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Research & centers

Politics-sponsored endeavors

The organized research endeavors sponsored by the Department of Politics include:

The Bobst Center, directed by Professor Jennifer Widner, sponsors conferences and other activities focused on the fostering of peace and justice concerns worldwide.

The Madison program, directed by Professor Robert George, supports scholarship on conservative political thought, constitutional law, law and religion, and public policy.

PLESS, directed by Professor Thomas Palfrey, is the department's newest venture; founded in 2004, it is a laboratory specially built to support the investigation of issues of interest to political scientists, economists, political psychologists, neuroscientists, game theorists, and others interested in the experimental investigation of human reasoning, judgment, decision making, and behavior.

The Research Program in Political Economy (RPPE), directed by Professor Thomas Romer, was created by the joint initiative of the Politics department, the Economics department, and the Woodrow Wilson School. It supports scholarship at the intersection of economics and political science. Designed to facilitate greater interaction across departments at Princeton as well as with the broader disciplines, the program sponsors research workshops and colloquia, conferences, short-term visits to Princeton by scholars who work in political economy, and grants to students to aid their research in political economy.

The Bobst center and the Madison program both occupy Bobst Hall, a newly restored 19th century building (formerly one of Princeton's eating clubs) on Prospect Avenue. This facility, which contains two conference areas and a kitchen, allows each organization to produce an extensive schedule of conference activities; the Madison program also hosts 5-7 visiting scholars each year and produces a series of seminars held in various locations around the country. 

Bobst Hall also houses two of Princeton's study abroad programs: Princeton in Africa, and Princeton in Asia. The co-location is serendipitous, but it also highlights a longstanding association between the department and study abroad programs at Princeton; until recently, Politics was chaired by Jeffrey Herbst, who as an undergraduate at Princeton in the 1970s helped to co-found Princeton's first study abroad programs and remained an advocate for study abroad during his tenure as professor and chair of the department.

PLESS occupies a purpose-built suite of offices in the basement of Fisher Hall, which is attached to Corwin Hall, the home of the Department of Politics.