Political Behavior Programs

[Juliana RS]

I'm seeking to be accepted into PhD in Political Science and currently I'm trying to define which programs I'm gonna apply for. My area of interest is Political Behavior however I have not seen many Political Science departments with Behavior as a distinct research field.

Do you guys have any suggestion on which programs might be strong on this subject?

Which universities I should be paying close attention to?

 

Thanks for your help!

Juliana

 

[amyvt98]

Hi there - Political behavior is my area as well. I'm a newbie, so somebody more experienced could correct me if I'm wrong, but in my experience, most of the programs include behavior in their American program with a subspecialty in Methods. It's kind of hard to tell which programs specialize in it unless you look through the American faculty bios and look at their research topics. 

[megabee]

Behavior is indeed under the American subfield in most departments. God only knows why. Apparently Americans invented political behavior in 1776, and no one else in the world has behaved politically since then? 

Anyway, the above post is correct. Check the Americanists in the department. Just because a department doesn't have a behavior subfield doesn't mean they're poor in behavior faculty. Political science has distinct subfields and topics traditionally get shouldered into the preexisting fields -- even ones that cross lines, like IPE/CPE, conflict/peace, and behavior.

Also, a subspecialty in methods is not required to do political behavior. You can study methods without specializing.

[deutsch1997bw]

Michigan, Ohio State, and Minnesota come to mind...

[schuaust]

Cal Merced could be an option, too. It's a new program, so difficult to gauge how the job market will be graduating from there...but, their second cohort had someone get a job at Pitt.