Affiliated Centers
The College of Liberal Arts has a number of resources available for political science degree students. Check out our affiliated centers 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.
Public Service Internship Opportunities through the Public Service Cooperative
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!
Public Service Internship Spotlight
Featured News
The Political Science Society
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 pssoc@temple.edu.
Pi Sigma Alpha
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.
Study Abroad
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. For more information on study abroad and the Global Studies major visit the Study Abroad website.
Featherman Lecture Series
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.
Past Lectures
Affiliations at the time of Lecture. * Former President of American Political Science Association.
State Senator Vincent Hughes
Democratic Chair of the Pennsylvania Senate Appropriations Committee and Temple Alumni
The Power of Persistence
Peter Dreier
E.P. Clapp Distinguished Professor of Politics
Chair of the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College
Is a New Progressive Movement on the Horizon? Thinking and Organizing Beyond Trump
Edward G. Rendell
Pennsylvania Governor (2003-2011)
Philadelphia Mayor (1992-2000)
Chairman, Democratic National Committee (2000)
The Direction of National Politics and Policy
Jacob Hacker, Yale University
Stanley B. Resor Professor of Political Science
Is American Politics Undermining the American Dream?
Ira Katznelson*, Columbia University
Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History
Shaded by Fear: The New Deal and Its Legacies
Jane Mansbridge* , Harvard University
Adams Professor Political Leadership and Democratic Values
What do We Want from Our Representatives, and Can We Get it?
Margaret Levi*, University of Washington
Jere L. Bachrach Professor of International Studies
Achieving Good Government – and Perhaps Legitimacy – in Third World States
Rogers Smith, University of Pennsylvania
Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science
The Anatomy of the American Racial State
Michael Walzer, Princeton University
Professor Emeritus of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study
Just War Theory Revisited
Frances Fox Piven, City University of New York
Distinguished Professor
Social Meanness, Welfare Reform, and the Transformation of Electoral Politics
Theda Skocpol*, Harvard University
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology
Civic Associations and American Democracy
Mancur Olson, University of Maryland
Professor of Economics
Revisiting The Logic of Collective Action
Cornel West, Princeton University,
Class of 1943 University Professor in the Center for African American Studies
The Color Line and American Democracy: The Ongoing Dilemma