Volume 1, Issue 1
September 24, 2013
The International
N E W S L E T T E R
S P E C I A L
P O I N T S O F
I N T E R E S T :

D i r e c t o r ’ s
Faculty Profile:
Prof. Abdul Aziz
Said

Alumni Profiles:
Ambassador
Sallama Shaker
and Dr. James
Walsh

Alumni
News:
learn about the
work of other
alums
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Faculty Profile
2
Recent Graduate
Interview
3
Alumni Profiles
4-5
Current Student
Profiles
6-7
From the Field
8
News & Events
O F
A M E R I C A N
U N I V E R S I T Y ’ S
S I S
P H D
P R O G R A M
9
Greetings from the SIS PhD
program!
Perhaps it has
been a long time since you've
been on campus, or heard
from us. With this, our first
alumni newsletter, we are
hoping to build better connections with our alumni in
order to provide updates on
their accomplishments and
publications, highlight their
achievements, and help people reconnect. We also hope
to build bridges between our
current students, recent graduates, and alumni. As first
steps, we've started a biannual newsletter, which provides updates on recent work
by alumni.
Our website
(www.american.edu/sis/phd)
contains profiles of alumni as
J o i n
U S
2 0 1 3
W e l c o m e
well and this coming October
the PhD program will host its
first alumni engagement
event (details below). We
hope that building a better
connection with alumni will
prove beneficial for both
alumni and current students
as it will provide a means to
stay updated on people’s
work and allow for the possibility of building working
relationships.
Sharon Weiner, PhD
Director of Doctoral Studies
o n
T h u r s d a y
O c t o b e r
1 7 ,
f o r
O u r
F i r s t
A l u m n i
R e c e p t i o n
Our alumni are cordially invited
to the SIS PhD Program’s first
Alumni Wine & Cheese Reception which will be held on
Th u r s d a y
O c t ob er
17,
2013. The event will run from
6:30-8:00 pm and will be located in room T10 of the SIS building located on AU’s main campus. We welcome you and a
guest to join us for wine, cheese
and lively discussion.
We hope that this event will be
an opportunity for you
to reconnect with former
classmates and mentors, meet
other alumni and some current students, and discuss
your
exciting
work.
Please RSVP as soon as possible by emailing Bryan Miller,
SIS PhD Program Assistant, at
bryanm@american.edu
P a g e
2
F e a t u r e d
If there is one faculty member that
every alumni is likely to remember, it
is Professor Abdul Aziz Said. Prof.
Said, a world-renowned expert in the
field of Peace Studies, has been on the
faculty at SIS since its inception in
1958. Prior to joining the university as
a faculty member, Prof. Said was a
student at American University’s Department of International Relations and
Organizations, SIS’s educational predecessor, first as an undergraduate,
receiving his BA in 1953, and then as a
graduate, earning his PhD in 1957.
Prof. Said has been teaching and researching peace studies as an SIS
faculty member since 1957. Some of
his most important work in this area
centers on the idea that peace requires not just an absence of violence
and conflict but a reduction in poverty
and an increase in human rights and
dignity. Prof. Said currently occupies
the endowed Mohammed Said Farsi
Chair of Islamic Peace at AU where he
continues to lecture and write about a
variety of issues in peace studies.
Prof. Said traces his interest in international relations and peace studies to
events and situations in his early childhood. Perhaps the greatest single
factor in shaping his interest in international relations is the fact that he
was raised in a family where politics
were not only considered important
but also a part of daily life as his father
served as a member of the Syrian
parliament until becoming president
of Syria (for two days) in the early
1950s until there was a coup d'état.
Prof. Said’s passion for peace studies
was born at the age of six when he
witnessed his city being burned by
French soldiers. This event provided
the two forces of fear and love that
have continued to motivate his work—
the fear induced by witnessing his
city’s burning and the love exemplified by his mother’s touch, kindly
bringing him to safety.
As a young man, Prof. Said was sent
west by his family to pursue an education with the hopes that this would best
prepare him to return to Syria and
T h e
F a c u l t y :
A b d u l
A z i z
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
S a i d
reckons, as “innovation often happens at the space between disciplines. This is fertile ground for novel
ideas to flourish.”
—“the students keep me alive. They
are constantly bringing up fresh ideas
that allow me to continue to be engaged.”
continue his father’s work in politics.
This plan, however, ended abruptly
when his father was unseated in the
mid-1950s.
Syria’s loss was AU’s
gain. Recognizing potential in the
young Said, Dean Pittman Benjamin
Potter offered him an assistant professor position in AU’s newly formed
School of International Service. Since
then, Prof. Said has been teaching and
researching at AU.
Having been a constant at SIS since its
inception, Prof. Said has had the opportunity to observe numerous
changes within the school and within
the very field of international relations. He notes that during the 1950s,
IR was a relatively new field that
seemed to be facing an identity crisis
that expressed itself in scholar’s emphasis upon understanding the field’s
boundaries. The early days, he recounts, were very much a period of
political theorizing with the emphasis
upon practice, implementation of
theories, and engagement with the
world becoming more central aspects
of the field over the years. This claim
is substantiated, he reasons, by the
entrance of many recent IR students
into the public and private sectors.
Prof. Said believes that another important change is that IR has become
even more multidisciplinary than it
was in its early days. This aspect of
the field is particularly important, he
In addition to changes in the field,
Prof. Said has also been witness to
changes within SIS. Initially the program was set up as two departments:
area studies (Asia, Africa, Latin America, etc.) and international relations
which focused on theory. Nowadays,
the school is divided into functional
specializations—i.e., units that focus
on specific problems and approaches. This change, Prof. Said suggests,
issues from SIS’s multidisciplinary
nature and is a strength of the program as it “brings people with diverse interests and backgrounds
together and when you get such people together interesting and novel
things can occur.” He also takes this
change in SIS’s structure to be indicative of, and consistent with, SIS’s progressive and innovative nature, a
nature that encourages people to
think freely and to not be bound by
conventional wisdom and thought.
The free-thinking, progressive nature
of SIS is what Prof. Said takes to set it
apart from other IR programs.
Any discussion of Prof. Said would be
incomplete if it failed to mention his
relationship with the PhD student
body. He has coauthored works with
most of his PhD students, many of
whom have gone on to fill academic
and government positions inside and
outside of the US. It is quite clear that
he works so closely with these students because of a shared interest in
developing and considering new
ideas and solutions, an interest that
he believes SIS fosters via its multidisciplinary approach. “The students
keep me alive,” Prof. Said notes,
“They are constantly bringing up
fresh ideas that allow me to continue
to be engaged.” For anyone that has
had the good fortune of meeting Prof.
Said, it is clear that they will recognize that he too has the ability to inspire “fresh” ideas and encourage
one to be engaged.
P a g e
3
T h e
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
B r i d g i n g S e r v i c e a n d S c h o l a r s h i p : A n
i n t e r v i e w w i t h r e c e n t g r a d u a t e J o s h J o n e s
Josh Jones completed his Ph.D. in international relations in the summer of
2013. His dissertation research examined active resistance to change by the
U.S. Army in the areas of personnel,
operations, and technology in the 20th
and 21st centuries in order to understand the tactics by which organizations
can resist proponents and forces for
change. From 2000 to 2005, he served
as a cavalry officer in the U.S. Army,
during which time he served one year
in Iraq. He currently works at the Center for Complex Operations, a research
center at the National Defense University that focuses on supporting the planning and execution of complex operations by the U.S. government. He was
selected as a Presidential Management
Fellow (PMF) for 2013, and he will serve
his fellowship with the Center for Army
Analysis, an operations research organization within the Department of the
Army. He holds a master’s degree in
international relations from the Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy and a
bachelor’s degree in English literature
from Washington University in St. Louis.
What are you currently doing?
I have been fortunate enough to be
selected for the federal government’s
Presidential Management Fellowship
Program, or PMF. The PMF program
is a two-year “leadership development program” designed to bring
people into the federal government
and prepare them for management
responsibilities. During the two-year
program, individuals serve in a home
agency, but also complete a number
of external rotations of three to four
months each. For example, someone
may choose the Department of Homeland Security as their home agency
but do an external rotation with the
Department of State.
During my PMF service, I will serve
with the Center for Army Analysis, or
CAA, an operations research organization that is part of the Department of
the Army. Through my position at
CAA, I will support senior Army leaders in making important organizational and operational decisions through
the employment of modeling and
simulation tools.
As a former Army officer, I am extremely excited about this opportunity. Having served in Iraq, I understand and recognize the importance
and complexity of such decisionmaking. I have the utmost respect for
civilian and military leaders in national security, given the difficult decisions they have to make on a daily
basis. My goal with this position is to
do my part in helping provide the
information and framework to leaders
so they make the best decisions possible.
Why did you decide to pursue a
PhD in International Relations?
My interest in international relations
really began during my military service in Iraq. While deployed, the
various military, political, social, and
economic aspects of the war seemed
like the most difficult problems imaginable. As I explored how various
people had addressed and tried to
solve these problems, I realized that
most of these ideas were in the field of
international relations.
After completing my master’s degree
in international relations at the Fletcher School (at Tufts University), I still
had a number of questions about
some of the issues to which I had been
introduced. The challenge, though,
was that no one had yet addressed my
particular questions. I think this is the
starting point for any scholarly research, which is the realization that
you see an important problem that no
one has adequately solved. I wanted
to learn how to engage these problems in an analytically rigorous manner and to find answers to my questions, and this led me to a PhD in international relations.
Why did you choose to do your PhD
in International Relations at SIS?
I chose SIS particularly for its multidisciplinary nature and its focus on
policy relevant research, and I have
not been disappointed. During my
time in the program, I have engaged
with an enormous variety of intellectual interests, methodologies, and
theoretical approaches.
While I
would never claim to have mastered
them all, I am at least familiar with the
breadth of the field. Given this multidisciplinary environment, the SIS PhD
program allows and encourages PhD
students to push the boundaries of the
discipline in both breadth and depth.
Additionally, the SIS program is committed to preparing scholars to conduct policy relevant research. All of
the faculty I have encountered at SIS
are interested in the real issues,
problems, and challenges of international relations. This could partially
be a result of being located in Washington, DC and therefore surrounded
by these issues. However, I think it is
primarily an effect of the culture of
the school, which fosters a willingness to engage with real-world questions and a commitment to train students to use the methodological tools
of academic research to understand,
explain, and solve such problems.
Continued on page 4
P a g e
4
T h e
J o s h
J o n e s
How was your experience at SIS?
I had an excellent experience at SIS.
While it was challenging, SIS fully
prepared me to conduct my own research and add to the ever-growing
discipline of international relations.
Having been introduced to the
breadth and depth of scholarship and
research tools, I know that I will be
able to apply my training throughout
my career. Additionally, I know that
my training at SIS will serve me well at
the Center for Army Analysis. While
the type of research conducted by
CAA relies heavily on quantitative
tools such as modeling and simulation,
my SIS training will help me do the
important “first step” of using these
tools effectively: questioning the assumptions upon which they are based,
helping to frame problems in an ana-
J a m e s
James Walsh, professor of political
science at the University of North
Carolina at Charlotte, completed his
PhD in 1996. Since that time he has
taught many undergraduate and
graduate courses in political science
and international relations, authored
two books and published over 20
articles in peer-reviewed journals. He is currently completing his
third book manuscript on the use of
I n t e r v i e w
lytically rigorous manner, and bringing in new ideas and frameworks from
other disciplines and research.
SIS truly supports their PhD students,
and the program leadership understands that gaining the knowledge
and skills necessary to be a successful
scholar requires institutional support
as well as mentorship. Both Dean
Goldgeier and Dr. Weiner are fully
committed to providing all of the resources necessary for students to be
successful in the program. While SIS
has always supported the program, I
have been impressed by how they
have continually lobbied for the resources necessary to help SIS PhD
students succeed in the long road
towards completing the program.
P h D
( c o n t . )
Additionally, they have continued to
stress the importance of mentorship
within the SIS community. Recognizing that a dissertation is a very individual pursuit, the faculty and staff
involved in the program realize that
this still requires coaching and guidance. SIS faculty recognize that the
success of the program fundamentally
rests on the success of the individual
students, and that developing new
knowledge requires personal involvement and commitment to training the next generation of scholars.
Along with the breadth of research
conducted by the faculty at SIS and in
the broader American University
community, your potential as a PhD
student is near limitless.
Why is SIS a good place to pursue a
PhD in international relations?
W a l s h ,
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
( 1 9 9 6 )
drones in counterinsurgency campaigns. This book investigates the
effects of drone strikes on insurgent
groups, as well as how the American
public's attitudes towards the use of
force change when American military
personnel are not at risk. He is also
principal investigator of a grant from
the Minerva Research Initiative that
analyzes the links between natural
resources and armed conflict. This
multi-university project is collecting
data on how insurgent groups finance
their operations by looting natural
resources or engaging in crime, and
how these means of finance influence
their treatment of civilians in war, their
likelihood of prevailing in armed conflicts, and related issues.
Dr. Walsh relates that he was initially
attracted to the SIS PhD program because of “the large faculty with a diverse range of research interests, the
focus on supporting PhD students, and
the DC location.” But he soon found
that SIS offered much more as he “met
great colleagues, learned how to
think about international politics, to
teach it, and to do research [he]
found interesting.”
Indeed, Dr.
Walsh sees the “top-notch training”
offered by SIS faculty, as well as the
opportunity to meet people from
around the world doing interesting
work, as the primary reasons why
one ought to consider the SIS PhD
program if interested in pursuing a
career in international relations. Another great thing about the
PhD program at SIS, Dr. Walsh notes,
is that it helps prepare students for
life after the PhD by “focusing on
developing both research and teaching skills”, skills that are valuable in
both academic and non-academic
settings. Echoing the thoughts of
many other SIS alums, Dr. Walsh
offers one final thought about why SIS
is a great place to pursue a PhD in
international relations—“the Davenport Coffee Lounge”.
P a g e
5
T h e
A m b a s s a d o r
Dr. Sallama Shaker, currently Visiting
Professor of Middle East & Islamic Studies at Yale Divinity School, earned her
PhD from SIS in 1993. Her current work
explores novel ways to understand empowerment and dissolve the myth, often
dominate in Oriental culture, that women
are inferior to men. Dr. Shaker’s previous work focuses on peace and development in the Middle East with an emphasis
on women’s rights in the Islamic
world. In addition to her academic positions at both Yale and Claremont Graduate University, Dr. Shaker has held numerous governmental positions including: first woman diplomat at the Egyptian
Embassy in Ankara-Turkey, first Egyptian, Araband African woman Ambassador to Canada (2000-2004), first woman
Ambassador to become the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Americas,
first Secretary at the office of the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, first woman Consul General at the Egyptian Embassy in Washington, D.C. (1985-1989)
and Economic and Political Counselor at
the Embassy in Turkey, as well as Cultural and Political attaché at the Embassy of
Egypt in Malta. In addition to her governmental service, Dr. Shaker was also
the first Egyptian diplomat to be the Senior Associate Scholar at the Woodrow
Wilson Center where she wrote her first
book on Turkey. Dr. Shaker also holds a
S a l l a m a
S h a k e r ,
When asked about her initial attraction
to SIS, Dr. Shaker cites the location of
the school in Washington D.C., a city
known for housing the key decision
makers of world politics. As she progressed through the program, however, she came to recognize that one of
the great strengths of SIS lies in its ability to teach students how to apply theory to practice. Dr. Shaker believes that
this ability, combined with the highlevel of teaching by professors like
M e i ,
P h D
( 1 9 9 3 )
For more on Dr. Shaker please visit
http://divinity.yale.edu/shaker
To
read her most recent article on Egypt,
go to http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/
content/why-egypt-matters
( 2 0 1 3 )
democracy is highly unlikely to be
adopted by China in the foreseeable
future. Her work supports this claim by
tracing the rise and fall of various ideas
about democratic reform and political
change in modern China, arguing
along the way that local “idea entrepreneurs” rather than foreign states
have played, and are likely to continue
to play, the pivotal role in shaping the
discourse and direction of political
change in contemporary China.
Shanshan Mei completed her PhD in
international relations in the summer
of 2013. Her dissertation, Disciples
of Democracy—Localization and
Contested Political Change in Modern China, argues that Western style
P h D
Nick Onuf, Abdul Aziz Said and Sherif
Mardin, is what ultimately allowed her
to better “understand international
relations, global conflicts and conflict
resolution, international development
and the dynamics of politics and economics and their impact on decision
making on both local and global levels.” Another feature of the program
that Dr. Shaker recalls is the competitive nature of the school. For her, this
aspect of the program was important as
it helped the students learn “how to get
the best results which, in turn, would
enable [them] to become achievers
with a high quality understanding of
many complex global issues.”
Dr.
Shaker reckons that her education at
SIS prepared [her] to become “a nuanced diplomat that could face the
challenges of the career and the dynamics of world politics with a global
vision.” Indeed, she believes that were
she not “empowered by[her] doctoral
degree which [she] obtained from
American University, [she] would not
have been privilged to serve in the
many distinguished positions she has
held.”
master’s degree in political economy
from Johns Hopkins, a master’s degree
in economics from the London School of
Economics/Malta and a bachelor’s degree in political economy from Cairo
University.
S h a n s h a n
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
Having done undergraduate and graduate work in diplomacy and international affairs, Dr. Mei saw pursuing a
PhD in international relations as a natural next step in her academic journey
as well as an opportunity to best pre-
pare herself “for a career as a scholar-practitioner in international affairs.” She believes that her experience at SIS, especially all of the
knowledge gained through coursework, interacting with other students
and working closely with her dissertation committee members, has
helped position her to realize her
future career goals as either an academic or policy analyst. Dr. Mei is
presently working on a book proposal based on her dissertation and
revising a paper that analyzes the
Chinese debate on America’s decline from 2009-11 in order to provide policymakers insight into the
reasoning behind China’s foreign
policy making process.
P a g e
6
T h e
K i a
Kia Hall is a sixth year PhD candidate
writing a dissertation on how the women
of the Afro-indigenous Garifuna community of Honduras are using cassava bread
(or ereba in the Garifuna language) to
engage in community development. She
recently presented a paper in Managua,
Nicaragua at the 2013 Human Development and Capability Association (HDCA)
conference that was runner up for the
Kukly’s prize for best graduate student
Women peeling cassava outside of the grating house of the group Binadu Uwenedu,
based in the village of Ciriboya.
conference paper. In November she will
present a paper entitled “The Masculinization of Ereba: Converting Women’s
Work into Men’s Capabilities” at the
American Anthropological Association’s
(AAA) annual meeting. The Association of
Feminist Anthropology awarded this
paper the Sylvia Forman Prize for being
the best graduate paper in feminist an-
T o
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
H a l l
thropology this year. She is also working on a fundraiser for the erebamaking organizations about which she
conducted research. She will donate
half of her Sylvia Forman Prize to this
fundraising campaign with the goal of
raising another $2500 by November
2014. The collected funds will primarily
be used to purchase an inexpensive
used vehicle to transport ereba from
the villages to the city. She will be posting monthly updates to the website
http://www.erebairiona.org/ and hopes
to publish a book with the profits being
invested in the community.
Kia’s initial attraction to the field of international relations issued from her
desire to do work that is global in context and that might have cross-cultural
implications. Realizing that SIS welcomes such a broad scope, she decided
to pursue her graduate education in
international relations at SIS. Kia reports that her choice to attend SIS was
well-made as the program has allowed
her “the intellectual freedom to explore
a broad range of interests from diverse
methodological and epistemological
perspectives” that are valuable when
pursuing cross-cultural and globally
oriented work. When asked about her
experience at SIS, Kia remarked, “I
have enjoyed learning and growing
with my PhD cohort, and have found a
phenomenal mentor in my dissertation
committee chair, Dr. Christine B. N.
Kia with a hand-made mini ruguma
(traditionally used to strain liquid from
cassava), given to her as a gift from the
group DARARA, based in the village of
Cusuna.
Chin. Another highlight of my experience is the Ph.D. Colloquium, coordinated by SIS Ph.D. Director Dr. Sharon
Weiner. The Colloquium does a great
job of creating a sense of community
and keeping Ph.D. students informed of
student and faculty research.” Kia is
currently exploring postdoctoral opportunities and hopes to find a position
in academics, a humanitarian organization or a think-tank that allows her to
continue to combine research and
practitioner work.
l e a r n m o r e a b o u t K i a ’ s f u n d r a i s i n g
c a m p a i g n v i s i t t h e w e b s i t e
h t t p : / / w w w . e r e b a i r i o n a . o r g /
A stack of
ereba
(the
wooden
plank
ensures
that it
stays flat
while
drying).
Lilia Ruiz Alvarez of the village Ciriboya flipping
ereba while baking.
P a g e
7
A n
T h e
I n t e r v i e w
Katherine Collin is a 7th year PhD candidate with research interests in elections,
referendums and direct democracy, democratization, peacebuilding, peacekeeping and the United Nations. She is currently writing her dissertation on Peacemaking
Referendums. Prior to coming to SIS, Ms.
Collin worked on a number of international elections in places such as Kosovo, Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Jordan. Her most recent fieldwork has taken
her to South Sudan, Cyprus, Indonesia,
and East Timor. She holds an M.A. in International Policy Studies from Monterey
Institute of International Studies and a B.A.
in History and Peace & Conflict Studies
from University of California, Berkeley.
Why did you decide to pursue a PhD in
International Relations?
I worked on post conflict peacemaking
and peacebuilding projects for nine
years between the completion of my
Bachelor’s degree and beginning the
PhD program at SIS. I decided to take a
break from field work to pursue a PhD to
better understand the impact of that
work. I have always enjoyed theory, and
while conducting elections and capacity
building projects, I could see the ways
theory operated in practice as well as the
frequently large disconnect between the
theory and practice. That perspective on
the gaps between what we think and
what we do gives me something to offer
academia. Also, I still have a lot to learn.
Why did you choose to do your PhD in
International Relations at SIS?
SIS’s doctoral program was my top
choice when I was applying. I wanted a
PhD program with an international focus,
multi-disciplinary approach, and support
for the importance of policy-relevance in
addition to theoretical rigor. My bachelor’s degree is interdisciplinary, in Peace
and Conflict Studies, and I value this integrative and open methodological approach. My master’s degree is in international policy, and I feel most at home in
an environment that not only values but
also cultivates an international perspective and student body. Additionally, my
value-added to a program would be at a
school that is open to policy-relevance.
w i t h
K a t h e r i n e
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
C o l l i n
Katy, pictured above, speaking with Xanana Gusmao, the president of East Timor, in Gleno, East Timor.
A program not grounded in practice
alongside theory would be frustrating
for a student like me, motivated to better understand the work I had already
done.
What are you currently doing?
I am currently conducting research for
my dissertation on the use of direct
democracy in peacemaking. Over the
summer, I traveled to Indonesia, East
Timor, Cyprus (north and south), and
South Sudan to conduct interviews with
election administrators and peace negotiators, in large part funded by American University and SIS. I enjoyed the
work a great deal and was struck by the
differences in political culture and the
impact of these generational conflicts
on the countries. This fall, I am continuing this research by interviewing United Nations officials, diplomats, and
elections experts in Washington DC
and New York. I hope to travel to South
Africa, Northern Ireland, or even New
Caledonia in 2014 to finalize my dissertation field work.
How has your experience at SIS been
so far?
My experience at SIS has overall been
very positive. I have been with the
program through changes in its management and the reconsideration of its
general approach, and I find the program re-energized. After completing
the course work, I spent some time
adrift, and I needed to create structures
that helped me keep my work on track
and held me accountable for my outputs. In addition to this necessary piece
of self-help, the program has instituted
several ways to keep PhD students in
the dissertation-writing process engaged with the intellectual community
that have proven very helpful for me.
The high caliber of students within the
doctoral program and the many opportunities for faculty engagement also
continue to enrich my experience at
SIS. Finally, the new building is an invaluable resource. The space dedicated to the PhD program has enabled me
to reconnect with the program at large
and houses all of the activities that
pushed my dissertation forward and
kept me connected to the SIS community.
What do you hope to do when you
finish your program?
When I finish the program I hope to
work in academia. I would like to find a
tenure-track position that would allow
me to conduct research and teach. I
also intend to remain active in my field
and to continue to work on elections.
Most likely the ideal institution for me
will continue to look a lot like SIS: a
multi-disciplinary program that values
qualitative methods and policyrelevance, preferably with an international focus, ideally in peace studies.
P a g e
8
T h e
F r o m
t h e
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
F i e l d
SIS prides itself on the fact that we have students doing fieldwork in so many areas of the world. Each star on the map
represents an area where a current or recently graduated student has done or is doing fieldwork. Some of the projects that
are being carried out in these areas are listed below.

Ryan Briggs, PhD (2013): Research on the politics of foreign
aid. (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and
Zambia)

Efe Sevin: Swedish and Turkish
Public Diplomacy as a Foreign
Policy Instrument.

Shanshan Mei, PhD (2013): Chinese perspectives on Asian
democaracies and Chinese political reform.

Emma Fawcett: The political
economy of tourism and development in the Dominican Republic and Cuba.


Sheherazade Jafari: Religious and
secular women's rights activism
in Malaysia.
Edward Lucas: British counterpiracy efforts in China in the 19th
and early 20th centuries.
(London, UK.)

Sonja Kelly: Financial inclusion
policy and regulation in Chile.

Katherine Collin: Elite interviews
dealing with peace processes &
referendums. (Indonesia, East
Timor, Republic of Cyprus, Northern Cyprus/Turkish Republic of
Northern Cyprus and South Sudan)

Elizabeth Rossmiller: Legal discourses in Poland.

Tom Long, PhD (2013): Latin
American foreign policy.
(Argentina, Brazil, Colombia,
Mexico, and Panama)

Nicholas Smith: Microfinance's
impact on socio-economic development in rural Uganda.

Kia Hall: Women’s Cassava
bread production and community development in the AfroIndigenous Garifuna community. (Honduras)
D o n ’ t F o r g e t t o R S V P f o r t h e A l u m n i
r e c e p t i o n o n T h u r s d a y , O c t o b e r 1 7 ,
2 0 1 3 f r o m 6 : 3 0 – 8 : 0 0 p m
e m a i l : b r y a n m @ a m e r i c a n . e d u
P a g e
9
T h e
A l u m n i

Maia Hallward-Carter (2006) Associate Professor,
Kennesaw State University, has a new book Transnational Activism and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
available at the end of November 2013.

Mehrzad Boroujerdi (1991) Professor, Syracuse University, recently published an edited book Mirror for
the Muslim Prince: Islam and Theory of Statecraft. Dr.
Bourjedi is also currently serving as President of the
International Society for Iranian Studies.

Anca Pusca’s (2006), Senior Lecturer in International
Studies, Goldsmiths University of London, forthcoming
book Postcommunist Aesthetics: Revolutions, Capitalism, Violence will be published in August 2014.

Elisabeth M. Prügl (1992) Professor of International
Relations & Deputy Director, Graduate Institute of
International and Development Studies, Geneva, recently published an edited book with Gülay Çaglar
and Susanne Zwingel Feminist Strategies in International Governance.

N e w s

Robert Kevlihan’s (2009) Director, UNAID, new book
Aid, Insurgencies and Conflict Transformation, When
Greed is Good has been published.

Eloise F. Malone’s (1981), Professor, US. Naval Academy, book Public Policy: Perspectives and Choices, 5th
edition, co-authored with Charles L. Cochran, will be
published in 2014.

Naren Chitty (1992) Professor & Associate Dean for
the Faculty of Arts, Macquarie University, has been
awarded the Order of Australia (A.M.) by the Queen
of Australia for Member of the Order of Australia
(A.M.) “for services to education, particularly in the
field of international communications as a researcher
and academic and to a range of professional associations”.

Erin McCandless (2005) Senior Consultant/Representative: Interpeace & Senior Consultant:
United Nations Development Program has an article
forthcoming in Global Governance titled “Wicked
Problems in Peacebuilding and Statebuilding: Making
Progress in Measuring Progress in Peacebuilding and
Statebuilding”.
Yahia H. Zoubir (1985) Professor of International Relations & International Management, Kedge Business
School, France has recently published Global Security
Watch: The Maghreb, co-authored with L. Dris-AïtHamadouche.
C o n g r a t u l a t i o n s
t o
I n t e r n a t i o n a l
O u r
N e w l y
M i n t e d
P h D s
Tamara Trownsell (Summer 2013)
Thomas Long (Summer 2013)
Yolande Bouka (Spring 2013)
Dissertation: “Robust Relationality:
Lessons from the Ontology of Complete Interconnectedness for the
Field of International Relations"
Dissertation: "Convincing the Colossus:
Latin American Leaders Face the United States"
Dissertation: "In the Shadow of Prison: Power, Identity, and Transitional
Justice in Post-Genocide Rwanda"
Shanshan Mei (Summer 2013)
Ryan Briggs (Spring 2013)
Dissertation: "Disciples of Democracy Localization and Contested Political
Change in China"
Dissertation: "Aiding and Abetting:
The Influence of Foreign Assistance
on Incumbent Advantage in Africa
Josh Jones (Summer 2013)
Dissertation: "Protecting the Mission:
The Case of the U.S. Army"
Keep us informed!
If you have a recent accomplishment, publication or announcement that you would like to share with other program alumni,
please contact Bryan Miller, SIS PhD Program Assistant, at bryanm@american.edu We are also happy to post profiles and
links to homepages, websites, etc. on the PhD program website located at http://www.american.edu/sis/phd/