Research within the School of Political Science and International Studies covers a number of areas within political science, with a particular focus on Australian politics, public policy and governance, political economy and international political economy, international relations, political and international theory, war, peace and security, and comparative, regional and development politics.
The twenty-five full-time academic staff members as well as the School’s postdoctoral researchers are all actively engaged in researching and publishing in their fields. There are also strong links between cutting edge research within the School and the School’s teaching foci. In recent years the School has achieved one of the highest per capita publication rates across all Schools at UQ and is one of the most research intensive in Australia. During the past three years some two dozen books and more than 160 chapters and articles in journals have been published by staff in the School. Presently our academic staff members supervise the research of around 80 PhD candidates and the School also conducts four substantial postgraduate coursework programs.
The main research ethos in the School is to contribute to high quality academic research and publishing, although there is also strong interest in several areas of applied and practically oriented research. Although broadly operating under the banner of political science, there is a diversity of ontological and epistemological approaches utilised within the School.
The School has established itself as a leading research-intensive School. Its researchers have national and international academic reputations and a number of staff have strong applied research relationships with government and community organisations. In setting its goals and policies, the School has placed a strong emphasis on both research quality and impact – reflected in both the high quality publications and the wide number of research linkages established between School and the government and non-government sectors. The School also wishes to further improve its performance in quality research and in boosting grant income. These central agendas have been reflected in the School’s recruitment strategy and have driven every aspect of its research policy and the School’s attitude to Higher Degree Research (HDR).