REPORT Annual
July 1, 2016 - June 30, 2017
Table of
Contents
Dean Message from the
This report covers the activities of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017: faculty, centers and programs, graduate and undergraduate students inside and out of the classroom, and some special projects undertaken at the Wilson School are profiled in the pages that follow. All of these activities are key to ensuring the Wilson School remains a strong presence on Princeton’s campus and creates a space for Princeton in the policy arena. I want to highlight some particular areas of concentration.
Second, as always we are vigilant about keeping our academic programs sharp. Last year, we conducted a thorough review of our Master in Public Affairs degree program as well as our Junior Summer Institute. These programs are detailed later in this report.
Third, we continued our work implementing the Woodrow Wilson School Task Force Report — in particular, planning for the renovation of our space to improve the sense of community for the School. First, Wallace Hall had some renovations to accommodate the Program in Law and Public
Affairs in some newly freed-up space. Second, design is completed, and renovations will soon begin in Corwin and Bendheim Halls. Third, Robertson Hall is currently being redesigned, with a construction start anticipated for summer 2018.
Finally, we organized a large Princeton University conference in Berlin, Germany, titled “Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?” Highlighted later in this report, the conference featured 40 speakers and moderators from around the globe and attracted 450 audience members. Trending on Twitter in three countries over the course of the two-day conference ensured an even larger audience.
It has been a productive year, and we are pleased to share the details in the pages that follow.
Sincerely,
Cecilia Elena Rouse
Full-Time Faculty*
*During the 2016-17 academic year
71
Visiting Professors, Lecturers, and Practitioners*
*During the 2016-17 academic year
*Includes faculty who teach in WWS undergraduate programs overseas
Our Faculty
Faculty:
Hellos, Goodbyes, and Congratulations
2016-17 Academic Year
New Faculty
Professors
Elke U. Weber is professor of psychology and public affairs and Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment. Before joining the Wilson School, Weber was the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business, professor of psychology and co-director of the Center for Decision Sciences at Columbia University.
Assistant Professors
Adam Goldstein is an assistant professor of sociology and public affairs. Before joining the Wilson School, Goldstein was a postdoctoral fellow at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholars in Health Policy Research program at The Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.
Promotions
Grigore Pop-Eleches was promoted to professor of politics and international affairs. Pop-Eleches’ research focuses on the relationship between political economy and behavior, specifically in Latin America and Eastern Europe. He has studied the impact of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs in those two regions. His first book, “From Economic Crisis to Reform: IMF Programs in Latin America and Eastern Europe,” was published in 2009.
Jacob N. Shapiro was promoted to professor of politics and international affairs. Shapiro co-directs the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, a collaboration of the Wilson School, the Stanford University Center for International Security and Cooperation and the University of California, San Diego Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation that studies micro-level conflict data and information on insurgency, civil war, and other sources of politically motivated violence worldwide. His research interests focus on political violence, economic and political development in conflict zones, security policy, and urban conflict. Shapiro is the author of “The Terrorist’s Dilemma: Managing Violent Covert Organizations” and a term member of the Council of Foreign Relations.
Rafaela M. Dancygier was promoted to associate professor of politics and international affairs. Dancygier’s research focuses on the implications of ethnic diversity in advanced democracies. She is the author of “Immigration and Conflict in Europe,” which analyzes how local political economies and immigration regimes determine the relationship between immigrants, natives, and the state. She is currently working on a book, “Dilemmas of Inclusion: The Political Representation of Muslims in Europe,” which explores the implications of minority inclusion in politics.
Alexander Glaser was promoted to associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and international affairs. Glaser’s work focuses on the technical aspects of fuel-cycle technology and policy questions related to nuclear energy and nuclear weapon proliferation. He is co-director of The Program on Science and Global Security, a research center based at the Wilson School, and he also works with the International Panel on Fissile Materials.
Emeritus Status
Sir Angus Deaton is the Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus, professor of economics and international affairs, emeritus, and senior scholar. He received the 2015 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his body of research in consumption, poverty, and welfare, and was named a Knight Bachelor by Queen Elizabeth II of England. Deaton earned his B.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge.
Paul DiMaggio is the A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Emeritus, and senior scholar (effective Feb. 1, 2016). He has written widely on organizational analysis, focusing especially on nonprofit and cultural organizations, on patterns of participation in the arts, and cultural conflict in the United States, and is currently studying the social implications of new digital technologies. DiMaggio earned his bachelor’s degree at Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in sociology at Harvard University.
Robert D. Willig is professor of economics and public affairs, emeritus. Willig served as deputy assistant attorney general in the U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division, from 1989 to 1991. He has a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University. His research interests focus on the subjects of industrial organization, the relationships between government and business, and domestic and international microeconomic policy.
Distinguished Visitors
Benjamin Jealous joined the Wilson School as the John L. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs & Co. Visiting Professor and visiting lecturer in public and international affairs. Jealous is the former president and CEO of the NAACP.
Promotions
Oleg Itskhoki was promoted to professor of economics and international affairs. He is a Sloan Research fellow and is an affiliated faculty member with the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance. Itskhoki specializes in macroeconomics and international economics, currently studying the issue of optimal macroeconomic policies in economies with financial frictions. In 2012, he received the Excellence Award in Global Economic Affairs from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Benjamin Moll was promoted to associate professor of economics and international affairs. Moll serves as the Cyril E. Black University Preceptor at Princeton and is an affiliated faculty member with the Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and
Finance. His research lies in microeconomics and development economics, and he is currently studying the role of income and wealth distribution in the macro-economy.
Markus Prior was promoted to professor of politics and public affairs. His book, “Post-Broadcast Democracy: How Media Choice Increases Inequality in Political Involvement and Polarizes Elections,” won the 2009 Goldsmith Prize awarded by Harvard’s Joan Shorenstein Center and the 2010 Doris Graber Award for the “best book on political communication in the last 10 years” given by the American Political Science Association’s Political Communication Section.
Synthetic Gas Would Cut Air Pollution in China but Worsen Global Climate Damage
Denise L. Mauzerall Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Public and International Affairs
China’s smog has created a public health crisis that has led the Chinese government to declare war on air pollution. In addition, as part of the Paris climate agreement, China has committed to capping its rising CO2 emissions by 2030 or sooner.
A 2017 study led by Denise L. Mauzerall, professor of civil and environmental engineering and public and international affairs at the Wilson School, and Yue Qin, a doctoral student in the School’s Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program, analyzed the conflict between these goals in China’s plans to use synthetic natural gas, a fuel derived from coal that is relatively free of conventional air pollutants. However, the production and consumption of synthetic natural gas increases emissions of carbon dioxide, relative to direct coal combustion.
Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
the study examined the impact of switching from coal to synthetic natural gas in three broad areas: electricity production, industry, and residential use. The researchers developed a sophisticated model to estimate both health outcomes and carbon emissions under various synthetic-natural-gas-use scenarios.
Synthetic natural gas plants convert coal to a form of natural gas by way of coal gasification and methanation. Produced gas is then consumed in a variety of ways including electricity generation and direct use in the industrial or residential sectors. Because of energy losses during the two-stage energy conversion, synthetic natural gas results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide than direct coal combustion.
The researchers found that using synthetic natural gas for residential cooking and heating, for electricity generation, or for industrial heat generation, results in 10, 40, and 70
percent more CO2 emissions than directly burning coal that provides the same amount of energy in each sector.
However, using synthetic natural gas rather than directly burning coal improves air quality because it emits far less air pollution. Given that air pollution in China currently causes about 1.6 million people to die prematurely each year, according to the results of a recent study by researchers in the United States, Canada, China, and India, this makes it an appealing alternative to coal. Those dying in China from air pollution account for more than a quarter of such deaths worldwide.
Driven by this public health emergency, and by a desire to rely on its large supplies of coal, China has plans to expand its production of synthetic natural gas. Currently, only four synthetic natural gas plants are operating with approximately 40 more proposed or under construction in China.
The researchers found that switching to synthetic natural gas in industry and electricity production would have little impact on smog-related deaths and cause a major increase in CO2 emissions. However, switching from coal to synthetic natural gas for residential uses, such as heating and cooking, would substantially reduce deaths
“There are other ways to clean up the air that do not increase CO2 production. In the long run, increasing renewable generation of electricity and electrifying more of the economy brings the largest cobenefits for air and water quality, public health, and climate of all possible alternatives.”
-Denise L. Mauzerall
due to air pollution and cause less of an increase in CO2 emissions.
In residences, many Chinese families burn coal in small stoves that are inherently inefficient and have uncontrolled emissions of air pollutants. By contrast, power plants and industrial operations burn coal much more efficiently and employ pollution-control devices that reduce emissions of health-damaging air pollutants. Thus, switching to synthetic natural gas for electricity production and other industry results in a much smaller health benefit.
In the end, the researchers concluded that deploying synthetic natural gas in the residential sector would substantially improve air quality and reduce premature deaths associated with outdoor air pollution with the smallest increase in carbon dioxide emissions compared to the power and industrial sectors. However, unless carbon capture and storage is employed, synthetic natural gas cannot simultaneously improve air quality while reducing carbon emissions. Notably, even if carbon capture and storage is employed during synthetic natural gas production, the synthetic natural gas still emits 22 to 40 percent more CO2 than use of the same amount of conventional natural gas.
of Specific Neighborhoods Revitalizing
Detroit Requires Development
Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Theodore A. Wells ‘29
Professor of Economics
Despite the relatively large number of employees working in downtown Detroit, the city continues to be afflicted by urban blight, surrounded by a swath of vacant neighborhoods. Reversing this phenomenon has been a goal for developers, city officials, and groups like Detroit Future City, an initiative with a strategic vision for the city’s future.
Debuting a new economic model, Wilson School Professor Esteban Rossi-Hansberg and economists from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond have identified 22 neighborhoods that, if developed, could bring in millions of dollars in residential and business rents
while attracting thousands of new residents to the city. These neighborhoods differ significantly from those targeted by Detroit Future City, which mostly focuses on neighborhoods close to downtown.
“Reviving Detroit requires coordination and buy-in from multiple developers, residents, and city governments. You can’t think small scale on this,” said RossiHansberg, Theodore A. Wells ‘29 Professor of Economics. “Our analysis shows there are mutual gains to be had by all parties. The gains would also be distributed across the city and beyond its boundaries, so coordination between counties is crucial.”
“Reviving Detroit requires coordination and buy-in from multiple developers, residents, and city governments. You can’t think small scale on this.”
- Esteban Rossi-Hansberg
Rossi-Hansberg and his research team constructed their model around what they call “development guarantees” — buy-in from the government or private institutions that guarantee a certain level of development in a particular area. The model accounts for businesses moving into the area, the location itself, and workers’ willingness to commute to that area.
A similar but alternative proposal was advanced by Detroit Future City, whose strategic framework lays out a desired image of what the city should look like in 10, 20, and 50 years into the future. Detroit Future City’s most ambitious proposal involves 22 tracts, but the proposal was never quantified — until now.
The researchers quantify the gains and losses of alternative plans by Detroit Future City and others by modeling the employment decisions of firms, location, and commuting decisions of workers, as well as the decision of developers to enter particular
neighborhoods. Between the researchers’ model and Detroit Future City’s plan, only 11 out of 22 neighborhoods are shared.
One of the biggest differences is that the Detroit Future City proposal focuses on developing the areas closest to the downtown core, while the researchers’ estimates — which they call the “Best 22 Residential Plan,” covers a wider swath. Although both policies promise gains, the difference can amount to several tens of millions of dollars and much fewer residents.
In addition to Rossi-Hansberg, the model was designed and evaluated by Raymond Owens and Pierre-Daniel Sarte, both of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Social Exclusion Leads to ThinkingConspiratorial
Alin I. Coman Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs
People who feel left out are more likely to believe exaggerated or misleading information, according to research led by Alin I. Coman, assistant professor of psychology and public affairs at the Wilson School.
Such feelings of despair brought on by social exclusion can cause people to seek meaning in miraculous stories that may not necessarily be true. When those with conspiratorial ideas share their beliefs, it can drive away family and friends, triggering even more exclusion, Coman explained. This may lead them to join conspiracy theory communities where they feel welcome, which could further entrench their beliefs.
“When developing laws, regulations, policies, and programs, policymakers
should worry about whether people feel excluded by their enactment,” Coman said. “Otherwise, we may create societies that are prone to spreading inaccurate and superstitious beliefs.”
For the first study, 119 participants engaged in four phases. First, they were asked to write about a recent unpleasant event that involved a close friend. Next, they were asked to rate the degree to which they felt 14 different emotions, including exclusion. They then were asked to rank their agreement with 10 statements. These statements included phrases like “I am seeking a purpose or mission for my life” and “I have discovered a satisfying life purpose.” Finally, participants had to indicate the degree to which
“We have to find a way that we all have an interest in making sure there’s a functional relationship between the police and the communities most in need in our country.”
-Alin I. Coman
they endorsed three different conspiratorial beliefs: “Pharmaceutical companies withhold cures for financial reasons”; “Governments use messages below the level of awareness to influence people’s decisions”; and “Events in the Bermuda Triangle constitute evidence of paranormal activity.”
Coman and his research group found the more people felt excluded after writing about the unpleasant event, the more they reported searching for meaning, and the more they endorsed these conspiratorial beliefs.
In the second study, 120 Princeton University students were recruited to causally determine whether the degree to which someone was socially excluded influenced their superstitious beliefs. Participants were first asked to write two paragraphs describing themselves, one about “What it means to be me,” and another about “The kind of person I want to be.” They were told that these paragraphs would be given to two other participants physically present in the room who would then rank whether they’d want to work with them.
Each of the three participants in a session was then randomly selected to either be in the inclusion group (selected for collaboration in a subsequent task), the exclusion group (not selected for collaboration), or the control group (no instructions about selection). Finally, all participants went through the same four phases as the first study, which measured how social exclusion is linked to acceptance of superstitious beliefs.
The researchers’ hypothesis was confirmed: Social exclusion does lead to superstitious beliefs by triggering the search for meaning in everyday experiences. The second part of the study replicated the findings of the first, providing evidence that if a person feels excluded, they are more likely to hold conspiratorial beliefs.
Coman published the study with Damaris Graeupner, a research assistant in Princeton’s Department of Psychology.
The Euro
and the Battle of Ideas
Harold James
Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies; Professor of History and International Affairs; Director, Program in Contemporary European Politics and Society
Is Europe’s great monetary endeavor, the euro, in trouble?
A string of economic difficulties in Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and other eurozone nations has left observers wondering whether the currency union can survive.
A book co-authored by the Wilson School’s Harold James argues the core problem with the euro lies in the philosophical differences between the founding countries of the eurozone, particularly Germany and France. Nevertheless, James and his co-authors also show how these seemingly incompatible differences can be reconciled to ensure Europe’s survival.
Published by Princeton University Press, “The Euro and the Battle of Ideas” was written by James, the Claude and Lore Kelly Professor in European Studies and professor of history and international affairs at the Wilson School; Markus K. Brunnermeier, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Economics and Director of Princeton’s Bendheim Center for Finance; and Jean-Pierre Landau, professor of economics at Sciences Po. The book weaves together economic analysis and historical reflection to provide a forensic investigation and a road map for Europe’s future.
As the euro crisis became glaringly evident in late 2009 in tandem with the bailout of Greece, many
“Traditionally, France and Germany hold incompatible ideas about the economy; however, as we demonstrate in the book, each has changed its basic economic vision in exceptional or crisis circumstances. We think that rethinking is taking place now with the election of President Macron and an apparent change of course of Chancellor Merkel.”
-Harold James
eurozone politicians, especially those from Germany, blamed the failing eurozone on excessive public debt and pointed to fiscal austerity as the cure. Brunnermeier, James, and Landau — who are from Germany, Britain, and France, respectively — show that fiscal austerity has, at times, only prolonged the problem.
The authors demonstrate how Germany, a federal state with strong regional governments, saw the Maastricht Treaty, the framework for the euro, as a set of rules. However, France, with a more centralized system of government, perceived the framework as flexible and to be overseen by governments.
Additionally, the Germans support austerity, even in hard times, whereas the French prefer fiscal stimulus. The fact that German policymakers are often lawyers, while French ones are more frequently economists also adds to the divide.
These ideological differences exist regardless of the political party in office at the time. Furthermore, the ideology of France and Germany has not always been fixed over time, as France, not Germany, promoted rigid rules and big surpluses in the 19th century up through 1945.
The authors end with a possible solution — a proposal for a Europe-wide insurance system using a form of eurobonds that would satisfy both France and Germany.
Since the book’s publication, it has received a number of awards and honors including the 2017 Axiom Business Book Award’s Gold Medal in International Business/Globalization, as well as being named to the Financial Times’ Best Books of 2016: Economics list, The Economist’s 2016 Books of the Year list, and one of Bloomberg’s Best Books of 2016.
Private Health Insurers Are Losing Money on the Affordable Care Act Why
Uwe E. Reinhardt
James Madison Professor of Political Economy; Professor of Economics and Public Affairs
Young healthy people forgoing health insurance combined with the high cost of providing care for the sickest, often older Americans has generated big losses for insurance companies participating in the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) state insurance marketplaces.
This is the conclusion of a policy paper published by Uwe E. Reinhardt, the James Madison Professor of Political Economy and professor of economics and public affairs at the Wilson School.
Reinhardt revealed how some private health insurers, like Aetna, underpriced their policies on the ACA exchanges, either to gain market share early on or without anticipating the potential financial risks. These companies had little
experience with the customers who might use the marketplace, as well as the younger, healthier individuals who decided to forgo health insurance and instead pay low fines to remain uninsured.
“Young Americans would rather remain uninsured and pay the relatively low penalties called for in Obamacare, knowing full well that if they really get sick and their care exceeds their resources, their relatives or the rest of society will somehow bail them out anyway,” Reinhardt said.
Prior to the ACA, insurers in many states could charge higher premiums to people based on their medical history or use of health services. At the time Reinhardt published this paper, insurers could not raise
premiums on the ACA based on health status, medical claims, or gender.
Reinhardt said this approach can only work if all individuals, healthy or otherwise, are mandated to purchase coverage for a defined, basic package of benefits, as seen in Switzerland, Germany, and the Netherlands.
“In other countries, younger, healthier people understand they pay more than their actual cost when young. But in return, they too will be subsidized when they get older or fall ill. For some reason, American youngsters do not think that way,” Reinhardt said.
If healthy, young people continue to opt out of the ACA, insurance companies’ risk pools on the marketplace exchanges will consist mainly of sicker people, and the sickest 10 percent of people account for 65 percent of total health spending. This could explain why premiums on some of the exchanges are now increasing, even though, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, total national
“Americans are not an unkind people. It is just so expensive to be kind. So the problem is that our health system is in danger of pricing kindness out of our souls.”
-Uwe E. Reinhardt
health care spending growth is projected to be only 5.8 percent per year between 2015 and 2025.
The already high cost of U.S. health care also adds to the dilemma. On average, prices for most health care services or products in the United States are twice as high or higher than prices for identical services and products in other countries, Reinhardt explained. “Americans are not an unkind people. It is just so expensive to be kind. So the problem is that our health system is in danger of pricing kindness out of our souls. Quite frankly, it’s hard to see a way out of this dilemma, especially given the current political climate in which partisan rancor trumps patriotism and caring for the American people,” Reinhardt said.
Returning from Washington, Felten Seeks Technology-Policy Dialogue
Edward W. Felten
Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs; Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs; Director, Center for Information Technology Policy; Associate Director, Program in Technology and Society
Edward W. Felten, the Robert E. Kahn Professor of Computer Science and Public Affairs, has spent decades studying the intersection of information technology and public policy. Over the years, he has provided key testimony challenging Microsoft’s early dominance of internet browsing, battled the recording industry over digital copyright controls, and worked to improve the security and transparency of voting systems.
Felten returned to the Princeton campus in 2017 following a stint in Washington, D.C., as deputy U.S. chief technology officer at the White House during the Obama administration from May 2015 to January 2017. He previously served as chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission from January 2011 to August 2012.
Felten described his work in Washington as often difficult and frequently stressful, but always rewarding. More than anything,
it drove home for him the critical role that technology plays in public policy — and the urgent need for technologists to get involved in lawmaking that affects information technology. Today, society is facing significant, rapid changes from developments ranging from selfdriving cars to artificial intelligence (AI), Felten said. If society is going to adapt to these developments and avoid disruption, technical experts must play a central role.
AI was one of the biggest issues Felten focused on while in Washington. His work included ensuring fairness as AI is increasingly applied to criminal justice, housing, and credit, and the potential risks associated with highly autonomous weapons systems.
Felten also worked on longerterm issues such as how much the government should invest in AI research and development, and the potential long-term risks associated with super-intelligent machines.
“We have a strong and growing AI group here at Princeton, and I hope to collaborate with them on the more policy-related questions: how to ensure that when AI is used to make decisions about people that accountability and fairness are protected, and the likely impact of AI on the economy and on jobs,” Felten said. “I think Princeton is in a good position to work on these technology and policy issues because the University is very strong in all of the relevant disciplines, and we have a history of working effectively across these boundaries.”
Felten also worked on issues related to cybersecurity — having arrived at the White House when a data breach was discovered at the Office of Personnel Management — and helped to determine how to help those whose data was breached, as well as create longer-term strategies to improve government cybersecurity.
In describing the complexity of the government cybersecurity issue, Felten said, “The government has about 4.5 million employees overall, with many different offices, many different missions, and separate management. One of the lessons, I think, is that we would benefit from having more unified management of certain aspects of information technology across the government.”
“I think Princeton is in a good position to work on these technology policy issues because the University is very strong in all of the relevant disciplines, and we have a history of working effectively across these boundaries.”
-Edward W. Felten
Felten drives home this message of the need for uniformity and for technologists to get more involved with policy when he explains how a team of engineers rebuilt the Affordable Care Act (ACA) website after its problematic launch. Based on the turnaround success story of the ACA website, the government began bringing in more technical experts earlier on, so the government could “surge” on multiple issues at a time. This led to the creation of a group called the U.S. Digital Service, which eventually grew to more than 200 people. “I thought of them as the tech special forces. They would get sent in in small teams to work on the most difficult, highest-profile technical things that were going on,” Felten said.
Regardless of issue, Felten highlighted the importance of those in technology and policy working closely with one another.
“There is a growing community of people from both technical and policy backgrounds working to build bridges and ensure that technical thinking is built into policy and that designers of new technology think about the policy implications. One of the main things I did in government, and I am trying to do at Princeton, is to increase that dialogue,” said Felten.
Faculty Awards
Brandice Canes-Wrone
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Anne Case
Member, American Philosophical Society
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2017 Franklin Founder Award, Celebration! of Benjamin Franklin, Founder
Named to 2016 POLITICO 50
Member, Committee on National Statistics
Member, President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science
Janet M. Currie
2017 Honorary Doctorate, University of Zurich
Sir Angus Deaton
2017 Colonel James Tod Award, Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation
2017 Franklin Founder Award, Celebration! of Benjamin Franklin, Founder
Honorary Fellowship, University of Bristol
Named to 2016 POLITICO 50
Christopher L. Eisgruber
Distinguished Public Service Award, U.S. Navy
Susan T. Fiske
Honorary Doctorate, Universidad de Granada, Spain
2017 James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award, Association for Psychological Science
2016 Fellow, Society of Experimental Psychologists
2016 Award for Distinguished Service to Psychological Science, American Psychological Association
2016 Honoree, Federation of Associations in Behavioral and Brain Sciences
2016 Teachers College Medal for Distinguished Service, Columbia University
Noreen J. Goldman
Keyfitz Lecture in Mathematics and Social Sciences, The Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences, University of Toronto
G. John Ikenberry
Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Stanley N. Katz
Inaugural Lecture Award, International Society for Third-Sector Research
Alan B. Krueger
2017 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize, American Academy of Political and Social Science
Co-Vice President for 2017, American Economic Association
Named to 2016 POLITICO 50
Adel A.F. Mahmoud
New Professorship: The Adel A.F. Mahmoud, M.D., Ph.D.
Professorship in Global Health and Vaccines, Case Western Reserve University
Douglas S. Massey
2018 Bronislaw Malinowski Award, Society for Applied Anthropology
2017 Henry Allen Moe Prize in the Humanities, American Philosophical Society
Jan M. Hoem Distinguished Lecture in Demography, Stockholm University
T.R. Balakrishnan Lecture in Population Dynamics, University of Western Ontario
Elizabeth Levy Paluck
2017 Graduate Mentoring Award, Princeton University
Markus Prior
Joan Shorenstein Fellowship, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
Stephen Redding
Program Director, International Trade and Investment Program, National Bureau of Economic Research
Cecilia Elena Rouse
2016 Carolyn Shaw Bell Award, Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, American Economic Association
Marta Tienda
Chair, Board of Trustees, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
2016 Brown Lecture in Education Research, American Educational Research Association
External Fellow, American Institutes for Research
Member, Board of Trustees, Robin Hood
James Trussell
2017 Lifetime Achievement Award, Society of Family Planning
Keith A. Wailoo
Inaugural Elias E. Manuelidis Memorial Lecture, Yale University School of Medicine
Lawrence F. Brewster Lecture in History, East Carolina University
Arthur Miller Lecture on Science and Ethics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
John J. Bonica Lecture, University of Washington School of Medicine
Elke U. Weber
Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
2016 Distinguished Achievement Award, Society for Risk Analysis
Jennifer A. Widner
Appointed to the Commission on State Fragility, Growth and Development, International Growth Centre
Julian E. Zelizer
Member, Society of American Historians
Political Analyst, CNN
Member, National Academy of Social Insurance
2017-18 Visiting Scholar Program, Phi Beta Kappa Society
Book Awards
Thomas J. Christensen
The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power
2016 Arthur Ross Book Award, Silver Medal
Harold James
The Euro and the Battle of Ideas
The Economist Books of the Year 2016
Financial Times Best Books of 2016: Economics
Bloomberg 2016 Best Books
2017 Axiom Business Book Award, Gold in International/Globalization
Faculty Books
The Euro and the Battle of Ideas
Co-authored by: Markus K. Brunnermeier and Harold James
The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power
By: Thomas J. Christensen
Social Cognition: From Brains to Culture
Co-authored by: Susan T. Fiske
Scientists Making a Difference: One Hundred Eminent Behavioral and Brain Scientists Talk About Their Most Important Contributions
Co-edited by: Susan T. Fiske
Comprender las Migraciones
Internacionales: Teorías, Prácticas y Políticas Migratorias (Understanding International Migration: Theory, Practice and Politics)
By: Douglas S. Massey
The Social Transformation of American Medicine
By: Paul Starr
Making Autocracy Work: Representation and Responsiveness in Modern China
By: Rory Truex
Media Nation: The Political History of News in Modern America
Co-edited by: Julian E. Zelizer
The Kerner Report: The National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders
Introduction authored by: Julian E. Zelizer
Inventing the Silent Majority in Western Europe and the United States: Conservatism in the 1960s and 1970s Chapter, “American Conservatism From Roosevelt to Johnson,” authored by: Julian E. Zelizer
Building the Wall Chapter, “The Darkness Within Our Historical Walls,” authored by: Julian E. Zelizer
Triumphs and Tragedies of the Modern Presidency: Seventy-Six Case Studies in Presidential Leadership Chapter, “The First Hundred Days: Jimmy Carter,” authored by: Julian E. Zelizer
Trump: The First One Hundred Days Chapter, “An Unusual Presidency,” authored by: Julian E. Zelizer
WWS Reacts
WWS Reacts is a series of interviews with Woodrow Wilson School faculty addressing current events.
Nice Attacks and the Future of ISIS
July 22, 2016
Jacob N. Shapiro
The Next Four Years: The Economy
Sept. 13, 2016
Alan B. Krueger, Cecilia Elena Rouse
The Next Four Years: The Environment and Climate Change
Sept. 20, 2016
Rob Nixon, Michael Oppenheimer, David Wilcove
The Next Four Years: Health
Sept. 27, 2016
Janet M. Currie, Heather Howard, Adel A.F. Mahmoud, Uwe E. Reinhardt
The Next Four Years: The Middle East
Oct. 4, 2016
Daniel C. Kurtzer, Jacob N. Shapiro
The Next Four Years: Foreign Relations
Oct. 11, 2016
Aaron L. Friedberg, G. John Ikenberry
The Battle for Mosul Oct. 19, 2016
Jacob N. Shapiro
Inside the Presidential Debates
Oct. 20, 2016
Shirley M. Tilghman
The Next Four Years: Key Issues and Important Lessons of the 2016 Presidential Campaign
Nov. 1, 2016
Christopher H. Achen, Martin Gilens, Kevin M. Kruse, Nolan McCarty, LaFleur Stephens-Dougan, Ali A. Valenzuela
What a Trump Presidency Means for the Affordable Care Act
Nov. 16, 2016
Heather Howard, Uwe E. Reinhardt
How Facebook Influenced the US Presidential Election
Nov. 22, 2016
Katherine Haenschen
New Partnership Aims to Prevent Global Health Epidemics
Jan. 24, 2017
Adel A.F. Mahmoud
Renewing Ties with Egypt
April 4, 2017
Daniel C. Kurtzer
Le Pen vs. Macron in France’s Presidential Election
April 26, 2017
Sophie Meunier
Trump’s Tax Cut Plan
April 28, 2017
Alan S. Blinder
Rolling Back Net Neutrality?
May 3, 2017
Nick Feamster
President Trump’s Visit to the Middle East
May 24, 2017
Daniel C. Kurtzer
Inside the Presidential Debates
“I believe the debates are essential to our political process, and assist the voters in making informed decisions. It is the one time when the candidates confront one another, and in the optimal case, thoughtfully debate the issues of interest to the electorate.”
- Shirley M. Tilghman
New Partnership Aims to Prevent Global Health Epidemics
“The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa is a serious reminder of how unprepared the world is when it comes to responding to both expected and unexpected challenges of global health. ... Among the most significant challenges is the gap between the discovery of potential vaccines and our abilities to translate these discoveries in a developmental effort that is not dependent solely on market forces.”
- Adel A.F. Mahmoud
Nice Attacks and the Future of ISIS
“Ostentatious generosity to refugees should become an avowed policy. The goal would be to show potential terrorists and their supporting populations exactly how much stronger and more just our societies are than what they have been told. That would reduce recruitment and increase the probability that someone would share word of what has happened.”
- Jacob N. Shapiro
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Media Clips
Programs Centers and
Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing
Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies
Center for Health and Wellbeing
Center for Information Technology Policy
Center for International Security Studies
Center for the Study of Democratic Politics
Education Research Section Innovations for Successful Societies
Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance
Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance Office of Population Research
Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program
Princeton Survey Research Center Program in Law and Public Affairs Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy Program on Science and Global Security Research Program in Development Studies Research Program in Political Economy
Center for Health and Wellbeing
• The Center for Health and Wellbeing’s Global Health Program funded and facilitated internships and research opportunities for 95 undergraduates in 24 countries in 2016. The Global Health Program established a new partnership with the Pediatric Obesity Program at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, to offer undergraduate summer internship opportunities focusing on basic science, clinical work, and outreach activities relating to childhood obesity.
• The center supported more than 120 undergraduates enrolled in the Global Health and Health Policy certificate program, and nine graduate students enrolled in the Health and Health Policy certificate program. Recent new centersponsored courses include “Mental Health and Substance Use Policies in the United States,” “Gender and Illness Experience in the United States Today,” and “Population Economics and Population Health.”
• The center organized major conferences on “Pain, Pain Management, and the Opioid Epidemic,” and “The Impact of Lead Exposure on Our Students: What Can Schools do to Mitigate the Problem”; a panel discussion on “Taking the Pulse of U.S. Health Care: 50 Days Into the Trump Administration”; 11 seminars co-sponsored with the Research Program in Development Studies; and several public colloquia featuring speakers on diverse global health topics.
• The center sponsored a wide range of research initiatives by affiliated faculty and associates, including “Setting Limits and Their Relation to Well-Being in End of Life Care”; “Policy and Health Implications of Novel Genetic Variants in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study”; and “Mapping Access to Hospital Care: Exploratory Research on the Drivers and Consequences of Hospital Closures in New Jersey (1990 to the Present).”
• The center hosted three visiting fellows, two research scholars, and five postdoctoral research associates working on projects ranging from examining the juridical and institutional terrain of reproductive health in Mexico to economic consequences of large-scale malaria interventions in Africa.
Center for Information Technology Policy
• Leadership passed midyear from Acting Director Nick Feamster back to Director Edward W. Felten, when Felten returned from a 20-month public service leave. Feamster was appointed to the newly created deputy director position, recognizing his leadership and larger role in the center.
• The joint faculty search in technology policy succeeded in hiring Jonathan Mayer, who will start as assistant professor of computer science and public affairs in January 2018. Mayer is an undergraduate alumnus of the center (a Wilson School concentrator who excelled in computer science courses) who went on to receive his J.D. and Ph.D. in computer science, both from Stanford University, then to work at the Federal Communications Commission and as a Senate staffer.
• The center launched an initiative on policy for the security and privacy of the Internet of Things. The center has established a consortium of leaders in the area — including the Hewlett Foundation and private sector experts — to fund a three-year deep dive into the issues, with the goal of igniting forward-looking, long-term policy change. The consortium had its kickoff meeting in January, and discussions there have guided substantial research and engagement on both local and national levels.
• The center has begun a new focus on technology ethics, which has led to the following activities: a new collaboration with the Princeton University Center for Human Values; a series of talks discussing ethical issues in computational social science, algorithms, and artificial intelligence; workshops on the ethics of internet censorship measurement, gender-based violence and safety in information technology design, and the concept of legal personhood for artificial intelligence; and a public conference on the ethics of computer science research.
• During the last year, the center convened 22 lunch seminars, nine other lectures and panels, and six private workshops and public conferences. Members of the center also contributed to numerous events organized by other University groups, most notably the Princeton-Fung Global Forum “Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?”
Center for International Security Studies
• Twenty-two undergraduate and graduate students participated in an international staff ride to Germany and Belgium in March 2017 to study the political and grand strategic challenges of the Cold War. Led by Professor of Politics and International Affairs Aaron L. Friedberg, the group visited sites prominent in Cold War history, and the trip culminated in meetings with high-ranking officials at NATO.
• Nine graduate students traveled to Israel in June with Professor Aaron L. Friedberg and Assistant Professor of Politics and Public and International Affairs Keren Yarhi-Milo on the center’s second international staff ride of the year. Visits to battlefield sites of Arab-Israeli wars from 1948 to the present were combined with meetings at Israeli universities and policy institutes, giving students the opportunity to explore in-depth the history of conflict in the region and the current situation in the Middle East.
• The center’s Program on International Relations and Strategic Affairs, now in its sixth year, featured presentations from leading experts from Princeton and elsewhere on a variety of strategic international issues to six Indian Members of Parliament (MPs). As leaders in their states and parties, the MPs are fully engaged in determining India’s role in the international system, and several former participants in our program are now serving in prominent positions in the Indian government including the cabinet.
• Two author workshops, one on “Hegemonic Order Theory and the American Experience” and the other on the “Hirschman Effect in World Politics,” were held during the past year.
• A continuing cornerstone of the center’s collaborative research partnerships is the Five-University Collaboration on East Asian Security Cooperation. Now in its eighth year, Princeton’s partnership with the University of Tokyo, Peking University, Korea University, and the National University of Singapore has hosted annual workshops that focus on scholarly and policy exchange on problems of security conflict and cooperation in East Asia. The 2016 workshop was hosted by the University of Tokyo, with the 2017 meeting being sponsored by Korea University in Seoul, South Korea.
The Julis-Rabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance
• The center hosted its annual conference “Escalating Risks: China’s Economy, Society, and Financial System,” which was very well attended by Princeton faculty, students, policymakers, and financial market practitioners.
• The center co-organized with the Department of Economics and the Bendheim Center for Finance a luncheon and talk with hedge fund manager Mitchell R. Julis ‘77. The Gilbert Lecture, titled “From the Bronx to Beverly Hills: A Serendipitous Journey Through Finance,” was in conjunction with the dedication of the Julis Romo Rabinowitz building.
• The center provided funding for data purchases for innovative empirical research and funded graduate students to present their work in several conferences. Among the work that is getting more attention is Atif R. Mian’s paper (co-authored with Amir Sufi and Emil Verner), “Household Debt and Business Cycles Worldwide.”
• A new professorship, the John H. Laporte, Jr. Class of 1967 Professorship in Public Policy and Finance was established by the Board of Trustees at their April 8, 2017 meeting. The professorship is in the JulisRabinowitz Center for Public Policy and Finance, and Atif R. Mian is its first recipient.
• In 2017, the center had 36 undergraduate associates, of which 18 were graduating seniors.
Kahneman-Treisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy
• The inaugural symposium to launch the KahnemanTreisman Center for Behavioral Science and Public Policy drew a capacity crowd on Oct. 14, 2016, and featured two panels putting behavioral science and policy research in the context of the academic positioning and applications in practice, respectively.
• As the center was launched with the aim of being a nexus for researchers from a variety of disciplines who are interested in behaviorally oriented questions and applications, the center is pleased to have brought together an inaugural group of more than 50 affiliated faculty members from a dozen University departments and programs.
• High-caliber researchers and practitioners outside of Princeton visited the center throughout the year. The center appointed Maya Shankar, senior adviser for behavioral science at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, as its first visiting research fellow. Standing-room crowds and engaged question and answer periods characterized the center’s inaugural Behavioral Policy Speaker Series, which brought five speakers to campus from a variety of disciplines and practices.
• Through an innovative partnership with the Office of the Executive Vice President, the center has launched the Campus Behavioral Science Initiative to provide leadership both on campus and across higher education in applying behavioral insights to some of the most persistent and costly administrative challenges in the University setting.
• As members of the leadership council of the Behavioral Science and Policy Association, Kahneman-Treisman Center leaders have provided guidance in setting the strategic direction of the field and the leading umbrella organization promoting public understanding of how empirically validated insights from behavioral science can provide innovative and effective policy solutions to today’s myriad social and organizational challenges.
Liechtenstein Institute on Self-Determination
• The institute received a challenge grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York for core support to convene international representatives, policymakers, experts, academics, and actors and representatives from the public and private sectors to generate policy-related research and proposals for peace and security.
• A first preparatory colloquium on “Security: Internal and External, Its Interactions and Perceptions” was held in August 2016 in Triesenberg, Liechtenstein, and addressed an emerging definition of security in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region, expanding on traditional notions of “hard security” and conflicts between great powers — specifically Ukraine, the Balkans, Syria, and the resulting refugee and migration issues — and also security challenges including cyber and radicalization, i.e., ISIS/Daesh, and terror.
Conflict Agenda,” at the Woodrow Wilson School. The event
• The institute held its Advisory Council Meeting and hosted an International Colloquium on “Generational Perspectives
Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance
• The Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance organized a number of conferences and workshops, beginning in fall of 2016 with “The Politics of Multinational Firms” hosted by Helen V. Milner, the B.C. Forbes Professor of Politics and International Affairs; Assistant Professor of Politics Faisal Z. Ahmed; Alexander Slaski; and Sarah Bauerle Danzman of Indiana University.
• The center hosted “Evidence of What: A Conference Challenging What We Think We Know About Africa” in October 2016 with faculty hosts Milner and Carolyn Rouse, Chair of the Department of Anthropology and Director of the Program in African Studies. Another conference held in October 2016, “Strategies and Tactics of State Repression,” was hosted by Carles Boix, the Robert Garrett Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at Princeton and Laia Balcells of Duke University.
• In December 2016, the center organized two conferences. The first, “Organizational Ecology and Institutional Change in Global Governance,” was hosted by Robert O. Keohane, professor of international affairs; Kenneth Abbott of Arizona State University; and Jessica Green of New York University. The second conference, “Political Economy of Emerging Market Countries: The Challengers of Developing More Humane Societies,” was hosted by Milner, Edward Mansfield of the University of Pennsylvania, and Nita Rudra of Georgetown University.
• Two additional conferences were held in the spring of 2017, starting with “Public Opinion and Foreign Aid,” hosted by Gabriella Montinola from the University of California, Davis; and Simone Dietrich from the University of Essex. The second conference, “Electoral Realignments in Advances Democracies,” was hosted by Boix and Rafaela Dancygier, associate professor of politics and international affairs.
Office of Population Research
• Professor of Sociology Matthew Salganik received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation to co-sponsor the first Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at Princeton University in June 2017. The purpose of the institute is to introduce graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and beginning faculty to computational social science. The institute is for both social and data scientists.
• Sara McLanahan, William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, received funding from the Russell Sage Foundation to launch the Fragile Families Challenge, a scientific mass collaboration that combines predictive modeling, causal inference, and in-depth interviews in order to learn more about the lives of disadvantaged children.
• Dalton Conley, Henry Putnam University Professor of Sociology, received an award from the MacArthur Foundation-supported Connected Learning Research Network to analyze the relation between school, family dynamics, and connected learning in two nationally representative data-sets — the Child Development Supplement of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health — while also conducting online experiments exploring social learning among synchronous groups of gamers.
•With funding from the Erasmus Trust Fund and other European organizations, Douglas S. Massey, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, joined with Maurice Crul of Erasmus University Rotterdam to organize and host at the Office of Population Research the 2016 Summer School of the Network on International Migration, Integration, and Social Cohesion, which was titled “New Immigration and the Redefinition of the Mainstream: Transatlantic Perspectives.”
Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program
• The postdoctoral fellows of 2016 to 2017 had publications in Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, and International Security on topics such as U.S.-China relations, China-Taiwan relations, North Korea and regional security, and maritime disputes in the East and South China Seas.
• From 2016 to 2017, the program hosted 22 lectures.
• The program hosted a workshop at Georgia Institute of Technology to review and critique the postdoctoral fellows’ book projects.
• The program has selected four outstanding candidates for the 2017-18 academic year. Their biographies, as well as last year’s events and publications, can be found at cwp.princeton. edu.
• The Carnegie Corporation renewed the program’s work for another three years beginning January 2017.
Program in Law and Public Affairs
• The Program in Law and Public Affairs hosted seminars and workshops featuring works in progress by distinguished legal scholars and program fellows.
• The program hosted “Hot-off-the-Press,” a series of book talks by authors of recently published law-related books.
• The program organized “Trump and the Constitution” public programs, including panels of experts exploring topics of immigrant rights, politics, and the appointment of judges.
• The Donald S. Bernstein ’75 Lecture was given by AnneMarie Slaughter ’80, the Bert G. Kerstetter ’66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, Emeritus, on “Populism, Globalism, and the Decline of the Post-War International Order.”
• The program also organized the student programs “LawEngaged Graduate Student Seminars” and “Law in the Public Service: Not Just for Lawyers,” a series of dinners for public policy students.
The Program in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy
• A $2 million grant was awarded to the Program on Science and Global Security to train the next generation of nuclear arms control experts.
• Elke U. Weber, Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor in Energy and the Environment and professor of psychology and public affairs, joined the program’s core faculty, adding expertise on the policy dimensions of how finite actors judge, decide, act, and live in a world that is only partially predictable.
• Department of Sociology Assistant Professor Janet Vertesi joined the program’s affiliated faculty, adding expertise in the areas of sociology of technology, sociology of science, work and technology, human organizations, and human computer interaction.
• Christopher F. Chyba, professor of astrophysical sciences and international affairs, co-chaired a report for President Obama on protecting the United States against biological attack.
• A number of STEP students were recognized for their work:
- Maya Buchanan, Ph.D. candidate, won the outstanding student paper from the American Geophysical Union for the second year in a row.
- Pacific Standard magazine listed Tamara Patton, Ph.D. candidate, as one of 2017’s 30 Top Thinkers under 30 for her work on nuclear disarmament and virtual reality simulations.
- Jane Baldwin, Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the top student paper at the eighth annual conference of the American Meteorological Society.
• In addition, six Princeton undergraduates received fellowships to attend the Earth Optimism Summit in Washington, D.C., at the Smithsonian Institution in April 2017.
Program on Science and Global Security
• Frank N. von Hippel, senior research physicist and professor of public and international affairs, emeritus, and Michael Schoeppner, a postdoctoral researcher, studied the consequences of a possible fire at nuclear reactor spent fuel pools, and showed such a fire on average could contaminate an area twice the size of New Jersey with radioactivity, require relocating 8 million people, and cause $2 trillion worth of damage.
• Research scholar Bruce G. Blair, working with the Global Zero movement for the elimination of nuclear weapons, established a ten-country Nuclear Crisis Group of experts and former senior officials. The group aims to monitor situations of potential nuclear conflict and offer recommendations to prevent such crises from escalating to the use of nuclear weapons.
• In 2016, the United Nations General Assembly called for negotiation of a treaty to ban nuclear weapons. The program’s co-directors Alexander Glaser, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and international affairs, and Research Scientist Zia Mian, along with Wilson School Ph.D. student Tamara Patton have been informing these ban treaty talks, which began in March 2017 and involve over 100 countries, on the verification challenges involved in achieving nuclear disarmament.
• In 2017, the program received a $2 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation to educate and train the next generation of researchers and scientists studying nuclear nonproliferation, arms control, and disarmament.
• Professor of Astrophysical Sciences and International Affairs Christopher F. Chyba co-chaired the biodefense working group of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology that produced the November 2016 report to President Obama, “Action Needed to Protect Against Biological Attack.”
Survey Research Center
• The Survey Research Center received a grant of $383,891 from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to conduct research on reducing classification errors in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Contingent Worker Supplement.
• The center completed the subject recruitment phase of the MDiary project, an innovative smartphone-based study of teen relationships. Subjects are participants in the Fragile Families Study.
• The center organized and co-sponsored a public lecture titled “The Future of Survey Research” by Jon A. Krosnick of Stanford University on Sept. 19, 2016.
• The center provided survey data for a lecture given by the Survey Research Center’s director and the Bendheim Professor of Economics and Public Affairs Alan B. Krueger following his acceptance of the 2017 Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize from the American Academy of Political and Social Science.
• The center completed work on the Graduate Education Initiative Study after the final year of a three-year grant of $500,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Graduate Policy Workshops
Considering the Millennium Challenge: Exploring Global Poverty
In fall 2016, students in Ethan B. Kapstein’s graduate policy workshop, “Ensuring the LongRun Impact of Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Country Compacts,” examined how the MCC applies policy principles to U.S. foreign aid.
In 2004, the Bush administration founded the MCC, aiming to create a more efficient foreign aid delivery system. Under this system, in order to receive any aid, the developing nation must commit to high levels of transparency, economic freedom, and citizen empowerment.
After researching the MCC and the landscape of foreign aid, the students split into teams, each assuming responsibility for interviewing MCC staff who work with one of three areas — Moldova, Senegal, and Washington, D.C., where the MCC is headquartered.
The students’ research demonstrated that sustaining, maintaining, and monitoring foreign aid projects is a significant challenge for everyone involved at the MCC.
To guide the MCC in addressing these challenges, the students drafted a policy analysis of findings and recommendations. On March 3, 2017, the students presented their final report, “Ensuring the Long-Run Sustainability of MCC Country Compacts,” to the MCC. Their presentation was attended by 60-plus MCC staff, including senior management and the acting CEO, as well as Wilson School alumni who currently work for the corporation.
Reimagining the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey
Struggling with significant financial and political challenges, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is one of the country’s largest infrastructure joint ventures.
Students examined the issues plaguing the Port Authority in Tom Wright’s fall 2016 graduate policy workshop, “Reforming the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.”
Throughout the semester, students interviewed staff at the Port Authority as well as those at the Port of Seattle, Transport for London, and Singapore Mass Rapid Transit. They also examined cities with strong transportation infrastructure, such as Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Singapore, and Hong Kong, and considered how to apply best practices from those cities to the challenges faced by the Port Authority.
The workshop culminated in a report outlining specific recommendations for reforming and restructuring the agency. Some of the suggestions included: 1) moving the Port Authority to an electoral board model to ensure representation and accountability; 2) giving the Port Authority the ability to capture the value it creates with infrastructure investment; and 3) bringing greater transparency and autonomy to the functioning of business units.
Students in Ethan B. Kapstein’s graduate policy workshop examined the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and presented a policy analysis to more than 60 MCC staff members. (Photo courtesy of Ethan B. Kapstein)
Undergraduate Policy Task Force
Lending a Hand: Students Join the Fight for Human Rights in China
Preserving Human Rights and Civil Society in China,” an undergraduate Policy Task Force taught in fall 2016 by Martin S. Flaherty, visiting professor at the Wilson School, placed students into a day in the life of lawyers and activists fighting Chinese civil society injustice.
Throughout the semester-long task force, students conducted extensive legal research to consider how the U.S. government and nongovernmental organizations can most effectively assist Chinese activists. They examined issues such as domestic violence, access to education for disabled students, and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Students heard from and interviewed experts including Xiaowen Liang, a women’s rights advocate who worked with the “Feminist Five” — a group of five Chinese women arrested for handing out stickers about sexual harassment in Beijing — and Susan O’Sullivan, director of the Office of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL), U.S. State Department.
In January 2017, the students presented their policy recommendations to the DRL, urging the organization to strengthen its collaborative efforts with the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China. They also encouraged the State Department to attach specific conditions to China’s demonstrated efforts to reduce trafficking of North Korean citizens within the next year.
A class led by Martin S. Flaherty placed students into a day in the life of lawyers and activists fighting Chinese civil society injustice. (Photo courtesy of Richard Chang ’17)
Graduate Admissions
Successful candidates to the Woodrow Wilson School graduate program demonstrate a commitment to public service, a diversity of thought and background, and an ability to learn what we teach. In making admission decisions, we consider a number of factors, weighing each according to the strengths of the individual applicant.
Master in Public Affairs
FIELDS OF CONCENTRATION
When applying to the Wilson School, graduate students choose from one of four fields of concentration. The chart below reflects the fields chosen by those who were admitted to the program in 2017.
Master in Public Policy
FIELDS OF CONCENTRATION
When applying to the Wilson School, graduate students choose from one of four fields of concentration. The chart below reflects the fields chosen by those who were admitted to the program in 2017.
Ph.D. in Public Affairs
FIELDS OF CONCENTRATION
When applying to the Wilson School, Ph.D. students choose from one of two academic clusters. The chart below reflects the fields chosen by those who were admitted to the program in 2017.
Public Affairs Lectures
Learning is not limited to the formal curriculum. WWS students are fully engaged in learning about public policy outside the classroom. They attend almost-daily lectures by leading policymakers and practitioners, participate in extracurricular organizations, and conduct fieldwork around the globe.
27
Public Lectures
30
12
Lunch-Timers Leadership Through Mentorship Visitors
Hon. Willy Mutunga
Former Chief Justice and President of the Supreme Court of Kenya
Ana Navarro
CNN Political Commentator and Republican Strategist
Teresa C. Younger
President and CEO, Ms. Foundation for Women
Amb. Michael B.G. Froman ’85
Former U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President
Anthony W. Marx MPA ’86
President and Chief Executive Officer, The New York Public Library
Fr. Gregory Boyle, S.J.
Founder and Executive Director, Homeboy Industries
Hon. Rosalie Silberman Abella
Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada
May Boeve
Executive Director, 350.org
Cheryl L. Dorsey
President, Echoing Green
Gen. Michael V. Hayden (Ret.) Principal, The Chertoff Group; Former Director, CIA; Former Director, NSA
Gen. David H. Petraeus (Ret.) MPA ’85, Ph.D. ’87 Former Director, CIA; Member, Chairman, KKR Global Institute
Beth F. Cobert ’80
Former Acting Director, U.S. Office of Personnel Management
Student Life
Center for International Security Studies Travels to Germany and Belgium to Experience Cold War History
In April 2017, 22 students and fellows of the Wilson School’s Center for International Security Studies headed to Germany and Belgium for an eight-day spring break trip to explore Cold War history. Participants were required to become experts on one aspect of the Cold War, presenting at different destinations to connect historic European sites to their importance in the grand strategy.
The trip began in Berlin, where student presentations explored how the Allies came to divide the city of Berlin and its ramifications on power politics. From Berlin, the group then headed to Fulda, Germany, where they visited the Point Alpha Memorial, the Rasdorf Overlook, and the Hofbieber Bowl. All three areas were critical in tracking the planning and operations of the Warsaw Pact.
Students and fellows spent their last day in Belgium, where they spoke with NATO representatives about the organization’s inception, current challenges, and lasting importance.
Woos Help Trentonians Tackle Tax Season
Low-income
clients at Arm in Arm food pantry have received free tax preparation from graduate students of the Wilson School for the past four years. This volunteer work in Trenton — New Jersey’s state capital that borders Princeton — allows the students to witness policy topics playing out in the real world, such as how the Earned Income Tax Credit can provide money in the form of a refundable tax credit to low-income residents.
In fall 2016, the students attended a threehour training on the Princeton University campus to learn about the tax filing process and how to use the software to complete returns. Starting the first week of the spring semester and continuing throughout tax season, volunteers visited Arm in Arm every Friday to prepare clients’ tax returns. One day, the students completed 30 returns.
“It was a really good way of getting out of the ‘orange bubble’ and working with lowincome clients,” said site coordinator Ryan Stoffers MPA ’17.
Service Auction Raises More Than $16,000 for Charity Benefiting Trenton Youth
InDecember 2016, the Wilson School graduate students held their ninth annual signature event: a service auction, which this year benefited Isles Youth Institute (IYI), based in Trenton, New Jersey.
IYI fosters self-reliant families and healthy communities by helping disconnected youth work through life challenges and meet educational and career goals. This year’s event raised more than $16,000 for the nonprofit, which will be used to improve IYI’s technology and facilities, as well as expand its sphere of influence in the realm of public policy.
Organized by the Woodrow Wilson Action Committee, the graduate student government body of the Wilson School, the event flooded Robertson Hall’s Bernstein Gallery and Dodds Auditorium with people from the Wilson School community enthusiastically bidding on goods and experiences.
Donations ranged from international gifts such as a Syrian handmade box to a lunch in New York City with Nobel Prize winner and Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology, Emeritus, and Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs, Emeritus, Daniel Kahneman; and Class of 1987 Professor in Behavioral Science and Public Policy and Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Eldar Shafir, which sold at the live auction for more than $1,000. As is the tradition, Dean Cecilia Elena Rouse donated her coveted parking space for one month, which brought in $500. To start the bidding, a $1 bill was auctioned off, fetching $500, to demonstrate the true intent of the auction: giving.
Students and fellows of the Center for International Security Studies went to Germany and Belgium to study Cold War history. Above, the students and fellows are standing in front of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, which was the crossing point between the former communist East Berlin and West Berlin. (Photo courtesy of Katherine K. Elgin)
Wilson School graduate students held their ninth annual service auction in December 2016, benefiting Isles Youth Institute in Trenton, New Jersey. This year’s event raised more than $16,000. (Photo credit: Egan Jimenez, Woodrow Wilson School)
Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative
In November 2016, ten students at Princeton were selected for the 2017 cohort of the Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI), which is managed by the Woodrow Wilson School.
Established in 2006, SINSI is designed to encourage, support, and prepare the nation’s top students to pursue careers in the federal government, in both international and domestic agencies. Through rigorous academic training integrated with work experience, the goal of the highly competitive scholarship program is to provide students with the language and workplace skills needed to succeed in the public policy arena.
GRADUATE SCHOLARS:
The core element of the graduate program is a twoyear SINSI-supported fellowship with an executive branch department or agency, usually placed between the first and second year of the MPA program. Applicants are either Princeton University seniors or students enrolled in the first year of the Wilson School’s MPA program.
In addition, as of summer 2017, SINSI provides funding for 8- to 10-week summer internships. Internships are available to Princeton undergraduates from all majors and fields of study as rising sophomores, juniors, or seniors.
The 2017 cohort is the first selected under SINSI’s new leadership. Co-directors Frederick D. (Rick) Barton, lecturer of public and international affairs, and Kathryn R. (Kit) Lunney began their appointments on Sept. 1, 2016.
Kishan Bhatt ’17 is a Woodrow Wilson School major and a certificate candidate in global health as well as American studies. A U.S. health policy scholar at the Center for Health and Wellbeing, he cares deeply about policies that encourage medical innovation, disease prevention, and value-based health care delivery.
Emily Chen ’17 is a civil and environmental engineering major and a certificate candidate in German language and culture. With an aim to address climate change, she has studied environmental engineering, volunteered as an environmental activist, and interned at a regional governmental agency.
Olivia Hompe ’17 is a Woodrow Wilson School major and a certificate candidate in Near Eastern studies. Proficient in Arabic, she focuses on security studies in the Middle East and North Africa.
Nabil Shaikh ’17 is a politics major and a certificate candidate in global health and policy and in values and public life. Shaikh has spent his time at Princeton broadening his understanding of how various actors and policies shape health and wellness in society.
INTERNS:
Caroline Jones ’18 is a junior in the Woodrow Wilson School focusing on conflict and cooperation. She is pursuing certificates in Latin American studies and the history and practice of diplomacy.
Sam Rasmussen ’19 has yet to decide his major but is pursuing a certificate in East Asian studies. He spent two years serving as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, where he learned Mandarin Chinese.
John L. “Newby” Parton ’18 is a Woodrow Wilson School major and a certificate candidate in values and public life and urban studies. Parton has focused his academic work on the judicial branch and public service journalism.
Sarah Sakha ’18 is a Woodrow Wilson School major and a certificate candidate in Near Eastern studies and values and public life. She has attained proficiency in Spanish and elementary proficiency in Arabic, and is currently studying Arabic.
Elon Schmidt-Swartz ’18 is an A.B. candidate in the Department of Philosophy and a certificate candidate in the Program in European Cultural Studies. Schmidt-Swartz’s primary focus is in political theory and moral philosophy, with a particular interest in the principles of justice that underlie public establishments in Europe and America.
Jordan Thomas ’18 is a Woodrow Wilson School major pursuing dual certificates in Portuguese language and culture and African American studies. Thomas is particularly interested in the role that law, public policy, and high-quality education play in expanding access and opportunity for disadvantaged populations.
Summer Programs
The Public Policy & International Affairs
Junior Summer Institute
Since1985, the Wilson School has hosted the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI), a seven-week intensive summer institute for rising college seniors. Students for this year’s program submitted applications to the School’s Graduate Admissions Office in November 2016, were informed about acceptance in February 2017, and showed up on campus in June. The program is directed by the Graduate Program Office.
Aiming to prepare undergraduate students for graduate study and careers in public policy and international affairs, JSI comprises a rigorous curriculum focused on writing, critical thinking, public speaking and quantitative reasoning skills. It requires coursework in economics and statistics, and policy workshops. In response to a program review in academic year 2016-2017, the program strengthened instruction on policy writing and, working with the Wilson School’s Career Services Office, offered more career development.
This year’s diverse JSI cohort consisted of 34 students, representing 31 colleges and universities in the United States and 26 majors. The students hailed from 13 states as well as China, Nigeria, and Singapore. Each arrived to Princeton with a unique academic background and a desire to cultivate and refine their skills and interests in public policy.
Each year, a highlight of the program is the policy workshop, where students examine a “real life” policy issue. Two are offered each summer, one focused on international issues and one on domestic. Each culminates in a group report and presentation in which students present policy analyses to a panel of experts and practitioners.
This year, the international workshop examined issues in Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East that pertain to U.S. security interests and presented to a panel including former U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Lino Gutiérrez; Cynthia Watson, professor of security, National War College; and Joel Danies, foreign service officer at the U.S. Department of State. The international workshop was led by James Gadsen, MCF ’85, former U.S. ambassador to Iceland (2002-2005) and former lecturer and diplomat-in-residence.
Students in the domestic workshop each focused on one policy component of a complex issue: how to improve health outcomes among Rhode Island’s Medicaid recipients. They presented to a panel including Chad Shearer, vice president for policy and director of the Medicaid Institute, United Hospital Fund of New York; Quiana Lewis, program associate, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; and Deb Florio, deputy Medicaid director and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) director for the state of Rhode Island. The domestic workshop was led by Daniel Meuse, who serves as deputy director of the State Health Reform Assistance Network housed within the Wilson School’s Center for Health and Wellbeing.
As the new JSI director at the Wilson School, Laura De Olden concluded the final workshop presentations by commending the students and panelists for their efforts.
“It is not easy to put together a report like the one you put together, especially under the time constraints and the very intense summer of economics and statistics,” De Olden said. “We are grateful to our panelists for sharing their knowledge and encouraging you to frame your proposals in ways that are politically feasible, which is key to the policymaking process.”
The Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute’s Summer Policy Academy
This year marked the 10th annual Santa Fe Indian School Leadership Institute’s Summer Policy Academy (SPA), hosted at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.
Fifteen rising juniors, seniors, and recent high school graduates from a diverse group of indigenous tribes in New Mexico spent a week on the Princeton University campus for a rigorous weeklong program focusing on current challenges and federal policies affecting Native American communities.
Launched in 2008, the SPA program engages students from New Mexico in intensive sessions focused on leadership, public policy, and community issues. The training students receive equips them to become advisers of policy in their own communities.
The SPA program is co-sponsored and codirected by Regis Pecos ‘77, former chief of staff to the speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives and former director of policy and legislative affairs for the Office of the Majority Floor Leader. The other co-founder and codirector is Carnell Chosa from Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico.
“The program has provided phenomenal opportunities for nearly 300 high school students from New Mexico,” Pecos said. “The research and advocacy that was part of their experience in this program has helped to define their career paths. Many reflect upon this experience as a turning point in their lives.”
To participate in the SPA program, students must be nominated by teachers, community leaders, professionals, and tribal leaders. They spend their week at Princeton participating in roundtable discussions, case studies, and presentations by Native American leaders and noted scholars, examining policymaking on the state and federal levels. They are encouraged to think critically about solutions to the challenges facing their communities.
Once the week concluded, the class traveled to Washington, D.C., and students presented their findings and policy recommendations to U.S. representatives and senators representing New Mexico, as well as officials from the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) and the National Museum of the American Indian.
This year’s students represented the following tribes: Ohkay Owingeh, Santa Clara/Paiute Shoshone, Santo Domingo Pueblo, Tesuque Pueblo, Lakota, Jicarilla Apache, Zuni Pueblo, Hopi, Isleta Pueblo, Laguna Pueblo, Mescalero Apache, San Ildefonse Pueblo, Jemez Pueblo, Navajo and Santa Clara Pueblo.
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Wilson School Hosts Naturalization Ceremony for New U.S. Citizens
“Community Swell” Needed to Address Racial Justice and Policing in America
InApril, 46 people from 28 countries took the Naturalization Oath of Allegiance to America, administered by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Newark District Director John E. Thompson, during a special naturalization ceremony held at the Wilson School.
University President Christopher L. Eisgruber gave opening remarks and welcomed the citizenship candidates to the ceremony. Lynne Johnson, Regina Leidy, and Nancy McCollough, staff members of the Wilson School, performed “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
“As a university deeply committed to being a place of welcome for students, faculty, and staff from all over the world, and as a member of an historic community that played a role in the founding of our nation, Princeton is proud to be hosting this special ceremony for our newest citizens,” Eisgruber said.
The new citizens, including two Princeton University professors and one student, are from 27 towns in New Jersey, and originated from the following 28 countries: Albania, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Jamaica, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Nigeria, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom.
To highlight the importance of U.S. citizenship, USCIS often participates in special ceremonies to increase public awareness of the U.S. citizenship process. In fiscal year 2016, USCIS welcomed 752,772 citizens during naturalization ceremonies, and 40,517 of these new citizens were naturalized in New Jersey.
The Wilson School held a daylong forum, “From Ferguson to Dallas to Charlotte: Racial Justice and Policing in America,” in December 2016, convening research scholars, former and current senior law enforcement officials, activists, policymakers, students, and community members to examine how law enforcement and communities can better work together to ensure residents’ safety and well-being.
In his opening remarks, Benjamin Jealous — former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, visiting lecturer, and John L. Weinberg Visiting Professor — set the tone of the day’s discussion.
“We have to come together across old lines,” Jealous said. “We have to find a way that we all have an interest in making sure there’s a functional relationship between the police and the communities most in need in our country.”
While the panels and keynote addresses were wideranging, several themes emerged. Speakers particularly
focused on police training and reform, strengthening community relations, using activism to effect change, and the role of policy today and in the future.
The day’s discussions ended with a look toward the future with two keynote addresses by Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., and Paul J. Fishman ‘78 and then-U.S. attorney for the District of New Jersey.
Coleman detailed policies enacted by Congress aimed at addressing a number of policing practices. A number of these focus on the use of force, de-escalation training, investigations, and data collection, as well as alternatives to arrests and mandated criminal investigations.
“We need a community swell,” she said. “We are harkening back to a period of activism that is so vitally important. We need to take a very serious look at how we protect those who are most vulnerable among us. … We have a lot of work to do in the next couple of years.”
Princeton-Fung Global Forum Asks, “Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?”
In March 2017, about 450 industry experts, scholars, advocates, and students, as well as 30 reporters and editors from German and American media, gathered in Berlin to hear speakers discuss liberty in the digital age at the fourth Princeton-Fung Global Forum.
The two-day conference, “Society 3.0+: Can Liberty Survive the Digital Age?” was spearheaded by the Wilson School, which organized the event with staff members across campus and with Princeton’s strategic international partner, Humboldt UniversityBerlin.
The forum examined the balance between privacy and security, analyzing how technology affects liberty and democracy. Keynote presentations and panel discussions focused on privacy, human rights, and surveillance in an increasingly digitally connected world.
Forty speakers from the tech industry, academia, government, and nongovernmental organizations participated, including eight Princeton faculty from computer science, engineering, public affairs, and sociology departments. Journalists from CNBC, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The New York Times, Slate, and Vox served as moderators. Wilson School Dean Cecilia Elena Rouse acted as Master of Ceremonies.
Welcoming participants to the opening session, Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber said the balance between liberty and privacy requires communication and collaboration across disciplines, spheres, and political viewpoints.
“Crafting effective industry and public policy solutions to the challenge of accommodating both liberty and privacy in the digital age will require communication and collaboration across disciplines, across spheres of influence, and across political viewpoints,” Eisgruber said. “Princeton University is a place where that kind of interdisciplinary collaboration thrives, and we hope to have brought that spirit to bear in the organization of this forum.”
In the first keynote address, Vinton Cerf, vice president and chief internet evangelist at Google and a principal architect of the original internet, asked “Can liberty survive the digital age? I am going to say yes, but only if we make it so.” He continued, “There is going to be work ahead for us to answer that question positively … We must exercise critical thinking if we are going to maintain liberty in the digital age.”
Cerf’s compelling argument quickly emerged as the theme of the two-day conference, which began with a look at how different countries and sectors view privacy and concluded with a global vision for Web 3.0+.
Other keynote speakers included Microsoft President Brad Smith ‘81, who suggested creating a digital Geneva Convention; Roger Dingledine, project leader for The Tor Project, a nonprofit that is developing ways to use the internet without being tracked; and Neelie Kroes, former EU commissioner for competition policy and commissioner in charge of the digital agenda in Europe.
Kroes’ final words provided a directive for the future: “The internet is a powerful tool. We need to treat it like it is. I challenge you to make a difference.”
The question and answer period after each speaker and panel brought many from the audience into the discussion. The lively discussion also extended online via Facebook, Snapchat, and Twitter, guided by 13 Princeton students who helped staff with the behind-the-scenes responsibilities of organizing the conference. The #PrincetonFung hashtag trended on Twitter in three countries over both days, meaning that it was one of the top ten discussions on that platform in the United States, Germany, and Switzerland.
The Princeton-Fung Global Forum was established in 2012 as part of a $10-million gift from William Fung ‘70, group chairman of the Hong Kong-based company Li & Fung and former Princeton trustee.
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
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Editor
Elisabeth Hirschhorn Donahue
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Egan Jimenez
Project Manager
B. Rose Kelly
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Sarah M. Binder
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Writers
Sarah M. Binder
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B. Rose Kelly
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Eilyn Chong MPP ’17
Richard Chang ‘17
Katherine K. Elgin, Ph.D. Candidate
Egan Jimenez
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