The Hood College Department of Political Science and Global Studies offers timely and interesting courses complemented by exciting opportunities to engage in personal research, attend relevant field trips, and embark upon challenging internships.
As a senior, you’ll have the opportunity to take advanced elective courses that are generally not offered at schools our size. These will prepare you for graduate school, law school or your career in government, public administration, community advocacy, education, journalism, or international or nonprofit business.
Our faculty are committed teachers and mentors and represent a wide range of academic disciplines, interests and strengths. While faculty members are active scholars in their individual research fields, their primary concern is teaching.
You’ll have access to internships, study abroad opportunities, the Model United Nations and the Maryland Student Legislature, through which you can earn academic credit.
All of our faculty hold doctorates, have significant publication records, and are engaged in current research. Many of those faculty members collaborate with students in their research. Our majors have pursued graduate work at numerous universities, including Georgetown University, American University, University of Maryland, McDaniel College, and University of Delaware.
Hood’s location near Washington, D.C., and Annapolis, the capital of Maryland, offers numerous internship opportunities with governmental agencies. In Frederick, internships with county and local government agencies are widely available. In recent years, Hood students have interned at locations such as:
Noah graduated in 2024 with bachelor’s degrees in Political Science and French Language and Culture. Passionate about international relations and political theory, he took a variety of courses, covering topics such as comparative politics, terrorism and political violence, US foreign policy, and democratic and modern political theory. During his junior year, he studied abroad in Toulouse, France, taking courses in political science at the Institut Catholique de Toulouse, while also getting to witness firsthand the protests against the French retirement reform laws in 2023. Upon his return in the Fall of 2023, he completed an internship with the McCain Institute, where he assisted its preventing targeted violence team with building a national directory of targeted violence prevention practitioners and resources, tracking the implementation of policy recommendations, and wrote and published Fighting Back Against Online Radicalization. During his senior year, he completed a departmental honors project, researching French policy towards its former sub-Saharan colonies in the post-Cold War era through the lens of official discourse. A member of Pi Sigma Alpha, he was also awarded the Virginia E. Lewis Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Political Science in the Spring of 2024. Following his graduation from Hood, he will be attending American University’s School of International Service in the Fall where he will be pursuing a master’s degree in International Affairs, with a focus on US foreign policy and national security. Professionally, he strives to work in the Foreign Service, with a focus on the francophone world.
Our alumni have found careers in politics and government, the nonprofit sector, advocacy and policy, and much more.
Kris Fair ’13, history and political science major
Kris Fair currently serves as a Maryland State Delegate for District 3, which is Hood College’s own district. As a student, he was a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha and Phi Alpha Theta honor societies and served as president of Tolerance, Education, Acceptance, a student-run organization for LGBTQ+ outreach and resources. In addition to his political career, Fair is the executive director of the Frederick Center.
Kaylene Wright ’17, communication arts and political science major with a French minor
Kaylene Wright currently serves as an interpretive park ranger for the National Park Services, working at Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona. At Hood, she was awarded Student Leader of the Year in 2017 and was a member of Pi Delta Phi, Feminist Student Union, Hood College Democrats, Hood Environmental Action Team, Active Minds at Hood College and Maryland Student Legislature. She also completed an internship with the U.S. House of Representatives.
Hood participates in the Washington Semester Program with American University, where students live in the residence halls, take a course and complete an extensive internship program during their junior or senior year. Students are encouraged to take advantage of study abroad opportunities. The most popular programs take students to Spain, France and London.
Political science students are engaging with local politics on and off campus.
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