Research News & Announcements |
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Dear SIS Community,
We are pleased to share with you our first update for 2026 of our faculty's research accomplishments from the past few months, including grants, awards, publications. and highlights from the ISA conference in Columbus and inaugural SIS-Young Professionals in Foreign Policy Research Symposium earlier this month. We also have several exciting upcoming events in April, including the SIS Scholar-Teacher of the Year Lecture and Celebration and a Research Translation in International Studies panel discussion with SIS faculty on April 22.
As always, be sure to keep an eye on our social media pages and website for regular research highlights and updates.
We hope you have a great final stretch of the Spring 2026 semester!
Simon Nicholson, Associate Dean for Research- simon.nicholson@american.edu
Nick O'Connell, Research Development - noconnell@american.edu
Emma Vitale, Research Promotion - vitale@american.edu
Externally Funded Project Implementation Support - sisofo@american.edu
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External Grants and Fellowships
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Judy Gearhart, "Follow-on to Fisher Learning Exchanges in Mexico and Ghana," Multiplier, $45,000
- Garrett Graddy-Lovelace, "Pointing the Farm Bill Toward Racial Justice," Platform for Agricultural and Climate Transformation, $200,000
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External Awards and Recognition
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Amitav Acharya, T.V. Paul Best Book Award from the International Studies Association's Global International Relations Section for The Once and Future World Order: Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West
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James Goldgeier, named a Stanford University Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) Fellow for 2026-27 [link]
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Ernest Ogbozor, "Insurgency, counterinsurgency, and famine-like conditions in Northeast Nigeria" and "The primacy of non-governmental organisations in humanitarian relief" in Handbook on Humanitarian Crises (Alpaslan Özerdem, ed.) Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025. [link]
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Judith Shapiro, "Reactive Authoritarianism: Understanding the Caprices of China's Environmental Governance" in Sage Handbook of China and the Environment (Christopher Coggins and Yifei Li, eds.) Sage Business, 2026. [link]
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Amitav Acharya, "New Perspectives on Trust in International Conflicts," International Studies Review, February 2026. [link]
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Amitav Acharya, "Thinking beyond a polarized world: why multiplexity matters," International Affairs, March 2026. [link]
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William Akoto, "State-sponsored cyber conflict: How Russia responds to election interference allegations on social media," Contemporary Security Policy, January 2026. [link]
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William Akoto, "Unpacking state-sponsored cyber conflict: Intelligence-driven strategic competition in cyberspace," Journal of Strategic Studies, January 2026. [link]
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Jennifer Eburuoh, ""Understanding Narratives in the Farmer-Herder Conflicts of Northern Nigeria," African Conflict & Peacebuilding Review, January 2026. [link]
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Jim Goldgeier, "NATO Did Not Cause Putin’s Imperial War," The Washington Quarterly, December 2025. [link]
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Julie Gonzalez and Dana Fisher, "Wildfire displacement in the United States: a qualitative synthesis of the social consequences," Environmental Research: Climate, March 2026. [link]
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Maria De Jesus, "The role of mobility in HIV intervention engagement and community mobilization among female sex workers living with HIV in the Dominican Republic," AIDS and Behavior, February 2026. [link]
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Carl LeVan, "Scientific solidarity as response to Africa’s pandemic populism," Politikon, March 2026. [link]
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Hansong Li, ""The Artic World in Fridtjof Nansen's International Thought," Political Geography, March 2026. [link]
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Shameer Modongal, "Women’s Empowerment and Authoritarian Resilience: a Critical Analysis of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030," Journal of Women of the Middle East and the Islamic World, February 2026. [link]
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Sara Nawaz, "Thinking at the megaton scale: Community reflections across three different marine carbon-dioxide removal strategies," Energy Research & Social Science, March 2026. [link]
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Ernest Ogbozor, "Students’ solutions to student problems: a participatory assessment of student-centric approaches to common classroom conflict at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University," Cogent Education, November 2025. [link]
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Ernest Ogbozor, "Terrorism, governance, and state authority: contested narratives of Lakurawa’s emergence in West Africa," Journal of Policing, Intelligence, and Counter Terrorism, December 2025. [link]
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Natalia Piland, "Drawing systems of stewardship to guide action and reveal critical relationships of care," Earth Stewardship, January 2026. [link]
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Natalia Piland, "Public Participation in Tropical Conservation and Environmental Management Research: Toward a Locally Grounded and Reflexive Practice," Biotropica, January 2026. [link]
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Tazreena Sajjad, "The Curious Case of Bhasan Char: Island Relocation and the Politics of Refugee Containment in the ‘Global South,'" Migration Politics, December 2025. [link]
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Jordan Tama, "Bipartisanship Put to the Test: U.S. Policy toward Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan,” Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, October 2025. [link]
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Seray Yalaz, "Bidding for governance: rebel vs. state labor-retention strategies in conflicts," Journal of Peace Research, March 2026. [link]
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Policy/Working Papers and Reports
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Akbar Ahmed, "Al-Farabi: The Forgotten Genius," The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, December 2025. [link]
- Dana Fisher, Natalia Piland, and Michael Culbert, "CECE Whitepaper No. 4: Understanding Community Response to Disaster: Results from Three AmeriCorps Programs," Center for Environment, Community, and Equity, February 2026. [link]
- James Goldgeier and Jordan Tama, "Training for Public and Policy Engagement: Lessons from 20 Years of Bridging the Gap Programming," Bridging the Gap, February 2026. [link]
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C. Randall Henning, "Getting Debt Sustainability Analysis Right: Eight Reforms for the Framework for Low-Income Countries," Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, February 2026. [link]
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Joshua Rovner, "The Costs of Espionage," Center for Security, Innovation, and New Technology, February 2026. [link]
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We encourage you to visit us on Twitter/X at @research_sis, LinkedIn, and Bluesky to see more about what our faculty have been up to. To name just a few, in the past few months our faculty were busy writing and talking about:
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| James Mittelman, Runaway Capitalism (February 9)
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James Mittelman and panelists Patricia Aufderheide, Maria De Jesus, Clarence Lusane, Julia Radomski, and Yang Zhang discussed how runaway capitalism is making work and daily life increasingly precarious, and ways to move beyond this destructive path.
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| SIS-YPFP Research Symposium (March 21)
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On March 21, SIS and Young Professionals in Foreign Policy (YPFP) hosted the inaugural SIS-YPFP Research Symposium, “Reimagining Foreign Policy in a Transforming World featuring research from SIS graduate students and opportunities for professional development and networking.
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SIS Reception at ISA 2026
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The SIS reception at the 2026 ISA conference was held on March 24 in Columbus. We loved welcoming SIS faculty, staff, PhD students, alumni, and friends for a celebration of our community. You can read more about faculty and PhD student research that was highlighted during the ISA conference in our recap article.
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Join us at several exciting research-related events in April, including our annual SIS Scholar-Teacher of the Year Lecture & Celebration, and at our many upcoming research cluster events. Register at the links below, and feel free to reach out to sisresearch@american.edu with any questions.
SIS Research and Research-Related University Events:
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- April 8, 3:00-4:30pm, SIS Founders Room
- April 15, 1:00-2:00pm, SIS 300
- "Internal Research Awards Lunch & Learn" SIS Research Event (see calendar invite)
- This session, featuring brief presentations from SIS faculty who have received internal research awards in the past year, will highlight internally-funded research and share lessons-learned with faculty considering applying for these awards in the future.
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April 22, 2:00-3:30pm, SIS 300
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April 22, 4:30-6:00pm, SIS Founders Room
- SIS Scholar-Teacher of the Year Lecture & Celebration (calendar invite to come)
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- April 6, 2:30-3:30pm, SIS Founders Room
- April 8, 12:00-1:30pm, SIS 300
- April 13, 11:30am-1:00pm, SIS 300
- Global Economy & Development Cluster discussion with Daniel Lederman (World Bank): "Commodity Price Effects of Cash Aid in a Conflict Economy: Yemen, 2014-2020
- April 22, 12:30-1:30pm, SIS 300
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Historical International Studies Cluster discussion with Miles Kahler: “State Building and State Survival: Polynesia in the 19th Century"
- April 27, 11:30am-1:00pm, SIS 300
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Global Economy & Development Cluster discussion with Thomas Ginn (Center for Global Development): "Cash and Small Business Groups for Ugandans and Refugees"
- May 6, 12:00-1:30pm, SIS 300
- Research Methods Cluster Lunch Workshop for Awardees (graduate and undergraduate) of Excellence in Quantitative Research
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A Sampling of Upcoming Funding Opportunities |
Nick O’Connell is working to identify relevant funding opportunities and connecting them to particular faculty and projects. Here are a few upcoming opportunities of more general interest. Please be in touch with Nick (noconnell@american.edu) if you’d like to learn more.
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- National Science Foundation (NSF)
- Hinrich Foundation
- Russell Sage Foundation
- William T. Grant Foundation
- Environmental Research and Education Foundation
- Open Technology Fund
- Sloan Foundation
- Smith Richardson Foundation
- W.K. Kellogg Foundation
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sisresearch@american.edu
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