Internships and Directed Research

All students participate in an internship or directed research project, along with the Field Research Seminar, while in Pune. Students are matched with internship and research placements during orientation, based upon academic interests articulated in their Internship/Directed Research form.  After an inital period of training in field research techniques, issues, and complexities specific to India, students begin their research and internships, with the Field Research Seminar running concurrently throughout the semester. This enables students to continue refining their research process and to address questions or issues as they arise in the course of their work. 

For internships, the Alliance arranges placements within Pune's most forward-thinking and well-respected NGOs, as well as multi-national businesses, IT companies, research institutes and think tanks. All internships are subject to acceptance and availability on the part of the host organization.

Students who choose to pursue directed research work directly with their Faculty Guide and the Field  Research Seminar faculty to execute their formal research proposal.  Students in the arts, for example, may be paired with accomplished performers and artists, and students with interests in photojournalism or documentary film-making may be placed with faculty at the Film and Television Institute of India or the National Film Archives of India. All directed research projects are subject to the interest and availability of faculty and may require prior relevant coursework in South Asian Studies.

Both internships and directed research projects are conducted under close academic supervision and require a faculty-approved reading list, weekly meetings and journal entries, and final paper or project with an accompanying presentation.

Please note that directed research is not an option for summer students.  Please visit the summer program and summer curriculum pages for more information.

Internship Spotlight

Kathleen Wade (Princeton University) studied in Pune during spring 2010 and interned with Parisar, a non-governmental organization that promotes environmental sustainability.  She explains, “For my internship, my co-worker Devaki and I traveled around Pune to give presentations about environmental sustainability to schoolchildren. We scheduled and delivered 8 presentations over the course of the summer and fully recorded our progress through self-evaluations and a guidebook for future interns. As a result of our work, 6 schools sent petitions to the local government asking for bike paths so that children could travel to school sustainably. It was challenging to have the responsibility of implementing a program in the field rather than designing it from behind a desk, but the process allowed me to discover and enjoy the realities of Pune.”

Browse a menu of sample internship placements.

Directed Research Spotlight

Coming soon!

Browse a menu of sample directed research projects.