Since 2007, students have been traveling the globe with the Global Seminars and making a direct link between their academic studies and the places at the heart of the subject matter.

Offered each summer, the Global Seminars teach across disciplines and make concrete connections between pedagogy and place. Taught by Princeton educators in partnership with select host institutions, each six-week seminar features:

  • Small cohorts of 12-15 students
  • Lectures by seminar faculty and prominent local guests
  • Language classes
  • Weekend excursions to the sites being studied
  • Immersion in course material that inspires new insight

In addition to enriching their coursework, many Global Seminar students find inspiration that carries them beyond their time at Princeton. As one student said in our 2020 alumni survey, “I signed up for the wildlife filmmaking Global Seminar in Kenya because I had a minor interest in films, and I definitely wanted to spend the summer seeing wildlife. The experience ended up changing my life completely—I fell in love with the process of documentary filmmaking, which is now my full-time career.”

Experiences that Create New Possibilities

Alumni Voices

Real-World Learning

I was interested in seeing how the academic questions the seminar addressed played out in real social space—on the streets, in public transportation, in public institutions—in a context different to the familiar U.S. setting.

A Princeton Highlight

My Global Seminar was one of the highlights of my Princeton experience. It truly inspired me and influenced my course of study because it exposed me to new areas of study in a way that was totally immersive and real.

Transformation

You have both the classroom rigor of Princeton and the novelty of studying somewhere new, without the pressure of exclusively focusing on the language or culture of a place. In a way, it makes study abroad more transcendent.

Finding Regional Synergies

Global Seminars are produced in partnership with departments, centers and programs across Princeton, as well as with regional studies programs housed within PIIRS. Taking a wide view of international studies, they have focused on everything from pure science to the performing arts.

There is often a distinct programmatic overlap with our centers, programs and research projects that inspires innovative research and teaching. For example, the Global Seminar “Becoming Brazil,” hosted by the prominent Instituto Moreira Salles in Rio de Janeiro, has become a flagship course offering of the Brazil Lab . Along the same lines, both the M.S. Chadha Center for Global India and the Paul and Marcia Wythes Center on Contemporary China regularly incorporate Global Seminars into their programming.

Such synergies highlight the far-reaching impact of Princeton’s collective commitment to promoting research, learning and dialogue on world cultures and global issues.

By the Numbers

15

years of global experiences

25

countries

50

international partners

75

seminars and counting

1,000+

students