Professor Emeritus, Wayne Cornelius, Senate Member Award
Professor Philip Roeder, Distinguished Teaching Award
Associate Professor, Victor Magagna, Distinguished Teaching Award
Political Science offers undergraduate majors the opportunity to graduate with honors in the major. The Departmental Honors information following describes how to enroll as well as some of the criteria for enrollment. Each Spring, the department faculty votes for the senior honors candidate who has submitted the best thesis. The award is called The Sanford Lakoff Award for the Most Outstanding Senior Thesis. This award is named for Sanford Lakoff, Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, and the founder of our department.
Congratulations to our 08-09 Sanford Lakoff recipient:
Kelly Zhang
Past recipients include
Melissa Lee (BA Political Science/International Relations, Highest Honors Spring 2008)
Kaveh Sanandaji (BA Political Science/International Relations, Highest Honors Summer 2007)
Departmental Honors
Senior Honors Seminar and Senior Thesis
To receive departmental honors, students are required to complete Political Science 191A-B Senior Honors Seminar: Frontiers in Political Science. Through the two-quarter seminar, students will complete a senior thesis. Please note that POLI 191A is offered only in fall quarter and POLI 191B is offered only in winter quarter and these courses must be taken in consecutive quarters.
Admission: Send an e-mail to askpolisci@ucsd.edu with the subject line "request for honors information"
To be admitted to the seminar, a student must have senior standing in the first quarter of the seminar, have a minimum GPA of 3.6 in political science (this includes lower division, courses taken through Education Abroad Program, and Summer Session), have completed all lower-division requirements including POLI 30 (Political Inquiry) and five upper-division courses. Also, students must have an advisor prior to being allowed to enroll.
Award of Honors
The award of honors is by vote of the political science faculty. The award of honors will be based on the average of (1) the student's departmental grade point average at the end of the second quarter of the honors seminar (50%), and (2) the point score assigned the honors thesis by the readers (50%) .
In addition to Honors, students may receive an award called the DeWitt Higgs Award for the Outstanding Graduating Senior in the area of Law and Public Policy. This award is named for DeWitt "Dutch" Higgs, a prominent San Diego attorney who served as a member of the UC Board of Regents for 16 years. He was chair from 1968 to 1970 and vice chair from 1970-71, at a time when students were protesting at the various UC campuses over America's involvement in the Vietnam conflict. Former UC President Charles Hitch said that Higgs was the very "glue" which held the university together during that difficult time.
Congratulations to our 08-09 DeWitt Higgs receipients:
Nicholas Hromalik (BA Political Science/American Politics, High Honors Spring 2009)
Devin Incerti (BA Political Science/International Relations, Highest Honors Spring 2009)
Past recipients include:
Colin McCubbins (BA Political Science, Highest Honors Winter 2009)
Mark Elliott (BA Political Science/Public Law, Highest Honors Spring 2007)
The Center for Teaching and Development partners with the department to provide the annual TA Excellence Awards.
Students who have taught section at least once during the academic year may elect self nominate. Interested applicants tally all evaluations; the Director of Graduate Studies makes the final decision.
Congratulations to our 08-09 TA Excellence Award recipients! They are as follows:
Ellen Moule
Leigh Bradberry
Daniel Maliniak
Sam Seljan
Allen Bolar
Past recipients include:
| Scott Bailey | Danielle Jung | Stephanie Rickard |
| Richard Carney | Delynn Kaufman | David Selby |
| Hugh Dauffenbach | Michael Kelly | Sam Seljan |
| Mark Farrales* | James Long | Christopher Shortell |
| David Fisk | Nathan Monroe | Rosco Williamson |
| Kathleen Gallagher** | Angela O'Mahony | Wendy Wong |
| Michael Hawes | Justin Phillips | |
| Jessica Hills | Andrew Poe |
* 04-05, 06-07
** 01-02,05-06
This annual prize is awarded to the Ph.D. in Political Science candidate whose dissertation is most likely to contribute to the scientific study of politics.
Congratulations to our 08-09 Peggy Quon Prize recipients! They are:
Chris Dawes
Scott Mackenzie
Past recipients include:
| Susan Hyde | Susan Hyde | Marc Rosenblum |
| Cheryl Boudreau | Scott Kastner | Jessica Weiss |
| Andrea Campbell | Eric Magar | Nicholas Weller |
| Royce Carroll | Nathan Monroe | |
| James Druckman | Ben Nyblade | |
| Erik Engstrom | Chad Rector |
The Betsy Faught Award was created in 1994, to recognize the outstanding work being done by managers of our General Campus academic units and to inspire high standards of excellence for all campus managers. The award honors the memory of MSO Betsy Faught, who served as MSO in the department of Political Science with skill and efficiency for many years.
This award recognizes the professionalism and dedication of our academic program managers and emphasizes their critical role on campus. The traits attributed to the awardees include the ability to bring people together; skill at analyzing and solving problems; sustained initiative and creativity; influential leadership and management skills; and recognized judgment and integrity.