News & Stories

All News Research Newsmakers SPIA Reacts Community Profiles
Tali Mendelberg
News August 19, 2025
Increasing Voter Turnout Among College-Aged Students
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.”
Simon Jager
News August 12, 2025
A First Look at the Value of Consultants
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.”
SPIAction Newsletter
News August 06, 2025
SPIAction Newsletter — August 2025
Dear Princeton SPIA community,As the country and the world continue to change with incredible speed and in profound ways, the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (Princeton SPIA) remains committed to training and supporting policymakers prepared to offer solutions to its most pressing issues.This year’s incoming graduate students are already on campus for summer programming to build community and prepare them for the fall semester. In just a few short weeks, the School’s returning MPA2s will arrive, as will our undergraduate students, ready to tackle their junior papers and senior theses along with their classes.I’m proud that all of…
Group photo courtesy of Staughton Lewis.
News August 05, 2025
From Tokyo to Taipei: Shaping Policy in a Shifting Asia
Since 2022, graduate students from Princeton University and the University of Tokyo have met annually at the latter institution to present and discuss their research. The fourth annual workshop, examining the role of alliances in the turbulent world of U.S.-China competition, took place in early June and marked the conclusion of a year’s worth of Princeton SPIA programming and research with a special focus on Asia.“Princeton University, and our own School of Public and International Affairs, has a mission of preparing our students to be citizens of the world and global problem solvers,” said workshop organizer G. John Ikenberry, the Albert G. Milbank…
Lexi Madsen
News July 31, 2025
Exit Interview: Abortion Rights After the ‘Dobbs’ Decision
Exit Interview is an audio series produced by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Co-hosts David Mayorga, associate dean of public affairs and communications, and Ambreen Ali, senior communications and media strategist, speak with graduating students who won prizes for their senior theses, which are the culmination of a year’s worth of research, interviews, and analysis on a policy topic.Lexi Madsen won the School of Public and International Affairs Thesis Prize, awarded to the seniors who write the best thesis on racial justice, for her work on what happened to abortion rights after the Supreme Court eliminated the…
Capital building with US flag
News July 30, 2025
Princeton SPIA Drives Bipartisan Effort to Inspire Congress to Reclaim Its Mandated Powers
From Harry Truman sending armed forces to Korea without a congressional declaration of war to Donald Trump diverting congressionally appropriated military funding to construct barricades along the southern border to Joe Biden unilaterally forgiving student-loan debts, presidents have spent the last three quarters of a century encroaching upon Congress’s congressionally mandated powers – often with Congress’s approval.Mickey Edwards, a former member of the U.S. House and currently a John L. Weinberg, Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor and visiting lecturer in public and international affairs at the Princeton School of Public and International…
SPIA accolades header
News July 30, 2025
SPIAccolades — July 2025
Zaid Al-Ali Zaid Al-Ali, a visiting research scholar, published “The Arab Region 15 Years After the Uprising: Regression, Conflict, and Residual Hope” in Constitutional Studies. In the piece, he notes that “the anticipated democratic reforms” in the wake of the Arab Spring “have largely failed to materialize.”Focusing on constitutional reform processes in Tunisia and Syria, Al-Ali notes that the former “has regressed into authoritarianism,” while the latter “has only recently witnessed major changes to its constitutional framework after fifteen years of brutal conflict.” He argues that those debating reforms erred on the challenges the region…
News July 29, 2025
New Report: How Congress Can Recapture the Constitutional Powers It Ceded to the Executive Branch
PRINCETON, NJ – A bipartisan group of former members of Congress and top scholars from 19 universities have outlined a systematic plan for Congress to recapture constitutional powers it has ceded to the executive branch over several decades. Focusing on four key areas, the authors explain how the powers of the presidency have expanded far beyond constitutional intent, eroding the powers that Congress is expected to exercise on the people’s behalf. They offer legislative reforms that Congress can implement to recapture its powers.The consequences are grave, reducing the input everyday Americans have on whether and when the U.S. sends young men and…
Illustration by Bumper DeJesus. Image of people in a picture frame with photos of windmills and smoke stacks in the background.
News July 28, 2025
Perspective: Making the Clean Energy Transition a Win-Win for Climate and Health
While mitigating carbon emissions often takes center stage in the clean energy transition, the shift away from a fossil fuel-driven energy system will also curb air pollution and, by extension, protect human health.However, it is not so straightforward to draw a connection between a national policy aimed at promoting electric vehicle adoption, for example, and its impacts on local air quality and health outcomes in communities.Wei Peng, an assistant professor of public and international affairs and the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, recently led a perspective article in Nature Reviews Clean Technology that synthesizes her group’s…
Hal Feiveson
News July 25, 2025
SGS Co-Founder Harold A. Feiveson *72 Dies; Remembered as ‘Special Friend and Enthusiastic Educator’
Harold A. Feiveson, a two-time Princeton School of Public and International Affairs alumnus who taught for decades at his alma mater and co-founded its acclaimed Program on Science and Global Security (SGS), died peacefully at his home in Princeton on July 10. He was 90.Dr. Feiveson — “Hal” to his friends — was an influential researcher in the fields of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy policy, a leading advocate for nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament, and a warmly remembered teacher and colleague.“I can still remember the atmosphere he created in the classroom and the way he both taught and empowered us,” said Anne-Marie Slaughter ’80, whom…
Retreat co-chair Wei Peng moderated a fireside conversation between Armond Cohen and Navroz Dubash about global progress on climate goals. Photos by Lori M. Nichols.
News July 24, 2025
Experts Tout Clean Energy Pragmatism at Andlinger Center Retreat
To continue advancing global decarbonization efforts, institutions must ensure they have the capability to deliver on their climate targets, experts said at the Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment’s twelfth annual Princeton E-ffiliates Partnership Retreat.The retreat convened experts from across academia, industry, non-government organizations (NGOs), and the public sector to discuss strategies for navigating the energy transition in the face of lagging global progress.“Stating a very ambitious long-term goal like net-zero by 2050 is problematic without a robust and realistic plan to deliver the infrastructure implied by that commitment,”…
Noah James
News July 24, 2025
Exit Interview: Prosecuting Corporate War Crimes in Sudan
Exit Interview is an audio series produced by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Co-hosts David Mayorga, associate dean of public affairs and communications, and Ambreen Ali, senior communications and media strategist, speak with graduating students who won prizes for their senior theses, which are the culmination of a year’s worth of research, interviews, and analysis on a policy topic.Noah James won the School of Public and International Affairs Thesis Prize, awarded to the seniors who write the best thesis on racial justice, for his thesis on the Lundin Oil Trial.Listen now: The transcript below was auto-generated.Intro: This…
From Left to Right: Hiba Siddiki '25, Olivia Ragan '24, Madison Linton '24, Kimberly Cross '25, Lauren Aung '24. Photo by Sameer A. Kahn/Fotobuddy
News July 22, 2025
Staying Local, Leading Change: Garden State Fellows Make a Mark in New Jersey Policy
After graduating from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, many students land in far-flung places, launching careers in public policy all over the globe. But some are finding that staying put right here in the Garden State offers them exposure to some of the most pressing policy matters of the moment and a chance to impact local communities.As sweeping cuts at the federal level shifted the focus of policy action to the state and local level this year, the inaugural cohort of Garden State Fellows found opportunities to conduct research, lobby policymakers on behalf of immigrant communities, develop campaigns on civil rights, and…
Stacey Weber
News July 21, 2025
Assistant Dean for Finance Named at Princeton SPIA
Stacey Weber was promoted to assistant dean for finance at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs.Weber had served as Princeton SPIA’s finance manager since joining the School in 2019. In that capacity, she oversaw the day-to-day operations of the finance office and managed the annual Robertson report. Over the past year, she worked closely on the budgeting process with Dean Amaney Jamal, who praised Weber for her “exceptional leadership and dedication.”“I am delighted that Stacey will be stepping into this new role, and I am deeply grateful for her contributions,” Jamal said. “I look forward to continuing our work together in this…
Lina Singh
News July 17, 2025
Exit Interview: Addressing America's Addiction to Ultra-Processed Food
Exit Interview is an audio series produced by the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs. Co-hosts David Mayorga, associate dean of public affairs and communications, and Ambreen Ali, senior communications and media strategist, speak with graduating students who won prizes for their senior theses, which are the culmination of a year’s worth of research, interviews, and analysis on a policy topic.Lina Singh won the Lieutenant John A. Larkin Memorial Prize, awarded to the senior who writes the best thesis in the field of political economy or on a broadly interdisciplinary subject in which economics plays the most important part, for her…