Princeton SPIA and LISD Students Take “intellectual adventure” on Global Research Trip
Sep 23 2024
By
Anna Mazarakis
Source
Princeton School of Public and International Affairs
Before returning to campus for the fall semester, 12 students had the unique opportunity to travel to Liechtenstein, Austria, and Germany to present original research on democracy and security. The trip was initiated, arranged for, and led by Wolfgang Danspeckgruber, founding director of the Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination, and organized by Lauren Schwartz, professional specialist, and Nikki Woolward, manager, global initiatives, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.
The delegation included two graduate students in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and 10 undergraduate students who have participated in Danspeckgruber’s seminars at LISD since 2022. In the fall of 2023, these students presented their research to Liechtenstein’s royal couple during their visit to campus, and the royal couple later invited the students to their country.
Students continued their research throughout the academic year, with a prompt to investigate subjects they had always wanted to research but hadn’t been able to in a class or other academic and professional settings. Students ended up exploring a wide range of research topics, from constitutional monarchy and polarization, to the role of ecological conservation in peace-building, to food security in Africa.
“For many participating students, this was the first independent research project,” Schwartz said. “I hope it has sparked a love of subject matter and creative thought. More than that, though, these were interdisciplinary projects that had real-world issues at their core and can be extended into larger feasible work and action.”
During their trip in the middle of August, the students presented their extended research to an audience of high-level representatives of Liechtenstein’s monarchy, government, diplomacy, industry, and academia in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, and at the European Forum Alpbach in Tirol, Austria. A former student of Danspeckgruber’s also hosted the delegation at the BMW Headquarters in Munich, Germany, and the success of the student presentations earned the group a CEO invitation and tour through HovalAG, a climate control technology company in Vaduz, Liechtenstein.
“Our trip across Liechtenstein, Austria, and Germany was a true intellectual adventure.”Katya Hovnanian-Alexanian ’25
“I most appreciated the opportunity to travel with and learn from undergraduate students who we, as graduate students, don’t often get to interact with — truly an opportunity for intergenerational and interdisciplinary interactions and knowledge sharing.”Sydney Taylor MPA '25
Danspeckgruber and Schwartz intend to compile the research into a publication and have it translated to German. The students said the trip would directly impact the work they would do for their senior theses, and some may pursue collaborative publication work this coming year.
“The performance of my students, their depth and dedication to research, the brilliant and eloquent presentation with poise of their work and their interactions with any and all were a delight and can make Princeton and America proud,” Danspeckgruber said. “With the right group of students and the appropriate quality of their research papers, I shall certainly consider doing such a journey again.”
