In addition to a demanding sequence of courses during the first two years, our graduates begin working with faculty from the very first day, to gain an appreciation of the challenges involved in producing innovative research. This paves the way to their own intellectual development, the first milestone of which is a solo-authored research paper to be presented to the department during their third year in the program. From that point on, until the completion of the dissertation in year five, the focus is primarily on independent research. Our graduate program is organized around subfields that address major theoretical questions about political life, encourage collaboration across intellectual boundaries, and place us at the frontiers of the discipline. As a graduate student here, you will become certified in two major fields and gain exposure to other fields through our graduate workshop series.