SAIS Students Win Big at Democracy Symposium
Three first-year students from the MA in International Relations program at Johns Hopkins SAIS won all three prizes at the annual Democracy and Governance Student Research Symposium held at Georgetown University on February 12, 2025. Hosted by Georgetown’s Department of Government, and its Center for Democracy and Civil Society, the symposium was an opportunity for graduate students from universities in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia who are focused on democracy and governance to present their independent research.
Four students from SAIS—Krithiga Narayanan, Hadiza Musa, Jakub Wozniak, and Chekwubechi Okunowo—were selected to participate in the symposium. Participants had to design a poster for their research and present it to a panel of judges and attendees. The four judges were Annika Silva-Leander, who serves as head of North America and permanent observer to the United Nations at International IDEA; Brian Joseph, vice president for programs at the National Endowment for Democracy; Eric Bjornlund, president and chief executive officer of Democracy International; and Katie LaRoque, deputy director for policy and advocacy at Freedom House.
All three top prizes at the symposium were won by SAIS students: Jakub Wozniak, Chekwubechi Okunowo, and Krithiga Narayanan. They proudly showed off their SAIS pins as they received their awards from the judges.
The first prize went to Jakub Wozniak, a SAIS Public Service Fellow whose research was on “Autocracy and Military Effectiveness: The Direct Negative Impact of Autocracy on Military Structure and Leadership.” Wozniak noted that a lot of political science research investigated whether democracies or autocracies are more likely to win wars, but very little had been done to answer if democracies or autocracies perform better on battlefield. “I was really happy to see the effort I put into my research was matched, or maybe even exceeded by the enthusiasm of the attendees,” he said.
The second prize went to Chekwubechi Okunowo who presented her research on “Sino-Africa Investment: Examining its Role as a Political Preservation Strategy for African Political Elites.” Her research explored how democratic principles such as accountability, transparency and the rule of law can ensure that Chinese investments yield benefits for the citizens of African countries, rather than predominantly rewarding the elites. “Winning an award was the perfect conclusion to the experience, serving as a motivating reminder to stay curious, think critically and seek out spaces where such meaningful discussions take place,” Okunowo said.
The third prize went to Krithiga Narayanan, who is also a SAIS Public Service Fellow. Her research explored the question, “Can Women’s Rights Movements Strengthen Democracy in a Country?” It focused on how the status of women in a country is the status of democracy there and underscored how women’s grassroots-level social movements can strengthen democracy. “Active engagement of women in all levels of society and governance fosters a rich democratic culture in a country, and this is critical for sustaining and strengthening democracy,” Narayanan said. “One of the judges at the symposium told me that my research touched her heart, and her words further strengthened my resolve to be an active advocate for women’s rights.”
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