Political Science
"I’m so glad to have celebrated graduation in person this weekend!" Robert "Bo" Carlson (T '20) remarked on a lovely early-fall weather day. Bo and many other political science alumni returned to campus to celebrate the graduation day experience they missed in the spring of 2020, when pandemic protocols necessitated a shutdown of all events. “Commencement doesn't just signify degree completion; the ceremony binds us to the institution and the legions of alumni who… read more about A Special Return to Campus for Commencement 2020 »
Scholars, practitioners and advocates will examine the legal and political landscape of redistricting, preview the ongoing process in North Carolina and around the country, and discuss reforms during a conference Sept. 28-29 at Duke. “Redistricting and American Democracy” will also give Duke students and the general public an opportunity to learn how redistricting will impact them -- and what they can do about it. Attendance at in-person events is limited to individuals with a Duke ID plus invited guests. All… read more about The Past, Present and Future of Redistricting in North Carolina and Beyond »
In March of 2020, thousands of Duke staff and faculty began working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A pre-pandemic calendar still hangs in the office of Alumni Engagement & Development. Photo courtesy Mark Wienants. In the roughly 18 months since, many members of the Duke workforce have gradually returned to work on-site, cleaning off desks filled with old calendars and notes, and catching up with colleagues they may not have seen in more than a year. We asked… read more about Reflections on Returning to Work on Campus »
Duke Today presents seven Duke-authored books pertinent to students’, teachers’ and parents’ back-to-school experiences. These explore factors related to the classroom, home, primary and secondary school, learning, teaching and more. These books, along with many others, are available at Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. From Isolation to Conversation by Leslie Babinski Professor Leslie Babinski, director of the … read more about Six Duke-Penned Books to Prep for Back-to-School »
With Duke Engineering students facilitating cryptocurrency transactions for class and DEMAN Live partnering with the Innovation Co-Lab to explore NFTs, it feels like blockchain is suddenly everywhere at Duke. But that wasn’t the case back when Manmit Singh ’22, now president of the Duke Blockchain Lab, was a first-year student. “I thought blockchain was some kind of video game,” Singh said wryly. While most people know of blockchain through Bitcoin and other digital currencies, it’s so much more than that. A blockchain is… read more about These Days, Blockchain is Everywhere at Duke »
On that Monday when Robert Wilson announced that Duke would form the political science department, he could not have had a clear vision for what the department would look like, a lifetime later. This announcement, in the form of a letter, was sent across campus on Monday, June 25, 1934. The letter also held a request for a "steel filing case" to store departmental papers. Throughout the department's 87 year history, faculty goals have changed from asking for resources like filing… read more about Department Welcomes Kerry Haynie as Chair »
Best Dissertation Emily Rains, “Negotiating Informality: Essays on Policy Needs and Political Problem-Solving in Indian Slums” Abstract: The world’s urban population is projected to increase by more than two billion people over the next three decades, with nearly all of this growth expected in resource-poor cities in the Global South. These demographic trends will substantially challenge governments’ ability to provide basic services in cities where the majority of residents… read more about 2021 Graduate Student Awards »
Our Duke colleague and friend, Michael Ward, passed away on July 9th, 2021 after a long struggle with cancer, at the age of 72. The flags on Duke's campus were lowered on July 19th, 2021, in his honor. He was an emeritus professor of political science at Duke University, having previously taught at Northwestern University, the University of Colorado, Pierre Mendès-France University, and the University of Washington. He was founder and president of Predictive Heuristics, a risk analysis firm. He had… read more about In Memory of Michael Ward »
Our Duke colleague and friend, Mathew McCubbins, passed away on July 1st, 2021 after a lengthy illness that became critical the past few weeks. He was the Ruth F. De Varney Professor of Political Science and Professor of Law at Duke. McCubbins came to Duke after spending 2013-2014 as the W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow and the Robert Eckles Swain National Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In addition to serving both in the department and in the law… read more about In Memory of Mathew McCubbins »
As the U.S. Senate considers a bill to expand voting rights – and dozens of individual states move the other direction in seeking to limit voting – an assumption underlying it all posits that voter expansion helps Democrats while restrictions helps Republicans. This is a fundamental mistake, a Duke political scientist said Tuesday. In fact, voters are far more complicated and nuanced, and the principles behind many of the new proposed voting laws may backfire, said Sunshine Hillygus, a scholar of American political… read more about New Voting Restrictions May 'Backfire,' Expert Says »
When he was an undergraduate political science student, Kerry Haynie was never taught about the 1921 Tulsa massacre. Nor was there much discussion about the role of race in the founding political documents of this country or much examination of how race influenced public services such as sewer lines and zoning. In one sense, a lot has changed. In 2021, Duke’s faculty includes a strong lineup of leading scholars who examine how race is embedded in issues that cross all the schools of the university. This fall, many of… read more about University Course Raises Race as a Central Element of Undergraduate Education »
