Cornell's Department of Government is devoted to the study of political power, political institutions, public policy, public opinion and participation, political economy, interactions between citizens and governments, and the international system.

The field of Government is divided into four subfields: American politics, comparative politics (the institutions and political processes of other nations), political theory and philosophy, and international relations (transactions between states, international organizations and transnational actors).

Latest News:

Professor Emeritus Benedict Anderson and Professor Peter Katzenstein have been elected to the American Philosophical Society for 2009. The American Philosophical Society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” This is a doubly wonderful honor that two faculty members of the Department are elected to this Society at the same time.

Department manager Judy Virgilio has been chosen to receive the Constance E. Cook and Alice H. Cook Award. The award honors individuals for their commitment to women's issues and for improving the climate for women at Cornell. It is named in honor of Constance E. Cook, Cornell's first woman vice president, and the late Professor Emerita Alice H. Cook.

Graduate student Leila Ibrahim has won the Dean's Prize for Distinguished Teaching.

Professor Jonathan Kirshner has won the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award.

Assoc Prof Nina Tannenwald (Ph.D., Cornell; currently at Brown Univ. - Watson Institute) received Georgetown University's Joseph S. Lepgold award for best book on IR in 2008 for her book The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945 (Cambridge Univ Press, Dec 2007).

Professor Christopher Anderson and his co-investigators have received funding from the Canadian government for a major collaborative research grant on “Making Electoral Democracy Work.”

Professor Peter Katzenstein has been elected President of the American Political Science Association.

Professor Theodore J. Lowi has been awarded the James Madison Prize, awarded every three years to an American Political Scientist who has made a distinguished scholarly contribution to the profession. It is one of the very highest accolades of the discipline.

Professor Jonathan Kirshner has won the Provost's Award for Distinguished Scholarship.

Emeritus Professor Vivienne Shue has been elected as Fellow to the British Academy, the national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Graduate student Lucia Seybert has won the Arts and Sciences Dean's Prize for Distinguished Teaching.

Assistant Professor Burke Hendrix is the recipient of the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award.

Professor Susan Buck-Morss will be the first occupant of the Jan Rock Zubrow '77 Professorship in Social Sciences.

Professor Christopher J. Anderson has received the Journal of Politics Best Paper Award for his article (together with Aida Paskeviciute) on "How Ethnic and Linguistic Heterogeneity Influence the Prospects for Civil Society: A Comparative Study of Citizenship Behavior," Journal of Politics 68 (4): 783-802.

Graduate student Michael Miller has just received the Warren J. Mitofsky Student Paper Award from the New York Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research for his paper , "Bringing Campaigning Back In: Public Money, Candidate Time, and Electoral Outcomes in State Legislative Elections."

Jason M.K. Lyall, Ph.D. 2005, received the 2007 Helen Dwight Reid Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of international relations, law and politics. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Politics & International Affairs at Princeton University.

Emmanuel J. Teitelbaum, Ph.D. 2006, won the 2007 Gabriel A. Almond Award for the best doctoral dissertation in the field of comparative politics. He holds the position of Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University.

Professor Ronald Herring has been awarded the Dudley Seers prize, an annual award for the best article to appear in each volume of the Journal of Development Studies, for his edited Special Issue entitled, “Transgenics and the Poor: Biotechnology in Development Studies."

Graduate student Jennifer Erikson has won a James F. Slevin Assignment Sequent Honorable Mention for "Writing and Understanding Perceptions of the Arms Trade," the sequence of assignments that she designed for use in Governmentt 100.02, The Global Arms Trade: Politics, Markets, and Security.

Graduate student Tsveta Petrova and her student Yanhong Luo have won a Gertrude Spencer Prize, recognizing the excellent preparatory and other work that led to the paper, "A Study on the Applicability of Social Capital and Political Institutionalization on Government Performance, which Mr. Luo wrote for Ms. Petrova's First-Year Writing Seminar, Government 100.03, Political Participation.

Graduate student Michael Miller has won the Best Paper award in the graduate category of the 2008 Western Social Science Association Student Paper Competition for his "Bringing Campaigning Back In: Public Money, Candidate Time, and Electoral Outcomes in State Legislative Elections."

Professor Michael Jones-Correa was selected by Presidential Scholar Nessia S. Sloane to be honored as part of the Merrill Presidential Scholar Program. Students who are undergraduate Merrill Presidential Scholars name the high school teachers and university faculty members who made important contributions to the students' lives.

Assistant Professor Peter Enns has received the Best Paper Award from the Elections, Public Opinion, and Voting Behavior Section of the American Political Science Association.