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SPIA in NJ Democracy In Action Workshops
News January 04, 2024
In Its First Semester, SPIA in New Jersey’s “Democracy in Action” Series Brings State-Wide Issues to Princeton
On April 28, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs launched its SPIA in New Jersey initiative. More than eight months later, Founding Director Anastasia Mann hasn’t taken her foot off the gas pedal.Since the launch, SPIA in New Jersey has hosted six events on campus through its “Democracy in Action” series. The sessions invite state and regional change makers to Princeton’s campus to talk about topics ranging from state reparations to community safety and public records accountability. It is an intentional choice, according to Mann, to feature programming that brings together the campus community and the greater New Jersey public…
SPIA students at COP28 conference
News December 21, 2023
For COP28 Delegates, an Invaluable Chance to Observe – and Learn
The SPIA students who served as delegates to the world’s primary multilateral decision-making forum on climate change earlier this month described busy days filled with observations of negotiations, meetings with officials from across the globe, and invaluable networking.The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held this year in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, welcomed representatives of government agencies, nonprofits, academic, industry, and nongovernmental organizations from almost every country in the world. Seventeen students, faculty, and staff, including 11 from SPIA, comprised…
Henry Barrett
News December 18, 2023
For Fulbright Schuman Grantee, a Focus on Values Kindles Studies in Europe
Henry Barrett’s journey to Budapest and Prague, where he is spending the year on a Fulbright Schuman grant, began in a Robertson Hall bowl in November of 2018.A few days earlier, Russia’s coast guard had fired on three Ukrainian Navy ships in the Kerch Strait, just off the Crimean Peninsula. SPIA convened a panel discussion on the incident, and one of the panelists was Anatoly Antanov, Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Henry Barrett, then a Princeton freshman, sat in the audience, enraptured by the stimulating conversation he was watching.“It's actually quite unimaginable now to think that a meeting like that would happen,” Barrett recalls. “I…
Angus Deaton's Economics in America book cover
News December 18, 2023
The Reviews Are In: Angus Deaton’s “Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality”
Sir Angus Deaton isn’t afraid to call out the profession that made him who he is today. In “Economics in America: An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality,” the Princeton emeritus scholar offers a refreshing take, critically examining the successes and failures tied to economic and political decisions in the United States.The book explores all the topics you’d expect a Nobel Prize-winning economist to have an opinion on — from poverty, retirement, and the minimum wage to the trials and tribulations of being a British academic in America. As Deaton puts it, “These are all issues that I have been thinking and writing about for years. Now…
Oluwatise Okeremi and Eric Stinehart, Photos courtesy of Schwarzman Scholars
News December 14, 2023
SPIA Student, Alum Among Four Named Schwarzman Scholars
Three Princeton seniors and one alumnus have been named Schwarzman Scholars for 2024 and will receive a scholarship for a one-year master’s program at Tsinghua University in Beijing.The Princeton winners are Class of 2023 members Genrietta Churbanova, Thomas Hughes and Oluwatise Okeremi, and Class of 2020 graduate Eric Stinehart. They are among 150 Schwarzman Scholars from 43 countries, according to the scholarship announcement. ”This year’s selected Scholars are keenly interested in learning about China, which is now more important than ever in this complex geopolitical environment,” Founding Trustee Stephen Schwarzman said in the announcement. …
Judgment at Tokyo book cover
News December 13, 2023
SPIA Political Scientist Delivers Detailed Account of Nuremberg’s Asian Counterpart
A SPIA political scientist’s sprawling, detailed history of the Nuremberg trials’ lesser-known Asian counterpart has earned glowing reviews and a spot on numerous year-end best-of lists.Gary J. Bass’s “Judgment at Tokyo: World War II on Trial and the Making of Modern Asia” (Alfred A. Knopf) was named one of the 10 best books of the year by The Washington Post, one of the 12 essential nonfiction books of the year by The New Yorker, a best book of the year by The Economist, and one of the 100 notable books of the year by The New York Times, among other accolades.In “Judgment at Tokyo,” Bass, the William P. Boswell Professor of World Politics of Peace…
Robertson Hall
News December 12, 2023
A Shift in Perception after SCOTUS’ ‘Dobbs’ Decision
Adults in the United States were more likely to perceive that people in America favored legal access to abortion after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade than before it, according to new research from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. The finding appeared in “Effects of a US Supreme Court ruling to restrict abortion rights,” published recently in Nature Human Behaviour.While evidence did not show that the ruling influenced personal attitudes about the legality or morality of abortion, the shift in perceived norms has the potential to cause behavioral change, the Princeton researchers said. “There is a wealth…
Brontë Forsgren MPA ’24
News December 11, 2023
In the U.S. and Beyond, SPIA Students Travel the Globe for Internship Experience
When students from Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs take what they have learned inside the classroom to the outside world, the knowledge becomes proof of concept. This year, nearly 70 SPIA students completed external internships — with federal, local, and state agencies, non-profit organizations, and private sector entities in a variety of fields — to further their understanding of public and domestic policy and international relations.Below, SPIA students share some of their favorite internship moments from 2023. Sara Clark MPA …
Credit: Shutterstock / Oil and Gas Photographer
News December 07, 2023
ESOC Conference Examines Causes and Effects of 1973-74 Oil Embargo
Thirty policy experts and scholars from the United States, Western Europe, and the Middle East met at the SPIA in D.C. space in early November for a conference on the 50th anniversary of OPEC’s 1973-74 oil embargo. The two-day gathering, presented by SPIA’s Empirical Studies of Conflict project, featured discussions and debates about the causes of the crisis, its consequences, and its enduring relevance to international politics and economics.The conference began with an exploration of the history of the crisis and the structural forces that provided Arab oil producers with an opportunity to “weaponize” petroleum exports for political purposes…
Sandra Day O'Connor
News December 06, 2023
SPIA Reacts: Sandra Day O’Connor and Her Supreme Court Legacy
On December 1, Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve on the United States Supreme Court, died. Members of the Princeton SPIA community offered their analysis of O’Connor’s legacy, her decision to vacate her seat when she did, and her barrier-breaking nomination.“It is hard to overstate what her arrival on the Supreme Court meant for the rule of law in this country. It wasn’t just how pivotally important she was as a symbol of women’s equality. It was her skill in championing traditional rule-of-law values like adherence to precedent while quietly bringing about a revolution — an end to 191 years of American constitutional law written only by…
Peter Henderson
News December 01, 2023
AI and Law Expert to Join SPIA from Stanford in January
Peter Henderson, a Stanford University-based researcher whose combined expertise in law and machine learning is helping federal agencies deploy responsible, equitable and efficient artificial intelligence algorithms to best serve their constituents, will join the Princeton Center for Information Technology Policy in January as an assistant professor.Henderson will have joint appointments with Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the Department of Computer Science and be based at Sherrerd Hall, alongside CITP core associated faculty members Aleksandra Korolova, Jonathan Mayer, Prateek Mittal and Arvind Narayanan, CITP…
Flag for COP28 climate change conference
News December 01, 2023
SPIA Leads Princeton Delegation to U.N. Climate Change Conference
Nearly a dozen faculty, students, and staff from the School of Public and International Affairs are serving as delegates to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which began this week in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.Known officially as the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the meeting is the world’s primary multilateral decision-making forum on climate change, with almost every country in the world participating. The 28th annual such meeting, COP28 runs through December 12.The 11 SPIA representatives are joining six others from the University to comprise the Princeton delegation. They…
group of students
News November 28, 2023
SPIA Students Take High-Level Meetings at the United Nations
Students in Amal Mudallali’s “Multilateralism and Foreign Policy: Case Study of Outer Space Policy” course visited the United Nations earlier this month for a series of meetings with high-level U.N. officials, including the president of the General Assembly. UNGA President Dennis Francis, Trinidad and Tobago’s ambassador to the U.N., briefed the students on his agenda for the 78th General Assembly session and noted that the organization would be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which he called “the Magna Carta of human rights.”“Hate speech must stop,” Francis told the students. “Violation of human rights…
Constructive Campus Conversation event poster
News November 20, 2023
Princeton, Columbia Policy School Deans to Discuss ‘Constructive Campus Conversations’ in Pair of Talks
Following up on their widely cited New York Times commentary “The Discourse Is Toxic. Universities Can Help.,” the respective deans of Princeton University’s and Columbia University’s policy schools will meet for a pair of conversations on the topic at the end of this month. The first event will be held at Princeton, and the second at Columbia.The Princeton talk, “The Current Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Constructive Campus Conversations,” is scheduled for Tuesday, November 28, at 12:30 p.m. in Robertson Hall’s Arthur Lewis Auditorium. Princeton President Christopher Eisgruber will moderate.Only Princeton University I.D. holders will be permitted in…
group of people
News November 17, 2023
Despite Progress, Researchers Find More Potential Discrimination in Facebook Ads
In 2019, following several lawsuits, Facebook no longer allowed employers to target specific ages, genders, or zip codes when advertising for open positions. The move was part of a series of actions the platform has taken in recent years to reduce discrimination in advertising that appears there. Despite the changes, new research from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs has found a new source of potential discrimination in employment advertising on Facebook. Aleksandra Korolova, an assistant professor of computer science and public affairs, and Varun Nagaraj Rao, a graduate student in the Department of Computer Science, examined a…