The fundamental mission of the School of Politics and Global Studies (SPGS) is to generate and diffuse knowledge that contributes to society’s understanding of politics and governance at local, national, and global levels.

Consistent with ASU’s goals as The New American University, the School emphasizes research that links theory with real world issues and action through policy.

Being problem oriented, a primary goal of the School is to develop innovative approaches to major emerging challenges, based on transdisciplinary perspectives to the greatest extent possible.  The School is locally, nationally, and globally networked, focusing its teaching, research, and public service on the Phoenix Metropolitan area, the Southwest United States, and the Globe.

Important thematic areas reflected in faculty research and teaching include:

  • violence, conflict, and human rights
  • urban, economic development, migration, and environmental issues
  • campaigns and elections
  • and women, minorities, and politics.

The faculty encourage students to understand the nation and the world from an institutional perspective. Governance institutions and their constituent stakeholders are analyzed from social, political, and technological perspectives to encourage imaginative, innovative, and rigorous scholarship that brings knowledge to bear on local, national, and global challenges.  

School faculty regularly publish in leading academic journals and presses; they serve on the editorial boards of major journals; they have held internationally and nationally competitive fellowships and grants from institutions such as the National Science Foundation; the Guggenheim, Ford, Rockefeller, and MacArthur Foundations; and the Hoover Institution National Fellows Program. Faculty regularly advise domestic and international agencies, such as the US State Department and the World Bank, and are at the table at major policy events nationally and globally.

Faculty are actively engaged in innovative programs across campus, such as the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict; the Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes; the Borderlands Initiative; the School of Sustainability; the School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning; and the Barrett Honors College.