PhD Political Science
Admission Requirements
The requirement for admission to the PhD program is an MA in Political Science with superior standing. For example, candidates must demonstrate a high level of academic performance, such as an A standing, in a significant portion of their advanced academic work. Conditional acceptance may be given to applicants completing MA degrees, but all degree requirements must be met prior to admission to the program. All applicants are required to submit a sample of their written work.
The department offers the PhD degree in the following fields:
- Political Theory
- Canadian Politics
- International Relations
- Local Government
- Comparative Politics
Our strengths in Political Theory are in the fields of:
- Global and historical justice
- Democratic theory
- History of political thought: Britain, France and the Enlightenment
- Critical, poststructuralist and postmodern theory
Our strengths in Canadian Politics are in the fields of:
- Federalism and multilevel governance
- Local/urban politics and governance
- Provincial politics
- Parliaments and legislatures, executives and cabinets, political parties, constitutional politics
- Electoral politics, political and voting behaviour, public opinion, electoral systems and reform
- Political leadership
- Women and politics, identity politics
- Canadian public policy and political economy
Our strengths in Local Government are in the fields of:
- Multilevel and local governance
- Governance of city-regions
- Urban political economy and local economic development
- Comparative urban politics
- Local public policy and policymaking
- Centre-local relations
Our strengths in International Relations are in the fields of:
- International conflict and security
- Canadian foreign and defence policy
- US foreign policy
- Comparative foreign policy: Asia, US, Canada, NGOs and foreign policy
- Transitional justice and human rights
- Post-conflict reconstruction
- Global governance and regimes
- Global environmental politics
- International political economy
Our strengths in Comparative Politics are in the fields of:
- Democratization and state-society relations
- Transitional justice and human rights
- Religion and politics
- Comparative leadership, federalism and urban politics
- Comparative political economy
- United States
- Latin America
- Middle East, South Asia, Islam and the Muslim world
- EU, Europe, Eurasia, Ukraine
The Program
The PhD program requires:
- 6 half courses in the first year including:
- 2 core courses in the major field
- 2 core courses in the minor field
- 1 methodology course - Political Science 9502a: PhD Scope and Methods of Political Science
- 1 elective course
- Comprehensive exams in the major and minor fields completed in the Fall of the second year
- A cognate skill completed in the second year such as a second language test or extra methodology course (qualitative or quantitative methods)
- Thesis proposal completed in the second year
- PhD Thesis including oral defence
Your PhD Thesis is a major piece of research and writing on a subject chosen by the candidate and approved by the Department. It is undertaken under the supervision of a member of the faculty who is a specialist in the field, with the assistance of a committee. The latter may include a member of a related Department or Faculty. In view of the importance attached to the doctoral thesis and the research orientation of the program, applicants are expected to have a fairly well developed idea of their proposed research topic at the time of application.
Why Western?
Western has excellent research centres and groups as well as a strongly researched-oriented faculty who are very diverse in terms of theoretical and methodological approaches. Western also offers strong financial assistance, employment as a teaching assistant, professional development training on topics such as teaching, publishing, applying for academic jobs and applying for funding as well as a number of exciting seminar series and opportunities for students to present their own work. Our doctoral graduates have been very successful. Graduated doctoral students have gone on to occupy academic postings throughout Canada accepting positions at the University of Waterloo (Dan Henstra), (Anna Esselment); the University of Manitoba (Steve Lecce); the University of Saskachewan (Neil Hibbert); Western University (Tim Cobban) (Cris de Clercy); Cape Breton University (Tom Urbaniak); University of Alberta (Mojtaba Mahdavi); Carlton University (William Cross); University of Lethbridge (Geoffrey E. Hale).
