Politics

Engaged Politics

Engaged Politics takes what you’re learning in your courses and puts it into practice through internships, research, study away, winter term, career exploration, and beyond.

Here’s a sampling of recent projects, field experiences, and post-graduate destinations for politics majors.

RISE at Oberlin
Research. Internships. Study Away. Experiential Learning.

Ways Politics Majors Rise

Research

  • Labor Militancy in Education: The Chicago Teachers Union
  • Songs of Change: How Music Helped Spark the Arab Spring Revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia
  • Published Work: “Dynamics of Disruption and Stewardship of Water: Networks in the Syrian Civil War,” Journal of Undergraduate International Studies
  • Racialized Discussions of Welfare in Congressional Floor Speeches
  • Paid research with faculty:
    • Talk Show Campaigns: Presidential Candidates on Daytime and Late Night Television
    • Congressional Campaigns and Representation in the Internet Age
    • Labor Protest in Putin’s Russia
    • Connecting with the Courts: Online Access to State Judicial Systems
    • From Protest to Policymaking: Black Legislative Strategies in the Post-War Era
    • Responding to Racial Resentment: How Racial Resentment Shapes the Rhetoric of Members of Congress
    • New Democracy in China

Internships

  • AFL-CIO Washington, DC
  • U.S. Attorney’s Office of Southern California
  • Oberlin Community Services
  • Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights

Study Away

  • Oberlin-in-London
  • London School of Economics
  • Bard Globalization and International Affairs
  • School for International Training
  • Arabic studies in Morocco and Jordan
  • Spain, Cuba, Netherlands, England, Ireland, Scotland, Sweden, France, Namibia, South Africa, and many more

Experiential Learning

  • The Oberlin Initiative for Electoral Politics
  • Congressional Winter Term
  • Oberlin Research Group (ORG): student consultant group conducts applied research for area political and nonprofit managers on county problems

First Destinations of Recent Politics Majors

  • Graduate Schools:
    • JD at Harvard Law School, University of Michigan Law School, Georgetown Law School, Yale Law School, Washington College of Law at American University, Wake Forest School of Law, and NYU School of Law.
    • MA in journalism, Columbia University
    • MA at UCLA School of Education and Information Studies
    • PhD in political science, UCLA
    • Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago
    • PhD in political science, UC Berkeley
    • PhD in political science, University of Pennsylvania
  • Positions:
    • Talent assistant, MSNBC
    • Wire editor, Ketchikan Daily News, Alaska
    • Research/development intern, American Friends of the Hebrew University
    • Senior field organizer, Arizona Democratic Party
    • Editorial intern, the American Prospect
    • Legislative aide, Capitol Hill
    • Media assistant, GMMB
    • Developer, Sustainable Associates
    • Deputy communications directors on electoral campaigns
    • Finance staff on electoral campaigns
    • Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, India
    • Legislative assistant, Ohio legislature
    • Analyst, Pew Research Center