Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS)

The Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) promotes research, learning and dialogue on issues of global importance, and sponsors a variety of programs and activities aimed at advancing knowledge of world regions and global issues.

PIIRS supports four regional studies’ certificate programs: African Studies; South Asian Studies; Contemporary European Politics and Society; and Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies. It also sponsors a program in Translation and Intercultural Communication.

Recognizing that global experiences can have a significant impact on each student’s academic, professional and personal development, PIIRS offers two programs to meet that goal. The Global Seminars are six-week courses taught by University faculty in international locations at the heart of the seminar’s subject matter, giving students the opportunity to learn while immersed in a foreign culture. Students also study the local language and connect with the societies in which they live. Exploration Seminars provide seven to nine days of international travel, usually during the fall and spring breaks, in association with a course taught on the Princeton campus.

An Undergraduate Fellows Program provides juniors with support to undertake international field work research for their senior theses. Those accepted into the program work with a PIIRS faculty member during the spring semester of their junior year to develop a proposal for summer research towards the senior thesis. After sharpening their research questions and methodology, and learning more about international field work, students are awarded funds for summer research.

A Graduate Fellows Program, overseen by a faculty member, supports students in the write-up stage of the PhD. PIIRS also provides generous funding to graduate students from any department for summer language study and dissertation field research abroad.

PIIRS co-sponsors conferences, seminars and short-term visits of distinguished scholars from around the world. The Fung Global Fellows Program brings six exceptional scholars from around the world to Princeton for a year of research, writing and collaboration around a common topic. PIIRS sponsors many faculty-led research initiatives to promote sustained interdisciplinary and cross-regional dialogue in international and regional studies and in the humanities.

PIIRS is home to the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China, the M.S. Chadha Center for Global India, the Brazil LAB and the Global History Lab, each of which serves as a hub for an extensive network of scholars focused on those countries and their place in the world.

PIIRS also sponsors World Politics, a flagship journal in political science, which publishes peer-reviewed research in international relations, comparative politics and related subfields.