News & Stories

All News Research Newsmakers SPIA Reacts Community Profiles
Jake Shapiro
News, Research & Policy Briefs February 03, 2026
Moderating Text-to-Image Content
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.”
students
News January 29, 2026
Two Princeton seniors and one Oxford student named Sachs Scholars
Princeton seniors Sukaina Shivji and Laura Zhang, and University of Oxford student Darina Andriychenko Leonenko have been named recipients of the Daniel M. Sachs Class of 1960 Graduating Scholarship, one of Princeton University’s highest awards.Shivji has been named as the Sachs Global Scholar and Zhang has been named as the Sachs Scholar at Worcester College at the University of Oxford. Andriychenko Leonenko will spend next academic year as a Sachs Visiting Scholar at Princeton.The Sachs Scholarship is intended to broaden the global experience of its recipients by providing them with the opportunity to study, work or travel abroad after graduation…
SPIA accolades header
News January 29, 2026
SPIAccolades — January 2026
Frederick D. Barton, a lecturer at Princeton SPIA and former U.S. ambassador to to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, delivered the keynote address at the 52nd Yale Model United Nations on Jan. 16. More than 2,000 high school students from 35 countries attended the four-day gathering.Barton’s remarks focused on the importance of supporting a peaceful world and the U.N.’s role in it. He drew on his experience as U.N. deputy high commissioner for refugees, when he traveled to Guinea and helped provide essential services to 300,000 refugees…
group of students
News January 26, 2026
Undergraduate Kyler Zhou Shares a Morally Ambitious Message Through New Campus Initiative
Kyler Zhou’s evening commute home began with the same expectations it does each day — a little bit of traffic and a good podcast. However, what caught him by surprise on this particular June trip was that by the end of the 40-minute journey, his worldview would change, and he had to share it with the Princeton community.Zhou’s podcast of choice that day was The Interview from The New York Times. On it, host David Marchese spoke with historian and author Rutger Bregman — described as a "Dutch wunderkind of new ideas" by The Guardian. It was the podcast’s title — “Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites From Their Wasted Lives” — that grabbed Zhou’s…
Princeton campus
News January 23, 2026
SPIA Alumna Kalena Blake '24 Named Schwarzman Scholar
Princeton Class of 2026 members Margaret Miao and Alex Tseng and recent alumni Gustavo Blanco-Quiroga, Kalena Blake and Alison Lee have been named Schwarzman Scholars and will attend a one-year, fully funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing.This year’s Princeton winners are among 150 incoming Schwarzman Scholars representing 40 countries and 83 universities. Since the graduate fellowship was established in 2013, “Schwarzman Scholars alumni have demonstrated immense leadership capacity, trailblazing in a number of industries and collaborating to tackle pressing issues all around the world,” according to the…
robertson pillars blue
News, Press Releases January 22, 2026
Princeton SPIA Faculty Raise Important Questions About Immigration Enforcement Actions Across U.S.
Faculty Provide Analysis on Legality, Unintended Consequences, and Implications of ICE RaidsPRINCETON, NJ – Faculty from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs are raising questions that policymakers and the media should consider as the Trump Administration escalates the deployment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to cities across the United States. They call into question the constitutionality of immigration enforcement tactics, the global consequences of these actions, and the societal costs. Barbara Buckinx, Research…
collage of microphone, books and people
News January 22, 2026
Even Outside the Classroom, Faculty Educate in Many Ways
Members of the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs faculty neither vote on legislative bills nor implement those that are approved and signed into law. They aren’t roaming statehouse corridors or city halls, they don’t disburse grant funding, and their nonprofit work is largely confined to the University.Yet their impact on public understanding of policy is significant. Outside the classroom and away from scholarly journals, Princeton SPIA’s teachers and researchers nonetheless educate in a variety of ways. Below is a sampling of their activities.Compelling CommentaryPerhaps the faculty’s most visible and far-reaching influence, at…
Hilke Schellmann
News January 20, 2026
CITP’s Hilke Schellmann Studies AI’s Impact on Facts, Society
Journalists are tasked with reporting facts about the world, a job that has become much more complicated with the increasing use of artificial intelligence, which has made it easier to manipulate content and disseminate false information. Investigative reporter Hilke Schellmann says that means journalists like her must embrace a more expansive role in helping society discern fiction from reality.Schellmann is a visiting professional at Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) and an associate professor of journalism at New York University. While at CITP, a joint initiative of the Princeton School of Public and…
Simon O’Donnell MPP ’26 (left) with media trainers Kim Abbott and Linda Roth.
News January 15, 2026
How SPIA’s Graduate Career Development Office Cultivates Skills for Future Public Servants
A few years ago, Naima Green-Riley wanted to start incorporating media training into one of her classes in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton SPIA). But when an already packed syllabus precluded enough time for a full day in the University’s Broadcast Media Center, Green-Riley, an assistant professor of politics and international affairs, turned to the school’s Graduate Career Development (GCD) office to find a solution.The GCD staff and Green-Riley collaborated to bring two professional media trainers from Washington, D.C., to campus for a special daylong training session, which has turned into an annual offering. The…
people at an event
News January 13, 2026
AI, Policy, and the Future of Care Take Center Stage at Healthcare Summit
Even for an industry constantly in flux, these are trying times in healthcare. An estimated 22 million Americans faced having their health premiums more than double at the end of last year, per KFF, and Medicaid will see nearly $1 trillion in cuts over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.These policy shifts will likely result in millions of people becoming uninsured, and hospitals – which often bear the burden of treating uninsured patients – are already beleaguered. Approximately 40% of U.S. hospitals lost money last year, according to Becker’s Hospital Review.Amid all this, there is a technology that holds the promise of…
Sam Anschell, MPA ’27
News, Profiles January 12, 2026
#PolicyProfile: Sam Anschell, MPA ’27
“Some of humanity’s greatest welfare improvements have come from policy decisions — securing public funding for smallpox vaccines, advancing agricultural techniques to prevent famine, or banning lead contamination across a host of countries. As a grantmaker on Coefficient Giving’s Global Aid Policy program, I investigated grants to support think tanks, civil society organizations, and government affairs groups working to increase the scale and cost-effectiveness of wealthy governments’ foreign assistance. One component of my work involved bringing policymakers face-to-face with evidence-based programs. I joined delegations of Japanese and South…
SPIAction Newsletter
News, Newsletters January 12, 2026
SPIAction Newsletter — January 2026
Princeton SPIA Meets the Moment in 2025 For Princeton SPIA, 2025 was a year that required meeting an extraordinary moment. Here are some of the storylines we followed this year.
Bing Lin ’16, Ph.D. ’21
News January 07, 2026
This SPIA Alum is a ‘Bright Spot’ on the International Storytelling Stage
As an undergraduate student studying ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, Bing Lin ’16, Ph.D. ’21 traveled to Honduras for field work that saw him work on two coral reef patches that, despite their proximity, featured completely different fish and coral compositions. Investigating this juxtaposition was a lightbulb moment for Lin, who found that applying real-world methods to scientific questions was exactly his speed.“I could put on my thinking cap and answer questions that no one knew the answers to,” he said.It was the adventure that began a journey for Lin under the sea.Today, Lin is a conservation scientist at the University…
U.S. and Venezuela flags
News, Press Releases January 05, 2026
Princeton SPIA Faculty React to U.S. Capture of Venezuelan President Maduro
Faculty Provide Analysis on Legality, International Implications, and Venezuela’s Future PRINCETON, NJ – Following the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by the United States, faculty from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs are sharing expert perspectives to provide context and clarity on the potential implications for Venezuela and Latin America, the effects on oil prices and global energy markets, questions of legality and use of executive power, as well as broader signals for containing adversaries such as China, Iran, and North Korea. Implications for Venezuela and Latin America …
Dayton Ashby, MPA ’27
News, Profiles January 05, 2026
#PolicyProfile: Dayton Ashby, MPA ’27
“I entered college planning to study the world, but working in my own backyard in Mississippi ultimately changed my path and shifted my focus from diplomacy to the urgent reality of American poverty. I was born and raised in Mississippi, and attended @olemiss, where I earned a bachelor’s degree in international studies and political science. Early on, I imagined a career in public service but didn’t know where to focus my energies. As the pandemic reshaped both global and local priorities, I began to question where my impact would be most felt. Through the Grisham-McLean Institute for Public Service and Community Engagement (grishammcleanum), I became…