This article contains promotional content .(November 2024) |
Parent institution | Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science |
---|---|
Affiliation | University of Cambridge |
Head of Department | Jude Browne (2021- ) |
Undergraduates | 612 |
Postgraduates | 439 |
Location | , England |
Business Operations Manager (formerly Departmental Administrator) | Helen Reynolds (2024 - ) Emma King (2021-4) |
Website | www |
The Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge (abbreviated POLIS) is the department at the University of Cambridge responsible for research and instruction in political science, international relations and public policy. It is part of the Faculty of Human, Social, and Political Science.
The inductive study of political science at Cambridge was pioneered in the 19th century by John Robert Seeley. [1] In 1928, the Rockefeller Foundation endowed the university's first chair in political science, which was situated in the Faculty of History and inaugurally held by Ernest Barker. [2] The Social and Political Sciences Committee was formed in 1970 as an early attempt to unify research and instruction in political science at the university and, in 2004, the Department of Politics was established. [2] [3]
POLIS, formed in 2009 by the merger of the former Department of Politics and the Centre for International Studies, is administratively housed at the university's Alison Richard Building on the Sidgwick Site. [4] [5]
In 2016, POLIS PhD student Giulio Regeni was killed while carrying out research in Cairo, Egypt. [6] [7]
Politics and International Studies are taught at the undergraduate level through either the Human, Social, and Political Sciences Tripos [8] or the History and Politics Tripos. [9] At the postgraduate level, the department offers nine Masters' programmes including:
as well as four PhD programmes including:
University rankings | |
---|---|
University of Cambridge | |
Global – Liberal arts | |
QS Politics [23] | 7 (2024) |
The 2024 edition of the QS World University Rankings ranked Cambridge seventh in the world for the study of politics. [24] The 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it sixth. [25] The department has been ranked top in the UK for the teaching of politics by the 2025 Complete University Guide. [26] Its masters and doctoral programmes have been ranked among the 25 "Best International Relations Schools in the World" by Foreign Policy . [27] [28] In the 2021 UK government Research Excellence Framework (REF) exercise, the department was ranked 21st out of 56 institutions. [29]
The peer reviewed journal Cambridge Review of International Affairs is published by Taylor & Francis in academic affiliation with the department. [30]
Ten specialised centres are housed within the department.
Centre | Focus | Director(s) | Official website | Reference(s) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Bennett Institute for Public Policy | Public policy | Michael Kenny | bennettinstitute.cam.ac.uk | [31] | |
Cambridge Centre for Political Thought | Political theory | Duncan Bell, Richard Bourke, Annabel Brett, Duncan Kelly | polthought.cam.ac.uk | [32] | |
Centre for Gender Studies | Gender studies | Lauren Wilcox | gender.cam.ac.uk | [33] | |
Centre for Geopolitics | Geopolitics | Brendan Simms | cfg.polis.cam.ac.uk | [34] | |
Centre of African Studies | African studies | Adam Branch | african.cam.ac.uk | [35] | |
Centre of Development Studies | Development studies | Graham Denyer Willis | devstudies.cam.ac.uk | [36] | |
Centre of Governance and Human Rights | Human rights, Social justice | Ella McPherson, Sharath Srinivasan | cghr.polis.cam.ac.uk/ | [37] | |
Centre of Latin American Studies | Latin American studies | Pedro Mendes Loureiro | latin-american.cam.ac.uk | [38] | |
Centre of South Asian Studies | South Asian studies | Shailaja Fennell | s-asian.cam.ac.uk | [39] | |
YouGov-Cambridge Centre for Public Opinion Research | Public opinion | Roberto Stefan Foa | yougov.co.uk/cambridge | [40] | |
Key faculty (by career citation count):
Former faculty:
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