Graduate Student Affiliate

Heba Alnajada

Graduate Student
Architecture

Heba Alnajada is a Ph.D. Candidate in Architecture History at the University of California at Berkeley University. Her dissertation work focuses on Ottoman refugee settlements and Palestinian self-built camps as a nonconventional prism from which to examine Syrian refugees in present-day Jordan.

Elena Amaya

Graduate Student
Sociology

Elena Amaya is a PhD Student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She studies antisemitism, gendered violence and law with a historical focus on war and genocide.

Daniel Balke

Graduate Student
Political Science

Daniel Balke is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on the political economy of international development and civil conflict, with a focus on strategic interaction between multilateral development banks and aid recipients, and the role of financial incentives in shaping recipient compliance with aid conditions.

Jennie Barker

Graduate Student
Political Science

Jennie Barker is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studies international influences on democratization. Her current research examines recipient government behavior toward democracy assistance. Prior to coming to UC Berkeley, Barker worked at the National Endowment for Democracy and completed a Fulbright fellowship in Germany.

Barker is also a recipient of the 2021 IIS Pre-Disseration Research Fellowship.

Aarij Bashir

Graduate Student
Goldman School of Public Policy

Aarij has a decade of experience in the areas of international trade and investment attraction with a focus on the agri-food and ag-tech sector. Aarij also volunteers internationally on capacity building projects aimed at helping small and medium scale companies become export ready. Aarij's work has taken her to several countries that are off the beaten path such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Algeria, Tunisia, and Myanmar, among others.

Amy Benziger

Graduate Student
Goldman School of Public Policy

Amy Benziger is an experienced strategist whose work has focused on the intersection of technology, social impact and advocacy. She is pursuing a Master of Public Affairs at the Goldman School with a focus on technology policy.

Clara Bicalho

Graduate Student
Political Science

Clara Bicalho is a PhD student in the Political Science Department at the University of California, Berkeley and a Research Associate at the Center of the Politics of Development. Her research focuses on belief formation and political accountability with a focus on Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.

Tara Chandra

Graduate Student
Political Science

Tara Chandra is a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the University California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on gender and international security, particularly why and how insurgents target women. She is also interested in the causes and consequences of political violence more generally across different contexts.

Anirvan Chowdhury

Graduate Student
Political Science
Center on the Politics of Development

Anirvan Chowdhury is a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s department of political science. His broad research interests lie in comparative politics and the political economy of development. His current projects centre on women’s political mobilisation and collective action, ideology in political parties, and public service delivery. Prior to this, Chowdhury worked at the International Food Policy Research Institute and the World Bank in Washington DC, and at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India. He has studied economics and public policy at the Madras School of...

Priscila Coli

Graduate Student
City and Regional Planning

Priscila Coli is a PhD candidate in City and Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests are modes of urbanization, informal governance, and democracy in the global south.