N e w sl e t t e r o f t h e A mer i c a n U n i v e r si t y
S c h o o l o f I n t e r n a t i o n al S e r v i c e P h D P r o g r a m
V o l um e 2 , I s s ue 2
S pr i ng 2 0 1 5
T HE I NTERNATIONAL
D I R E C T O R ’ S U P DAT E
CONTENTS
Greetings!
Featured Alum:
Tom Long
2
Featured Faculty:
Agustina Giraudy
3
Fieldwork Profile:
Rachel Nadelman
4
Recent Graduates
7
Student Updates
7
Alumni Updates
8
Spring Calendar
9
Spring is a time of new beginnings: the grass in the quad becomes green
again, the Korean cherries that surround our school are in full bloom, and
the sun is out, allowing us to thaw from the deep freeze of this DC
winter. Unfortunately, our first and second years don’t get to enjoy this
season of renewal that much. By the time they will be able to take their
heads briefly out of their books, studying for comps, it will already be hot
and humid. Well… we never promised you a rose garden.
The first year cohort is indeed working hard in all of their classes and
getting ready for the qualifying exams as well. The second year cohort is
the first one to go through the new curriculum and the concentration
exams. The third year students have been busy writing, revising and defending their prospectuses. But most of
them have also been contributing tremendously through their role as TAs for our World Politics classes. Prof.
Bosco, Prof. Tuomi, and the undergraduate studies program are very appreciative and proud of how well they
are all doing! Other students are also teaching various courses, including in our new MA online program
(MAIR). In addition to helping SIS, I hope that these experiences are helping our students gain important skills
that will be of use later in their career, regardless of which path they choose.
And of course, the rest of us are simply busy dissertating, whether in the field or here in DC: researching,
reading, writing, cutting, pasting, deleting, and re-writing. Keep on the good work, and remember that there is a
light at the end of the tunnel. During the Spring Semester two students have already seen this light: Davina
Durgana defended her dissertation, titled “Correlates of Trafficking: Measuring the Human Insecurity of
Vulnerable Minors to Human Trafficking in the United States” in January. In so doing, Davina has broken the
program’s record for the fastest dissertation defense- less than three years! In March, Sheherazade Jafari earned
her doctorate, defending her thesis on “Deconstructing Religious-Secular Divides: Women’s Rights Advocacy
in Muslim-Majority Societies.” Cheers to both of you!!! By the time you are reading this newsletter, two
additional students may have passed their defense as well. We are all crossing our fingers for you.
Beyond this, our students presented their papers in many and varied conferences, published their papers, and
won various awards. Some of these achievements are documented in the students’ news section of this
newsletter, but since this is a self-reporting section, and since many of them are too modest to brag, that section
only presents a partial picture. I want to mention here Goueun Lee, Timothy Seidel, and Brandon
Brockmyer, who won the Provost’s Doctoral Studies Research Award. SIS is also giving summer research
awards this year, for which many students have submitted applications and which the PhD committee is
evaluating at this very moment.
In the spring, like in previous semesters, we conducted the program’s colloquium, in which various faculty and
students presented their work in progress, and in which we had lively discussions and learned about various
topics. Our spring Town Hall and reception is coming soon and graduation commencement is looming as well.
The highlight of the semester, however, was not quite academic in nature. Though as I stated above we never
promised you a rose garden, we did come pretty close to The Rose Garden. The PhD Program’s night at the
White House’s bowling alley, at the invitation of our US government implant, Prof. Sharon Weiner, was much
fun indeed. We discovered that there are some impressive skills hidden in our program, and that the White
House budget is not enough to replace the balls from the 1950s. Those students who signed up to come but got
stuck in New Orleans after presenting their papers at ISA should seriously sort out their priorities…
I wish you all a great finish of the Spring Semester, and a productive but also fun summer.
Cheers!
Boaz Atzili
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ALUMNUS PROFILE: TOM LONG
Tom Long is 2013 graduate of the SIS PhD Program, where he concentrated in US-Latin
American Relations. He is currently a visiting professor and researcher at the Centro de
Investigación y Docencia in Mexico City. A book based on his dissertation research, Latin
America Confronts the United States: Asymmetry and Influence, has recently been accepted
by Cambridge University Press.
What interested you in International
Relations? Why did you decide to attend
SIS?
As an undergraduate studying journalism, my
hope was to be a foreign correspondent, so I
have long had an interest in international
affairs and news. My journalistic interests
gradually moved toward longer-form and
research-intensive work, and I started reading
academic work in history, IR, and political
science on my own. I had long had an interest
in Latin America, I had spent time in
Honduras as a teenager, and I speak Spanish,
so much of my attention was on that region.
As a U.S. citizen, I felt an obligation to
understand my own country’s policies toward
and effect on Latin America.
Several things attracted me to SIS, including
the desirability of being in Washington and
being near policy debates. But above all, I was
drawn to SIS by the concentration of excellent
scholars working on Latin America and on
inter-American relations specifically. I read
Robert Pastor’s Exiting the Whirlpool, and I
thought, “This is the sort of work I want to
do.” I was fortunate to get to work with him,
as well as with other incredible scholars of
U.S.-Latin American relations like Phil
Brenner.
What have you been doing since graduating
from SIS?
I am currently a visiting professor/researcher
at the Centro de Investigación y Docencia in
Mexico City. It’s a federal, public institution
that is part university, part social sciences
research center. The position has really
allowed me to focus on research and writing.
Last year I was a term faculty member at SIS,
where I was able to really build up the
teaching side of my CV with half a dozen new
courses. So, in a way, I have had a nice
balance of research and teaching. One year I
taught, the next I researched!
Please tell us a bit about your upcoming
book.
asked for better. I also benefited from
competitive campus grants, which allowed me
to do archival research in Latin America. That
My book is currently titled Latin America
research was a big selling point for my book.
Confronts the United States: Asymmetry and
While I had a great experience at SIS, I have to
Influence. It has been accepted by Cambridge. say that the tenure-track academic job market
The book emerged from my dissertation
has been pretty difficult. With a non-Ivy degree
research, which was spurred by what I saw as a in IR, you really have to think about how to
relative inattention to Latin American states as position yourself, particularly because many IR
true actors in the study of U.S.-Latin American jobs are in Political Science departments that
relations. This is gradually being rectified, and might favor people with political science
I would say I am a part of that wave of
doctorates.
scholarship. With more research being done in
Latin American archives, scholars (historians
What advice do you have for current SIS
particularly) have started arguing that Latin
PhD students? For those hoping to publish
American leaders often had autonomy or room as well?
for maneuver vis-à-vis the United States; rarely
did the United States really determine the
I would advise students to be aggressive about
outcome on its own. I take that a step further to finding a mentor early. Professors are not going
argue that, under certain conditions, Latin
to seek you out, and you need to be able to
American leaders have been able to influence
make a case for why a mentor should dedicate
U.S. policies. The book focuses on four cases
their time and energy to you. What do you
of policy divergence between the United States offer? Once you find someone to work with, a
and one or more Latin American countries,
lot of other aspects of the Ph.D. will fall into
drawing on archives from six countries.
place, from forming a committee to shaping
your project. Other than that, I always tried to
How has your experience of the publishing
treat the Ph.D. like a job, not like school. For
process been? Have you found anything
me that meant maintaining a work schedule and
surprising about the process?
trying to be diligent about keeping those hours,
even though no one was looking over my
I have had very good support during the
shoulder. It also meant trying to have some
publishing process. One key factor was that
“after-work” time most days. Be jealous about
instead of sending totally blind proposals,
your work time and cautious about
colleagues offered to contact editors with
commitments that don’t a) move you closer to
whom they had worked on their own projects. completion, or b) lead toward a peer-review
That gave me a lot of insight, and I think had a publication.
big impact on how quickly my proposal was
read and later sent for review. I am finishing
For publishing, I would say start thinking about
some revisions now before submitting the final it early. The academic market is so competitive
text, so I suppose I have a good deal of the
that you need publications to be a serious
process ahead of me still.
candidate for visiting jobs or postdocs, let alone
tenure-track positions. And you have to keep in
How was your experience at SIS? How did it mind that you might have 1 ½ years or more
help prepare you for life after the program? from submission to publication, especially if a
piece doesn’t stick the first place you send it.
I had an excellent experience at SIS. In terms
(Cont. on page 6)
of the mentors I found there, I could not have
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F E AT U R E D F AC U LT Y :
A G U S T I N A G I R AU DY
Professor Agustina Giraudy is Assistant Professor at SIS. Her book, Democrats and Autocrats
(Oxford University Press, 2015), explores the multiple pathways towards subnational
undemocratic regime continuity within democratized countries. Her work has appeared or is
forthcoming in the Journal of Politics, Journal of Politics in Latin America, Studies in
Comparative International Development, Latin American Research Review, Journal of
Democracy (en Español), Revista de Ciencia Política (Chile), among others. Before joining AU,
Professor Giraudy held a postdoctoral position at the Harvard Academy for International and
Area Studies, taught at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina) and Universidad de San
Andrés (Argentina), and worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation, the Inter-American
Development Bank, and the World Bank.
homogenously throughout the territory. Finally, environment that welcomes and celebrates
I am co-editing a book on Subnational Analysis methodological, theoretical, and analytic
I’m broadly interested in subnational politics, in Comparative Politics, which seeks to reflect diversity. Not many schools offer this.
that is, the politics that unfolds beyond central. and show the importance of conducting
For the last seven years I have been
subnational research.
conducting research on subnational democracy
What advice do you have for those
and subnational institutions in Latin America
considering a PhD at SIS? For current SIS
more generally.
Did you always want to work in academia?
PhD students?
How did you choose your career path?
My first research project, explores the
Prospective PhDs will not only benefit from
continuity of undemocratic subnational
It was in my junior year at Universidad
working with the prestigious SIS faculty, the
regimes in two democratic countries,
Torcuato Di Tella (Argentina) that I became
numerous resources and opportunities available
Argentina and Mexico. This project, which
interested in pursuing an academic career. I
to them to pursue and present their research, but
started as my PhD Dissertation and was turned was inspired by a cohort of talented Assistant
also from the collegiality that exists among
into two journal articles and one book
Professors with a strong commitment to and
graduate students. The fact that SIS is located
(Democrats and Autocrats), explores the
passion for understanding and explaining
in DC, which opens up a whole array of
factors that lead to the survival of
institutional weakness in Latin America.
policy-oriented and/or academic possibilities to
semi-authoritarian regimes in countries where
complementing what students will learn in the
democracy has stabilized at the national level. Before starting my MA (in Germany) and PhD classroom.
(in the United States), I wanted to have a hands
The book not only shows empirically that two -on experience in my home country’s
I would advise current PhDs who want to
types of political regimes, national democracy (Argentina) public administration. After
pursue an academic career to publish their work
and subnational autocracy, coexist within
graduation, I worked for two years in the
in academic venues before graduation! This
these two countries, but demonstrates that
recently created Anticorruption of the Ministry will help you get a job in increasingly
powerful democratic presidents as well the
of Justice in Argentina. While this was an
competitive job market.
process of democratic coalition making pose
amazing experience, it reaffirmed my interest
incentives for the reproduction of subnational in academia. It is by contributing to knowledge
undemocratic regimes. In addition, Democrats formation and accumulation that I think I can
and Autocrats, fundamentally challenges the
best help enhance political institutions in
assumption that there is one single pathway to developing countries.
subnational undemocratic regime continuity
within countries. It shows instead the existence
of multiple, within-country, pathways that lead What makes SIS a good place to study IR?
to SUR continuity.
SIS students get rigorous scholarly training and
In addition to my work on subnational
are exposed to multiple academic perspectives
undemocratic regimes, I have also published
to the study of key phenomena in IR and
research on the determinants of judicial
Comparative Politics. The faculty of our school
autonomy in the Argentine provinces, and
is multidisciplinary, which is why students
have written on the factors that prevent
have the unique possibility of pursuing their
national state institutions to penetrate
studies and their research in an academic
Tell us a bit about your research.
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F I E L D W O R K P RO F I L E : R A C H E L N A D E L M A N
Rachel Nadelman is a fourth year PhD student at SIS studying International Development. She holds an undergraduate degree in comparative
literature from Brown University and a master’s degree in International Affairs from the New School. She recently spent six months doing
fieldwork in El Salvador.
What was your background before coming
to SIS?
I had a wide range of professional and
educational experiences in the 11 years
between completing my undergraduate degree
in comparative literature at Brown University
and beginning my doctorate at SIS.
Immediately after college I focused on local
community work in New York City. In fact, in
my early 20’s I think I had tunnel vision in
terms of my professional and personal life,
hoping I could make a contribution to
fostering social justice among the diverse
communities that live in New York. Yet even
as I tried to live my commitment to NYC, for
several years as the director of community
service at the Jewish Community Center in
Manhattan, life kept pulling my focus outside
my city’s boundaries and country’s borders.
During that same period, I joined a group of
20-somethings for a volunteer week in a rural
community in El Salvador, my first time in a
developing country. Perhaps not surprisingly, I
came out of that experience seeing my own
country incredibly differently, but I had no
idea then that my life would come full circle
and a decade years later I would find myself in
El Salvador again for my doctoral studies…
but that jumps 10 years ahead in the story!
In 2004 I decided to act on my growing
interest in Latin America. I served as a
Volunteer Core member for the American
Jewish World Service (AJWS), living and
working in Nicaragua for half of that year.
My master’s degree in International Affairs
from the New School (New York City)
followed, which afforded me opportunities for
international work and study. This included
work in Uganda, supported by the Ford
Foundation, investigating beekeeping as an
economic empowerment opportunity for
women, and in Argentina, researching the
status of worker-owned factories (fabricas
recuperadas), for their Ministry of Economy
and Finance. I always thought that New York
would be my home base, but professional
opportunities continued to take me elsewhere
and a job offer at the World Bank brought me
down to Washington DC in 2006. Working
with what used to be called the Social
Development department at the World Bank, I
spent my time contributing a social, cultural
and community perspective for economic
development projects (sometimes more
successfully than others!), traveling frequently
from DC to countries including Paraguay,
Haiti, Jamaica, and Chile, and the Democratic
Republic of Congo.
I had the life changing experience of spending
three weeks in Haiti just one month after the
catastrophic 2010 earthquake. As an
independent Consultant for a small grassroots
organization called the Huairou Commission I
met with and provided support for women’s
organizations pursuing their own efforts for
recovery. I was reminded about the limits of
costly development interventions during those
weeks, as aid organizations flowed in with
human and financial resources, talking about
the earthquake as not just a disaster but an
“opportunity” for new development and change
for a country that had suffered from poverty
and lack of opportunity for so long. As I off
handedly mentioned this language of
“opportunity” to a Haitian colleague, he kindly
but sternly looked at me and said, “I cannot call
an earthquake that killed my aunt when the roof
collapsed on top of her, along with hundreds of
thousands others, an ‘opportunity’”. I make
sure to conjure up the shame I felt at that
moment, and try to always be aware of the
potential Northern/Western “Development
industry” obliviousness and insensitivity that
often happens in my field.
Such powerful experiences like this one in
Haiti, coupled with too many others to name,
helped me to realize that I needed more formal
education and training to do the work I wanted
to do, and to learn how I could accomplished
“better”. In 2011, I left the world of full-time
paid work and the title of International
Development Professional to again become a
student.
What brought you to SIS? What interested
you in International Relations? What are the
highlights of your SIS experience so far?
I started at AU when I was 34 years old. I
bring this up because many people – and this
used to include me – believe a doctorate is
something that people in their 20’s pursue and
if one doesn’t get to it then, it’s too late. I was
ready to make a professional change from my
work with International Development agencies,
but I didn’t know what to pursue, or how to
even figure out what my next steps should be.
In 2010, I visited New York City and met with
my mentor from my master’s degree, who had
been a major influence in my professional
opportunities and decisions following graduate
school. He suggested I pursue a doctorate. I
looked at him, sort of shocked and said… “But
aren’t I too old to do that now?” He responded,
“You will be working for the next 40 years.
What are the skills and tools that you need to
best do that?” I recognized in that moment that
the work life ahead of me would likely be
longer than the years I had yet been alive and
from that perspective, returning for a PhD in
my 30’s was not too late at all. (Cont. on page
5)
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NADELMAN, CONT.
(Cont. from page 4) What specifically
interested me most in SIS’s PhD is that it
allows for broad exploration of international
issues under the umbrella of International
Relations and would enable me to pursue my
interests in development studies. I was not
looking for a traditional IR program; I wanted
to work with faculty engaged in meaningful
scholarship that also demonstrated
commitment to action and application of
research.
I decided that if I were admitted to SIS I
wanted to work with International
Development Professor Robin Broad, someone
whose work I had been following, because she
lent a critical voice to debates about the
meaning and the purpose of development. I
believed that under her guidance I could
successfully balance my scholarly and my
change-making goals. Happily, she accepted
me as her research assistant and we worked
together throughout my first two years. What
I learned from and with Prof Broad laid the
foundation for the independent course I’ve
forged at SIS. Most significantly, my
dissertation is a direct outgrowth of research I
undertook as part of the assistantship with her
and she has supported me to take my own
direction. Working closely with faculty like
Prof Broad and my other committee members,
Professor Jonathan Fox and Associate
Professor Carolyn Gallaher, as well as Center
for Latin American and Latino Studies
(CLALS) director and School of Public
Affairs Professor Eric Hershberg, have been
the highlight of my time at American
University.
Society for Applied Anthropology’s annual
convention to present my first post-field
research paper.
(including two Finance and Environment
ministers, two current senators and the previous
president’s technical secretary which is El
Salvador’s equivalent of chief of staff);
Where were you for your fieldwork and
religious leaders including El Salvador’s
what were you doing? Tell us a bit about
auxiliary archbishop of the Catholic Church
your research and/or any interesting proand the Lutheran Church’s archbishop, local
jects you’d like to share.
business leaders and international business
executives; and others from international
How to capture 6 months of fieldwork in just a NGOs, academia, and the mainstream and
few paragraphs? For my dissertation I chose to grassroots media. These interviews are the
delve deeply into a single issue, in a single
heart and soul of my dissertation and what I had
country. My research focused on identifying
hoped to achieve. Yet, just living in the country
and understanding the factors that led the
for this period, enabled me to literally stumble
Central American Country of El Salvador's to
upon opportunities I could not have anticipated.
suspend all metallic mining in the country at a
time when metal’s values (especially gold)
For example, I made a personal decision to join
have been escalating world-wide, mining is
El Salvador’s extremely small Jewish
proliferating across Latin America and El
community to celebrate the Jewish New Year.
Salvador continues to suffer from economic
From a simple and accidental introduction at
stagnation.
this religious service I found myself connected
to a perspective I never would have accessed –
To do this, I spent 6 months in El Salvador,
that of an American living in El Salvador, who
from June through November 2014. To some, 6 for more than a decade served as the El
months is quite long for field research; to
Salvador representative for several international
Beyond the generous four-year fellowship,
others is it far too short. But this time-frame
(primarily Canadian) mining firms. He decided
close work with faculty members, and a rich
allowed me to start to become a part of a
to open his personal and professional archives
curriculum, I’ve been grateful that AU and SIS community and understand the broader aspects to me which included many internal company
provide us with the chance to seek additional, of Salvadoran society that only helps me to
documents and correspondences with the
competitive resources. I am grateful that SIS better understand my case and more completely Salvadoran government I could have never
and other centers at AU gave me the
answer my research questions. I credit the 6
dreamed of accessing. When I started my
opportunity take advantage of a wide range of months I spent with allowing me the time to
research, I had hoped to obtain some relevant
opportunities, including: attending quantitative pursue this research with depth and to allow for archived government documents that could
and qualitative methods training (2012 at the
the kind of happy accidents for which there
back up my interview data. This unexpected
University of Michigan; 2014 at ECPR in
simply may not be the space and time in a
windfall of documents means that I am
Austria); conducting pre-ABD research in
shorter period. I am thrilled that I could
immersed in a dissertation that is almost
2013 in El Salvador and Peru (funded by SIS interview a wide range of actors across
equally archival as it is interview-based and this
and CLALS); and 6 months of dissertation
Salvadoran society. This included: civil society only makes my evidence base stronger and
fieldwork in El Salvador in 2014 (funded by
leaders across El Salvador’s dynamic mining
more credible. (Cont. on page 6)
SIS and the Vice Provost. In addition, because opposition; high-level government officials
of grants available to all PhD’s to participate
from two presidential administrations
in academic conferences, I just attended the
T he I n te r n a ti o n a l
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LONG, CONT.
(Cont. from page 2) In terms of book
publishing, start thinking about that as soon
as you start writing your dissertation. Think
about what kind of book you want it to be,
what audience you want to speak to, and who
is publishing that type of work. Talk with
your advisors early to get guidance on how to
write your dissertation in such a way that it
can be relatively quickly revised into
something suitable for submission. Then ask
your committee and other professors to go to
bat for you with editors they know.
NADELMAN, CONT.
(Cont. from page 5)
What advice do you have for those
considering their own fieldwork?
There are so many thoughts and suggestions I
could provide, but I’ll hone on the issues that I
believe made the most positive difference for
my own work.
1. I encourage people to dedicate as much time
to their field work as possible (I recognize my
perspective may be biased because I chose to
focus deeply rather than broadly). Yes,
research can go on forever, but leaving room
and time to explore beyond what you can plan
from home can lead to findings you never
could have imagined.
2. Of course plan before you go, but leave time
and space and energy for unexpected
opportunities. Be willing to be open and
spontaneous.
3. Build local relationships – this does not just
keep you sane, but you never know how
professional and personal relationships your
new friends have will support your work. I
had several connections to people critical for
this research that came from unexpected
places and friends that were not at all related
to my field. You never know where the gold
mine sits…
4. When trying to obtain information – like
official, public government documentation –
do not assume that formal processes won’t
work, although take advice from people
ocally on how to utilize them. Perhaps this
demonstrates biases on my part – biases I
might very well have had about seeking
information from my own government. I
knew some of the archives I longed for were
within the files of different government
institutions and so I thought I needed to build
personal relationships and rely on unfair
“gringa” privilege (American, white, what
have you…) in to informally be given access.
But in fact, following El Salvador’s freedom
of information law – operationalized in 2011
– is what worked best. Many Salvadorans I
spoke with were pleasantly surprised at my
experience, imagining that such bureaucratic
processes will not work. However, following
the protocols of the law allowed me to access
key information in a timely manner.
5. Recognize that as a person from an
American University you carry privilege as
you engage in your work. This means
different things depending on who the
researcher is, what country and the topic. It
is simply important to be aware and
acknowledge it and bring with ever
sensitivity the specific setting requires. We
can’t change the situation, but we can own it
and that will often be helpful for not only the
quality of our work, but also the contribution
we hope to make.
6. Remember that researchers often take and
take from the people and places they are
studying and don’t necessarily give back
appropriately even if they intend to. It is
important to be sensitive to the degree to
which people contributing went out of their
way to meet with you. Furthermore, if your
work is not English based, try to make sure
that some portion, if not all, is made available
in the language(s) of the country/area. So often
work important to the central actors studied,
and who may have directly supported the
research, is locked in an English world they
cannot access and this simply is not fair.
T he I n te r n a ti o n a l
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R E C E N T G R A D UAT E S
Davina Durgana (Spring 2015)
Dissertation: “Correlates of Trafficking: Measuring the Human Insecurity of Vulnerable Minors to Human Trafficking in the United States”
Committee: Joseph Young, SIS (Dissertation Chair); Randolph Persaud, SIS; Loubna Skalli-Hanna, SIS; Monti Datta, University of Richmond
Sheherazade Jafari (Spring 2015)
Dissertation: “Deconstructing Religious-Secular Divides: Women’s Rights Advocacy in Muslim-Majority Societies”
Committee: Abdul Aziz Said, SIS (Dissertation Chair); Ann Tickner, SIS; Julie Mertus, SIS
S T U D E N T U P DAT E S
Marcelline Babicz is an adjunct faculty
member at Georgetown, teaching Research
Methods, Foundations of HR, and HR in the
International Context in their Human
Resource Master’s program.
the 2015 International Studies Association
Northeast Conference. She was awarded a
Summer Alternative Research Methods Grant
by American University and serves as the PhD
representative.
Alice Friend will be spending the summer
with the Center for a New American Security
in DC as an Adjunct Senior Fellow supporting
their counterterrorism security assistance
project, focusing on Kenya as a case study.
Laura Bosco presented her paper "'Betting
Low' in UN Peacekeeping: A Formal Model
of Resource Commitment and Mission
Management" at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention.
Davina Durgana presented at the American
Red Cross Human Trafficking and Armed
Conflict Multidisciplinary Conflict in
Washington, D.C. 2014. She was the invited
speaker for World Learning's School of
International Training Global Leadership
Speaker Series in Brattleboro, Vermont on her
work on human trafficking. She also presented
her dissertation work at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention. After
successfully defending her dissertation, she
recently began her own consulting firm,
Durgana Human Rights Consultancy, in order
to consolidate her current and ongoing projects
in the human trafficking field, and to this end,
she also received funding to begin a Research
Collaborative dedicated to bringing together
academics, policymakers, and practitioners to
address gaps in current research initiatives and
to promote high ethical standards in this
research.
Leah Gates will present her paper “A Genderbased Evaluation of Domestic Violence
Prosecution in Mexican States” at the Midwest
Political Science Association Conference. She
will also present two projects at an upcoming
gender in science fiction and fantasy
conference in May.
Brandon Brockmyer presented preliminary
research on the effectiveness and impact of
public governance-oriented multistakeholder initiatives at a February 2015
workshop sponsored by the World Bank and
organized by the Transparency &
Accountability Initiative (TAI). A synthesis
paper and two policy briefs are scheduled to
be released by TAI later this year. In March,
Brandon also received a Doctoral Studies
Research Award to conduct field interviews
in Tanzania, the Philippines, Guatemala, and
Honduras.
Katy Collin organized and served as chair
and discussant for the panel “From Ukraine
to Scotland: Referendums in Comparative
Perspective” at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention. She
also presented her paper "Sovereignty
Referendums: Linking Legitimacy to Process
Inclusion” at the same convention.
deRaismes Combes presented her paper
“Know Thy Self: Mapping Ontological and
Physical Security Onto Identity,” on the
Body Politic: Reimagining the ‘Self’ of
Security Panel at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention. She
also presented her paper “Disciplining 9/11,”
on the Critical Security Studies (1) panel at
Eleni Ekmektsioglou will have her piece
“Hypersonic Weapons and Escalation in Asia”
published in a forthcoming issue of Strategic
Studies Quarterly. She was also a member of
the March 2015 American Academy for
Strategic Education cohort.
Emma Fawcett published her piece "Haiti:
Another Crisis on the Anniversary of a Crisis"
on the Center for Latin American and Latino
Studies blog. She will present some of her
research on the Haiti-Dominican Republic
Section Panel at the Latin American Studies
Association Conference (LASA) International
Congress in May 2015.
Yoonbin Ha presented his paper
"Accountabilities in Post-2015 Global
Development Governance: Are the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) a Break from the
Past?" co-authored with SIS Professor Daniel
Esser at the third Annual International and
Interdisciplinary Conference at Rohatyn Center
for Global Affairs at Middlebury College in
March 2015.
Jiajie He presented her paper “Normative
Power in the EU and ASEAN: Why They
Diverge” at the Panel of Interregional Dialogue
at the 2015 International Studies Association
Annual Convention. She also presented her
paper “Self-determination and the Postimperial/colonial Nation Building: Why China
and India Diverge?” at the Panel of China and
India at the 2015 International Studies
Association Annual Convention. She presented
her paper “Native Mold and Foreign Model:
the Making of China’s Nationalities Policy,” at
for the Panel of Rethinking National Identity:
Political and Social Conceptions of Self and
Belonging at the International Studies
Association’s 2015 South Caucus Conference
in Singapore.
(Updates cont. on pg. 8)
T he I n te r n a ti o n a l
P age 8
S T U D E N T U P DAT E S , C O N T .
Tiana Jackson continues to conduct research
for her dissertation on interagency cooperation
between the U.S. Defense Department and the
U.S State Department. She has conducted
interviews with former members of Provincial
Reconstruction Teams and employees of
United States Africa Command. Tiana also
presented her findings on the PRTs at George
Mason University’s Advances in Policy and
Politics Conference in April 2015.
Sonja Kelly co-authored an issue report with
the Center for Financial Inclusion at Accion on
Aging and Financial Inclusion. The report,
funded by MetLife, was the subject of a multistakeholder roundtable at the MetLife offices
in New York. She will also be presenting the
research at the Royal Bank of Scotland in
London later this month.
Patrick Litanga wrote two Op-Eds “CongoKinshasa: Why Dr. Denis Mukwege Should
not Join the DRC Politics” and “Blood on the
Streets: Understanding the Popular Uprising in
Congo” published by Pambazuka news and
Allafrica. He also published an article titled
“Democratic Republic of the Congo: An
Electoral Cliffhanger” in The Internationalist
Magazine March 2015, Issue 480.
Eddy Lucas coauthored a forthcoming RAND
Corporation report on naval procurement. He
presented papers at the International Security
Studies Section of ISA and the International
Security and Arms Control Section of APSA’s
joint conference, as well as at the 2015
International Studies Association Annual
Convention.
Yelena Osipova conducted fieldwork in
October and November 2014 in Moscow and
St. Petersburg, Russia. Her article
"'Russification' of 'Soft Power':
Transformation of a Concept" was published
in Exchange: Journal of Public Diplomacy in
Issue 5, Fall 2014, pp. 55-76. Her article
"Turkish-Armenian Relations: What to Expect
in 2015" was published in the 2015 Turkey
Country Report by the Rethink Institute in
Washington, DC. She presented her papers
"Evolution and Adaptation: Russian Soft
Power and Public Diplomacy Discourse from
the War in Georgia to the Crisis in Ukraine"
and "Russian soft power and public diplomacy
practice" at the 2015 International Studies
Association Annual Convention. She
presented her paper “Introduction to Public
Diplomacy and Soft Power” at the Public
Diplomacy Seminar at Russian State Social
University in Moscow.
Manuel Reinert participated in a program
“France after Charlie Hebdo” on Al-Jazeera
English.
Tim Seidel presented his paper “Narrating
Nonviolence: Postcolonial Interrogations of
Resistance in Palestine” at the2014 Middle
East Studies Association (MESA) Conference.
He presented his paper “‘Where Is the
Palestinian Gandhi?’: Power and Resistance in
Late Modernity” at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention. He
recently conducted fieldwork in PalestineIsrael. He was awarded a doctoral student
research award from American University’s
Provost’s Office.
Nicholas Smith gave the presentation “What
drives microcredit’s heterogeneous impact on
livelihoods? Evidence from Uganda” for the
World Bank- Africa Region Chief Economist
Series.
Kate Tennis conducted field research
including trips to Dakar, Senegal, Port-auPrince, Haiti, Tunis, Tunisia, and Brussels,
Belgium to conduct interviews thanks to a
Doctoral Student Research Award from the AU
Provost’s office as well as a grant from the
African Studies Association and Royal Air
Maroc.She also presenter her papers
“Alliances and Bargaining in Non-traditional
Security Areas” and “Bilateral Management of
Undocumented Migration Flows between
Senegal and Europe” at the 2015 International
Studies Association Annual Convention.
A L U M N I U P DAT E S
Yolande Bouka (’13) has been awarded a
Fulbright Scholar Research Grant to investigate the role and impact of women who participated in the armed struggle for liberation in
Namibia.
Mehrzad Boroujerdi (’90) was recently
designated a Provost Faculty Fellow for
Internationalization at Syracuse University.
Tom Long’s (’13) book, Latin America
Confronts the United States: Asymmetry and
Influence, is forthcoming with Cambridge
University Press. He was recently awarded the
Diplomatic Studies Section's Young Scholar
Award at the 2015 International Studies
Association Annual Convention.
The Diplomat that outlines her book to
follow “9 Ways Japan Can Better Tell Its Story
to the World” (September 29, 2014).
Jacob Stump (’10) and Priya Dixit have an
edited volume, Critical Methods in Terrorism
Studies, forthcoming this summer.
Nancy Snow (‘92), SSRC Abe Fellow at Keio
University in Tokyo, published an article in
If you have updates you would like to share with the SIS community in an
upcoming newsletter, please send them to Kasey Neil at kneil@american.edu.
S I S S P R I N G C A L E N DA R
January 21
Colloquium: Yelena Osipova,
“Evolution and Adaptation: Russian Public Diplomacy and Soft Power Discourse
from the War in Georgia to the Crisis in Ukraine”
February 4
Colloquium: Adam Auerbach
“Demanding Development: Democracy, Community Governance, and Public Goods
Provision in India's Urban Slums”
February 18
Colloquium: Tiana Jackson
“Strategy or Sincerity: Organizational Responses to Interagency Cooperation”
March 4
Colloquium: Nicholas Smith
“The Sources of Variation in Microcredit's Impact”
March 18
Annual PhD Guest Speaker: Vivienne Jabri (King’s College, London)
“Violence, the International, and the Global”
April 15
Spring Town Hall: 3:00-4:30PM
Reception: 4:30-6:00PM
May 10
SIS Graduation