Students Invited to Celebrate Political Science Anniversary

Political science students are invited to help celebrate the 10th anniversary of the unit’s founding with a special student-oriented event from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Oct. 18 in the Classroom and Office Building 2, Room 390.

The event gives students the opportunity to meet with their faculty members — who have worked a lot of extra hours to build the successful political science group — outside of office hours and class time.

Faculty members including unit Chair Steven Nicholson and graduate group Chair Tom Hansford — both program founders — Vice Chair Jessica Trounstine, former unit Chair Nathan Monroe and others will speak, and students will also get a chance to talk with some program alumni from the area who have success stories to share.

Students will be treated to free pizza and beverages, and will learn more about the research their faculty members are conducting, from the physiology behind people’s political beliefs and actions and the politics of the environment to political institutions and negotiating the world’s different political systems.

In its first decade, the political science unit has grown from 59 students in Fall 2007 to 341 this year. So far, 445 political science students have graduated from UC Merced, and with four different concentrations — American politics, comparative politics, international relations and pre-law — it’s no wonder graduates have gone on to careers in law and lawmaking, the foreign services, journalism, community organization and political campaigns, or on to pursue graduate degrees.

Political science faculty members are among the most prolific in the UC system and in the country, and the unit they’ve built has garnered national recognition.

For more information about the event, contact Professor Haifeng Huang at hhuang24@ucmerced.edu.