Overview of the Department of Political Science
The Department of Political Science at Trinity College, University of Dublin, has an outstanding record in both teaching and research. Its city centre location gives staff and students easy access to political actors and decision-makers in the Irish and EU decision-making process as well as to the bustling social life of one of Europe's most dynamic capitals. The commitment to excellence of the university ensures that staff and students have access to one of the finest academic libraries in Europe and to a wealth of electronic resources.
In this page you will find a brief overview of the activities and history of the Department.
Teaching
The Department has always had a strong commitment to undergraduate teaching. Most of its students enter Trinity via the Economic and Social Studies degree programme (TR081). In addition, the Department receives a number of students via the highly popular History and Political Science programme, and the Philosophy and Political Science programme, and it participates actively in the European Studies degree. In September 2008, the Department began participating in the programme Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology; and in September 2009 it launched two new programmes, Law and Political Science and Political Science and Geography. For further details about applying, please follow the link to Prospective Undergraduates.
Every year, in addition, its courses are taken by welcome visitors from further afield: characteristically, by students from elsewhere in Europe on Socrates (or similar) schemes and by visiting students from North America.
Research
The Department's research activity makes it one of the very top political science departments in Europe, and indeed in the world. A recent cross-national survey placed it 11th among the several hundred political science departments in Europe, and it rose to 3rd when the number of staff was taken into account. It was ranked 40th in the world and, once again, 3rd when size was taken into account. (Fuller details can be found in Simon Hix, 'European universities in a global ranking of political science departments', European Political Science 3:2 (2004), pp. 5-23, and at Simon Hix.)
A recent comparative assessment of the research output and impact of political studies scholars in Ireland found the Department at the top of Irish universities and on par with the top universities in the United Kingdom.
The Department also recently received a top European honour in the CHE Centre for Higher Education Development in Germany Excellence Ranking.
Members of staff publish regularly in peer-reviewed journals and produce books, and book chapters, with significant academic impact.
The Department has particular strengths in areas such as comparative politics, Irish politics, democratic theory, transition politics, public policy, voting behaviour, international relations and security, electoral systems, and the European Union.
For fuller details please follow the link to research work.
In addition, Trinity College Dublin ranks among the top research universities in the world. It has been ranked 49th in the top world universities by the Times Higher Education Supplement's world ranking. It has also been ranked 13th place in Europe. Trinity is the only Irish university to make it into the top 100 world universities.
History of the Department
Political Science has been taught at Trinity College since the middle of the nineteenth century, but the Department of Political Science itself was not founded until 1960, with Professor Basil Chubb (1921–2002) as its first chair. Basil Chubb had become the first full-time appointment in Political Science. He came to TCD in 1948 following the completion of his PhD at the University of Oxford. He held the chair until his retirement in 1991, and two years later the chair was filled by Professor Michael Laver, who moved east from his previous position in NUI Galway. Michael Laver took up a new position at New York University in 2005.
The Department was situated within the Faculty of Business, Economic and Social Studies (BESS) from the formation of the faculty in 1969 until the 2005 dissolution of the existing faculty structure and its replacement by a series of Schools. It is now a member of the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, along with the Departments of Economics, Philosophy, and Sociology. The school is, in turn, a member of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Department always had a number of doctoral students working on an individual basis with little or no methodological training, and many excellent theses emerged from their work. In a major initiative in 1995, Political Science introduced a new PhD programme, under which graduate students would undergo intensive coursework, with a particular emphasis on research design and methods, which would be followed by a completion of a thesis. After an initial lead-in period, the programme has produced a steady flow of PhDs. The Department's intellectual vibrancy has been greatly enhanced by the presence of, at any given time, around 20-25 PhD students, who contribute to the research and teaching work of the department and present their research findings at weekly departmental seminars and international conferences. In a further strengthening of its postgraduate training, the Department introduced a Masters in Comparative European Politics in 2008, which was renamed a Masters in Political Science in 2011, and in 2010 a Masters in International Politics was introduced.
It has also expanded its undergraduate teaching commitments over the years. Until the early 1990s, most of its students were following a degree within the BESS (Business, Economic and Social Studies) programme. At that time two new programmes, History and Political Science, and Philosophy and Political Science, were introduced, and both continue to flourish, though the PhilPol degree is now being subsumed into the new PPES degree. Students from European Studies take a number of courses taught by the Department. In October 2008 Political Science welcomed students in the first intake of the new PPES (Philosophy, Political Science, Economics and Sociology) degree, while two exciting new programmes began in October 2009: Law and Politics, and Politics and Geography. Full details are on the Undergraduate page.
From 1960 to 1978 the Department was physically located in House 6, near the main entrance to Trinity's campus. In 1978 it moved to the then-new Arts Building, occupying rooms on the 3rd floor. In 1998 it moved to a new location off campus, adjacent to the Temple Bar area, in 1 College Green. The Department occupies the top two floors of the building, with sweeping views across the city skyline taking in College Green, the Millennium Spire, Croke Park and the Hill of Howth, though these views are being progressively obscured by the growth of the trees in Foster Place. You will find details of how to find us on our contact page. Much of the Department's teaching still takes place in the Arts Building.
The News and Newsarchive pages contain information on arrivals and departures in recent years. Going further back, apart from Professors Basil Chubb and Michael Laver, already mentioned, other former members of the permanent staff include: Dr John O'Day, who resigned in 1976 to return to the USA; Professor David Thornley (1935–78), a noted historian, television journalist, TD (member of parliament) and MEP, who died at a tragically young age and is the subject of Unquiet Spirit: Essays in memory of David Thornley (Dublin: Liberties Press, 2008); Professor Patrick Keatinge, for many years Ireland's leading authority on Irish foreign policy and the European Community/Union, who retired in 1999 after 33 years in the Department; Dr Nalini Persram, who left the department in 2006, after seven successful years in TCD, to take up a position at York University in Toronto; and Professor Ron Hill, long regarded as one of the world's leading experts on communist politics, who retired in September 2007 after 38 years in the department.