The political science department, looking to capitalize on greater student interest in international relations after Sept. 11, has stepped up hiring efforts of faculty specializing in comparative politics and will offer a slate of new classes Winter Quarter dealing with international issues.
Prof. Susan Herbst, political science department chairwoman, said three new faculty members with expertise in international relations have joined the staff since September and the department still is searching to add more the list.
“We are hiring more international relations faculty to meet an sustained increased interest in the field like we haven’t seen in a while,” Herbst said. “The focus of a lot of the classes dealt with more domestic issues. But now people are realizing we live in a global community.”
Winter Quarter 300-level political science classes, including International Organizations; National Security; Globalization; and Relations between the West and Middle East are filling up quickly during registration as students try to increase their understanding of current events and international crises.
Weinberg senior Marisa Szelag, the department’s representative on Weinberg’s student advisory board, said student response to the Winter Quarter course offerings has been strong.
“The political science department is trying to bring a more global perspective to campus,” Szelag said. “There are so many people interested in international relations now, so it’s nice they are offering more choices.”
Herbst said the undergraduate demand for more internationally focused classes led to the hiring increase.
“This is an exciting time for us,” she said. “Before Sept. 11, we were oriented in the direction that we wanted to expand the international relations staff. After the tragedy, we are seeing firsthand how vital these courses are to students.”
The department hopes to hire at least two more professors specializing in international relations or comparative politics within the next year, Herbst said.
“When we are at our full strength with a few more people, our curriculum will expand even more and give more opportunities to the students,” she said.
Weinberg sophomore and political science major Brian Truscott, who will take Comparative Politics during Winter Quarter, said universities across the nation should expand the amount of courses dealing with international events.
“In this time, all major universities should have someone who can relate to the events and answer student questions,” Truscott said. “I think Northwestern is just wanting to go along with the rest.”
Truscott, who is double majoring in religion, said the events following Sept. 11 convinced him to register for Introduction to Islam, a religion class that originally he had not planned on taking.
“I had been planning on taking a class on Buddhism or Hinduism but decided Islam would be better for the world we live in currently,” he said.
Although other departments also can relate coursework to current events, Herbst said she expects political science professors to incorporate breaking news about international situations into their classroom discussions.
“We are trying to get students to see these breaking events in the context of history and theory,” she said. “In political science, we try to build theory that can hopefully be applied to a lot of breaking events and international situations.”
