The Department of Political Science at Ashoka University aims to provide students with a conceptual foundation in the discipline, with an ability to critically analyse the omnipresence of the “political.” Through various courses we shall examine the nature, distribution and dynamics of power – both at the macro level of national and international politics and also at the micro level of the individual, family and community. We will map the ways in which knowledge systems and challenges to particular power relations have been constructed over specific vectors of time and space. We will study both Aristotle and Plato, Gandhi and Iqbal; complementing studies on comparative politics with an exploration of Indian national and state politics.

The Political Science major puts significant emphasis on methods learning, both quantitative and qualitative. Several courses teach how to do research, using data analysis, statistics or the ethnographic method, to explore the politics that surrounds us. Students are thus equipped with practical skills they can use outside the classroom.

The Department of Political Science encourages students to explore the connections between the major and other disciplines, by cross-listing courses across departments and by encouraging students to ask questions that are not constrained by disciplinary boundaries.