As a government major, you connect with some of the most complex issues of our time. You delve into political theory, comparative politics, U.S. politics and international political issues. You study gender rights as well as environmental politics and policy. You examine civil liberties and how societies weigh them against national security needs.
We offer a dynamic program with a large and engaged faculty and a high level of student interest. Award-winning professors challenge you to explore issues and articulate your thoughts through written and oral presentations.
Our majors have successful careers in policy analysis, journalism, law, national security, international nongovernmental organizations and government relations. Many attend law school or graduate programs in law enforcement, public administration, political science, media relations and journalism.
International opportunities and study abroad
Most government majors study abroad. Some spend a semester with a small group of Connecticut College students and one or two professors who travel together. Government faculty have led these Study Away Teach Away programs to Vietnam, Italy and Spain. Some government courses also include a travel component of one to three weeks.
Special opportunities
You can focus your interest in government and international issues by pursuing a certificate from one of the College's interdisciplinary academic centers. The Holleran Center for Community Action and Public Policy stresses service learning and action research. If environmental issues are your passion, consider the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment. For an international emphasis, look to the Toor Cummings Center for International Studies and the Liberal Arts – it includes foreign language study and an overseas internship.
Comparative analysis of political systems and structures of governance in the Middle East.
GOV 220 The European Union
This course examines the history, institutions, and politics of the European Union.
GOV 214 Modern Political Thought
Western political theory from Machiavelli to the late nineteenth century.
GOV 206 U.S. Foreign Policy toward Latin America
Analysis of foreign policies initiated by the United States toward Latin America from the Monroe Doctrine to the Clinton Administration.
GOV 228 Terrorism
An investigation of four aspects of terrorism: its characteristics, consequences, and causes, as well as methods to control its occurrence and effects.
GOV 304 American Political Thought
Analysis of the basis and consequences of American emphasis on individualism, the shift since the 1970s to hyper-individualism, and contemporary critiques of American political thought.
Middle East Politics, The European Union, Modern Political Thought, U.S. Foreign Policy toward Latin America, Terrorism, American Political Thought, The Politics of Refugees, Analysis of U.S. Public Policy, The Presidency, International Politics of Climate Change, Human Rights in World Politics, International Political Economy, Constitutional Law, Gender and U.S. Politics, Gender and U.S. Politics
People You Might Work With
Tristan Borer
Professor of Government and International Relations, Chair of Government and International Relations Department
Tristan Borer’s current research focuses on issues surrounding Western media portrayals of distant human rights abuses, especially those on the African continent. Prior to this, her research focused on human rights in both apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa. Specifically, she has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and gendered dimensions of transitional justice mechanisms
MaryAnne Borrelli
Professor of Government
MaryAnne Borrelli's courses include U.S. Government and Politics (GOV 111); Congress (GOV 212); Gender and U.S. Politics (GOV 250); Politics of Bureaucracy (GOV 284); and Culture, Politics and the Environment (493A).
Wendell John Coats
Professor of Government
W. John Coats Jr. was the recipient of the College's 2003 Nancy Batson Nisbet Rash Faculty Research Award for excellence in academic research.
Jane Dawson
Virginia Eason Weinmann '51 Professor of Government and Environmental Studies, Director of the Goodwin-Niering Center for the Environment
Jane Dawson continues to conduct ambitious global study, examining in greater detail how environmentalism may be linked to a variety of subgroup identities across a broad spectrum of political settings and the implications of this linkage for the achievement of domestic and international environmental policy objectives.
William Frasure
Lucretia L. Allyn Professor of Government and International Relations
Bill Frasure was one of a team of faculty to lead a group of Connecticut College students on a the first, four-month-long SATA Vietnam program at Vietnam National University (VNU) in Hanoi in Northern Vietnam during the spring semester, 1999. The SATA Vietnam program was the lengthiest ever between a U.S. college and a Vietnamese college.
Alex Hybel
Susan Eckert Lynch '62 Professor of Government and International Relations
A native of Argentina, Alex Roberto Hybel's research and teaching interests are in international relations theory, U.S. foreign policy, U.S. foreign policy decision-making, democracy, and Latin American politics. Some of the courses and seminars he teaches are: International Relations Theory; International Relations; Democracy in Latin America; Challenges to Democracy in Europe’s Mediterranean Region, U.S. Foreign Policy Towards Latin America; The New International System; U.S. Foreign Policy Decision-Making; and International Politics Through Film.
Andrew Levin
Assistant Professor of Government
Andrew Levin's current research focuses on United Nations peacekeeping. He studies how peacekeepers can help reduce violence, the sub-national dynamics of peacekeeping in civil war, and countries’ decisions about committing personnel to UN operations. In his research, he uses GIS to better understand where the UN deploys peacekeepers within countries and the conditions under which peacekeeping is more or less likely to be effective at the local level.
Peter Mitchell
Visiting Instructor of Government and International Affairs
Peter Mitchell has been an adjunct faculty member at Connecticut College since 2012. During the 2014–2015 Academic Year he is teaching Constitutional Law: Structures and Powers of Government; U.S. Government and Politics; International Organizations; International Humanitarian Law; The Courts and the Law.
Joanne Toor Cummings '50 Professor of Government and International Relations
David Patton teaches classes on comparative politics, Europe, European politics, the European Union, ethnic conflict, German politics and Green parties.
Caroleen Sayej
Associate Professor of Government and International Relations
Caroleen Marji Sayej specializies in comparative politics and the Middle East. She teaches Comparative Politics; Iran: State, Politics and Society; and Middle East Politics.
John Qunjian Tian
Professor of Government and International Relations
John Tian's research and publications cover a broad range, including the political economy of economic interactions across the Taiwan Strait, China’s regional development policies, the emerging new politics of inequality in China, and China’s integration with the world economy and the potential impact on Chinese economy and society, especially on Chinese agriculture and rural institutions of governance.
A: I was struck by the honor code and the accessibility of professors. When I visited as a prospective student, I sat in on Professor Larry Vogel's introductory philosophy course. Not only did he include me in the class discussion and speak to me afterwards, but he also recognized me and remembered my name when I was on campus the next fall.
Q: Why did you decide to study government?
A: I was drawn by the course offerings. Every semester I was presented with classes that fulfilled my major and allowed me to delve into nuanced topics that I had been exposed to in my introductory classes.
Q: Did you study abroad?
A: I studied in a peace and conflict program in Serbia, Bosnia and Kosovo. I liked the focused curriculum, the opportunity to learn Serbo-Croatian and the program's independent study capstone. I completed an internship in Sarajevo and did research on young Sarajevans who had been displaced during the war. Later I presented my paper at an international conference in the U.K.
Q: Did you complete an internship?
A: I interned at a refugee center in Vancouver. I developed an educational program on the repercussions of the Canadian government's new refugee policies.
