Political Methodology - Introduction
Introduction | Field Requirements | Examination Guide | Faculty | Affiliated Faculty
"The unity of all science consists alone in its method, not in its material." Karl Pearson (1938)
The Department of Political Science at the University of Florida offers a Ph.D. field in methodology. Methodology, broadly defined, addresses the tools of inquiry that are appropriate to the study of political science. These tools include quantitative techniques for data analysis, qualitative approaches, and specialized techniques for solving particular problems. Students who elect to study methodology are exposed to such topics as linear models analysis, categorical data analysis, surveying and interviewing, focus group research, time series statistics, and Bayesian methods. The objective is to offer a wide range of courses designed to help students gain expertise in the methodologies that will enable them to answer research questions in their substantive political science fields.
Methodology is distinct from the other political science fields in that it is intrinsically linked to supporting research efforts in other fields. Excellent methodological skills combined with strong theoretical foundations make it possible to do state-of-the-art political science research. The Department seeks to provide students the tools critical to excellent scholarship. Students seeking careers at research universities are strongly encouraged to include methodology in their curriculum while at the University of Florida.
Classes are offered in the Department and in partnership with other departments such as Economics and Statistics. All students choosing methodology as a field take the course Likelihood Theory (offered every Spring semester), but beyond that there is wide latitude for students to design a set of courses that bear on their substantive work in the discipline. The department also works closely with the ICPSR Summer Program at the University of Michigan to provide further instruction to our students. In Summer 2001, ours was the only department in the country to have two graduate student recipients of ICPSR Clogg Scholarships.
