Each student's program is tailored to her interests within the constraints of departmental requirements. The Guide to the Study of Political Theory at Vanderbilt is designed to help students design a successful program.

The dissertation is the most important project of the graduate career. The student works closely with a faculty mentor in designing her dissertation.

Even if your first field is not political theory, you may find the discipline of writing a paper in Political Theory useful for clarifying your thinking about the issue you consider worthy of your research and thinking.