Graduate – MA & PhD

Research Areas

Our faculty and students — often together — do research across the spectrum of political science. We have notable strengths in Indigenous politics, immigration and multiculturalism, political behaviour, critical political theory, non-state actors in international relations, comparative public policy, politics of the environment and climate change, and more. You’ll see the great set of faculty you can work with in your preferred research areas on our research areas pages.

We are particularly strong in research methods, with a robust sequence of graduate methods courses for students looking for foundational and advanced training in qualitative and quantitative research methods. As for area studies, the department has multiple members working on the politics of Asia, the politics of the Americas, European politics, U.S. politics, and Canadian politics.

If you’re considering applying to our programs, you absolutely must drill down into our research areas pages and check out ones that align with your interests and career goals. These pages represent 30 different research areas or topics and show you which set of faculty members work in that area, with their key publications.

Training in Research & Teaching

Our community of 35 full-time faculty members have diverse research interests and areas of excellence. Our faculty hold research chairs, build innovative research programs, and have strong affiliations with multiple research centres and institutes on campus. Many of our graduate students are research assistants and sometimes co-author papers with faculty.

UBC provides a number of training opportunities so that our graduate students can develop their skills as teachers. Most PhD and MA students will have the opportunity to serve as paid Teaching Assistants, which provides a sustained and comprehensive experience to learn about teaching at the university level while receiving mentorship.