The College of Liberal Arts has a number of resources available for political science degree students. Check out our affiliated centers below, for public policy research and community outreach. If you enroll as a student, we also encourage you to attend the Featherman Lecture Series, which addresses major public policy issues.
Temple University’s faculty, students and alumni have a long tradition of public service. Temple will offer four distinct credit-bearing internship opportunities for undergraduate students on the local, state, and federal levels.
Students interested in public service can work part time in Philadelphia in either city government or competitive political campaigns. Full-time internship programs are available in Pennsylvania’s capital city Harrisburg, or in the nation’s capitol, Washington D.C. If a student is interested in learning more about these credit-bearing internship programs, please complete the application below.
Contact the Internship/Program Coordinator, Sean Murphy for inquiries!
Formalized in Spring 2020, the City Hall Internship Experience allows undergraduate students the opportunity to work in Philadelphia City Hall for 10-12 hours each week while earning up to 3-credits of internship.
Started in fall 2009, Temple University sponsors an internship semester each fall and spring semester in Harrisburg in association with Temple’s Harrisburg campus. Students have the opportunity to explore government affairs, policymaking and implementation first-hand while being full-time students and staying on track to graduation. The Harrisburg semester allows students to receive 6-9 credit hours of internship along with a 3-credit Research Preparation course.
The Washington Semester allows Temple students to gain valuable career experience in the nation’s capital, while remaining full-time students. If accepted into the program, students register for three courses in the College of Liberal Arts (two for 3 credits each, and one for 9 credits) for a 15-credit semester in the fall and spring. (Summer programs are also available for 12 credits.) Temple University serves as liaison to The Washington Center (TWC), a well-established and well-regarded internship semester program in Washington, DC through which Temple students receive internships and take classes.
The Political Science Society welcomes all students taking political science coursework at Temple University. As an inclusive student organization, it sponsors exciting weekly and monthly activities including career forums, lectures, student and faculty mixers, law and graduate forums, seminars on popular topics, and trips to locales like New York City and Washington, D.C. Interested students should consult the Society’s website, Facebook page or inquire directly at [click-for-email].
Pi Sigma Alpha is the national political science honors society. It was founded in 1920 and now includes over 500 college and university chapters in the US. Temple houses the Delta Rho chapter, which hosts public events with support from the national office, collaborates with other chapters in Philadelphia, and supports scholarship and publication opportunities for members. The chapter recruit majors every semester based upon a minimum GPA (3.65) and credit requirement (75). Inquiries should be directed to the chapter advisor and undergraduate chair.
Temple provides a number of opportunities for students to study abroad; to experience of living in, and meeting people from, other cultures; seeing different countries; and learning a foreign language. This can greatly enrich the undergraduate experience, particularly for political science majors studying international affairs and comparative politics.
The Office of Education Abroad and Overseas Campuses (200 Tuttleman Learning Center; phone: (215-204-0720) has information on a variety of programs abroad. Popular Temple study abroad locations include Tokyo, Rome, London, Paris, Germany (Tübingen and Hamburg) and Spain (Oviedo). Many Political Science majors opt to do a second major in Global Studies which has a “regional enrichment” requirement of study abroad or additional coursework.
In addition to our thriving departmental lecture series, we offer the exciting Sandra and Bernard Featherman Lecture Series. This series centers on coping with and resolving major policy problems. Made possible by generous benefactors, the series features the voices of eminent political scientists who address timely and timeless challenges confronting the United States. Past speakers include Cornel West (1991), Frances Fox Piven (1998), Margaret Levi (2006), Jane Mansbridge (2007) and Edward G. Rendell (2015).
Sandra Featherman was a former member of the Department of Political Science and University of New England president. With a particular scholarly interest in urban politics, Sandra Featherman was actively involved in the boards of over 40 community and charitable organizations within the Philadelphia area. Sadly, she passed away April 26, 2018. Bernard Featherman is an alumnus of the Temple School of Business and attended Temple Law School. A former business executive, Bernard Featherman has been an active voice in public policy, serving on many boards for urban enterprise zones and community health organizations.
Affiliations at the time of Lecture. * Former President of American Political Science Association.
The Power of Persistence
State Senator Vincent Hughes - Democratic Chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee and Temple Alumni
Is a New Progressive Movement on the Horizon? Thinking and Organizing Beyond Trump
Peter Dreier - E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College
The Direction of National Politics and Policy
Edward G. Rendell - Pennsylvania Governor (2003-2011); Philadelphia Mayor (1992-2000); Chairman, Democratic National Committee (2000)
Shaded by Fear: The New Deal and Its Legacies
Ira Katznelson* (Columbia University) - Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History
What do We Want from Our Representatives, and Can We Get it?
Jane Mansbridge* (Harvard University) - Adams Professor Political Leadership and Democratic Values
Achieving Good Government – and Perhaps Legitimacy – in Third World States
Margaret Levi* (University of Washington) - Jere L. Bachrach Professor of International Studies
The Anatomy of the American Racial State
Rogers Smith (University of Pennsylvania) - Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science
Just War Theory Revisited
Michael Walzer (Princeton University) - Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Social Meanness, Welfare Reform, and the Transformation of Electoral Politics
Frances Fox Piven (City University of New York) - Distinguished Professor
Civic Associations and American Democracy
Theda Skocpol* (Harvard University) - Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology
Revisiting The Logic of Collective Action
Mancur Olson (University of Maryland) - Professor of Economics
The Color Line and American Democracy: The Ongoing Dilemma
Cornel West (Princeton University) - Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies
Chair
Mark Pollack
409 Gladfelter Hall
(215) 204-7709
[click-for-email]
Undergraduate Chair
Political Science Honor Society Delta Rho Chapter
Alexandra Guisinger
459 Gladfelter Hall
[click-for-email]
Academic Advisor
Nicolaos Catsis
422 Gladfelter Hall
[click-for-email]
Internship/Program Coordinator
Sean Murphy
411 Gladfelter Hall
(215) 204-1469
[click-for-email]
Coordinator
Anna E. Hunter
408 Gladfelter Hall
(215) 204-7796
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Administrator
Jessica Brennan
308 Gladfelter Hall
(215) 204-7577
[click-for-email]
