Political Science at John Jay College

On Wednesday, at 1:30 pm, our department and the Center for International Human Rights are cosponsoring a talk by Dr. Corinna Mullin, on "The Palestine Exception and Academic Freedom." The event is on zoom. Please see flier and QR code below. We look forward to see you!

Join us tomorrow, Tue, at 2 pm in Room 630, Haaren Hall at John Jay College for a talk on "The New Conspiracism and the Destruction of Democracy by Russell Muirhead (Dartmouth College)" co-sponsored by our Department and the Center for International Human Rights. See flier.

Dear Colleagues,

Our chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha is sponsoring a talk on migration this Thursday. Our speaker is Eleanor Acer, the Senior Director for Global Humanitarian Protection at Human Rights First. Her talk is titled "Refugees, Migrants, and Human Rights: Global Challengers and the Way Forward." The event is this Thursday, March 19 at 1:40 pm in NB 1.109. The event is co-sponsored by the Department, the United Nations Students Association, and the Center for International Human Rights.

Pleased to announce our "Defending Academic Freedom" teach-in today at 1:30 at Moot Court! Please join us!

In early February, we held a wonderful event with our community on academic freedom, moderated by Dr. Karla Mundim of our department. Thank you to all who attended. It was a really fruitful and important gathering. The event aimed to create a space for students to engage with questions of academic freedom as they relate to learning, organizing, expressing student voices, and accessing relevant campus resources. Safe to say it succeeded in this aim. Congratulations Dr. Mundim!

We’re hosting a student-centered event on academic freedom this Tuesday, February 3rd, from 1:30pm to 3:00pm in Moot Court (NB, 6th floor), moderated by Dr. Karla Mundim of our department. The event aims to create a space for students to engage with questions of academic freedom as they relate to learning, organizing, expressing student voices, and accessing relevant campus resources. We’ve designed the event to center student-led discussions and reflections on timely issues, especially as debates around academic freedom have become increasingly visible and contentious in our current political climate. It would be wonderful to have diverse student participation from our department. Refreshments will be provided at the event, which we hope will encourage more students to join.

Please the attached flyer for a very exciting new course offered by Professor Haglund. The course, “Environmental and Climate Justice in New York City” is a hands-on experiential one. Please sign up if you can!

Our event “Is academic freedom dying at American Universities” where Professor Jonathan Cole gave a talk, and which was moderated by our own Dr. Veronica Michel, was held on December 3. Thank you all for attending. We had a fruitful and important conversation.

The Department of Political Science, The Office of Academic Programs, and The Center for International Human Rights cordially invite you to a talk titled “ls Academic Freedom Dying at American Universities?” today, Wednesday, December 3, 2025 1:30 PM (Community Hour) in L63 New Building. This is our last event in our Academic Freedom Series for this semester, with Jonathan Cole from Columbia University. Our very own Dr. Veronica Michel will be moderating. We hope that you can join us for this important event.

Please come and join us for the upcoming event "Antisemitism, Islamophobia & the Preservation of Universities as a Space for Academic Deliberations," organized by the Center for International Human Rights next Tuesday, Nov 18 at 1:30 pm (L63 New Bldg.). The event will feature opening remarks by our colleagues Mucahit Bilici and Jack Jacobs and breakout sessions for participants to discuss and deliberate on this critical issue area. After the breakout sessions all participants will reconvene to share their thoughts. The event will be moderated by our colleague Avi Bornstein.

Our students did a wonderful job and our community supported them with a great turnout at our department’s “Mock NYC mayoral debate” last week on October 16. The event was co-sponsored by External Affairs. Thank you to all who made this possible, especially our Pi Sigma Alpha students who played the candidates (Kimberly Masaya, Salvatore Padellaro, Damien Tan) and our PSA advisor Dr. Brian Arbour.