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College Home / Department of Political Science

        Student Spotlight: Camryn Snell

For 2018 Moore Scholarship recipient Camryn Snell, the College of Charleston’s political science department is a home away from home. Camryn knew she wanted to be a political science major before she even enrolled at the College, but her decision was solidified when she attended the majors and minors fair. There she met former department chair Dr. Gibbs Knotts, whose excitement about the program inspired her to officially declare her major. Dr. Knotts is just one of the many faculty members who have motivated Camryn to succeed; she credits former visiting professor Shyam Sriram with helping her to find her true passion--immigration and refugee policy. In Professor Sriram’s World Politics class, she found it refreshing to look at politics outside of America, and subsequently took two more classes with him the following semester (International Relations in Immigration & Religion and Politics) to gain an even better global perspective. Camryn also lists Professors Hinton, Amira, McGinnis, and Ragusa as influential in her undergraduate career. “I can go to graduate school and feel completely prepared”, she says, “thanks to what they’ve taught me and how supported I’ve felt.”
Camryn couldn’t say enough about how influential the political science department has been during her time at CofC. During high school she never felt very supported by her teachers, but that all changed the moment she began taking political science courses. Every professor she’s had here, she asserts, has been “unbelievably passionate about their students.”
Camryn credits her professors with teaching her more than just how to pass a class - through her coursework, she feels she’s become a well-rounded and open-minded student, a team player, and an informed global citizen. The political science curriculum, she says, has also taught her how to be adaptable - “Math always stays the same, but political science is always changing. Sometimes we’ve had to change our entire syllabus to cover a new world event!”

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Message from the Acting Chair: Dr. Hollis France

Welcome to the Department of Political Science. Whether you are interested in American campaigns and elections or international human rights, global climate change or criminal justice, foreign policy or urban planning, Chinese politics or the politics of Africa, intelligence gathering or health policy, local community groups or international development agencies, the Department of Political Science has the courses and extracurricular programming for you. The faculty and staff in our department are committed to your success, both as a student in Charleston and for life after college. Our department has a large and distinguished alumni network, as you can see from the profiles (below) which were featured in The College Today. More information can be found on the Alumni Corner of our website.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have and let us know how we can make your time at the College of Charleston even better!

WE'VE MOVED!  Our offices are now located on the 2nd floor of the JC Long Building. At this time, we are open BY APPOINTMENT ONLY - NO DROP-INS ALLOWED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. Contact  Dr. France (franceh@cofc.edu) or Dr. Ragusa (ragusajm@cofc.edu) for an appointment.

Caroline Horres C'12 - Political Risk Analyst
Michael Huberman C'10 - Development Coordinator for ESPN Films
Anna Meacham C'07 - Director of PR at J.McLaughlin
Matthew McClellan C'08 - Special Assistant U.S. Attorney
Hugh McDermott C'11 - Scheduler for First Lady Michelle Obama
Lauren Swing C'11 - Congressional Deputy Chief of Staff
Katie Tumbleston C'08 - CEO & Founder of NannyPod
Jasmine Twitty C'10 - Associate Judge