Research Units

Public Policy Institute Offsite Link

The PPI provides opportunities for graduate students to acquire hands-on experience in conducting opinion surveys, and doing elite interviews about public policy issues that are especially salient to the State of Texas, especially issues of ethnicity and race. The Clinic normally employs a dozen graduate student research assistants each year.

Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation Offsite Link

The Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation is named after Annette Greenfield Strauss, former mayor of Dallas, who spent some forty years as a city volunteer and community activist. The Institute conducts original research on the growing problem of civic disengagement, especially among the nation's young people, and tries to find practical ways of increasing participation. Strictly non-partisan, the Institute's funding has come from the Aspen Institute, the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Annenberg Foundation, the Pew Charitable Trusts, and the Council for Excellence in Government in Washington.

European Studies Center Offsite Link

With Professor Terri Givens as its Director, this newly-created Center is associated closely with the Government Department, although the Center's mission is inter-disciplinary. Its political research focus is on European integration, immigration patterns and policies in Europe, and racial and ethnic conflicts in Europe. Graduate student exchanges with the Center for Comparative Politics at University of Siena and the Trans-Atlantic Summer Academy in Bonn are unfolding.

Australia and New Zealand Studies Center Offsite Link

This Center is also associated closely with the Department. Its founder and director, Professor John Higley, has for the past five years simultaneously been Department chair. The Center supports Government graduate student research in Australia and New Zealand, and on US relations with the two countries and the wider Southeast Asian area.  Three Government Ph.D. students have recently completed dissertations dealing principally with Australian and New Zealand politics.