannon Monnat, Jennifer Karas Montez, Jackie Orr, Arthur Paris, Gretchen Purser, Rebecca Schewe, Nazanin Shahrokni, Merril Silverstein, Janet Wilmoth, Terrell Winder

Affiliated Faculty: Peter Blanck, Linda Carty, Richard Loder, Chandra Talpade Mohanty, David Sonnenfeld, Rick Welsh

Global and inclusive in perspective, the Sociology curriculum has been designed to reflect on-going changes in society and the discipline. The graduate program offers training in sociological issues, theory, and practice. It also provides opportunities for joint degrees or collaborative study with many departments, multidisciplinary research centers, and area studies centers at the Maxwell School and in other schools and colleges across the campus.

The Department’s strength lies in its teaching and research in four major areas: (1) globalization, immigration, transnational studies; (2) health, aging, life course; (3) family, education, work; (4) power, capital, culture. A core theory course incorporates classical foundations of Sociology, as well as more contemporary sociological theory. Students are trained in quantitative methods and statistics, as well as qualitative methods including interviewing, ethnography, and participant observation. After doctoral students complete the core theory, and qualitative and quantitative research methods courses, they pursue advanced study, and develop one or more substantive areas of specialization. This portion of the program is highly individualized and includes some combination of advanced seminars, directed studies, apprenticeships, and participation in Maxwell School programs and research centers.

Although Sociology offers M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, the program is structured primarily toward students who are pursuing a doctoral degree. The Sociology Department typically admits five to eight new graduate students each year. This small class size allows students to develop a close relationship with faculty members and extensive involvement in departmental activities. Graduate students serve on departmental committees. All graduate students are encouraged to work closely with faculty advisors to develop their own courses of study.

Students are encouraged to develop and present their research at professional meetings and to publish in journals of the discipline, as well as relevant specialty and interdisciplinary journals. Financial support for conference participation is available. Joint publication with faculty members is also encouraged.

In addition to scholarly research activity, the Sociology Department stresses teacher training. Students are active participants in the University’s Future Professoriate Program, which helps students develop their teaching skills in a heavily mentored and supportive environment. Most graduates obtain academic positions in teaching and research colleges and universities.

Programs

• Anthropology, MA
• Documentary Film and History, MA (Not admitting students as of Fall 2018)
• Economics and International Relations, MA
• Economics, MA
• Geography, MA
• History, MA
• International Relations
• International Relations (Executive)
• Political Science, MA
• Public Administration
• Public Administration (Executive)
• Public Administration - Executive (Distance Learning Format)
• Public Health, MPH
• Sociology, MA

• Anthropology, PhD
• Economics, PhD
• Geography, PhD
• History, PhD
• Political Science, PhD
• Public Administration, PhD
• Social Science, PhD
• Sociology, PhD

• International Relations, MA/Political Science, PhD
• International Relations/Public Administration, MA/MPA
• Law/History, JD/MA
• Law/International Relations, JD/MA
• Law/Political Science, JD/MA
• Law/Political Science, JD/PhD
• Law/Public Administration, JD/MPA
• Public Administration, JD/MPA
• Public Relations, MS/International Relations, MA

• Civil Society Organizations, CAS
• Conflict Resolution, CAS
• E-Government Management and Leadership, CAS
• Econometrics, CAS
• European Union & Contemporary Europe, CAS
• Health Services Management and Policy, CAS
• Information, Technology, Policy and Management, CAS
• Latin American Studies, CAS
• Leadership of International and Non-Governmental Organizations, CAS
• Middle Eastern Affairs, CAS
• Postconflict Reconstruction, CAS
• Public Administration, CAS
• Public Health, CAS
• Public Infrastructure Management and Leadership, CAS
• Public Management and Policy, CAS
• School District Business Leadership (Professional Certification), CAS
• Security Studies, CAS
• South Asian Studies, CAS

Return to: Academic Offerings