Department of Political Science
| Head of the Department of Economics, Statistics and Political Science |
|
| Davis R. Dewey | 1903-1907 |
| Head of the Department of History and Political Science | |
| Charles F. A. Currier | 1907-1918 |
| Heads of the Department of Political Science | |
| Robert C. Wood | 1965-1966 |
| Ithiel de Sola Pool | 1966-1969 |
| Robert C. Wood | 1969-1970 |
| Eugene B. Skolnikoff | 1970-1974 |
| Myron Weiner | 1974-1977 |
| Alan A. Altshuler | 1977-1981 |
| Donald L. M. Blackmer | 1982-1989 |
| Suzanne D. Berger | 1989-1992 |
| Richard J. Samuels | 1992-1997 |
| Joshua Cohen | 1997-2004 |
| Charles H. Stewart III | 2005-2010 |
| Richard M. Locke | 2010-2013 |
| Melissa Nobles | 2013-2015 |
| Andrea Campbell | 2015-2019 |
| David A. Singer | 2019- |
Early courses in political science were taught as part of Course IX, General Studies, until 1903 when the Department of Economics, Statistics, and Political Science was established. In 1907 the department was reorganized as the Department of Economics and Statistics, and political science became part of the Department of History and Political Science. In 1918 Charles Currier, the head of the department, became ill, and a temporary merging of History with English became permanent the following year.
Course XIV, Economics and Social Science, began offering classes in Political Science again in 1944 when Norman J. Padelford joined the faculty to teach classes in international relations. In 1956 the department was reorganized into three sections, including political science, with Padelford as section head. In that year the faculty authorized an S.B. degree in Economics, Politics, and Engineering; in 1958 a Ph.D. in Political Science was approved. In 1965 the political science section became Course XVII, the Department of Political Science.
Prepared by the Department of Distinctive Collections, MIT Libraries
March 1998; Updated: June 2016, April 2020