Mini-Symposium: Political Theory as a Profession and a Subfield in Political Science?

In 2007 the political science department at Pennsylvania State University (PSU) decided to discontinue polit ical theory as a course of study for doctoral stu dents. This decision ignited a controversy that is still brewing over the role of political theory as a subfield in the discipline. Some eighty-five self-identified politi cal theorists signed a letter challenging the wisdom of the PSU decision and argued that training in political theory was not only an essential part of graduate train ing in political science given its subfield status but also central to the study of political life itself. In response, Professor Timothy V. Kaufman-Osborn wrote a pro vocative essay challenging this self-conception of political theory as a distinct area of study within politi cal science and questioning whether it might not be desirable to adopt greater critical distance between political scientists and political theorists. Kaufman Osborn's essay was widely circulated and became the focus of a roundtable discussion at the 2009 American Political Science Association's (APSA) annual meeting in Toronto, Canada. This special mini-symposium focuses on the status of political theory as a profession and a subfield in political science. It features the Kaufman-Osborn essay and critical responses by several members of the APSA roundtable: Wendy Brown (University of California, Berkeley), Mary Hawkesworth (Rutgers University), John Gunnell (University of California, Davis), and Gregory J. Kasza (Indiana University). While the contributors to this mini symposium disagree among themselves about the past and the future of "political theory," their dialogue offers readers an interesting perspective about the development of political theory both as a set of professional practices and as a normative enterprise.