News and Events

Loyola Stands Against Gun Violence, a multi‑departmental, interdisciplinary initiative representing both Loyola and the broader Chicagoland community presents their Community Advocacy and Violence Prevention Summit, which will take place on Tuesday, April 7th, from 8:30 AM to 1:00 PM on Loyola’s Health Sciences Campus in Maywood.

They will welcome Arne Duncan, founder of Chicago CRED and former U.S. Secretary of Education, along with additional speakers from across the Chicagoland area, and Eddie Bocanegra, Senior Advisor to the Office of the Assistant Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice, along with Matt DeMateo of the Chicago New Life Center. The event will feature a panel with Loyola faculty and leaders from the Immigration Hub, highlighting expertise in anthropology, social work, education, law, and medicine.  

If you’re interested in registering or learning more, you can visit the Eventbrite page. 

The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Dr. Gaea Morales will join the department in the Fall semester of 2026. Dr. Morales earned her Ph.D. in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles in 2025 and will spend the 2025-2026 academic year as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University before joining Loyola. Dr. Morales studies how global norms translate into local action, focusing on cities and the governance and politics of transboundary challenges such as climate change as it intersects with transnational human rights movements.​ Learn more about her research here.

Professor Sarah Maxey's book, Doves into Hawks, is forthcoming with Oxford University Press. You can learn more here.

Going to war is dangerous, costly, and questionable in its effectiveness. Yet majorities of the US public consistently support military interventions--a phenomenon that has generally been attributed to the mobilizing power of threats to US security. In fact, to justify every US military intervention in the post-Cold War era, presidents have cited not just national security, but also protecting foreign civilians.

Doves into Hawks shows that protecting US interests is not enough to make war popular. Military interventions must also appear to have a humanitarian dimension. By emphasizing this dimension, presidents give traditional "doves" a reason to become temporary "hawks," creating a broad domestic coalition of support for military action. In turn, this coalition holds leaders accountable for achieving both humanitarian and security outcomes. Combining analysis of original data on presidential justifications for military force with survey experiments and archival research of the Gulf War and US action in Bosnia, Sarah Maxey reshapes our understanding of how, with the right words, leaders persuade skeptics to approve of military action and the unexpected ways this tactic can be good for democracy.

The Department of Political Science will be offering seven courses in the summer of 2026. They are all online and registration opens on February 9th.

Check out all the details here: 2026 Summer PLSC courses

First Session (May 18-June 26)

PLSC 103 - Comparative Politics with Prof. Cunha Silva

PLSC 300A - Inequality & American Democracy with Prof. Condon

PLSC 326 - American National Security with Prof. Maxey

Second Session (June 29-August 7)

PLSC 101 - American Politics with Prof. Markarian

PLSC 102 - International Relations in the Age of Globalization

PLSC 300A - Hollywood & Politics with Prof. Savage

PLSC 358 - War, Peace, and Politics with Prof. Melin

Internships in Political Science

Do you want to get internship experience, earn course credit AND fulfill your engaged learning requirement?

The Political Science Internship Course lets you do just that! You find the internship that fits your interests (broadly related to political science), and we'll help you connect that real-world experience to your academic and professional goals. Whether you're interning with a campaign, a nonprofit, a legal office, or a public agency, this course gives you credit for your work and supports you in getting the most out of it. 

Below is a sample of internship opportunities:

• The Office of Senator Tammy Duckworth offers internships to individuals who are 18 years and older in each of its six offices, located across the state in Chicago, Springfield, Rock Island, Belleville and Carbondale, and in Washington, D.C. A limited number of scholarships are available to applicants who cannot afford to work without pay or who cannot otherwise afford the living expenses in the city where the internship is located. More information about our Internship and Scholarship Programs can be found on our website at: https://www.duckworth.senate.gov/help/internships. The deadline to apply to the Summer 2026 Internship Program is February 27, 2026. If you have any questions, please contact internships@duckworth.senate.gov.
• The American Academy of Diplomacy is offering internships to students interested in American foreign policy and the practice of diplomacy, as well as in the inner workings of a nonprofit organization. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, so candidates are encouraged to apply early (deadline is April 3, 2026). More information can be found on the website at:https://www.academyofdiplomacy.org/internship-details

Interested? Have questions? Please contact Prof. Kang at skang8@luc.edu for more information.

We encourage all students at Loyola to register in the Blackbaud system: https://luc.academicworks.com/users/sign_in.

This system allows you to browse and apply for scholarships and other awards at the university.

It can also "auto-match" you with funding! Yes, it's true: you may receive funding to support your education simply by creating an account so you can be auto-matched. It only takes a few minutes!