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 Commentary

Perhaps the faculty’s most visible and far-reaching influence, at least among the general public, comes from their media appearances, as expert sources helping to contextualize current affairs and commentary writers offering nuanced perspectives on the issues of the day.

One of the School’s most active media participants, Julian E. Zelizer, is a columnist for Foreign Policy and a regular guest on NPR’s “Here & Now.” He is quoted regularly in leading outlets across the country and throughout the world, from the BBC, CNN, and MSNBC to The New York Times and The Washington Post, along with countless others.

“Although I didn’t plan on doing this, communicating with a broader audience has felt like an important opportunity to connect academic knowledge to public debates over key issues,” says Zelizer, the Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Class of 1941 Professor of History and Public Affairs. “I believe that scholars in different disciplines have a great deal to say about our current times. Being able to build this bridge is immensely rewarding even though it is often difficult and can be highly contentious.”

Alan S. Blinder, a former member of President Clinton’s Council of Economic Advisors, a former vice chair of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors, and currently the Gordon S. Rentschler Memorial Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, contributes regularly to numerous print and broadcast media outlets, including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg News, and more.

“I definitely consider my WSJ columns, my appearances on TV and radio, and my many print interviews as forms of public service — more specifically, as public education with a dash of persuasion thrown in,” Blinder says.

Daniel C. Kurtzer, a lecturer and the S. Daniel Abraham Professor of Middle East Policy Studies, previously spent 29 years with the State Department, a span that included two U.S. ambassadorships, to Israel and Egypt. Kurtzer’s academic career has included co-authoring three books and editing a fourth, and publishing commentaries in such outlets as Foreign Policy and The Atlantic.

“Having been in the Foreign Service for nearly 30 years before coming to Princeton, I am addicted to the policy process,” he says. “I understood, while in government, that policy needs to reflect not only the views of those in government, but also the views of the public. And so, as a member of the public, I believe it is important to publish my views about current policy. I hope what I say can help inform the public about pressing foreign policy issues.”

Jacob N. Shapiro, the John Foster Dulles Professor of International Affairs, writes op-eds and shorter pieces for a general audience “to express ideas that don’t fit naturally into academic publication and to inform a broader public.”

It’s a way to get new ideas into the discourse,” he says, “and also a way to bring research findings to a wider audience.”

Bringing It in Books

Princeton SPIA faculty members have also published a number of policy-oriented books, written for general audiences, on current affairs, technology, history, and health policy, among other topics.

With last year's publication of “In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us,” Frances Lee and a co-author critically examined various governments’ responses to the catastrophic global pandemic. Lee, a professor of politics and public affairs and co-director of the School’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, notes that her status as an independent observer gives her greater latitude to pursue truth.

“it’s important to have voices in the public sphere who can write about matters of public concern without a need to advocate for or otherwise serve any particular client or organization,” Lee says. “But outside academia there aren’t all that many writers and analysts who can earn a living while also following evidence wherever they believe it leads. I am thankful and honored to have this freedom.”

When computer scientists in academia publish material, observes Arvind Narayanan, it’s usually in academic journals, and when they publish books, they’re usually textbooks. “This means there is a big gap when it comes to translating our expertise for broad audiences,” he says. With his book “AI Snake Oil: What Artificial Intelligence Can Do, What It Can’t, and How to Tell the Difference,” published last year, the director of SPIA’s Center for Information Technology Policy saw an opportunity.

“I felt I could play a role in filling that gap,” says Narayanan, a professor of computer science, “and I've been happy to see that my work seems to resonate.”

Prior to joining Princeton SPIA, Kenneth Roth was the longtime executive director of Human Rights Watch. Since coming to the School as a Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor and Visiting Lecturer, he has published a memoir, “Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments,” spoken to groups around the world, appeared in the media often, and written commentaries meant “to force governments to behave better.”

“People repeatedly tell me that they seek guidance – political and moral – for how to address today’s threats to democracy and the rule of law, how to confront challenges to basic rights,” Roth says. “I know that we should never despair, never become defeatist, that there are always things to be done to improve governmental conduct. I feel a responsibility to share my understanding to help others determine their best role in navigating these challenging times.”

Probing Policy

Some faculty members engage with policy more directly, assisting policymakers in the United States and around the world.

As the scientific director of J-PAL Africa, the sub-Saharan arm of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, Pascaline Dupas helps enable evidence-informed public policy across the region through sustained partnerships, follow-up, and on-the-ground collaboration with governments and implementing partners. Examples of the work include embedding evidence into government decision-making and scaling evidence-based clean-water policy.

“This policy engagement is a substantial commitment,” says Dupas, a professor of economics and public affairs, “including weekly coordination with policy teams, regular engagement with government counterparts, and spending many weeks annually on the ground in Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Barbara Buckinx, a research scholar with the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, recently co-published a 100-page report advising policymakers working on the reintegration of children associated with armed forces and armed groups. The report grew out of work LISD did with the United Nations Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict.

“I engage in this type of applied research because it offers a way to translate academic insights into concrete guidance for governments, U.N. agencies, and civil-society actors,” Buckinx says. “We see this work as contributing directly to public-policy understanding by providing rigorous analysis, identifying gaps in current practice, and offering actionable recommendations grounded in empirical research.”

Before coming to Princeton SPIA in 2021, Alyssa Sharkey worked at UNICEF, where she led the implementation research team. Since coming to the School, she has continued working in the field, which sees to improve the implementation of policies and programs. For example, if a country wants to roll out an intervention know to save lives, such as an HPV vaccine, implementation research examines such factors as like cost, feasibility, acceptability, and sustainability.

“What I think is especially interesting about the approach is that we do what we call ‘embedded implementation research,’ which engages policymakers and decision-makers in countries as co-PIs in the research,” Sharkey says. “This means that, from the start of a study, policymakers share what their priority problems are and what questions they would like answered through research. We keep them involved throughout the data collection and analysis, and then even help translate the research findings into policy recommendations that they themselves can put into practice.”

Udi Ofer, the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs and Co. Visiting Professor and Lecturer of Public and International Affairs, points to his direction of a groundbreaking, bipartisan effort to develop criminal justice reform principles. Princeton hosted the nation’s leading policy advocacy organizations from the left and right craft a common set of principles on criminal justice policymaking. Following two days of meetings on campus and months of negotiations, the group agreed on four principles and is now working to turn those principles into actual policies.

“The reason I engaged in this activity is that it is the most effective way to directly inform public policymaking in a manner that can withstand shifting political winds,” Ofer says. “By bringing together leading policy advocacy organizations from both conservative and progressive spaces, it will ensure that no matter who is in the White House or governor’s mansion, or who controls Congress or state legislatures, policy advocates will promote similar evidence-based policies that promote constitutional rights. And it also ensures that criminal justice policymaking remains above partisan divides and culture war issues.”

Talking It Out

Several faculty members use public-speaking appearances to explain policy.

Ethan Kapstein, the executive director of Princeton SPIA’s Empirical Studies of Conflict Project and a lecturer with rank of professor, has been actively engaged in debates surrounding European rearmament and the transatlantic defense relationship. In particular, he has stressed in talks around Europe – including in Norway, Germany, Belgium, and France – the many ongoing transatlantic defense-industrial collaborations on a variety of weapons systems.

“These collaborations are vital to European and western alliance security at a time of growing threats,” Kapstein says.

Deborah Pearlstein engages more intimate audiences. In addition to testifying before Congress on the legality of various policy initiatives, particularly in national security and foreign policy, and on assertions of executive policy power, she spearheads the Program in Law & Public Policy’s Problem-Solving Workshop Series. The meetings connect P*LAW researchers and visiting scholars with policymakers, Hill staffers, and thinkers for a day of deep analysis of important issues, beginning with a genuinely posed policy question.

“And I currently consult actively with a bipartisan nonprofit working with members of the legal profession, from students to judges and senior officials, about tools to preserve legal independence at a time when it is under threat,” says Pearlstein, the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor in Law and Public Affairs.

In addition to media appearances podcast interviews, Gene Grossman has been giving talks, mostly about tariffs. The reasons, says the Jacob Viner Professor of International Economics and professor of economics and international affairs, are “because there is so little understanding of Trump’s trade policies and because the claimed purposes and benefits are so outrageous.”

Closer to campus, numerous faculty members serve as guest speakers at Princeton Adult School. The roster this semester alone includes Lee, Pearlstein, Owen Zidar, and Paul Starr.

Heather Howard addresses more remote audiences as host of the Princeton Pulse podcast. Produced by the School’s Center for Health and Wellbeing, the podcast highlights connections between health research and policy by bringing together scholars, policymakers, and other leaders to examine the day’s most pressing health policy issues – domestically and globally. Episodes have explored topics ranging from the health impacts of U.S. cuts to foreign aid to recent shifts in U.S. vaccine policy.

“A through line in these conversations is that even in the face of daunting challenges, there are proven policy interventions that can improve health and wellbeing,” says Howard, a professor of the practice at Princeton SPIA. “Conversations like these, rooted in the evidence base and connecting researchers with policymakers, are even more important now and can help us carve a path forward.”