Princeton School of Public and International Affairs

They attended Princeton SPIA nearly 30 years apart, but the relationship between Stephen Jackson ’94 and Marissa Bray ’24 is an example of an uncommonly close-knit community of alumni who provide mutual support and mentorship.

MPAs Across the Decades Build Community of Mutual Support and a ‘Sense of Drive and Commitment’ | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs For 75 years, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Master in Public Affairs program has produced an uncommonly close-knit community of alumni who provide mutual support and mentorship.

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ SPIA in New Jersey initiative has named three recent graduates as its first cohort of Garden State Fellows. Lauren Aung, Madison Linton, and Olivia Ragan, all of whom graduated from Princeton in May, are the inaugural participants in a fellowship program that was created to enhance capacity in New Jersey’s public interest sector, to address critical statewide issues, and to launch young practitioners into public policy careers.

Princeton’s SPIA in New Jersey Initiative Names Inaugural Garden State Fellows | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ SPIA in New Jersey initiative has named three recent graduates as its first cohort of Garden State Fellows.Lauren Aung, Madison Linton, and Olivia Ragan, all of whom graduated from Princeton in May, are the inaugural participants in a fello...

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs will welcome 11 new faculty members for the upcoming academic year, with dual appointments in the departments of economics, anthropology, African American studies, psychology, and sociology.

Princeton SPIA Welcomes New Faculty Members for 2024-25 Academic Year | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) will welcome 11 new faculty members for the upcoming academic year. These individuals have dual appointments in the departments of economics, anthropology, African American studies, psychology, and sociology.“I’m thrilled to welcome...

With Princeton University taking a leading role in researching artificial intelligence, the School of Public and International Affairs is playing its part by informing federal policymakers on the latest innovations and shaping new conversations on AI governance.

Princeton SPIA Helping to Keep D.C. Policymakers in the Know on Artificial Intelligence | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs With Princeton University taking a leading role in researching artificial intelligence, the School of Public and International Affairs is playing its part by informing federal policymakers on the latest innovations and shaping new conversations on AI governance.

Deborah Pearlstein, director of the Program in Law and Public Policy and the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor in Law and Public Affairs, details how the sweeping "unitary" theory of executive power — an idea at the heart of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision in Trump v. United States — has been used since the origins of the conservative legal movement in the 1980s to weaken internal checks against wrongdoing in the executive branch.

Research Record: The Democracy Effects of Legal Polarization: Movement Lawyering at the Dawn of the Unitary Executive | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”

Summer Reads 2024: Princeton professors share what's on their lists Princeton professors share what’s on their lists, including new fiction titles, history, philosophy, poetry, American politics — and essential AI reading from one of the field’s leading lights.

Since 1985, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs has hosted the Junior Summer Institute as part of its proud tradition of promoting diversity at Princeton University and in the public service arena. Three members from this year’s cohort reflected on their summer at SPIA.

Princeton Junior Summer Institute Prepares Rising College Seniors for Careers in Public Policy | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Since 1985, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs has hosted the Junior Summer Institute (JSI) as part of its proud tradition of promoting diversity at Princeton University and in the public service arena. For nearly 40 years, students from diverse backgrounds and perspectives wit...

“The delegates serve as formally second-class members of Congress, with a voice, but not a vote.” — Elliot Mamet in his latest research in Polity, asking why the U.S. House of Representatives added four seats for nonvoting delegates, from Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa, in the 1970s.

Research Record: Race, Democracy, and Empire: Delegates to Congress from D.C. and the Territories | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”

Zachary Helder MPA ’24 is one of five co-authors of the Foreign Affairs article “Food Weaponization Makes a Deadly Comeback.” The piece argues that since its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has taken the longstanding and widespread weaponization of food to “a new level” by making one of its military objectives the disruption of the global food supply.

New Commentary Urges Policy to Combat Rising Food Weaponization | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Because of the interconnected food systems of today’s globalized world, the use of food as a weapon of war is more dangerous than ever, and few tools exist for governments to deter the deadly practice, according to a recent commentary in Foreign Affairs, one of the country’s most celebrated and ...

Hannah Waldfogel, a post-doctoral research associate, and her coauthors set out to understand whether and which U.S. citizens feel a stronger duty to vote if they see voting as interdependent – that is, as a duty to others – or as independent – that is, as a duty to themselves.

Research Record: A Sociocultural Approach to Voting: Construing Voting as a Duty to Others Predicts Political Interest and Engagement | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”

: “I grew up in Paris. One of my fondest childhood memories is helping my mom arrange the fresh flowers that she bought every weekend at our neighborhood farmers market (at 85, it is still her Sunday ritual). At age 5, I started an herbarium in which I would glue and identify pressed flowers, but my interest waned fast as there were only so many plants I could find on the streets of Paris. When I was 6, a new neighbor named François Mitterrand moved onto our tiny street. The excitement of watching his 14 years as President of France inspired my career as a political scientist instead of a botanist. In 1998, when my husband and I were considering moving to Princeton from Chicago, I was intrigued — after a life living in apartments — about having a house with a garden where I could grow my own flowers and vegetables. I spent the first year in our Princeton house studying the garden as it moved through the seasons and obsessively researched plants’ growing requirements. In year two, I thought I had it all figured out, but my bookish knowledge of gardening had not anticipated deer, groundhogs and late frosts. Over the next 20 years, I created our densely packed cottage garden through trial and error. I had fun learning about propagation (free plants!), succession planting (flowers almost year round!) and edible plants (who knew kiwis, persimmons and figs did so well here!). During the pandemic, the garden grounded me. It got me away from Zoom screens into the fresh air with endless reasons for physical exercise. The diversity of flowers, as well as their rhythms, brought me a sense of awe, normalcy and resilience during such an unsettling period. I brought many flowers inside to liven up the house. To prolong their beauty, I started pressing them. Making art with the pressed flowers followed, and I started a side gig selling them on Etsy and in stores around town. Without warning, I had stepped into a second, artistic phase of my life that has proven extremely fulfilling.” — Sophie Meunier, senior research scholar, Princeton School of Public and International Affairs; photo by David Kelly Crow

Four SPIA students engaged with local citizens and politicians in Botswana, part of SPIA’s Policy Task Force, a requirement for all of the School's undergraduates that charges them to actively engage with government officials and others with boots-on-the-ground experience and expertise while addressing questions of public policy. In addition to its struggle balancing tourism with agriculture, Botswana faces other significant challenges, including widespread unemployment and a prolonged drought that has caused acute food insecurity throughout the region.

Fieldwork in Botswana Shapes Students' Global Policy Perspectives | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs During a trip to Botswana last spring, a group of juniors from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs studying social protection policies in Southern Africa came face to face with a frustrated local farmer named Mma Mogaetsho. Although she had cultivated her family’s fields for d...

Meet the man working to get more veterans in public office Seth Lynn wants to see more former service members in Congress. A founder of the nonpartisan Veterans Campaign, which trains veterans interested in running for office or similar public service, Lyn…

In this exclusive excerpt of “Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue,” co-editor Julian Zelizer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs details the long and nuanced history of some of the most important voting rights measures enacted in the United States.

EXCLUSIVE EXCERPT: Best-Selling Author Julian Zelizer Features Nation’s Top Political Experts in New Book on Election Integrity | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Julian Zelizer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs, has co-edited his latest book, “Our Nation at Risk: Election Integrity as a National Security Issue.” The book, published by NYU Press, showcases the nation’s top political scientists, historia...

A team of researchers, including Princeton SPIA’s David Wilcove, examined the degree to which nearly 6,000 terrestrial species — excluding fish and other marine and freshwater animals — that are globally recognized as being in danger of extinction, are being protected against three of the most widespread threats to biodiversity.

Research Record: Global Shortfalls in Documented Actions to Conserve Biodiversity | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”

Last night, Princeton SPIA honored Ambassador Robert Hutchings for his years of dedicated service to the School. We thank him for all his contributions to SPIA and wish him the best!

One hundred twenty-five current students and alumni representing every decade since the 1970s attended the SAOC Spring Symposium, the group’s yearly capstone event, last April. The symposium’s theme was “A United Front: Organizing Across Divides,” with discussion topics covering equal access to education in a post-affirmative action world, harnessing collective power in movements, and maintaining integrity as power and prestige increase. Conversations also highlighted the ongoing conflict in Gaza, with guidance on organizing strategically and in solidarity with others.

United Across Divides: SAOC Gathers to Listen and Build Solidarity | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs For nearly 30 years, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs’ Students and Alumni of Color (SAOC) organization has provided critical opportunities for networking, mentorship, and dialogue among the School’s diverse constituencies.This past academic year was no exception. In Nove...

The Journal of Public and International Affairs, a student-run, peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and APSIA - Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs, recently published its 35th edition, featuring nine articles related to U.S. domestic policy, international relations, international development, and economic policy.

35th Edition of Student-run Journal Highlights Global Perspectives on U.S. Policy, International Relations, and Economic Issues | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs The Journal of Public and International Affairs recently published its 35th edition, featuring nine articles related to U.S. domestic policy, international relations, international development, and economic policy.JPIA is a student-run, peer-reviewed journal co-published by the Princeton School of P...

Why does a child who shows signs of doing well in school sometimes drop out while others excel? A team of researchers, including Princeton SPIA’s Kathryn Edin and Sarah Pachman, set to find out the origins of life predictability in this PNAS study.

Research Record: Examining the Origins of Life Predictability | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Princeton SPIA’s Research Record series highlights the vast scholarly achievements of our faculty members, whose expertise extends beyond the classroom and into everyday life.If you’d like your work considered for future editions of Research Record, click here and select “research project.”

In the leadup to the 2024 election, the Bridging Divides Initiative has released the Threats and Harassment Dataset — a first of its kind — that captures more than 1,000 events ranging from death threats to digital provocation against local officials.

First-of-its-kind Dataset Tracks Threats and Harassment Against Local Officials | Princeton School of Public and International Affairs Born out of the political violence before, during, and after the 2020 presidential election, the Bridging Divides Initiative, hosted by Princeton SPIA’s Empirical Studies of Conflict program, set out to share knowledge, methods, and tools to better track and mitigate political violence across the ...

The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs provided faculty reactions to the first presidential debate. The real-time insights from SPIA’s distinguished faculty members analyze key moments, evaluate policy discussions, and assess the broader implications for the 2024 election. Princeton University