Students are encouraged to conduct original, policy-oriented research and projects which connect theory to practice and expose them to the rigors and challenges of a diverse world. This program is a hands-on experience that has an important and sometimes profound impact on students, challenging their preconceptions about their research hypotheses and about their own and other cultures.

Since 1986, more than 300 Tufts students have conducted original, global research; participated in internships; and attended international conferences in 56 countries through the Institute and its programs. Over the years, the Institute -- through its network of alumni, advisers, and friends -- has connected numerous students with host organizations and other contacts all over the world. EPIIC is proud to present The Complete Catalog of Student Research.

Independent Research

As part of EPIIC’s requirements, students have the option to conduct semester long, or year long, research projects of their own choice and design – or to join research projects being conducted by the IGL’s INSPIRE Fellows or other EPIIC friends. Last year, students conducted research in such countries as Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Costa Rica, France, Guatemala, India, Kenya, Nepal, Nigeria, and Venezuela.

Possible topics could include: the links between rapid urbanization and dislocation and poverty; testing Hernando de Soto’s concept of capitalism and property ownership; post conflict development and political accountability; the enforced poverty of Zimbabwe; “de-development in Gaza”; the global structure of work; the persistence of slavery and “wage slavery”; the links between poverty and environmental justice; hunger and homelessness in Boston; the impact of micro credit on economic development; the applicability of a Marshall Plan to address large scale poverty;  public health implications of poverty; agriculture and climate change.

Of note…

• Professor Astier Almedom, a Fellow of the Institute for Global Leadership, has organized a Resilience Network and research group. Students will have the opportunity to explore poverty and resilience.

• Sarah Freeman, a graduate student at the School of Engineering and a co-founder of Tufts Engineers Without Borders, will mentor EPIIC students in partnership with Peruvian students to research the water sanitation needs for the impoverished of the shantytowns of Lima, Peru.

• The Tufts Medford Chapter of Physicians for Human Rights has approached EPIIC to help organize a student research group to Bangladesh to probe the intersection of health and poverty.

Featured Research Project

Kenya > Somali Bantu Photography Project | Download PDF
Matthew Edmundson '05
In April 2004, Matt Edmundson spent time in Kakuma refugee camp in northwestern Kenya working with Somali Bantu refugees who were in the process of being resettled in the U.S. There, he taught photography, organized a photography show of the refugees' photography, and filmed and photographed the resettlement of the Somali Bantu. He is in the process of producing a cultural orientation video describing the lives of the refugees. The video will be shown in American schools that the refugee children attend. In addition, Matt is organizing exhibitions of the refugees' photographs here in the U.S.