Speaker Series
The Department hosts several faculty-sponsored and graduate student-run workshop speaker series based around the program subfields. Stay up-to-date on all of our Department's events by checking our calendar.
Faculty-Led Workshops
These events bring in speakers to probe current discussions within the field.
- American Politics - The goal of the workshop is to bring together graduate students, faculty, and special guest speakers from across the country to present cutting-edge scholarship on political behavior, public opinion, political communication, race, ethnicity and politics, political parties, American political development as well as national institutions, urban politics, interest groups, and representation. For more information, contact the faculty coordinator James Druckman.
- Comparative Politics - The workshop features presentations of work-in-progress by Northwestern Ph.D. students and faculty as well as invited scholars from other institutions. The workshop is diverse in terms of both substance and methods. Examples of subjects include: the study of political regimes and democratization, internal conflict and civil war, political parties, the influence of international institutions on domestic politics, citizens’ vote choice and other forms of political behavior, and the political economy of development. Similar events are hosted by Equality, Development and Globalizations Studies (EDGS), Program in Comparative Historical Social Sciences, and the Program in African Studies. For more information, contact the graduate student coordinator Rana Khoury.
- Global Theory - For more information, contact the faculty coordinator Shmuel Nili.
- International Relations - Graduate students, faculty, and invited scholars present on topics ranging from politics of international law, state formation and change to religion and politics, critical theory, and the role of international institutions in the global economy, violent conflict and conflict resolution. The Buffett Center hosts working groups that invite speakers and organize workshops of similar interest: International Organization and International Law and Security Studies. For more information, contact the faculty coordinator Elizabeth Shakman Hurd.
- Political Theory - Graduate students, invited special guest speakers, and faculty members present work in progress that studies the history of western political theory [Classical, Early Modern, Late Modern]; American and African-American political thought; critical theory; historical, contemporary, and normative democratic theory; feminist theory; and comparative political theory. For more information, contact the faculty coordinator Loubna El Amine.
- Race, Ethnicity, and Politics - For more information, contact the faculty coordinator Julie Lee Merseth.
The Department also hosts a number of speaker series and annual meetings where students and faculty come together to learn about cutting edge research.
- INPut - This speaker series is designed to foster a sense of community among faculty and graduate students. Over lunch, department faculty present either work in progress, or interesting questions about political science in general. For more information, contact the faculty coordinator William Hurst.
- Chicago Area Social and Political Behavior workshop (CAB) - annual meeting that brings together scholars in the Chicagoland area and beyond. The goal of this workshop is to provide a venue for presentations and discussions, and to allow a reasonable amount of time for informal interactions between scholars from different institutions. For more information, contact the faculty coordinator James Druckman.
Graduate Student-Led WorkING GRoups
These working groups are geared to our current graduate students to present among each other as way to provide support, feedback and professional development.
American Politics Graduate Workshop
The American Politics Graduate Workshop allows students with an interest in American politics to present their work, at any stage, to their fellow graduate students. Graduate students can use this space to practice for an upcoming conference presentation, brainstorm ideas for the research paper requirement, present some interesting findings from their dissertation, or a number of other things. The workshop meets twice a quarter and two students typically present at each meeting. For more information, contact the graduate student coordinator Warren Snead.
International Relations Graduate Student Working Group
The International Relations Student Working Group (IRSWG) offers graduate students the opportunity to present work-in-progress to their peers outside of the classroom setting and receive constructive feedback. IRSWG meets multiple times a quarter, and welcomes presentations from various stages of the graduate career, from conference papers to dissertation proposals to dissertation chapter drafts. Papers are circulated in advance, briefly presented by the author, then commented on by a discussant before the conversation is opened up to all participants. For more information, contact the graduate student coordinator Owen Brown.
Political Theory Graduate Student Workshop
The Political Theory Graduate Workshop provides a forum for graduate students and faculty members to share ideas in a formal setting outside of the course work portion of the PhD program. Founded and organized by graduate students in the Department of Political Science, the Political Theory Working Group hosts a series of meetings throughout the academic year. Graduate students and faculty members from Northwestern and other institutions are invited to present work in all forms and modes of political theory. Each presentation forms the basis of a response from a chosen discussant and is then the subject of an open discussion. For more information, contact the graduate student coordinators Tim Charlebois and Usdin Martínez.