2007 EPIIC Archive

2006-07 EPIIC Colloquium Members

Raoul Alwani
Raoul Alwani is a freshman from Singapore. Having always been interested in politics and international affairs, he helped start a debate team in his final year of secondary school (Age 16), and was Captain in his Junior College team (Age 17 - 18). After completing his mandatory military service in the Singapore army, Raoul taught in his old secondary school for a few months, then worked for a newspaper for a short time before coming to Tufts. He speaks English, Mandarin and French, and is currently taking Japanese classes in University. When he's not digging through mountains of readings for EPIIC, he likes going sky-diving and practicing his magic tricks. His hobby since he was 7, Raoul was actively involved in fund-raising for charities back in Singapore by performing magic for them. He hopes to spend some time in China in the near future, and plans to major in Economics.

Dhriti Bhatta
Dhriti Bhatta, is a sophomore from Nepal. She aims to concentrate in South Asia and wants to become a political analyst for the region. Dhriti took a year off after high school and worked as a journalist in the first weekly English news magazine in Nepal - Nation Weekly. Along with writing she is also interested in photojournalism, documentary making, arts and traveling. She is eagerly waiting to study abroad in Ghana in 2007. Being a Quantitative Economics and Political Science double major at Tufts, she plans to conduct researches on Political Theory and Political Economy in the years to come.

Alexandra Blackman
Alexandra Blackman, a native of Pittsburgh, PA, is a freshman at Tufts and is entirely undecided about what she wants to major in. She is currently taking classes on Community Health, Creative Writing, Arabic, and, to rejuvenate after everything, Yoga. After graduating from Schenley High School in June 2005, Alex deferred admission to Tufts in order to spend twelve months in Germany. In Germany, she went to school for a few months and spent the remaining time working for a political foundation, a children's theater, and toiling on a farm, respectively. As an avid traveler, Alex took advantage of the travel opportunities that the year offered and is excited to explore the many other opportunities the world holds in the months and years to come. No matter where life takes her, she believes her passion for social change will never die. In her free time, Alex likes to dance, read, wander, and play charades.

Ashley Calhoun
Ashley Calhoun is a freshman and is enjoying her first year of college. She enjoys ballroom dancing and fighting for women's reproductive rights. She is also very interested in the arms trade whether it's nuclear arms or small arms. Ashley is also an experienced sound technician, part-time electrician, and a stage-manager. She has worked for an electrician and a criminal Lawyer in her hometown of Detroit, MI.

Sade Campbell
Sade Campbell was born in Newport News, Virginia. Over the span of her lifetime she has lived in Tennessee, Nevada and finally settled in sunny San Diego, California. Since she was a young child, she has been interested in issues pertaining to travel and culture. This led to her passion in understanding and working with issues of global governance and human rights. Due to her many travels and work experiences in many countries in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and South America, she has tried to expand her view and understanding of the world. During her junior year, Sade decided to study in Spain, where she worked for an NGO for refugee aid in Madrid. In the summer of 2006, she also worked with the government in Rosario, Argentina as a community development intern for women and children in poverty. As a Political Science major, she constantly tries to analyze what is happening in the world and how she can dedicate her life to securing a better future for people who have a daily fight against AIDS, poverty and the security of human rights. Other than her intellectual life, Sade enjoys running and anything that involves exercise and healthy living. She hopes to end her last year at Tufts with a great experience in EPIIC, which will help catapult her into the real world and allow her to be a Global Citizen.

Monica Clavijo
Monica M Clavijo is a senior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations. Monica was born in Bogotá, Colombia but grew up in New York City. Her interests include international security studies and foreign policy analysis. Because of her bi-cultural upbringing, Monica is fascinated with learning about different cultures. She spent her junior year abroad in Paris and Madrid and tried to squeeze in as much travelling as she could. At Tufts, she is an active member of the Association of Latin American Students (ALAS) and has taken on the challenge to unite the Latino communities in the greater Boston area with the development of the Boston Intercollegiate Latin American Network (BILAN). She is also a piano student and plans on running her first marathon this year.

Katherine Conway-Gaffney
Katherine Conway is a senior majoring in International Relationship, who is participating in EPIIC for the second time. Katherine studied abroad in Kenya during her junior year, as well as during various breaks in Nicaragua and Honduras. She helped create and currently runs the BUILD Nicaragua program of the IGL as well as participates in the new Africa Initiative. She has done research on water sanitation in Honduras and Nicaragua and on female circumcision and HIV/AIDS in Kenya. She helps organization a student run group that works to aid homeless members on the Somerville/Medford community, known as National Student Partnerships. She plans to spend winter break researching the Uganda Peace Talks on site in East Africa. She loves running, traveling, languages, and long talks with friends over tea!

Gena Pilar Davis
Gena Davis (pronounced Jenna) came to Tufts from Santa Barbara, California. Now a senior International Relations major with a concentration in Latin America, the focus of most of Gena's undergraduate work has been international immigration. As a junior, she traveled to Chile where she was greatly impacted by her study of the Pinochet dictatorship and its modern repercussions. There, she also completed an independent study project on border and immigration disputes between Chile and Bolivia. At Tufts, Gena was named a Summer Scholar and began work on a study of immigrant access to health services in Somerville, Massachusetts. She will continue this research throughout her senior year, in addition to EPIIC. Gena is excited about both intellectual opportunities.

Elizabeth DeWan
Lizzie DeWan, originally from Brooklyn, NY, is loving her sophomore year as a double major in International Relations and Sociology. She hopes her passion for and study of sociology will provide her with a unique lens through which to view the world, while a major in IR will guide her to a future in any one of her numerous interests between which she feels constantly torn. More than anything, she loves working with children; her ultimate dream career would be designing and promoting early education systems in countries that lack universal early education. At Tufts she volunteers with Jumpstart Readers and is part of the UN Millennium Development Goals Awareness Campaign. She also hopes to be active in NIMEP and a water access campaign with the support of Corporate Accountability International, where she interned last fall. She has virtually no travel experience and so is enthralled by any prospect of travel, for research or pleasure. As a freshman she had a great experience participating in Soliya web-cam dialogues and training to be a facilitator; due to this, she is applying to work at the Seeds of Peace international camp this summer.

Michael Eddy
Michael Eddy is a junior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations and Economics. In the summer of 2006, he discovered his love for Africa after interning with a local NGO on a Liberian refugee camp. Michael also spent a summer interning at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court where he was able to get a taste of NGO-work and interact with the New York diplomatic community. His academic interests include transitional justice, refugees, economic policy and International Law. Outside the classroom, he is actively involved in community service, student government, represents students in the Tufts judicial system and is an admissions tour guide. Michael grew up in Niskayuna, a small town in upstate NY.

Hirut Fassil
Hirut Fassil is a senior and International Relations Major. She was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and grew up in both Alberta and Massachusetts. Hirut spent her junior year studying in Madrid, Spain. There, in light of the major influx of immigrants into the country and her own experience as an immigrant, she developed an interest in migration flows and intercultural societies. Last summer, Hirut was funded by the Henry R. Luce Student Research Program and the Institute for Global Leadership to intern at the Senegalese Association for Co development (ASCODE). Hirut's internship focused on a micro crediting project for women in the communities on the outskirts of Dakar and a project to facilitate the reinvestment of Senegalese emigrants into their country of origin. This year, she is eager to learn more about immigration policies, especially in the health context.

Meghan Fenzel
Meghan Fenzel is a senior born and raised in Ridgewood, NJ. An International Relations and French major, she spent her junior year abroad on the Tufts in Paris program. While in Paris, Meghan interned at Parc de la Villette, tutored three young French boys in English, relished the linguistic diversity of Europe, and enjoyed large amounts of cheese. On the hill, Meghan co-founded Tufts sketch comedy troupe "Major:Undecided." She is also Treasurer of the Tufts Mountain Club, a Tufts Wilderness Orientation leader, and an intern for the Admissions Office.

Laura Fong
Laura Fong is a sophomore at Tufts majoring in Political Science and English, hoping to pursue a career in international law. She enjoys writing and won the Ginny Brereton First Year Writing Award for a critique on the perceptions of diversity. For two summers, she has worked for the Department of Defense's research and development lab at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey as a journalist, covering stories on the technological advancements of the Army's weapons and communications systems. As a DoD journalist, she has also worked with various military and civilian officials to inform the public about initiatives the Army is undertaking. Laura is interested in the efforts being made to reform the legal systems in developing countries like China and in the steps the International Criminal Tribunal is taking to ensure that all political bodies are held accountable for their actions. In her spare time, Laura plays classical piano. She has competed and performed for over fourteen years, taking the stage at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center for several of her performances.

Shoshana Grossman-Crist
Shoshana Grossman-Crist is a senior from Vermont, double-majoring in Community Health and American Studies. She spent the summer of 2006 interning at John Snow, Inc., a public health research, training and consulting company based in Boston. During the fall of 2005, Shoshana studied abroad in Kenya, where she conducted an independent study of a community based organization working to combat HIV/AIDS and poverty outside of Kisumu. Shoshana is a co-chair of Pangea, a student organization that promotes awareness and action on international issues, and has focused much of her work with that organization on educating and encouraging advocacy among local high school students on the armed conflict in northern Uganda. Her academic interests include refugees, immigrants, community organizing, education, international development and Spanish. In her spare time, Shoshana enjoys teaching English as a second language, dancing, reading, and seeing the world.

Glen Gullickson
Glen T. Gullickson, a Southern California native, is currently a senior at Tufts majoring in International Relations. If he plays his cards right, he may very well major in Spanish as well. Glen recently returned from Madrid, where he spent the last academic year. Glen's interests are many and varied, spanning music, literature, the visual arts, athletics, international politics and law, all of which he has pursued in one capacity or another. After graduating, he hopes to pursue a career that allows him to integrate one or more of these passions into his professional life, while providing the freedom to pursue the others on his own time.

Elizabeth Hammond
Elizabeth Hammond is a senior majoring in English and Clinical Psychology. She is currently completing an Honors Thesis about the way emotion affects recognition. In conjunction with this topic, she will explore the long-term psychological effects of trauma. To further investigate this subject, she is working with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma. She plans on joining the Peace Corps after graduation where she hopes to apply what she has learned through EPIIC in an effort to make humanitarian aid more culturally sensitive and psychologically supportive. In addition to EPIIC, Elizabeth is a member of the Tufts Women's Rugby team and the Writing Fellows program.

Rebecca Hayes
Becky Hayes is a senior majoring in Spanish with a minor in Latino Studies. Originally born in Boston, she went to high school in Ann Arbor, Michigan and her family now lives in Richmond, Virginia. At Tufts Becky is currently the manager of a student run coffee shop, and a choreographer/ executive board member for the Tufts Dance Collective. She took her fall 2005 semester off and lived in Costa Rica, teaching English. Becky loves being outside, running, making seven-layer-dip, and playing with her pet bunny Pancho.

Nancy Henry
Nancy Henry is a sophomore majoring in Anthropology and International Relations. An Air Force ROTC cadet, she is still exploring her future options and hopes to work in intelligence or as a Foreign Area Officer upon receiving her commission. Once she leaves the Air Force, Nancy hopes to do aid work in Africa or the Middle East. At Tufts, she serves on the executive boards of the Anthropology Collective and Model United Nations, and is on the editorial board for Hemispheres. Nancy's interests include the evolving role of the UN and the international system's interaction with individuals on the ground. A former IGL student employee, Nancy is very excited to be involved with the Institute as an EPIIC student.

Maya Karwande
Maya Karwande is a sophomore from Salt Lake City, Utah. At Tufts she is majoring in History and International Relations. Maya is extremely excited about this year's colloquium, especially in the context of International Law. The concept of law and enforcement has intrigued her ever since she started reading Perry Mason books in the 5th grade. Politics are very interesting to Maya and she serves the Tufts Democrats as their Communications Director. Last year she did an internship with the Massachusetts Victory 06 Campaign. Over the summer she studied Chinese at Peking University in Beijing. After returning briefly to Utah she traveled to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro with her dad. She loves traveling, reading, and teaching swim lessons.

Martin Kielmanowicz
Martín Kielmanowicz is currently a senior majoring in International Relations and Economics. He is originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, though he had lived in the Boston area for several years before coming to Tufts. Martín recently returned from studying abroad in his native Buenos Aires, where he rediscovered his roots and Latin American heritage. While abroad, Martín wrote a regular column for the Tufts Daily on populism and economics in Latin America, a topic that fascinates him. Professionally, Martín hopes to find a job that will help him integrate his academic interests in Latin American politics and economics and is therefore considering careers in consulting or finance. In his free time, he enjoys reading non-fiction, rock climbing, and wine tasting.

Aliza Lailari
Aliza Lailari is a sophomore majoring in International Relations and Psychology. She applied to Tufts from the American International School in Israel where she lived with her family for four years. She has also lived in Greece, England, various locations within the United States, and now spends her school vacations with her family at their new home in Omaha, Nebraska. This summer she took courses on counter-terrorism and homeland security, and observed the recent conflict develop between Israel and Hezbollah. On campus, she is involved in the TCU Senate and is also a tour guide. In her free time, she enjoys playing soccer and eating foreign foods.

Zachary Landau
Zach Landau is a senior majoring in International Relations. He spent the fall of his junior year in Madrid with the Tufts-in-Spain program, and in the spring, he interned in the economic/political section of the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, Chile. On campus Zach is a member of Tufts' volunteer EMT squad, a tour guide, and a member of the Tufts Mountain Club. Academically he is primarily interested in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy, and he hopes to study the effects of U.S. drug policy in Bolivia this winter. In his free time Zach enjoys hiking, rock climbing, and searching for Boston's best ethnic food.

Mary Langan
Mary is a sophomore majoring in International Relations. On campus she is also a Tisch Scholar, Residential Assistant, Tour Guide and member of the marathon team. She cares deeply about Human Rights, African Development and Poverty Reduction. In addition she believes strongly in animal rights and environmental consciousness and conservation. Mary hopes to live and study in Africa and travel to Europe, South America and Asia. After graduation she hopes to continue her education and eventually devote herself to helping alleviate some of Sub-Saharan Africa's most pressing problems whether through NGO, UN, academic or political work.

Adam Levy
Adam Levy has decided to leave his mark on the world by double majoring in Peace and Justice Studies and International Relations. Originally from the high altitudes of Quito, Ecuador, Adam now looks for home cooked meals two hours from Tufts in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Outside of EPIIC, Adam is an active member of Pangea, a student organization promoting humanitarian action and global awareness, the Tufts Ultimate Frisbee Team, and the Tufts Klezmer Ensemble. This past summer he interned with a small immigration rights nonprofit in Tucson, Arizona promoting human rights and fighting the militarization of our southern border through humanitarian aid, abuse documentation, and community organizing. Additionally, Adam is also passionate about cooking, Curious George, spontaneity, and backpacking.

Alexandra Liveris
Alexandra Liveris is a senior at Tufts who is studying for a major in International Relations and a minor in History. She is an Australian citizen who born in Hong Kong and has also lived in Thailand and Michigan. Alexandra's international background has led her to pursue a variety of multicultural and international activities and internships. Alexandra is a board member on the Institute for Civic Leadership, a non profit organization based in New York City that trains students from the United States and around the world to become active citizens and leaders. At Tufts University Alexandra is the Co-Chair of the Director's Leadership Council for International Relations which is a group that is responsible for reforming the IR major's curriculum and other IR activities. Alexandra accompanied NIMEP to Turkey in January 2006 to film and start the production of a documentary on Turkish ethnic tensions. Despite her many enjoyable work experiences and three great years at Tufts she has no idea what she would like to do upon graduation. She is hoping EPIIC will help her decide.

Matthew Malinowski
Matt Malinowski, a senior hailing from Philadelphia, joins EPIIC in order to become a better thinker and to learn more about the world. Matt enjoys reading, practicing foreign languages, working as a volunteer English teacher, and sports, but these hobbies pale in comparison to his passion for traveling. Matt swapped Dr. Seuss for the Lonely Planet and coloring book for a passport at a young age, and he has never looked back. After visiting a myriad of countries from China to Canada, Matt arrived Chile in July, 2005 to spend his junior year abroad. But, he still has much love for countries which begin with other letters of the alphabet; he hopes to study the local social structures of some of Brazil’s favelas this winter.

Anaheta Metghalchi
Anaheta Metghalchi is a senior majoring in International Relations and minoring in Italian. Anaheta is an Iranian- American focusing on Global Conflict, Cooperation, and Justice within her International Relations major. She spent the spring semester of her junior year studying political science in Padova, Italy where she received a research scholarship on Italian federalism. Anaheta's love for studying abroad has also taken her to institutes in both Bahamas and France. She interned as a political risk analyst at Abraxas Corporation in Washington DC this past summer. Her duties included analyzing investment opportunities in North Africa and the Middle East and conducting research on cross-border M&A transactions. Anaheta hopes to return to the capital after her university studies and re-enter the political consulting arena.

John Speed Meyers
John Speed Meyers, known as Speed to the Tufts community, joins EPIIC to explore the current state of world affairs. From Louisville, Kentucky, he apologizes for not being as southern as people expect him to be. He intends to double major in International Relations and Peace and Justice Studies. John Speed spent part of his last summer volunteering on the John Yarmuth for Congress legislative campaign. Also this past summer he studied 'International Relations and Terrorism' through the Cambridge College Programme. (England, not Massachusetts) The idea of conditional sovereignty, the UN's role in Sudan, and the notion of state-building all interest Speed. The genocide in Sudan and the interminable Middle East conflict both outrage him; he intends to create change beyond just adding revenue to New York Times Company.

George Moore
George Moore is a freshman from the exciting city of Des Moines. While his major is currently undecided, he is considering a duel major in economics and political science or economics and computer science. He has a wide range of interests from economic and sustainable development, globalization, identity politics, and cognitive psychology. Before coming to Tufts, George participated in Lincoln Douglas debate, Model UN, and attended the nationals for the Know Your Constitution Program.

Philip Moss
Philip Moss is a senior majoring in History with a minor in Political Science. Hailing from San Antonio, Texas, Philip is particularly interested in US immigration policy and issues pertaining to the US-Mexico border. This year as a Summer Scholar, Philip researched naturalization records from the progressive era in preparation for his senior thesis on immigrant incorporation in Massachusetts. While at Tufts, Philip has been an active member of the New Initiative for Middle East Peace as well as an ESL teacher at a Salvadoran community organization in Somerville.

David Mou
David Mou is a freshman that is thinking of majoring in International Relations. He was born in Vail, Colorado and loves to mountain bike, and ski. He spent the past summer in China improving his Mandarin. He is learning German and plans to study abroad whenever he can. David is on the Tufts Sailing Team and is very interested in photography, perhaps getting involved in Exposure. He is currently a part of NIMEP and is interested in the growing importance of the Middle East and the rise of Asia in international affairs.

James Nadel
James Nadel is a proud, but non-native, Vermonter. He has worked for that state in various civic, community, and conservation capacities, and most recently helped pave the way for Vermont's next great Independent senator. Over the course of that job, it became evident that there are still places where policy truly begins with the people--places where they never forget the bad, nor the good, done to them by their officials. However, such places occur beyond small American towns. In a world where globalization has made countries rich while simultaneously allowing groups of individuals to wreak warlike havoc from afar, global governance cannot forget that local lesson of influencing individuals--of providing them with better opportunities within the system than without. James is a sophomore and enjoys frozen novelties, rowing, and dancing ballroom. But perhaps his greatest thrill comes from stirring up audiences with renditions of acclaimed film speeches. Keep your eyes open...

Brett Newman
Brett Newman is a sophomore who is officially undecided about his major; unofficially he's majoring in International Relations and Japanese. After a less than ideal experience studying Spanish in middle school, Brett decided to study Japanese at his high school. Moreover, he vowed to learn Chinese once he grew comfortable enough with the Japanese language. Five years and three trips to Japan later he's still learning Kanji at Tufts, but he started intensive Chinese here for half of the summer in 2006. Brett spent the second half of that summer putting himself on the opposite side of the language divide: he worked as a Tisch College Active Citizen Summer Scholar at the Summer Program for English Language Learners (SPELL) in Somerville. Brett also hopes to learn even more Japanese on a Junior year abroad in Japan. Apart from foreign languages, Brett is interested in both international (especially East Asian) and local politics. Consequently, he's worked in some political offices and on a few successful and many unsuccessful local grass roots organizing campaigns. As an undergraduate at Tufts though, Brett has found EPIIC to be an outlet for his international energies. He was turned on to the program after doing Inquiry three times in high school, so he's now ready for the full experience. When not at Tufts Brett lives in Brookline, MA, but he grew on Cape Cod in West Yarmouth, Massachusetts.

Shiri Raphaely
Shiri Raphaely is a sophomore from Mercer Island, Washington potentially majoring in International Relations and Environmental Science. Her interest in global leadership and service stems from extensive work with a non-profit in both Guatemala and Seattle, and she is extremely excited to grow and learn from her EPIIC experience.

Mackenzie Rawcliffe
MacKenzie Rawcliffe is a senior majoring in International Relations with a minor in Communications and Media Studies. She is from the Great State of Maine (Near Bangor for those in the know). She spent last fall in Oaxaca Mexico studying Grassroots Development and Social Change with SIT, and wrote a paper on the historical, cultural and economic aspects of the unique Oaxacan chocolate industry. She also worked for Cultural Survival last spring and hopes to continue learning about the struggles of indigenous peoples, now through the EPIIC lens of global governance. She is also very interested in figuring out ways to make international relations and cultural understanding accessible and interesting for younger students and the general public. On campus, besides EPIIC, MacKenzie is involved in Track and Field, Musicals, Costume Design and is a Resident Assistant in Lewis Hall.

David Rawson
A San Francisco native, David Rawson is majoring in International Relations at Tufts. His intellectual interests stretch from political philosophy to foreign policy to political economy. His French studies took him to Talloires, France the summer after freshman year, and he spent his junior spring semester in Hong Kong and a lived for a month in Beijing, where he studied Mandarin Chinese. In the business world, he has worked for commercial real estate and global investment banking firms. He enjoys playing golf and piano, and at Tufts he sings and performs in musical theater. He is also managing editor for international affairs at the Primary Source.

Jesse Sloman
Jesse Sloman is currently a sophomore majoring in Political Science. Originally from Brooklyn, New York, Jesse attended Hunter College High School before deferring matriculation for a year to teach English in China. At Tufts Jesse is a member of ALLIES, a student organization dedicated to bridging the civil-military gap and interfacing with U.S. military service academies. Jesse's academic interests include military history, security studies, and foreign policy. Outside the classroom, Jesse enjoys chopping down trees and moving big rocks as a member of the Adirondack Mountain Club's Professional Trail Crew.

Nathan Stopper
Nate Stopper is a senior majoring in International Relations from Albuquerque, New Mexico. Nate began to explore the world at 15 when he spent his junior year of high school in Copiapo, Chile through Youth For Understanding. During the summer of 2005, Nate interned with New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall in Washington, where he spent most of his time speaking with constituents, but also managed to attend a few briefing and hearings. Most recently, he returned to Chile in February to study at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and backpacked through Peru and Argentina. He is currently attempting to learn Chinese and is both frightened and excited by the prospect of graduating.

Margaret Suda
Margaret Suda is currently a senior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations and minoring in Chinese. As an EPIIC 2006-2007 student, she is interested in the role of pandemics and global health on global governance. Over the summer, as a Luce Scholar in Science and Humanitarianism, and through the generous support of the Institute for Global Leadership, and the Tufts University International Relations department, she worked to set up a Tufts Medford Chapter of Physicians for Human Rights.

Alexandra Taylor
Alex Taylor is a sophomore at Tufts University. Originally she is from the California bay area where she attended The Head-Royce School. Alex is planning to double major in International Relations and Russian Language, which she started studying as a freshman at Tufts. She wants to travel abroad to Russia as a junior but hopes to avoid the St. Petersburg winter. Her many interests include the diverse fields of history, neurobiology, and peace and justice studies in addition to her proposed majors. She is excited by the prospect of studying global governance because she is particularly intrigued by issues of sustainable development, international intervention, nation building and how to reform current global institutions to make them more transparent and effective. Alex loves soccer and has played competitively for many years and most recently for the Tufts JV soccer team. She has also coached soccer for multiple years and is an avid fan of the international game.

Anamaria Vizcaino
Anamaria Vizcaino is a senior at Tufts University majoring in International Relations concentrating in Latin America. Her parents immigrated from Guatemala to New Hampshire where she was born and resided there until she was ten later moving to South Florida. She is currently taking EPIIC for the first time after spending a year studying abroad in Chile. She speaks Spanish and English. At Tufts, she is actively involved in soccer and breakdancing.

Deborah Weiner
Deb is a member of the class of 2007 majoring in International Relations and Spanish. She was born in Newton, MA and attended Newton South High School. She spent her junior year abroad in Oxford, UK at Pembroke College of Oxford University. There she studied 'PPE' - politics, philosophy, economics - while competing for Oxford's Varsity Gymnastics Team. This past summer she interned for the International Youth Leadership Institute to help create a program for inner-city New York high-school students to travel to Cairo, Egypt and meet with various NGOs and governmental organizations there while learning about contemporary life in Egypt and studying Arabic. Returning for her senior year at Tufts, Deb is still an active member of Chi Omega sorority, on the Personal and Career Development Committee, and is currently studying for the LSATs to perhaps pursue a career in international law. Her interests concerning this year's EPIIC topic include third state actors, religious and cultural nationalism, and consolidation of democracy. Outside of her studies, Deb loves to travel all over the world, visiting friends in every country, learn new languages, and dance.

Alexander Zerden
Alex Zerden is a senior majoring in International Relations and Middle Eastern Studies. Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia, Alex became interested in learning more about international relations as a member of the Savannah Council on World Affairs. While at Tufts, Alex has been involved with several on-campus organizations including the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP) as well as the Writing Fellows Program. He also recently returned from the Middle East after spending nearly seven months studying, traveling, and working. Alex is interested in pursuing and gaining a greater understanding of the complexities involved with Global Governance as well as the interrelated issues of sovereignty and intervention in an ever changing geopolitical environment.