Mini-Symposium: Political Theory as a Profession and a Subfield in Political Science?

• Author: Amy G. Mazur,Cornell W. Clayton
• Published date: 01 September 2010
• Date: 01 September 2010
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1065912910379556
• Subject Matter: Mini-Symposium

Mini-Symposium
Political Research Quarterly
63(3) 654
Mini-Symposium: Political
© 2010 University of Utah
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Theory as a Profession and
DOI: 10.1177/1065912910379556
http://prq.sagepub.com
a Subfield in Political Science?
Cornell W. Clayton1 and Amy G. Mazur1
In 2007 the political science department at Pennsylvania
focus of a roundtable discussion at the 2009 American
State University (PSU) decided to discontinue polit-
Political Science Association’s (APSA) annual meeting
ical theory as a course of study for doctoral stu-
in Toronto, Canada.
dents. This decision ignited a controversy that is still
This special mini-symposium focuses on the status of
brewing over the role of political theory as a subfield in
political theory as a profession and a subfield in political
the discipline. Some eighty-five self-identified politi-
science. It features the Kaufman-Osborn essay and critical
cal theorists signed a letter challenging the wisdom of
responses by several members of the APSA roundtable:
the PSU decision and argued that training in political
Wendy Brown (University of California, Berkeley),...