P O L I T I C A L . S C I E N C E

The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in November, 1999.  Although some of the courses, students, and faculty members referenced in the story may have changed in the meantime, it still provides a full and accurate picture of the Political Science Department. For the most current course information and faculty listing, we encourage you to visit the program's homepage.

ENGAGING THE WORLD OF POLITICS AND LEARNING HOW TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

The political science department of Trinity College engages students in the dynamics of politics, connecting classroom learning to real-world challenges and enabling students to more fully comprehend the everyday consequences of political ideas.

Students in the "Government and Politics of Contemporary China," for example, must demonstrate their knowledge about the successive campaigns and socialist reforms of the Maoist years (1949-76) through extensive role-playing. According to course instructor Assistant Professor of Political Science Patricia Thornton, for several weeks during the semester the young "revolutionaries" must wear red armbands at all times, and they are equipped with disposable cameras in order to spy on each other and report "counter-revolutionary" activity. Assignments include producing and hanging on the Long Walk a number of propaganda posters or denunciations of individuals who have been targeted, in the lingo of Maoism, as "revisionists" or "warlords."

Gregor A. Pagnini ’00, a political science major in the class, began his role-playing as a poor peasant who became a village leader and the head of a faction of the Red Guard. Thus, he explains, he originally benefited from the reforms but later became a target when people began rebelling against authority figures. He describes the role-playing and the immersion in the idioms and culture of Mao’s China as an "active" way of learning: "We’re tossed into the revolution as if we were a part of it."

Understanding the world
Thanks to a faculty with diverse expertise, the political science department is able to offer its majors concentrations in "American Government and Politics," "Comparative Politics," "International Relations," and "Political Theory." But whether they are teaching about the history of Western political thought, the international political economy, or American political parties and special interest groups, the faculty’s theorists, historians, constitutional law specialists, and international experts all have one thing in common: a passion for applied and active learning in the service of understanding the world in which we live.

The political science department’s chair, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science Mark N. Franklin, says, "We try to teach courses that take students out of the classroom and make connections to the world. We make a lot of effort to expand the education beyond the four walls of the classroom and beyond the time of the class." Real-world opportunities abound.

 Students in Associate Professor of Political Science Brigitte H. Schulz’s first-year seminar, "Global Challenges of the 21st Century," performed "mini-internships" with community organizations tackling problems of nutritional education in the Hartford public schools, pregnancy prevention among teens, and trash and toxic waste removal. The class also took a trip to the United Nations to witness political leaders addressing challenges on the global level. Says Schulz, "I don’t want to just weigh students down with problems. I want to show them that people working together can make a difference."

Through the department’s Legislative Internship Program, students work as aides to individual legislators at the State Capitol for 35 to 40 hours a week and participate in a seminar class. Students both see firsthand how the legislature operates and participate in the legislative process in a meaningful way. Says Professor Franklin, "Students have the opportunity to fill important roles, even rising to be a chief of staff during the course of a semester."

This year, the internship opportunities have been expanded, thanks to an essay contest sponsored by President Evan S. Dobelle. The two winners of the contest will be awarded internships at the Republican and Democratic national conventions through a national organization in Washington, D.C.

What political scientists do
Maintaining vital connections to the real world might well be considered integral to the political science department’s ethos. Well-published and respected in their fields, faculty members exemplify active scholarship. Professor of Political Science Clyde D. McKee, who is currently in Northern Ireland studying the peace process, takes students to Washington, D.C., every year. Both Thornton and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science Peter Burns have received fellowships from the Trinity Center for Collaborative Teaching and Research, an initiative that fosters interdisciplinary collaboration among faculty, between faculty and students, and with community leaders. As part of his fellowship Burns will research the culture and politics of dissent in Hartford, "a majority minority city." Students in his "Urban Politics" course will participate by doing fieldwork in the community. Students, says Burns, "will be reading what the literature tells us we should be seeing and comparing it to what they are seeing in their fieldwork."

Inaugurating his tenure as the John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science, Franklin delivered a lecture entitled "Putting the ‘Science’ into Political Science." He was introduced by the chair of the political science department of Trinity College in Dublin, and a number of distinguished scholars from all over the world conducted roundtable discussions. Franklin says, "We want students to see not simply what teachers do but what political scientists do."

Career opportunities
The political science learning experience at Trinity is historical and comparative, active and applied, and useful in a variety of fields. Equipped with broad foundations of knowledge and critical and analytical skills, political science graduates have gone on to become Peace Corps volunteers, journalists with such international organizations as CNN, community activists, lawyers, judges, and legislators. Brigitte Schulz recalls how a former student named Heidi S. Wisbach ’90 contacted her a few years ago to let her know how valuable her courses were for her career. An investment banker in new and emerging economic markets, Wisbach said that having a "sense of the politics of a place" gave her an advantage over those with more narrowly defined educations. Says Schultz, "Political science is so broad that it gives students a chance to see larger connections. They fit in so many different places."

                                                                                                                                            Leslie Virostek