Welcome to the website for the political theory graduate program in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. The Department is strongly committed to the field, with five (soon six) full-time faculty members in political theory and several other people in the Department teaching theory courses. Diversity of approaches, both methodological and substantive, is central to the UVa program.

Our most important recent news is that we have two new theorists joining us. In fall 2007, Melvin Rogers ( Yale University, 2006) joined us as an Assistant Professor. His main interests include classical and contemporary pragmatism, American and African American political thought, and democratic and republican theory.

And in fall 2008, Jennifer Rubenstein (University of Chicago 2006) will also join us as an Assistant Professor. Her interests include global justice, international ethics, humanitarianism, NGOs, democratic theory, theories of office and the relationship between imagination and politics.