Political Science

Connecting with Africa

September 20, 2012 By Mark

From an early age, Anne Pitsch Santiago had ambitions to get out of her small town in Wisconsin and explore the world through the Peace Corps. During college, she became passionate about human rights, and during graduate school, she found herself fascinated with Africa. This led to an application to and acceptance by the Peace Corps to spend two years in Mauritania, West Africa. That experience led to a love-hate relationship with the continent, a realization of the role of culture and experience in forming one’s worldview, and a desire to learn more about the world. After her time in the Peace Corps, Santiago returned to graduate school to earn her Ph.D. in Government and Politics at the University of Maryland. There, she was fortunate to work with one of the foremost authorities on ethnic conflict, Dr. Ted Robert Gurr, becoming the project coordinator of his multi-year, multi-million dollar project called Minorities at Risk. Santiago learned much about conflict, about Africa, and about conducting research while on this project. [Read more…] about Connecting with Africa

VoteUP takes on campaign finance reform

September 17, 2012 By Mark

On Constitution Day, UP’s political science department discussed the role money plays in politics

By Hannah Kintner , Staff Writer Kintner13@up.edu

Political Science professor William Curtis speaks about Campaign Finance Reform at Vote UP’s constition day event. The lecture discussed a controversial supreme court case about campaign spending.

Voter registration,informative political discussion and a cake adorned with the American flag marked the 225th anniversary of the signing of the United States Constitution at the University of Portland on Monday.

The political science department hosted the second Vote UP event titled “The Constitution and the Election” in St. Mary’s lounge. Political science professors William Curtis and Gary Malechacollaborated to inform students about the issues and history of campaign finance reform, the political effort to change the role of money in politics.

Curtis spoke about the details of Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, a 2010 landmark U.S. Supreme Court case, as well as the technicalities of campaign finance reform, the key issue of the case.

Political Science Welcome

April 29, 2012 By Mark

The Department of Political Science at the University of Portland takes pride in providing students a rigorous, value-based education that imparts the skills and knowledge necessary to become engaged citizens and leaders in society. Our curriculum offers students a wide range of opportunities to explore and develop their interests in American Politics, Public Law, Comparative Politics, Political Theory, and International Relations. Many of our students also enrich their experiences by studying abroad or in Washington, D.C. or by taking an internship or by participating in our mock-trial program.

Members of our Department are active scholars who are committed to excellence in teaching. The Department attracts and graduates a growing number of highly talented students and prepares them to enter careers in business, journalism, law and for local, national and international public service. Our political science majors are well-prepared to enter graduate studies in political science, law and other professional disciplines in top graduate programs worldwide. Students who have graduated from the program have attended graduate and law programs at places like Yale, Harvard, Northwestern, New York University, the University of Notre Dame, the University of Southern California, the University of Washington, Indiana University, American University, the University of Michigan, Penn State, Syracuse University, the University of Oregon, the University of Denver, the London School of Economics and many others.

On behalf the political science faculty, I invite you to explore our programs, and to contact us if you have any questions about our major.

Sincerely,

Gary Lee Malecha
Chair, Department of Political Science
malecha@up.edu

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