News & Stories

All News Research Newsmakers SPIA Reacts Community Profiles
Christopher F. Chyba
News, Research & Policy Briefs March 19, 2025
Research Record: Experimental Demonstration of Electric Power Generation From Earth’s Rotation Through Its Own Magnetic Field
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.”
Hand with scissors cutting factory smoke stack. Illustration by Bumper DeJesus.
News March 18, 2025
EPA Regulations Cut Power Sector Emissions but Miss Opportunities for Deeper Reductions
Regulations finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 could cut emissions from fossil fuel power generators but leave additional cost-effective emissions reductions on the table, according to new Princeton research.The analysis, published March 12 in One Earth, evaluates the impacts of the EPA power plant regulations on the U.S. electricity system at a time of uncertainty for the rules, which the researchers expect to be rolled back under the current Trump administration. The power plant regulations set carbon dioxide limits for new gas-fired combustion turbines and provide guidelines for existing coal, oil, and gas-fired steam…
Brandon Stewart and Andy Guess
News, Research & Policy Briefs March 18, 2025
Research Record: YouTube’s Algorithm and its Effect on Political Polarization
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.”
SPIA students on winter break in Cuba and El Salvador
News March 17, 2025
Off the Beaten Path, Princeton SPIA Undergrads Spend Winter Break in Cuba, El Salvador
Traveling to Havana for a Wintersession workshop was more than an academic exercise for Princeton SPIA undergraduate Olivia Sanchez – much more.“The SPIA policy workshop in Cuba was a profound personal and academic experience,” Sanchez said. “As a Cuban American, I never thought I would have the chance to see the country from which my grandfather fled.”The workshop was one of two winter break trips to take undergrads to countries not often visited by students. The other was a policy task force visit to El Salvador.The Havana workshop, “Cuban Engagement/Engaging Cuba: Assessing Cuba’s Role in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” was led by…
Robertson Spring 2024
News, Press Releases March 12, 2025
Princeton SPIA Faculty React to President Trump’s Trade War
The Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton SPIA) has released new faculty reactions to President Donald Trump’s latest trade policies, which include tariffs on key imports. As the administration moves forward with these measures, Princeton SPIA scholars are weighing in on the economic consequences, potential risks to international trade relationships, and broader geopolitical impacts. Faculty comments address concerns about rising costs for American consumers, potential retaliation from trading partners, and the long-term effects on global markets.Alan Blinder, Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public…
in covids wake
News March 10, 2025
Five Years Later, Princeton Researchers Assess the Political Failures of the COVID Response
In March 2020, Princeton University, like thousands of other higher education institutions around the country, sent home students, faculty, and staff to reduce the risk of infections from the novel coronavirus that was just beginning its catastrophic global rampage.One of those faculty members, Frances Lee, recalled thinking that measures hurriedly enacted in response – such as school closures – were likely to fail.“I had doubts about whether the policies that were being implemented would work,” said Lee, a professor of politics and public affairs and co-director of Princeton SPIA’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. “I could see the how…
LISD Event in Singapore - credit Heather Carmichael '00, President
News March 10, 2025
Students Test Policy Skills During Visit to Taiwan and Singapore
In early January, 20 Princeton undergraduates were watching events unfold from across the world. In a weeklong visit to Taiwan and Singapore, they had the opportunity to ask high-level officials – including current and former heads of state – international journalists, and more than 100 Princeton alumni their thoughts on how changing politics in the United States could reshape the Asian Pacific.The students visited the two nations as International Policy Associates, a selective foreign policy program run by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. In past years, associates have visited Poland, Germany, France, Belgium and Austria.The…
Multicolor illustration of a women
News March 06, 2025
Resilience Amidst Oppression: Honoring Afghan Women’s Strength During Women’s History Month
To commemorate Women’s History Month, the Afghanistan Policy Lab (APL) at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) has once again sought to highlight the situation and living conditions of women in Afghanistan. Afghan women, who continue to endure the Taliban’s restrictive rule, deserve the utmost admiration—not only for their strength to survive but for their resilience in navigating immense challenges and refusing to give up.Each year, APL has been deeply moved by the stories of Afghan women from different parts of the country—women whose courage and determination embody true heroism. Their voices must be heard, their stories…
SPIAction Newsletter
News, Newsletters March 05, 2025
SPIAction Newsletter
Dear Princeton SPIA community,I recently shared with alumni, students, faculty, and staff the many ways the School is assisting those affected by recent changes at the federal level. This includes career-focused programming, in-person networking for students and alumni, and events where students can engage with SPIA faculty for insights on navigating change. Just last week, more than 300 students and alumni met at the SPIA in D.C. Center for an evening of fellowship and conversation.At the same time, we continue to engage in the activities that make this a special and unique place: world-class teaching from an unparalleled faculty and ground-breaking…
Individuals sitting around a table in discussion
News March 05, 2025
Geopolitical Brunch Series Create Space for Candid Global Conversations
A lifetime after setting aside an early contemplation to become a priest, Wolfgang Danspeckgruber has finally found a different vocation centered on Sunday mornings.Since 2023, he has taught a regular Sunday seminars series held at Princeton SPIA’s Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination (LISD). Known as Geopolitical Sunday Brunches, these seminars foster an environment of conceptual analysis, trust, and candor for students (both undergraduate and graduate), faculty, and distinguished guests who want to explore complex global issues in depth.“No one in Europe believes me when I say I teach to a full house on a Sunday,” said Danspeckgruber, a…
Simon Jäger
News March 04, 2025
Fill in the Blanks with Simon Jäger
If you run into Simon Jäger on the towpath with his Vizsla, you may not know that he is a globally recognized economist whose work on labor markets and inequality is helping reshape our understanding of modern work. He may strike you as someone deeply interested in communicating with his canine, perhaps a dog whisperer. But that’s another life.In this one, Jäger studies competition in the labor market and the institutional and psychological factors that impact it. He has explored, for example, what happens when you give workers the right to participate in their firm’s decision making, or how low-wage workers may undervalue what they could earn from…
Paul Starr
News, Research & Policy Briefs March 03, 2025
Research Record: The Multiracial Complication: The 2020 Census and the Fictitious Multiracial Boom
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.”
From left to right: Alexandra Amon, Jason Klusowski, Lue Pan and Maria Micaela Sviatschi
News February 28, 2025
Economist Maria Micaela Sviatschi Wins Sloane Research Fellowship
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation has announced that four Princeton professors — Alexandra Amon, Jason Klusowski, Lue Pan and Maria Micaela Sviatschi — have been selected as 2025 Sloan Research Fellows.“The Sloan Research Fellows represent the very best of early-career science, embodying the creativity, ambition and rigor that drive discovery forward,” said Adam Falk, president of the foundation, in a press release. “These extraordinary scholars are already making significant contributions, and we are confident they will shape the future of their fields in remarkable ways.”The fellowship recognizes creative early-career researchers in seven scientific…
Aleksandra Korolova
News February 27, 2025
Princeton SPIA’s Aleksandra Korolova Receives Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers
As artificial intelligence technology continues to enter the mainstream, Princeton SPIA’s Aleksandra Korolova has been behind the scenes researching the societal impacts of machine learning and AI. Her dedication to her craft has resulted in a prestigious designation: Korolova, an assistant professor of computer science and public affairs, has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers — the highest honor given by the U.S. government to early-career scientists and engineers.“My first reaction was disbelief,” Korolova said about winning the award. “The first people I told were my close family, as they have been my…
abstract planets
News February 26, 2025
Princeton SPIA Experts Contribute to Global Report on AI Safety
A recently released U.K. government report on artificial intelligence (AI) safety draws on contributions from 100 AI experts across 33 countries and intergovernmental organizations—including members of the Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.Billed as “the world’s first comprehensive synthesis of current literature of the risks and capabilities of advanced AI systems,” the report outlines how AI could exacerbate risks such as the manipulation of public opinion, biological and chemical attacks, environmental impact, copyright infringement, and loss of privacy.While it stops short…