Vision Statement
The Department of Political Science is committed to providing undergraduate and graduate students with a high-quality university education that promotes and models active citizenship and community engagement in the Rio Grande Valley and beyond. The Department will facilitate successful teaching and research by its faculty to support the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley’s goal of becoming an R1 university. The Department of Political Science will implement this vision while creating an intellectual climate that is methodologically pluralistic, theoretically diverse, and ideologically tolerant and by maintaining a critical engagement with the political science discipline and the social sciences generally.
Mission Statement
Political Science majors and minors at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley acquire a broad understanding of the political science discipline, while developing transferable skills in oral, written, and technological communication, critical thinking, problem solving, and research, including both quantitative and qualitative analysis. The Department of Political Science expects students to integrate the development of their knowledge and skills with other university and college programs, particularly those that facilitate active community engagement and informed citizenship.
These skills can lead to many fulfilling careers in politics and government, the civil service, teaching, law, policy analysis, journalism, non-profit sector management, and diplomacy. A degree in Political Science can also be the gateway to a law degree, a Master’s degree in many fields, or a Ph.D. degree in Political Science, Public Administration, or Public Policy.
The Department of Political Science offers academic programming that supports the Guiding Principles of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV), including:
- Promoting access to postsecondary education to a diverse student body with the goal of becoming one of the largest and most successful Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the United States,
- Employing the highest quality faculty members and staff who pursue global excellence in teaching, research, and service,
- Promoting academic programs that produce state, national, and world leaders who are bicultural, bi-lingual, and bi-literate,
- Pursuing applied and translational research to address critical local, state, national, and global needs, and
- Providing a leadership role in fostering economic and community partnerships to help solve local, state, national, and global problems.
Political Science at UTRGV
The Department of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is the second largest Political Science Department in the University of Texas System. Further, we are the leading Political Science Department in South Texas by degrees awarded. Our department offers degree programs that are firmly anchored in the core concepts and methods of Political Science, while simultaneously incorporating topics, concepts, and methods utilized in cognate disciplines of the social sciences (e.g., sociology, psychology, and economics) and non-cognate disciplines other than the social sciences (e.g., management, biology, public health).
The Department of Political Science has more than 300 undergraduate majors, 90 minors in political science, and 140 minors in legal studies. In Fall 2018, it launched its new M.A. in Political Science with a cohort of 8 graduate students.
The Department of Political Science at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley defines this dynamic and evolving discipline in terms of four subfields:
U.S. Government & Politics – American Government and its institutions (Congress, Presidency, Bureaucracy, Judiciary), State & Local Government, Political Behavior (elections, interest groups, voting behavior, public opinion), Applied Social Science Statistics, and Research Methods.
World Politics – Globalization, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Foreign Policy.
Political Economy & Public Policy – U.S., North American, international, and global political economy, the policy process, and public policy issue areas (e.g., environmental policy, fiscal policy, economic policy, labor policy, immigration policy).
Political Theory – Contemporary Political Theory, History of Political Thought, Democratic Theory, and Political Ideologies.
Mailing Address
Department of Political Science
Liberal Arts Building North 208
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
1201 West University
Edinburg, Texas 78539-2999
Or
Department of Political Science
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
One West University Boulevard
Brownsville, Texas 78520-1201