Applying for 2013 fall, recommendations for political theory

[mogadishu]

Hello everyone,

Greetings, first post in this forum, hope everyone's doing well on their applications.

I'm currently a graduate student completing my degree in Master of International Affairs at Penn State University, and I plan to apply for Political Science or Communications Ph.D programs for fall 2013. Before I get into the specific field I'm looking for, let me start with my academic background:

Graduate: Penn State University, Master of International Affairs, GPA: 3.95

Undergrad: Drexel University, BA in International Studies, GPA 3.2 (Junior/Senior year GPA 3.8)

GRE: Verbal 750, Quantitative 800, Analytic Writing 5.0

Work Experience: Worked as full-time student support office manager at Wharton School of Business for one and half years.

Now, the area of research I want to get into is political theory and IR theory. I am not particularly enthusiastic about quantitative method/formal theory/rationalist model (which are the trade marks of my current school's political science dept); in contrast, I'm far more interested in qualitative research methods and post-positivist approach. I'm looking for a political science department with a culture of liberal arts and interdisciplinary approach, and hopefully have faculties that deal with contemporary political philosophy (post-modern, post-structuralist, constructivist, Foucault, Nietzsche, Derrida etc.) and critical theory. So far I have found Brown, UC Berkley, and Northwestern have the political science department that seem fit my criteria, NYU's communications department also have critical theory focus. So I'm wondering if there are others out there with similar interest, and are aware of other schools that fit my description.

Also, I have the burden of a relatively low undergrad GPA, I don't how how much that would hurt my chances of getting into a Ph.D program. I'm hoping that my GRE score and my graduate GPA may upset the disadvantage of the undergrad GPA...

Any input / suggestion will be greatly appreciated, thank you all!

Edited April 4, 2012 by mogadishu

[Doorkeeper]

Brown Political Science is not a good fit given your political theory interests. It is very liberal and analytic in focus.

You need to decide if you're going to be applying as an IR theory candidate, or a post-modern, critical theory applicant. The statement of purposes from these two focuses, as well as the interested faculty, will be very different for most departments.

[Penelope Higgins]

^^ is trolling for some reason, or locked in a very narrow view of political theory that only includes Straussian approaches. Please do not take their comments about choosing theory departments seriously.

[Doorkeeper]

No, I am not a Straussian. My comments were given in order to try to get the OP to narrow (or streamline) his/her interests into a coherent statement of purpose. In many departments, there is a split between the IR theory faculty and the political theory faculty, and one's interest to work primarily with the former or later should be made evident in your statement. Now, if you're interested in combining the two subfields during graduate study, that's a bit different.

[Penelope Higgins]

Sorry Doorkeeper. My comments were directed at the poster above you, who doesn't seem to know anything about the field of political theory, or about the Brown department. I fully agree with your suggestion that the OP needs to figure out what his/her interests are and to streamline them. Apologies for the confusion.

[mogadishu]

No, I am not a Straussian. My comments were given in order to try to get the OP to narrow (or streamline) his/her interests into a coherent statement of purpose. In many departments, there is a split between the IR theory faculty and the political theory faculty, and one's interest to work primarily with the former or later should be made evident in your statement. Now, if you're interested in combining the two subfields during graduate study, that's a bit different.

You raised a really good point about streamlining the statement of purpose. I guess what I'm really interested is to apply the continental/conporary political philosophy into the IR theory, and I'm rather confused whether that would belong to "Political Theory" or "IR Relations", since most ply sci department do not have a focus of "IR theory" per se.

[Doorkeeper]

Sorry Doorkeeper. My comments were directed at the poster above you, who doesn't seem to know anything about the field of political theory, or about the Brown department. I fully agree with your suggestion that the OP needs to figure out what his/her interests are and to streamline them. Apologies for the confusion.

Ah, my apologies then as well for jumping on you.

You raised a really good point about streamlining the statement of purpose. I guess what I'm really interested is to apply the continental/conporary political philosophy into the IR theory, and I'm rather confused whether that would belong to "Political Theory" or "IR Relations", since most ply sci department do not have a focus of "IR theory" per se.

This will be a very tricky statement of purpose to pull off given what's expected of a statement of purpose, but if you do it well I could see yourself definitely appealing to departments with a critical theory leaning who also have IR theory people. I'm thinking somewhere like Johns Hopkins or Cornell here. Do you realize that there is work in political theory that's focused at the international level, yes? Without knowing more about your specific research interest, I would think that could be a good target research area for you. This being said, all of your background seems to be in IR, so unless you've done significant coursework in theory, you might want to apply for IR theory.

[Zahar Berkut]

Are there any substantive themes or issues that you want to approach from a more philosophical standpoint? And do you know if you prefer a textual approach, or something closer to what Alexander Wendt does? What I'm getting at is, if you think about the scholars who's work most interests you and provide an example of the sort of thing you want to study, that will help you figure out which subfield. I'm also getting IR from you, mostly because you want to work with IR theory and it's easier to go from big thinkers to IR theory than it is to go from IR theory to the broader political theory subfield.

Take a look at some of the IR/Theory people at Hopkins, though, and see if that piques your interest. They were one of the few departments I found that really emphasizes dialogue across the two subfields.

[mogadishu]

Ah, my apologies then as well for jumping on you.

This will be a very tricky statement of purpose to pull off given what's expected of a statement of purpose, but if you do it well I could see yourself definitely appealing to departments with a critical theory leaning who also have IR theory people. I'm thinking somewhere like Johns Hopkins or Cornell here. Do you realize that there is work in political theory that's focused at the international level, yes? Without knowing more about your specific research interest, I would think that could be a good target research area for you. This being said, all of your background seems to be in IR, so unless you've done significant coursework in theory, you might want to apply for IR theory.

Thanks for the tip, Johns Hopkins and Cornell seems to have some good faculties that fit my interest. Also, do you know anything about the political science dept at University of Maryland and CUNY Graduate Center?

[kaykaykay]

Have you thought about European or Canadaian universities?I have the feeling that they are much closer in their approach to politics and IR to you than most American departments.

[Penelope Higgins]

Fair enough. Sorry to be too harsh in my "rebuke" but I guess I have spent too much time on PSJR and am afraid its quality of "advice" is bleeding into here. And even for a non-theorist Brettschneider, Krause, Tomassi, etc are big presences at APSA and in the discipline. Finally, Brown has the Political Theory Project that brings in multiple post-docs every year, which adds to the strength of the theory program.