PhD Students

Sarah Alaoui is a Ph.D. candidate in the Middle East Studies department at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her research focuses on Arab public diplomacy.

James “Jeb” Benkowski is a Ph.D. candidate at SAIS, a predoctoral fellow at SAIS’s Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, and an adjunct policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. His dissertation, "Best Laid Schemes," is a history of the United States’ military force planning system from the late 18th through the late 20th centuries. It examines the impact of geography, technology, civil-military relations, and politics on both the effectiveness of U.S. preparations for the next war and the ability of U.S. policymakers to implement their defense strategies. His other research foci include U.S.-China relations, Chinese military affairs, and nuclear security. He received an M.A. in International Relations and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University SAIS and a B.A. in Global Affairs (with distinction) from Yale University.

Ankit Bhatia is a Ph.D. candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) concentrating on international development with a regional focus on South Asia. Ankit’s research interests are in the field of development economics, public infrastructure, and state capacity. His research combines spatial and quantitative data analysis methods including machine learning to study the causes and effects of infrastructure development in low and middle-income countries.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Ankit has a decade-long experience in policy research and analysis working with policy think tanks and academic institutions in India including at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Carnegie) India Centre, Brookings Institution India Centre, University of Chicago Delhi Centre, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), NITI Aayog (erstwhile Planning Commission, Government of India), and Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. Ankit holds master's and bachelor’s degrees in Economics from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India.

Past Experience: Before starting my PhD journey at SAIS, I started my position as an Associate Research Scientist at the Center for Social Media and Politics based in NYU. Currently, I am researching the public's use of social media during past U.S. elections.

Before that, I worked as a Research Analyst at the Pew Research Center in D.C., focusing on migration, race and identity research. I previously also worked at the Brookings Institution's Global Economy and Development team. In my past life, I worked as a journalist in Syracuse, NY and Jakarta, Indonesia.


Past Education: Pre-doctoral M.A. in Political Economy, New York University | Thesis title, "Leadership and Social Ties Within Collective Action Networks: An Analysis of the Stop Asian Hate Movement on Twitter"

Dual B.S. in Quantitative Economics and Broadcast Journalism , Syracuse University | Thesis title, "Effect of U.S. Dollar Volatility on Migrant Remittances"

Maya Camargo-Vemuri is a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. As a scholar of political violence, she focuses on civilian victimization, genocide, mass violence, and atrocity in modern states and societies. Her interest in questions of power, identity, and conflict in political arenas has also led her to do work on the role of nationalism, propaganda, repression, and authoritarianism. She is especially interested in cases in Eastern Europe and Russia, as well as Latin America. Her dissertation focuses on violence during genocide, examining trends within and across cases to develop a descriptive and comparative framework for such violence in the contemporary era.

During her time at JHU SAIS, she has been a Graduate Research Fellow at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, an APSA Diversity Fellow, an instructor at the JHU Homewood Campus, and an Adjunct Professor at the United States Naval Academy. She is currently a Student Fellow at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Agora Institute. Before coming to SAIS, she was a Boren Fellow in Senegal and a Visiting Researcher at the Institute for Democracy and Human Rights in Peru.

Hasta's research centers around China’s relations with neighboring states in South and Southeast Asia. During the 2022-2023 academic year, she will be a National Bureau of Asian Research Chinese Language Fellow. She holds a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence College. Prior to joining SAIS, she was a Fudan Fellow at Fudan University in Shanghai, and then studied Chinese in the Inter-University Program (IUP) at Tsinghua University in Beijing. She also has a professional background in sustainable development research in South and Southeast Asia.

Deviana has a keen interest in the policy process and the political economy of food and nutrition. Her research project focuses on the agenda setting processes behind the salience of a child malnutrition policy as a political priority, working with Prof. Jeremy Shiffman. She holds a master’s degree in Development Studies at University of Sussex, UK and a bachelor’s degree in International Relations at Universitas Katolik Parahyangan, Indonesia.

Prior to joining SAIS, she has built her expertise in international development since 2012 as a project coordinator for World Vision in a remote Indonesian district, a research consultant for Institute of Development Studies (IDS), UK, and recently as a senior program manager in poverty and social development for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) in partnership with the World Bank. Aside from her PhD studies, she currently works as a graduate research assistant in Johns Hopkins’ Global Food Ethics and Policy Program and she enjoys hiking, reading, blogging, and swimming.

William Erich Ellison is a PhD student at SAIS focusing on great power politics, applied history, and diplomatic history. He studies the foreign policies of the United States, the major European powers, and Israel, analyzing these states’ grand strategies in a multipolar world. He is particularly interested in how history can provide lessons applicable to contemporary policymaking and has written about how historical eras ranging from the eighteenth century to the 1980s have relevance to contemporary great power competition.

Prior to pursuing his PhD at SAIS, William completed his Master of Arts in International Relations at SAIS, with dual concentrations in security, strategy, and statecraft, and Europe. He wrote his Master’s capstone on American foreign policy during the 1938 Czech Crisis. While pursuing his studies at SAIS, William has also served as a consultant for the Marathon Initiative think tank.

Before SAIS, William worked for three years at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy think tank, serving as Research Associate and Personal Assistant to Ambassador Dennis Ross. Prior to that, William completed his undergraduate studies at Yale University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in History in 2018. His studies at Yale concentrated on European diplomatic history between the French Revolution and World War II. He wrote his senior thesis on several episodes of British nineteenth century diplomacy that carry lessons applicable to American statecraft today.

Abdelouahed Eloufir is a PhD student at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where he is supervised by Dr. David A. Steinberg. His research explores the domestic socioeconomic and political consequences of globalization in developing countries.

He holds a BA in Politics and Economics and an MA in International Economic Policy, both from Sciences Po. Before joining SAIS, he worked as a Research Associate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), where he supported the experimental evaluation of active labor market policies in Morocco.

Jonathan Esty is a Predoctoral Fellow supported by the Ax:son Johnson Institute for Statecraft and Diplomacy. He is writing his dissertation on the international history of US humanitarian intervention and grand strategy in the 1990s unipolar moment. Before SAIS, Jonathan worked as lead researcher for the author Fareed Zakaria’s book projects on global geopolitics. He earned his History BA at Yale College where he participated in the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy.

Silvia Fuselli is a PhD Candidate at the Johns Hopkins University (SAIS). Her research project centers on the impact of intra-party politics on processes of democratization, democratic backsliding, and autocratization, with a specific focus on Turkey. Silvia is also a social protection expert at the World Bank, specializing on adaptive social safety nets in contexts affected by fragility, conflict, and violence. Prior to joining the Bank, Silvia worked in the NGO and private sector. She holds a MA in International Relations and Economics from SAIS and earned a MA and BA in Diplomacy and International Affairs from University of Bologna, Italy.

Oskar Galeev is a doctoral candidate under the supervision of Professor Thomas Rid and a fellow at the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies. His research focuses on the history and politics of Artifical Intelligence.

Prior to joining SAIS, he had worked at Huawei Technologies, at the European Commission, and taught Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. He holds BA in International Studies from Leiden University and MA in China Studies from the Yenching Academy of Peking University.

Alex Haag is a doctoral student in international political economy working under the supervision of Professor Matthias Matthijs. He holds an MA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins and BAs in International Relations and Russian from Brigham Young University. His research broadly focuses on the political economy topics centered on the continuation of the European project. More specifically, he currently focuses on the generational dynamics of welfare state responses to economic crisis and what these entail for the future of European integration.

Yun Han received her M.A. from Johns Hopkins SAIS, with concentrations in International Economics and Japan Studies. Previously, she earned a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University. While at GWU, she spent a semester studying abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan. Before starting her Ph.D., Ms. Han was a Policy Research Fellow at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, where her research focused on China's Belt and Road Initiative.

Sandrine Mugenga Irankunda is a PhD student in African Studies at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. Her research centers on genocide and other forms  of large-scale violence within the African context, examining the complex historical, political, social, economic, and cultural dynamics that underpin and drive such atrocities, while also shedding light on often overlooked narratives. Her academic interests span historical trauma, the politics of memory, resistance, reconciliation, transitional justice, and collective identity formation.

Beyond her academic work, Sandrine serves as a political affairs intern at the United Nations Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and as a research associate at Genocide Watch. She is also a fellow at the International Policy Scholars Consortium and Network. Sandrine holds an MBA from Georgia State University with a focus on international organization management and a BBA in international business.

• EVP at Mandiant
• LtCol Air Force Reserve
• PhD student focusing on cyber intelligence

Mary Langan is a PhD Candidate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her dissertation explores the impact of decentralization policies and administrative unit proliferation on intercommunal conflict in South Sudan. Mary also works as a development consultant supporting foreign governments and multilateral organizations in program evaluations and reviews. Mary has previously worked with a variety of NGOs across East Africa, the Middle East and Central America primarily in the areas of IDP and refugee camp management and project management and evaluation. She holds a MA in International Economics and Development from SAIS and earned a BA in International Relations from Tufts University.

I was born in Beijing, China, and moved to the United States when I was thirteen years old. My Ph.D. topic focuses on China's mobilization capability and its relationship to policy implementation. Besides, I have been following China's economic development, the Chinese legal system, Chinese foreign policy in Asia, and US-China relations. Besides China, I am interested in the politics of Japan, Russia, Southeast Asia, and the Korean Peninsula. I am a constant contributor to the Diplomat, which I write on a wide range of issues in Asia, especially developments in China.

Angelica (Gica) Mangahas is a PhD candidate at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies where she is a student of Southeast Asian politics. Her research is focused on the domestic sources of support for the US-Philippines alliance. She is currently working with the SAIS Foreign Policy Institute to develop a Diplomatic Capacity Index: a tool to measure the comparative investments that countries make to prepare for political, economic, and security diplomacy. Gica was previously Deputy Director for Research at the Stratbase – Albert Del Rosario Institute in Manila and an instructor at De La Salle University.

Prakhar is a third-year Ph.D. candidate in International Political Economy at Johns Hopkins University, with research interests are in public policy research with a particular interest in the selection and training of administrative personnel and a regional focus on India. He primarily work with administrative data using a combination of qualitative methods and techniques of computational social science such as text analysis.

Matshaba Mothiane is a PhD candidate in African Studies at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her research focuses on the diplomacy of emerging middle powers in the Global South, African political systems, and comparative politics. Before joining SAIS, Matshaba worked in public diplomacy, focusing on higher education partnerships and funding at the U.S. Department of State. She has conducted research on BRICS, South-South cooperation, African multilateral organizations, and African political economy at the South African Institute of International Affairs (SAIIA) and the South African Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), among others. She holds a Master of Arts in Political Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Studies and Law from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Elor Nkereuwem is finishing up a PhD in International Studies (African Studies concentration) at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Washington, D.C. Her dissertation focuses on discourse and political violence. It proposes a renewed focus on the narratives that contribute to the emergence of extremist violence.

Before coming to SAIS, she graduated from the University of London (London School of Economics and Political Science) with a degree in International Relations. In 2013 she obtained a Master of Letters degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of St Andrews, Scotland where her dissertation, which analyzed media coverage of Al-Qaeda affiliates in West Africa, earned her the Sir Menzies Campbell Prize for Best MLitt Dissertation in International Relations. She is an award-winning investigative journalist and has recently finished visiting fellowships at the Henry L. Stimson Center as well as Transparency International Defense and Security in Washington, D.C. Her latest policy blog reviews Russia’s increased economic and strategic focus on Africa, and how this is further muddling up complex conflicts in many African countries.

Emily Otto is an Alperovitch PhD Fellow under Dr. Thomas Rid. Her research centers on military cyber forces, their construction, organization, and culture. She received a bachelor’s degree in History from The University of Louisville and a Master’s in International Affairs from The Bush School at Texas A&M. Before joining the Alperovitch Institute, Emily left military service as an Army Captain after a decade of threat intelligence, cyber operations, and knowledge management for the Department of Defense.

Amrita Pillai is a doctoral student under the supervision of Professor Adam Auerbach. As a scholar of regulatory governance with a background in law, her research focuses on the institutional characteristics of the public sector, with a particular emphasis on institutional design, public financial management, personnel systems, and state capacity.

Prior to her doctoral studies, Amrita accumulated nearly a decade of experience as a lawyer and public policy researcher, specializing in emerging issues in policy and regulation in India. She has held research positions at leading Indian think tanks, including the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, where she contributed to a longstanding research program of the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India. At the National Council of Applied Economic Research, she led the research for the first-ever commissioned evaluation of a statutory regulatory authority in India. More recently, Amrita was part of the State Capacity Initiative at the Center for Policy Research, where she examined key issues in regulatory governance, including the federal deficit in regulatory functioning and the gender imbalance in regulatory boardrooms.

She began her legal policy career with the Planning Department of the State of Andhra Pradesh, India, where she provided research support in public finance, economic policy, and governance to senior state officials.

Amrita holds a law degree from Government Law College, Mumbai, and a master’s degree in Public Policy and Governance from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, India.

Rena Sasaki is a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). Her research focuses on East Asia security, alliances, and the defense industry, with an emphasis on the intersection of military, economic, and geopolitical issues in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a Senior Associate at Strategy& (PwC), leading multiple defense-related projects for Japan’s Ministry of Defense. She has contributed articles to publications such as Foreign Policy, Nikkei Asia, and Jamestown China Brief and has participated as a delegate and panelist at international security forums, including the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. Rena is also a fellow of the Pacific Forum’s Young Leaders Program.

Shahad Turkistani is a Ph.D. candidate at SAIS and an Associate Researcher at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies. She is also an Academic at the Prince Saud Al Faisal Institute for Diplomatic Studies under the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

With extensive experience in policy research and analysis, Shahad has worked with leading think tanks and academic institutions in Saudi Arabia, Japan, and the United States.

Reja Younis is pursuing a PhD in International Relations at Johns Hopkins SAIS, concentrating in Strategic Studies. Reja is also a Predoctoral Fellow with the Kissinger Center at SAIS and an Associate Fellow with the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). At CSIS, she leads research on nuclear deterrence, nuclear strategy, and emerging military technologies. She holds a BS in Social Sciences and Liberal Arts from the Institute of Business Administration and graduated with highest honors in Political Science. She completed her MA in International Relations from The University of Chicago.

Devin Woods is a PhD student at SAIS. He also holds a Master’s degree from SAIS and a Bachelor’s in Philosophy from NYU. As a Senior Research Associate at the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at SAIS, he has conducted research on China's Arctic energy strategy, territorial disputes between Japan and Russia, and the evolution of embassies as institutions. Previously, he contributed to the East-West Center’s Japan Matters for America publication and taught English for three years in Hokkaido through the JET Program. He is fluent in Japanese (JLPT N1) and occasionally translated local government websites from Japanese to English during his time in Hokkaido.

Yifan Zhang is a Ph.D. student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), specializing in China’s political institutions, domestic and foreign policy processes, leadership and governance, U.S.-China relations, and China's cross-border relations. She holds an M.A. with honors in China Studies, American Foreign Policy, and International Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a B.A. in International Relations from Boston University. She is also an Affiliated Researcher at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. Yifan speaks Mandarin Chinese and intermediate French.

Tianyuan Zhao is a Ph.D. student at Johns Hopkins SAIS under the supervision of Professor Ling Chen. His research broadly focuses on international and comparative political economy. He received an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS and a BA from Boston University.