Research can greatly enhance your experience at Tufts, challenging you to critically apply what you have learned as you explore 'real-world' questions in the field of international relations.

Conducting original research is an invaluable opportunity for students to become scholars: seeking out new knowledge, constructing and testing hypotheses, and formulating their own conclusionsand in the process become vital contributors to international understanding and a global society.

The Tufts IR Program is committed to supporting and promoting high-quality research on international topics by creating and sustaining initiatives that provide the necessary tools for students to gain the skills and preparation needed to successfully undertake and complete an original international research project.

To encourage international research, the IR Program supports the following: (please link to below sections)

• Coursework
• Research Tools
• Scholarships
• Publications/Presentations
• Students' International Research

For more information about international education and research at Tufts University, please visit http://global.tufts.edu.

Coursework
The Senior Seminar, Senior Honors Thesis, and Directed Research Project  represent opportunities to conduct original research on international issues in which you have already gained some knowledge or experience. They are not vehicles for exploring entirely new topics. Rather, they constitute advanced work that represents a higher standard of learning, hopefully bringing to bear in an interdisciplinary manner many of the disciplinary perspectives learned in the Core and Thematic Concentration of the IR major.

Every IR major will choose one of the following options to complete their major.

Senior seminar: provides an integrative opportunity for students to think, research, and communicate critically about political, social, economic, and cultural issues, events, and texts. Building upon knowledge and methods acquired in the Core Requirements and Thematic Concentration, the seminar serves as a capstone experience where students complete a focused research paper, participate in class presentations or debate, and interact closely with faculty.

Senior Honors Thesis: enables students to pursue focused independent research in a specific subject area for two semesters and allows students to graduate with thesis honors.

Directed Research Project: permits students to pursue focused independent research in a specific subject area for one semester.

All students pursuing a Senior Honors Thesis or Directed Research Project are required to submit a research prospectus. To learn how to write a research prospectus, please visit the Research Guidelines page.

Research Tools
The International Research Network (IRN): is an online international research community that helps students conduct research on international issues, particularly while abroad. The IRN guides students through the process of conducting international research toward the successful completion of capstone research projects by providing them with an online toolbox of resources and a network to connect with faculty and their peers.

The International Research Colloquium (INTR 91/92): is a two-course sequence to prepare students for conducting research on international topics while studying abroad. The colloquium provides instruction, both classroom and Web-based, research training, and support for students to conduct research while abroad, to connect with the abroad community, and to prepare for substantive research production in the senior year and beyond.

To learn about additional Research Tools, please visit the Resources page.

Scholarships
Anne E. Borghesani Prize: is an incentive award that enables the recipient(s) to undertake a volunteer activity, internship, research project, or plan of study in any field involving international issues. Honoring Anne Borghesani (J89), the award seeks to foster personal growth, independence, a heightened understanding of all peoples and encourage a commitment to the world community.

International Relations Research Scholars Program: pairs rising seniors with faculty mentors who guide a summer research project in preparation for a Senior Honors Thesis, Directed Research Project, senior seminar paper, Fulbright proposal or other significant research paper in the senior year. The scholarship will support a minimum of eight weeks of IR Core Faculty-mentored summer research for the gathering of materials and data.

To learn more about the IR scholarships, additional Tufts University Scholarships, and external research scholarship opportunities, please visit Scholarships & Funding page.

Publications/Presentations
Students also have the opportunity to publish or present the results of their original research in different on- and off- campus mediums.

• Hemispheres, the Tufts Journal of International Affairs, is one of the few undergraduate journals dedicated to international relations in the United States. The journal addresses a variety of social, economic, political and legal issues, both contemporary and historical, within the framework of international relations.
• NIMEP Insights is the journal produced by NIMEP, New Initiative for Middle East Peace, which is a non-polemical student think-tank and outreach initiative aimed at finding progressive solutions to the historic conflicts in the Middle East.
• Journal of International Relations, is for accepted members of Sigma Iota Rho (SIR), the International Relations Honor Society, and produced at the National headquarters of SIR.
• Undergraduate Research Symposium: includes presentations by undergraduates from all disciplines: natural sciences, social sciences, engineering, humanities, the arts, and international relations.
• Anne E. Borghesani Symposium: is a fun and informative evening where former Borghesani Prize winners share their experiences and/or research from their travels abroad. Not only is this a great opportunity for sophomores and juniors to learn how they could benefit from the support of a Borghesani Prize, but also student can enjoy cultural foods from the previous winners locales.

To learn about additional publication and conference opportunities, please visit the Resources page.

Students' International Research

2008-2009 Student Research Projects on International Relations from the Undergraduate Research Symposium

1. Europe and the Former Soviet Union
• Daniel Yoon (LA '11, IR Major): Russia and Iran: A strategic Geopolitical Partnership?
• Daniel Ferry (LA '10): The Electoral Fortunes of the European Radical Right
• Ashley Kantor (LA '09): Degenerate Art: The Nazi Attack on German Expressionism
• Joshua Friedmann (LA '11): Growing a Smart Grid: The Emergence of Danish Vehicle-to-Grid Policy
2. Africa
• Rachel Bergenfield (IR Research Scholar 2008, LA 09): From Emergency Relief to Development: IGO/NGO Transition and Local Government Capacity-Building in Post-Conflict Northern Uganda
• Anjuli Wagner (LA '09): Preventing Urinary Schistosomiasis in rural Ghana
• Samuel James (LA '09): Lagos Area Boys
• Nnenna Okoye (LA '11): No Man's Land: Street Hawkers, Poverty and the Informal Economy in Lagos, Nigeria
• Ayeda Wondemu (LA '11, IR Major): Volunteerism in Ethiopia
3. Middle East and South Asia
• Radhika Saraf (LA '11): Public Reaction to Mumbai Attacks and 1993 blasts
• Aliza Lailari (LA '09, IR Major): Just How Flat' is the World? Research on Call Centers in Bangalore, India
4. Latin America
• Duncan Pickard (LA '10): The Lasting Traditions of Former Enslaved Peoples in the African Diaspora in Chincha, Peru
• Rajesh Reddy: Exploring Barriers and Solutions to Sex Health Care in Mayan Guatemala
• Kara Takasaki (LA '11): The Urban Transportation System of Bogota, Colombia
• Allison Schuster (LA '09): Support Mechanisms for Sustainability of community Health Projects in Arada Vieja, El Salvador
• Carter Koppelman (IR Research Scholar 2008, LA '09):  Community Organization and Social Problems in the Slums of Santiago and Rio de Janeiro
• Amy Ouellette (LA '11, IR Major): The Relationship in Guatemala between Indigenous Peoples and the government during and after the Civil War
• Shiri Raphaely (LA '09, IR Major) and Katrina Pennington (LA '11, IR Major): The Andean Collection Project
• Kathryn Taylor (LA '11, IR Major): BUILD Guatemala: Understanding Sustainable Development in a Post-War Context
• Will Merrow (LA '11, IR Major): Racism and Guatemala's Internal Conflict
• Mie Inouye (LA '09): El Colectivo de Escritores Jovenes: Cultural Resistance to the Chilean Dictatorship
5. Global
• Eileen Guo (LA '12): The Global Food Crisis and the Urban Poor
6. Other
• Rebecca Busch (LA '09, IR Major): The Tobacco Industry and Islam: BAT's Marketing of Light' Cigarettes during Ramadan
• Zach Witlin (IR Research Scholar, LA '10): The Philosophical Roots and Development of Realism

2008-2009 IR Senior Thesis Projects
A Senior Honors Thesis enables students to pursue focused independent research in a specific subject area for two semesters and to graduate with thesis honors. Completion of this project will satisfy the IR Capstone requirement.

1. East and Southeast Asia
   • Aliza Bach, Chinese Healthcare
2. Africa
   • Rachel Bergenfield, NGOs and Community Transitional Justice in Northern Uganda
   • Laura Zachary, What is the role of Ugandan Civil Society Organizations in the Juba Peace Process? (2006-present)
3. Middle East and South Asia
   • Rishikesh Bhandary, The Impact of Climate Change on Indo Nepal Relations: Investigating Power and Food Security
4. Latin America
   • Carter Koppelman, Community Organizations and Social Problems in the Slums of Santiago and Rio de Janeiro
5. United States:
   • Amanda Hahnel, Foreign Aid and US National Security
   • Leslie Hayward, Campaign contributions effect on voting habits on climate bills

2008-2009 Directed Research Projects
An IR Directed Research Project (INTR 195/INTR 196) enables students to pursue focused independent research in a specific subject area for one semester. Completion of this project will satisfy the IR Capstone requirement.

• James Nadel, Local Cooperation and Success in Reconstruction and Stabilization Operations
• Minh Nguyen, Confucianism and Capitalism
• Candice Montalvo, Chinese Migrant Studies
• Neil Metzler, Politics of China Sports
• Elizabeth DeWan, Local Conflict Resolution
• Matthew Gordon, Resilience Research (IRP)
• Scott Goldman, Entrepreneurship & Spain
• Aliza Lailari, Women in Call Centers