The Institutes

PGRI: Penn Global Documentary Institute

The Penn Global Documentary Institute (PGDI) collaborates with global partners to document human migration and diasporic communities. Ongoing projects use film, photography, virtual reality, and other media to examine the impact of politics, religion, and climate change on displaced and other at-risk communities. Our network of faculty, students, and fellows embrace the latest innovations in filmmaking and scholarship to tell impactful stories. In addition to global collaborations, PGDI foregrounds the role of student contributions to research and multimodal scholarship. As a result, PGDI’s award-winning films, books, and other works have been featured in international festivals and exhibits and have been distributed by the United Nations and major video streaming platforms. Learn more about this institute at the PGDI website.

Learn more about PGDI on the PASSPORT site.

PGRI: European Studies Institute

Led by Dr. Mitchell Orenstein of the School of Arts & Sciences, PGRI: European Studies Institute provides outstanding undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to work with Penn faculty and conduct research on the theme of How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine is Changing Europe. Selected students will work for a full year, beginning in April, as part of a research team studying European security arrangements, threats, and altered policies and institutions in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and will include a January trip to Europe to interview policy makers and thought leaders, while also developing their own individual research projects, such as senior theses or publishable papers. 

Learn more about the PGRI: European Studies Institute on the PASSPORT site.

PGRI: Penn Educational Alliance for Change and Equity (PEACE)

Co-led by Drs. Gerald Campano and Manuel Gonzalez Canche of the Graduate School of Education, PGRI: PGRI: Penn Educational Alliance for Change and Equity (PEACE) relies on storying as a powerful strategy to understand minoritized communities from the ground up, including their experiences and social inequities as well as to develop plans of action to improve prospects for education. The Institute utilizes mixed methodologies to classify and geo-contextualize participants' narratives and experiences. Students affiliated with PEACE will travel to the University of Guadalajara, Jalisco in Mexico to conduct fieldwork and data collection and gain hands-on experiences on research projects that apply storying.

Learn more about the PGRI: Penn Educational Alliance for Change and Equity (PEACE) on the PASSPORT site.

  PGRI: Galápagos Education and Research Alliance 

The Galápagos Education and Research Alliance (GERA) is a partnership between Galapagueños and students and faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, Villanova University, and Virginia Tech. They address crucial issues facing the Galápagos, including science, education, and conservation initiatives, by partnering with the people of the Galápagos, especially the community of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristóbal Island. Learn more about this institute on the GERA website.

• The Penn Global Research Institute opportunity with GERA will take place over a full calendar year, from January – December 2024.

• Each PGRI participant will receive funding to cover all required costs associated with Summer 2024 travel abroad to Ecuador, plus a stipend.

• All full-time, degree-seeking Penn undergraduate students from all schools and majors, as well as all full-time graduate students who will still be students until the end of the 2024 calendar in the Fall 2024 semester are eligible to apply.

Learn more about the PGRI: Galápagos Education and Research Alliance on the PASSPORT site.