Students are encouraged to pursue independent research. Potential themes can range from the purely theoretical to case studies.   Students can utilize EPIIC as a platform to pursue senior honors theses and to conduct original field research. Over the years, students' research have taken them to Beirut, Bosnia, Chiapas, China, Costa Rica, the Hague, Harlem, Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Nepal, Northern Ireland, Sarajevo, and Turkey.

There is no such thing as a "typical" student project, but in the past EPIIC students have been able to obtain University grants for filming the growth of democracy in Kazakhstan, researching the archives of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, or working for a summer with George Soros' Open Societies Project.

The number of students taking advantage of the opportunities to conduct EPIIC-sponsored original research or participate in public service internships continues to grow.

EPIIC '04 members Claudine Iliev, William Lange, Guergana Petkova in Bulgaria.

In November 2001, Shaun Young and Alex Busse traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa to research Housing and Sustainable Development in several informal settlements. Their research can be found here.

Tamy Guberek and Kristin Cibelli, EPIIC '99, with research partners at the Human Rights Center at the University of Sarajevo.

In 1999, EPIIC students Tamy Guberek and Kristin Cibelli spent November and December conducting interviews throughout Bosnia and Herzegovina. Using rigorous statistical methods,   in an effort to determine how non governmental organizations (NGOs) perceived the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague, Tamy and Kristen interviewed 54 local NGOs in the winter of 1999 about not only the ICTY, but also the proposed Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They focused on NGOs because they work directly with the citizens who were most brutally affected by the war. Their report Justice Unknown, Justice Unsatisfied? Bosnian NGOs Speak about the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (pdf), was the first comprehensive survey of local NGO opinion about the ICTY.

The report is the result of a year of research and a conference held in July of 2000 organized with the cooperation of the Human Rights Centre at the University of Sarajevo that brought together the project's Board of Advisors, local NGOs, and the ICTY officials for three days to discuss the research findings. The project began after Tamy and Kristin visited the ICTY and realized that there existed a tremendous gap between the prosecutions at The Hague and the people of the former Yugoslavia. Their concern was that little information was being translated to the citizens of the society on whose behalf the ICTY was working. The ICTY relies on citizens for evidence and testimony, and ultimately metes out justice on their behalf.

The interview sample was chosen so that a proportionally equal amount of NGOs would be chosen from both the Federation and the Republika Srpska and also from the capitals, Sarajevo/Banja Luka and the rest of the country. Because the NGOs interviewed were selected randomly, the results are representative of the entire NGO community in BiH. The project was funded by the Samuel Rubin Foundation, Tufts University, OSCE Media Department in Sarajevo, Freedom House and private donors.

Lucas Kello, EPIIC '96, in Bosnia - Herzegovina.

Lucas Kello, EPIIC '96, spent one month in Bosnia-Herzegovina working with Mercy Corps International/Scottish European Aid, a conflict management, post-war reconstruction organization stationed in Sarajevo. He traveled with the staff throughout the country meeting local political leaders in an attempt to settle political disputes among ethnic groups, and also spent time documenting the destruction of religious, historical and other cultural monuments through photographs and interviews.

Protestors against the National Front in Marseilles, photo taken by Claire Knight, EPIIC '96.

Claire Knight, EPIIC '96, travelled to Marseilles to research and photograph reactions to Le Pen's National Front's campaign against immigrants.

Dan Rosen, a Fletcher School student (EPIIC '96), and Serge Todorovich (EPIIC '97), spent four days in London at a conference on "Transitional Justice in Bosnia-Herzegovina" sponsored by the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. Serge commented, "The contacts I made at the London workshop have enabled me to spend this summer working in Bosnia for the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and doing an independent research project on the prospects for reconciliation in Bosnia and Herzegovina."

Serge Todorovich went on to The Serb Republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina over the summer to conduct research on the socio-economic and political situation of refugees there. Working with the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights and the United Nations Civil Affairs Office, he explored the impact of the three refugee groups, and the tensions the dilemma poses for reconciliation.

Jesse Lainer, EPIIC '98, in the United Arab Emirates

Jesse Lainer (EPIIC '98) travelled to the United Arab Emirates to research labor migration and citizenship laws, and presented her findings at the 1998 symposium.

Samar Shaheryar (EPIIC '97) travelled to the Hague to research "War Crimes and Women's Issues: Rape and Dilemmas of the Witness Protection Program." She conducted most of her work at the International War Crimes Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.

Courtney Reed (EPIIC '97) spent her spring break in Hong Kong looking at "One Country, Two Systems or One Country, One System?" exploring democratic protections and the handover of Hong Kong to China. She conducted interviews with members of the Liberal Party, the Legal Constituency Representative of the Democratic Party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, and several professors of domestic politics at the local universities. Several of Courtney's contacts came from Dan Feldman (EPIIC '88), who had been a Luce Fellow in Hong Kong and who helped in securing the participation of Democratic Party leader Martin Lee at the symposium.

Goh Chin Lian (EPIIC '97), spent part of his summer in China researching Rural Elections in the Peoples Republic of China, travelling outside the major cities and interviewing citizens on their views of democracy.

Anthony Lin (EPIIC '97) also travelled to China. He explored the "Two Engines of the Chinese Reform Machine: Special Economic Zones and Rural Enterprises." Spurring his interest was a statement by Samuel Huntington in his essay "Democracy for the Long Haul" in the Journal of Democracy : "Taiwan and Singapore are the two most successful Chinese societies in the 5,000 year history of Chinese civilization, and one or the other is likely to be the model for mainland China."

Aparna Basnyat and Carolyn Hunt (EPIIC '97) spent two and one-half months in Nepal researching "The Trafficking of Nepali Girls and Women in the Brothels of India." They met with a number of the people -- local law enforcement officials and small non-governmental organizations -- working to stop the trafficking as well as those who were working to help the women and girls who had been returned because they had contracted AIDS or other diseases.   Many of them were taken from their homes at such a young age that they no longer remember their family names or the villages where their families live.

These are just a small sampling of the research projects and internships that EPIIC students have pursued during or following their EPIIC year.