Politics
Do you want to be an agent of change in our world?
Every four years at Cornell, you will get first-in-the-nation exposure to the political process as presidential candidates visit campus to prepare for the Iowa caucus and election day.
It's through politics that major society-changing decisions are made, governments are organized, and ideas and values are expressed and acted upon. How you perceive liberty, equality, justice, democracy, and the rule of law influences how you see governance. The study of politics is also a study of biology, psychology, sociology, economics, philosophy, history, and literature because the study of politics is essentially the study of humanity. As such, politics faculty and students are as diverse as the world we live in with different modes of inquiry, interests, and conceptions of what is important in the world of politics. As a politics student, be ready to embrace and appreciate the liberal arts method of education and diversity of perspective.
Watch William Kristol's “American Politics in the Age of Trump” during his Roe Howard Freedom Lecture on March 28, 2018, at Cornell College
Blending political theory into real-world practice
With several hours of uninterrupted time each day, your courses will explore topics in depth and make use of a wide range of learning activities. Watch and discuss documentary and feature films that are often one and one-half to two hours long on the same day, or even the same morning. Role-playing simulations that extend for multiple days. Campaigns and Elections devotes 20 hours to a single simulation, On the Campaign Trail, that allows student teams to organize and manage competing campaigns. Students in International Politics spend several sessions on a diplomatic simulation of pre-World War I Europe. The International organizations course includes a United Nations Security Council role-playing simulation that involves responding to a contemporary crisis.
Go on block-long off-campus courses such as Wilderness Politics (Northern Minnesota) and Women and Politics in India. And courses in comparative politics have been taught in China, Nicaragua, Brazil, India, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Bosnia, and Herzegovina. Take in-class field trips to nearby and far-away places. Ethics and Public Policy students have routinely traveled to national and state capitals for periods of a few days to a week or more.
One Course At A Time makes it easy for students to schedule internships for credit in places like Washington, D.C. And because students can intern throughout the year, they have less competition for meaningful work, allowing better and more interesting work. As a result, graduates build worthwhile and influential relationships before they graduate.
There are six Cornell competitive internships directly related to politics. Through the Cornell internships, top students routinely work for the office of U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley, U.S. Rep. David Loebsack, Global Zero, the Civil Rights Commission, and a fellowship related to sustainable agriculture in India.
