Assistantships
Approximately one-half of the graduate students in residence in the Political Science Department receive some form of financial assistance. There are two forms of assistantship available at the departmental level:
- Teaching Assistantships are one-half time appointments, requiring approximately twenty hours of work per week. Normally, Teaching Assistants are assigned to lead discussion sections attached to large lecture sections of introductory courses. In some instances, Teaching Assistants serve as teaching apprentices to particular faculty members.
- Teaching Associate positions are also one-half time appointments, but are reserved for more advanced students. Teaching Associates teach their own courses, normally two sections of Political Science 101 or 102. More experienced Teaching Associates may be asked to teach courses at the upper-division (300) level.
Both Teaching Assistantships and Teaching Associate positions are awarded strictly on the basis of merit. Award decisions are made in the spring semester for the following academic year. Students who wish to be considered for these positions should submit an application by the end of fall semester.
There are other types of financial assistantships such as fellowships available from the Graduate School of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.