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The College of Arts & Sciences
The department of government offers students a variety of opportunities to engage with politics and political science, beginning in the classroom, with the chance to work one-on-one with faculty; by participating in internships, and by drawing on the department's ties with programs across the College of Arts and Sciences.
In classes, research and through the new Cornell Center on Democracy, faculty are collaborating to study democratic declines, as well as strategies for strengthening the republic we still have. Cornell’s role in strengthening democracy is broad – faculty research guides democracies throughout the world, alumni serve in top government and public service positions, public engagement efforts boost community and policy organizations and, perhaps most importantly, students on campus are gaining the knowledge and communication skills they’ll need to move democracy forward.
Cornell College of Arts & Sciences professor Joseph Margulies advocates forgiveness over punishment in the new book, "Cast Out: A Call for a Forgiving Society in an Age of Incarceration." Drawing on decades of criminal defense work, he argues for a more humane criminal justice system rooted in compassion.
Cynthia Miller-Idriss ’94 will deliver a Cornell University Lecture examining links between misogyny and violent extremism. The leading scholar’s Sept. 30 talk, co-sponsored by departments in the College of Arts and Sciences, draws on her book “Man Up,” exploring gender-based violence as a predictor of radicalization.
Allen Carlson, a political scientist on Cornell’s College of Arts and Sciences, argues that the expanded BRICS bloc, led by China and India, increasingly shapes international affairs over Washington. BRICS leaders meet in India as experts assess shifting global power dynamics.
Environmental photographer James Balog launches the 2026-27 schedule of Cornell's A.D. White Professors-at-Large Sept. 16-17 with a lecture on glacier retreat. The fall series also features visits from artists, scientists and public intellectuals across disciplines with many ties to the College of Arts and Sciences.
Peter Katzenstein, professor in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences, has received the APSA James Madison Award for distinguished contributions to political science. The honor recognizes his influential scholarship, mentorship and leadership across international relations, political economy, culture and national security.
Twenty new faculty have joined the College of Arts & Sciences this year, strengthening departments and programs with their wide-ranging expertise and filling numerous leadership roles for the College and university.
The Government Department at Cornell is committed to free speech and academic freedom, to creating and sustaining a community all of whose members can teach, study, work and thrive, whatever their backgrounds or beliefs, without fear of intolerance, bigotry, harassment, or reprisal. Cornell University is justifiably proud of having committed itself to an affirmative responsibility to protect academic free speech, including extramural speech. It has declared this to be a year of "freedom of expression" at Cornell. We reaffirm.
Our doctoral students are trained in all the main fields of the discipline and have extensive research and teaching experience. Government graduates have gone on to outstanding careers in higher education, public service, and the private sector.