Job Placement

The Department provides a number of resources to assist students in finding appropriate employment as they complete their dissertations, although we view our strongest service as the training and mentoring you receive throughout your stay in our program, where our goal is to make you as competitive as possible on the job market. You might be interested in some of the research our alumni are publishing and profiles of our students currently on the job market.

Department of Government Graduate Placement

Our PhDs have secured positions in departments across the country and the globe, from research universities to liberal arts colleges. As is typical in the academic world today, a first job is not always a permanent one, but can open the way to a productive career. Below is the list of our placements for the last four years:

2019-20 Graduates:

2018-19 Graduates:

2017-18 Graduates:

2016-17 Graduates:

Long-term results

First-time jobs: Our graduates can land high-profile tenure-track jobs directly out of graduate school. Within the last ten years we have directly placed graduates in tenure-track positions at University of Kentucky, Miami University, McGill University, the University of Washington, and the University of Missouri, for example. Other noteworthy direct tenure-track placements include research universities such as American University, the University of Tennessee, Texas Tech University, Syracuse University, Baylor University, University of Nevada (Las Vegas), University of Wisconsin (Milwaukee), West Virginia University, and the University of Louisville. We have also had great success placing students in liberal arts institutions, including Bates College, Claremont McKenna College, Rhodes College, Colorado College, St. Edward’s University, and the University of Richmond.

Second jobs: Beyond our direct placements, our students routinely move on from their initial job to more prestigious placements. Within the last ten years we have had students move on to second or third jobs and tenure-track positions at institutions including University of Wisconsin (Madison), UNC-Chapel Hill, Florida State University, American University, Ohio State University, James Madison University, Biola University in California, Colby College, College of Wooster, Providence College, George Washington University, DePaul University, Santa Clara University, University of Maryland-Baltimore County, and an endowed professorship at Brooklyn College. Our graduates also have a strong and proven record of earning tenure when the time comes.

Post-docs: Post-docs are typically an important steppingstone to tenure track jobs, and we have recently begun amassing an impressive record of placements in prestigious post-doc positions. Within the last ten years we have placed students in post-docs at institutions including Stanford, Princeton, Yale, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, Duke, Penn, Emory, University of Toronto, College of the Holy Cross, Boston College, Rhodes College, Tulane University, the University of Houston. and Australian National University.

International positions: Internationally, our graduates work at some of the highest-ranking institutions in their respective countries. Within the last ten years we have placed students at the top research institutions in Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Japan, Russia, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan.

Non-academic positions: Students who pursue a non-academic career path often find many options open to them. Within the last decade we have had graduates move on to careers with the CIA, Department of Defense, and prominent private and non-profit sector groups, nationally and internationally, such as The Mellman Group, Demos, The National Democratic Institute, The German Development Institute, and Argentina’s Foundation for the Environment and Natural Resources.

Ten year record

PhDs 2009-2019: 144. Total placement rate: 91%

Initial placements:

Tenure track jobs or post-docs: 78 (54%)

Other academic positions: 36 (25%); 16 of these (11%) subsequently moved into tenure track jobs

Non-academic, professional jobs: 17 (12%)