Political Science  
 

About the Political Science Department

 
Fields of Study and Career Options   Department Goals & Learning Outcomes
 
The mission of the Political Science Department is to foster critical, reflective, informed, and empowered participants and citizens.  The Department introduces students to fundamental theoretic approaches, methods of study, and content about how people and governments behave in a political context. 
 
From courses on News Media and Politics to Politics of Latin America to participation in the Model United Nations and Moot Court, the AQ Political Science Department and its faculty offer a range of courses and activities which introduce the student to how people behave in a political context. The Department offers both a major and a minor, and supports programs in Urban Studies, Community Leadership, International Studies and general education.  In addition to offering four scholarships, the department is very involved in a number of professional and scholarly work, including hosting the Annual Meeting of the Michigan Political Science Conference. Additionally, Political Science is an excellent Pre-Law degree. Therefore, the department fully supports, and teaches many Pre-Law courses.
 
Fields of Study and Career Options
Political Science is a well respected liberal arts discipline that is much more than a basic civics lesson. At AQ the focus is on developing critical thinking and examination of power, participation, and authority as they influence various political structures and issues such as gender, elections, conflict, human rights and the environment. If politics is about who gets what, when, how and why, then at AQ we ask students to apply these questions at every possible angle to develop and seek truth, such as it is in the political realm. While truth may be an elusive concept, critical thinking and evaluation is nevertheless fundamental. This is why many Aquinas College Political Science graduates have gone onto outstanding careers in a variety of professions. See especially AQ Political Science Students and Alumni.
 
AQ Political Science graduates are well educated individuals with highly developed critical thinking, written and oral communications skills. Additionally, our graduates are exposed to a wide variety of research tasks. They are prepared for a number of careers and/or admittance into graduate and professional schools. Graduates with high grade point averages, quality letters of reference from faculty, good performance on professional entry exams are very well situated for the career or graduate/professional school of their choice.
 
Department Goals & Learning Outcomes
Goals:
  • Goal I: Create and foster critical thinking participants.
  • Goal II: Create and foster an atmosphere of participation.
  • Goal III: Support the liberal arts and career focus of Aquinas College through a range of courses and activities.
  • Goal IV: Effectively prepare students to continue their academic work in graduate programs in law, political science, public policy, public administration, and related fields.
  • Goal V: Continue to offer both a major and a minor.
  • Goal VI: Continue to support programs in Urban Studies, Community Leadership, International Studies, Women’s Studies and AQ General Education.
  • Goal VII: Continue to offer the necessary courses in support of those who plan to teach in the K-12 education system and specifically those pursuing Secondary Education Certification for a Social Studies Major with a Political Science Minor.
  • Goal VIII:  Continue to provide quality advising to all the above.
 
Learning Outcomes:
  1. Students will understand and analyze theoretic and philosophical perspectives of politics;
  2. Students will develop the vocabulary and background information about the institutions and dynamics of the political world to understand and critically interrogate important political events, developments and conversations in both domestic and international spheres.
  3. Students will be able to critically analyze elements, distribution and implications of power;
  4. Students will be able to formulate discipline-appropriate research questions, plan original research, and carry out primary and secondary research using a variety of academic, scholarly, popular and professional resources.
  5. Students will understand and employ major themes, problems, tools of analysis and vocabularies of the primary subfields of political science: American Politics, Comparative Politics, International Relations, and Political Theory
  6. Students will be able to understand various political systems at different levels of analysis - local, national and international - so that non-specialists can understand their role and responsibility as citizens of this country and the world.