Updates from Graduate Alumni
Dennis Sullivan (Ph.D., 2016) is receiving his PhD from Boston University in January 2016 after successfully defending his dissertation on mechanisms providing indications and warning relating to intra-state conflict. Dennis received his M.A. (International Relations, Comparative Politics, and Security Studies) from Boston College in 2008 and his B.A. (Political Science and East Asian Studies) from University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1989. His research interests include terrorism and counter-terrorism, democratic peace theory, intelligence and security studies, supranational government and governance, hard power/soft power balance, and social network analysis. His career experiences include the US Navy, Department of Homeland Security, several defense contractors, and a political risk consultancy. A veteran of deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq, Dennis conducted a number of research projects while deployed to support operations, such as “Social Network Analysis of Insurgent Group Dynamics in Eastern Afghanistan” and “Tribal Structure Dynamics in Anbar Province, Iraq.” He also contributed analysis products to senior decision makers through contributions to the President’s Daily Briefing and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Daily Briefing.
Yurim Yi (Ph.D., 2014) Graduated in 2014, she is working as a policy analyst and consultant for Come and Change Foundation (Woburn, MA), a non-profit organization for humanitarian activities in underdeveloped countries by professionals in various fields. My responsibility is to collect global political data, to analyze a target country’s political stability and public policy, and to facilitate policy changes in the target country to assist the Foundation’s activities.
She had completed all the requirements for the PhD in the Department of Political Science at Boston University under the supervision of Professors Walter Clemens (main adviser), Thomas Berger, David Mayers, and Michael Corgan. She defended her dissertation, Confrontation and Engagement in Relations between the DPRK and the United States (1991-2011), successfully on March 25, 2014 and graduated in September 2014 with a major in International Relations and a minor in Comparative Politics. Her research interests have focused on U.S foreign policy, causes of war, cultural effects on politics, conflict resolution, East Asian politics, and international security. During the summer of 2015, she refined her arguments from her dissertation for a journal article for publication. She submitted her manuscript to Asian Survey and is now waiting for their review. In the meantime, she will continue to work on several related research projects: a study of nuclear symbolism; the differences between North-South Korean relations and U.S.-North Korean relations; and a study on conflict resolution through an examination of cultural contexts.
Based on her teaching experience at Boston University as an instructor and as a teaching fellow of Introduction to International Relations, she is prepared to teach broad subfields of Political Science and International Relations. She is a passionate and dedicated teacher who has received high scores for her classes with special notes from students who testify that her class stimulated their interest in International Relations, expanded their knowledge, trained them to study hard, and evaluated them fairly.
Mooed Yusuf (Ph.D., 2014) is director of South Asia programs at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Yusuf has been engaged in expanding USIP’s work on Pakistan/South Asia since 2010. His current research focuses on youth and democratic institutions in Pakistan, policy options to mitigate militancy in Pakistan and the South Asian region in general, and U.S. role in South Asian crisis management.
Before joining USIP, Yusuf was a fellow at the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future at Boston University, and concurrently a research fellow at the Mossavar-Rahmani Center at Harvard Kennedy School. He has also worked at the Brookings Institution. In 2007, he co-founded Strategic and Economic Policy Research, a private sector consultancy firm in Pakistan. Yusuf has also consulted for a number of Pakistani and international organizations including the Asian Development Bank, World Bank, and the Stockholm Policy Research Institute, among others. From 2004-2007, he was a full-time consultant with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan’s premier development-sector think tank.
Yusuf taught in Boston University’s Political Science and International Relations Departments as a senior teaching fellow in 2009. He had previously taught at the defense and strategic studies department at Quaid-e-Azam University, Pakistan. He lectures regularly at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute and has also lectured at the Pakistan Military Staff College and at NATO’s Center of Excellence-Defense Against Terrorism in Ankara, Turkey.
He has published widely in national and international journals, professional publications and magazines. He writes regularly for Dawn, Pakistan’s leading English daily. He also frequently appears as an expert on U.S. and Pakistani media. His latest books South Asia 2060: Envisioning Regional Futures (Adil Najam and Moeed Yusuf, eds.) and Getting it Right in Afghanistan (Scott Smith, Moeed Yusuf, and Colin Cookman, eds.) were published by Anthem Press, UK and U.S. Institute of Peace Press respectively in 2013. He is also the editor of Pakistan’s Counter-terrorism Challenge (Georgetown University Press, 2014) and Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in South Asia: From a Peacebuilding Lens (U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2014).
Yusuf has served on a number of important task forces, advisory councils, working groups, and governing boards, both in the U.S. and Pakistan. In 2013, he was selected to Nobel laureate, Pugwash International’s ‘Council’ (governing body) and subsequently became the youngest member ever to be included in its global executive committee to serve a six-year term.
He holds a Masters in International Relations and PhD in Political Science from Boston University.
Abram Trosky (Ph.D. 2014) is currently a Lecturer in Ethics and American Government at the United States Coast Guard Academy, where he has also taught classes in Political Theory to future Coast Guard officers. While at Boston University, Abram led seminars in American politics, International Relations, and American Diplomatic History as Presidential Teaching Fellow, and created and taught classes in modern political theory and related subjects at BU, MIT, and Simmons College.
Jose Campanella (Ph.D., 2010) is currently serving as Director of the Wilberforce International School of Poverty Alleviation and Development (WISPAD). The Wilberforce International School is devoted to train public servants, conduct research, and provide professional advice on public policies for poverty alleviation, institutional and economic development. Formally established in June 2010, WISPAD reflects the long term vision and calling of its founders to integrate public service on poverty alleviation and development with behaviors and preferences determined by Biblical beliefs and values.
As seen on their webpage www.wispad.org, WISPAD is devoted to promote excellence, effectiveness, and integrity in public service among officers and staff of nonprofit organizations, social enterprises, and public agencies in emerging countries. Their training focuses on advanced analytical tools required to design and implement effective developmental programs and public policies. Programs also equip in managerial, financial, communicational, and negotiation skills required by officers and staff to successfully manage their organizations. Unique to WISPAD’s approach, this training takes place in the context of a solid Biblical ethical framework that also integrates a real-world approach based on case studies. WISPAD’s faculty has extensive qualifications from U.S. academic institutions like Harvard and Boston University, and experience in U.S. and international nonprofit organizations and governmental agencies.
Last year, WISPAD started offering its first Workshops and Certificates in China tailored to specific needs of nonprofit organizations and social enterprises in areas of Nonprofit Management, Financial Skills for Nonprofit and Social Enterprises, and Program Evaluation. All classes are being offered in WISPAD’s state of the art facilities in Beijing, where participants receive advanced equipping to expand and sharpen indispensable tools and skills to become more efficient in their current organizational responsibilities, and to greatly enhance the impact of their organizations.
This month they will start their first bilingual (English-Chinese) Workshop on Strategic Nonprofit Management, which is the first program of a very busy schedule for February and March.