Princeton University politics professor to assume emeritus status.
By: David Campbell
Princeton University Professor Paul Sigmund, co-founder of the university’s Program in Latin American Studies and a professor of politics, plans to transfer to emeritus status this July after more than 40 years teaching at Princeton.
Today at the university’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Andrés Bianchi, the Chilean ambassador to the United States, will be among the speakers at a special colloquium in honor of Professor Sigmund, whose wife Barbara Boggs Sigmund was a former Princeton Borough mayor. She died of cancer in 1990.
Ms. Sigmund ran in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate in 1982; sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 1989; and was a state delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She won a seat to the Borough Council in 1972, and was elected mayor in 1983, which she remained until her death. She was the daughter of powerful Democratic Rep. Hale Boggs of Louisiana.
The colloquium, "Chile and the World," is scheduled for 2:30 to 5 p.m. in Dodds Auditorium of Robertson Hall on the university campus. It will be followed by a reception in the Shultz Dining Room.
The event also will feature presentations by several former graduate students, who now hold positions in higher education and government. Serving as moderators will be Princeton faculty members Nancy Bermeo and Deborah Yashar, the university said.
A specialist in political theory and Latin American politics, Professor Sigmund has been a faculty member at Princeton University since 1963. He helped found the Program in Latin American Studies in 1966, Princeton said.
Today’s event is sponsored by the university’s Program in Latin American Studies and Department of Politics.
Professor Sigmund said this week that his soon-to-be emeritus status does not mean he’s retiring. He said he plans to conduct a seminar at Princeton this fall on U.S.-Latin American relations but added, "There will be an opportunity to see more of my family.
"Retirement for an academic is not as dramatic a change, particularly if you’re engaged in research," he continued. The professor said he is working on several papers that he intends to revise for publication and has the makings of a book down the road.
Also, he said, he plans to continue to travel to Latin America for research, as he has done for years as a professor at Princeton. But he said he will remain living in his longtime home on Evelyn Place.
Since coming to Princeton, Professor Sigmund has taught and written on political theory and Latin American politics. He holds a doctorate from Harvard University. He has written, edited or translated about 18 books, and has written about 200 articles, the university said.
His research has taken him frequently to Latin America, particularly to Chile, on which he is a noted expert.

