Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) Jump To: Jump To: Overview Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS) is the University’s central home for the study of international issues. Its goal is to understand and tackle pressing global and regional challenges by supporting cutting-edge research, innovative teaching, experiential learning and collaborative international networks. Through its dynamic programming, multidisciplinary regional centers and a core of engaged faculty, students and visitors, PIIRS advances the frontiers of academic knowledge while also promoting public engagement on international studies. Program Offerings PIIRS is home to five regional programs that support five undergraduate minors: African Studies; European Studies; Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies; South Asian Studies; and Translation and Intercultural Communication. These programs provide an opportunity for the multidisciplinary study of these regions and themes, while fostering a community of students and faculty with shared interests. Additionally, they offer a range of engaging activities and public programming, further enriching the academic experience.PIIRS aims to equip students with the intellectual background, professional skills, and diverse perspectives they will need to thrive in a multicultural, interconnected world. In addition to our minors, we offer undergraduates the opportunity to attend Global Seminars, transformative, experiential, credit-bearing courses abroad taught by Princeton faculty members over six weeks in the summer; Exploration Seminars, immersive international travel experiences during fall and spring breaks, deepening students’ understanding of ideas presented in the accompanying course taught on the Princeton campus; and our new Undergraduate Fellowship Program, offering students the opportunity to pursue individual or collective projects that simultaneously advance regional engagement and build leadership skills.Advancing understandings, interpretations and explanations of key issues around the globe is key to PIIRS’s mission, and it achieves that by fostering academic innovation and nurturing a community of faculty, scholars and practitioners. To energize campus-wide conversations and to promote sustained interdisciplinary and cross-regional dialog in international and regional studies, PIIRS supports long-term faculty and student work. It sponsors faculty-led research initiatives such as Reimagining World Order, the Princeton African Humanities Colloquium, Global Systemic Risk, Structural Crafts: Developing Vernacular Construction for Sustainable Futures, and more. Its Graduate Fellows Program supports doctoral candidates in the dissertation write-up stage of the Ph.D., and PIIRS also provides generous funding to graduate students from any department for summer language study and dissertation field research abroad. A director’s seminar series focuses on Global Existential Challenges and features panels of leading experts who deliberate core questions from a multidisciplinary and comparative perspective.Visitors are an important part of the community and PIIRS co-sponsors conferences, seminars and short-term visits of distinguished scholars from around the world. The Fung Global Fellows Program brings exceptional international scholars to Princeton for a year of research, writing and collaboration around a common topic, and a newly launched Postdoctoral Program will bring some of the most promising and innovative young scholars doing international and regional research to campus for two years.The institute 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 Japan 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 houses World Politics, a flagship journal in political science, which publishes peer-reviewed research in international relations, comparative politics and related subfields. Faculty Director Deborah J. Yashar Executive Committee Sandra L. Bermann, Comparative Literature João Biehl, Anthropology Rafaela M. Dancygier, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Julia Elyachar, Anthropology Simon E. Gikandi, English Andrea J. Goldsmith, Engineering & Applied Science, ex officio Judith Hamera, Lewis Center for the Arts, ex officio Amaney A. Jamal, Politics, ex officio Sanyu A. Mojola, Sociology Eduardo Morales, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Chika O. Okeke-Agulu, Art and Archaeology Gyan Prakash, History Anu Ramaswami, Civil and Environmental Eng Esther H. Schor, English, ex officio Yu Xie, Sociology Deborah J. Yashar, Schl of Public & Int'l Affairs Professor Anu Ramaswami Yu Xie Associate Professor Julia Elyachar Senior Lecturer Mahiri Mwita Hamza Mahmood Zafer Lecturer Happy Buzaaba Hannah Essien Fauzia Farooqui Ute Mehnert Melusi Nkomo Robert L. Phillips Nataliya Yanchevskaya For a full list of faculty members and fellows please visit the department or program website.
