1. University of Virginia
  2. Arts & Sciences

Department News

Student News

Congratulations are in order for

Fourth-year Politics and History majors Kelly Clifton and Larry Buckner who received the Undergraduate Research Blue Ribbon Award from President Terry Sullivan in the Annual Presidential Research Poster Competition.

Their research project, "The Public Future of Redistricting," employed online redistricting and ArcGIS software to demonstrate the possibility of creating Virginia congressional and General Assembly districts that were more compact, competitive, and representative than those conventionally produced by a closed, incumbent dominated legislative process. Ms. Clifton and Mr. Buckner also received a $500 travel award in a public ceremony held on May 4 in the Rotunda.

Congratulations to Reedy Swanson

A 4th year Honors student, has been awarded one of only a dozen nationwide fellowships to do research at the Carnegie Endowment next year. Deborah Boucoyannis served as advisor for his Honors thesis.

 

The 8th Annual Politics Department Graduate Student Conference will be held on Thursday, February 23 in Gibson S296.

The Graduate Council is now accepting submissions for the 8th Annual Politics Department Graduate Student Conference from all sub-fields. Proposals must include a cover page with your title, name, and the sub-field under which the paper falls. The text of the proposal should be a 250-500 word overview of your question/puzzle, argument, methods, and evidence in descending order of emphasis. Submit proposals via email to pol.grads.council@gmail.com by January 21, 2012, with notification of acceptance approximately one week later. Please include your name only on the cover page to ensure anonymity. The deadline to submit completed papers to the conference organizers will be February 11, 2012.

Changes coming in order to declare a Politics Major

We are writing to alert you to some changes pending in our undergraduate major requirements. If you have already declared a major in the Politics Department, you may ignore this message.

The Politics Department is in the process of changing its prerequisite to declare a major in our Department.  If approved by the College of Arts and Sciences, as of August 15, 2012, our prerequisite to declare our major will be two courses in Politics (mnemonics PLAD, PLAP, PLCP, PLIR, PLPT) completed with grades no lower than C in either and with an average grade of 2.5 between the two prerequisite courses.

Anticipating this change in our rules, you should make sure that, if you are considering a major in our Department, you have completed, or are enrolled in, Politics courses that will allow you to meet the new prerequisite.

After declaration of the major, our rules for remaining in good standing in the major and earning major credit will remain unchanged. That is, students will be able to count towards the major only courses in which they earn grades of C or higher, and, post-declaration, students must maintain an average of C (2.0) overall in all Politics and related courses presented for the major. Students who do not remain in good standing may be discontinued from the major. 

Check our website or our Facebook page or follow us on twitter for further updates.

 

Sincerely,

David Leblang, Chair, Department of Politics

Lynn Sanders, Director of Undergraduate Programs

Government Ph.D. Richard DeMartino

Dr. Richard DeMartino, 1997 UVA Government Ph.D., has been appointed to the Simone Chair for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Rochester Institute of Technology for a three-year renewable term starting in the academic year 2011-12.