Kansas State University

KSU’s Political Science department continues to move from strength to strength. As you know, our faculty and staff are committed to providing a world class educational experience to all K-Staters, and these efforts are increasingly being recognized. One of our students recently won a top mock trial attorney award and others have won notable K-State scholarships. Our graduate programs were recently ranked 13th in the country, ahead of the political science programs at Duke, Stanford and Yale. Needless to say, it is an exciting time at your alma mater and enthusiasm is evident among our faculty and staff.

For the fourth straight year, 100% of the employees in the department contributed to K-State’s All-University Campaign, giving back their own earnings to support not only our students, but the department and its future. Obviously, we believe in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University and the experience it has provided for generation after generation of K-Staters, and we hope you do too!

Below you will find some highlights from the past year. If you are in Manhattan, please consider dropping by to say hello. Wishing you and yours a safe and happy holiday season.

Jeff Pickering
Department Head

Kansas State University’s Model United Nations team has successfully returned to competition. The team won three awards at the 54th Midwest Model UN Conference in St. Louis in February and four awards at the American Model UN International in Chicago in November. These were the first Kansas State University teams to compete at Model UN competitions in over 30 years.

Continue reading “Model UN Team Re-Launched” →

Torrey Peterson (2014 B.S. Political Science) won the top attorney award at the American Mock Trial Association regional qualification tournament last spring. Even more impressive, she was the only student attorney to earn a perfect score in the competition! Peterson now attends Saint Louis University School of Law.

Hope Faflick, senior in political science, received a Mark Chapman scholarship from KSU which allowed her to pursue her interest in helping to develop civil society in Maynmar.

Continue reading “Students Win Awards” →

According to GraduatePrograms.com, the graduate education experience offered by KSU’s Political Science department is among the best in the country. The GraduatePrograms.com website surveys recent and current graduate students on the quality and value of their graduate education, and then evaluates programs across fifteen categories. Overall, the graduate programs housed in KSU’s Department of Political Science were ranked the 13th best in the country. We had good company in this ranking — sandwiched between Harvard University (ranked 12th) and Yale University (ranked 14th). KSU’s graduate programs were ranked #1 in the country for both career support and faculty support.

Continue reading “Political Science Graduate Programs Ranked Among Best in the Country” →

The Department of Political Science is pleased to announce the launch of a new concurrent degree. Students earning either a BA or a BS in Political Science who wish to earn a Master of Public Administration can transition directly into the graduate program and graduate more quickly. Earning a concurrent degree takes approximately five and a half years — much less time than normally required to earn both an undergraduate and a master’s degree. For nearly three decades, our MPA program has trained an outstanding and growing group of committed public servants, with graduates holding prominent positions in a wide range of city, state, and federal organizations.

Dr. Laurie Johnson has won the College of Arts and Sciences’ most prestigious award for undergraduate advising, the William L. Stamey Advising Award. Dr. Johnson received the honor in recognition of the outstanding job she has done mentoring and advising not only political science students, but also students from all majors participating in KSU’s Primary Text Program.

Continue reading “Johnson Wins Stamey Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising” →

We are pleased that Dr. Michael Flynn joined the department in fall 2014. Flynn was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alabama in 2013-2014, and received his PhD from Binghamton University in 2013. He is already a highly accomplished scholar on US foreign policy issues, and thus a nice complement to our department and our Security Studies graduate programs.

Continue reading “Michael Flynn Joins Faculty” →