Description

The Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice offers competitive graduate dissertation grants to be awarded to the most promising graduate student dissertation research projects. These awards, of up to $12,000, will be granted to Princeton doctoral students in the sub-field of comparative politics only. Grants are available to students working in the areas of peace and justice and enrolled in the sub-field of comparative politics as their primary field (i.e., admitted as CP students, attending the CP student graduate seminar, etc.). 

The application deadline is January 26, 2026. Proposal and submission guidelines can be found below. Note that students may simultaneously apply to both this grant program and the regular twice-per-year Bobst graduate dissertation and pre-dissertation research grants.

Guidelines for Proposal

1. The proposal must follow the below structure. Proposals that do not follow the below structure (please use the same headings) and format will not be reviewed.
   1. Introduction: State your research question, explain why it is important and how it relates to peace and justice.
   2. Review of existing research: The review should not be comprehensive, but it should give non-experts a sense of the major developments and debates surrounding your research question. Explain how your research project will advance knowledge given existing research.
   3. Research question and theory: Spell out your research question, theory and hypotheses in greater detail.
   4. Research design and setting: Provide details on the research design (define and operationalize concepts, units of analysis, type of research instrument, etc.) and empirical setting.
   5. Budget: provide a reasonable overview of research expenses (e.g., transportation, survey costs, accommodation, visa costs, etc.). Meals are not covered. The maximum amount is $12,000.
   6. Other Funding: Indicate from what other sources within and outside the University you have solicited funding.
   7. Conclusion: Brief conclusion indicating the significance and limitations of your expected findings.
   8. References

2. Format: Please limit your proposal to no more than 4,000 words. This word limit includes your budget page but excludes references. Please do not link to external documents or include appendices.

    

Note to Graduate Students

• Please discuss your proposal with at least two faculty members who can provide letters of reference.
• Interviews and surveys usually require university human subjects clearance, under federal law. You should be familiar with the rules and prepare your project for review. If you do not have clearance by the time the committee makes its decisions, the Center will make an award conditional on receipt of IRB waiver or approval.
• Depending on the size of the award, funds may be held and paid out through the University’s financial systems.
• If you are awarded a grant that includes travel, you must register this travel with the University.
• All grants require post-project reporting. Recipients are expected to submit a one-page report (with all relevant invoices and receipts) to substantiate the use of funds. The due date for reporting will be one calendar year from the date of grant approval or graduation, whichever comes first. Unused funds must be returned to the Bobst Center.  All reporting should be sent to Michelle Anderson ([email protected]).
• The Bobst Center reserves the right to rescind any award after six months in cases where the awardee has failed to accept the award or provide information needed for the dispersal of the grant money.
• Grants to continue dissertation write-up beyond the University deadline are strongly discouraged.