The Department's Vision
The Department of Political Science offers both undergraduate and graduate students an opportunity to pursue intellectually rigorous and personally meaningful study in an inquiry-based learning environment. Offering a high degree of collaborative learning experiences with individual faculty and peers, the Political Science major provides students with an enriched understanding of the political world while simultaneously allowing them to explore their own career interests and aspirations.
As a program in the College of Arts and Sciences, the Political Science undergraduate major affords students a significant amount of flexibility in developing and pursuing their own undergraduate curriculum. It is the collective hope of the faculty members in the department that all undergraduate majors have a rich and rewarding liberal arts experience. Both undergraduate and graduate students in the program will have the opportunity to enhance their research and analytical skills and to work closely with faculty members in the ongoing pursuit of knowledge. Majoring in Political Science at either level will provide students with a variety of experiences that will help them in understanding the constantly changing political, economic, and cultural universe.
At the present time, the faculty in the Department of Political Science have over 300 years of experience in the academy. It is a steadfast goal of this department to provide effective instruction to Lehigh’s students and to constantly gain more knowledge in the discipline. This scholarly model of excellence in teaching and research productivity has a long tradition at Lehigh. Professor Rocco Tresolini was the epitome of this approach to imparting knowledge and seeking scientific discovery as the first chair of the former Department of Government. It is our collective goal today, and well into the future, to do our best to replicate this time-honored tradition.