Colloquium | Members

Maria Karam

Maria Karam is a senior at Tufts majoring in International Relations with a focus on Europe and the Former Soviet Union, and a minor in History. She is a coxswain for the Men's Crew Team. She was born in Cyprus to Lebanese parents, lived in France, and now lives in Canada as a dual Canadian and French citizen. She is fluent in French and English and advanced in Spanish. She finds it difficult to identify herself with one culture because of all this, and considers herself a "Third Culture kid." Educated by the French system, Maria has always had an interest in Europe, particularly the sustainability of the institution of the European Union, human rights across the continent, and international cooperation. She hopes to further her understanding of the continent through EPIIC.

Kai-Moritz Keller

TA

Kai is a second-year MALD student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, where he focuses on Global Health and International Negotiation. He has a particular interest in Private-Public Partnerships in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Prior to Fletcher, he spent seven years trading global equities for different investment banks in New York City. Kai grew up in Bielefeld, Germany and came to the US following his Abitur and a year of community service. He has since been naturalized and holds dual US-German citizenship. This summer he was selected for Atlantik-Bruecke's Young Leaders program, and his ongoing engagement in the transatlantic dialogue is driven by his acute interest in TTIP and the role of China in the future of US-European relations. Kai holds a B.A. in Economics and Politics from Brandeis University and is a competitive epee fencer.
 

Ethan Krauss

Ethan is a senior at Tufts from Anchorage, Alaska. Majoring in international relations and Russian studies, Ethan participated in EPIIC last year, which focused on the future of Russia. Additionally, Ethan is a member of the Stanford-U.S. Russia Forum as a member of a research group also focusing on the future of Europe. Ethan spent this past summer interning on a development project in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and the summer prior on a Critical Language Scholarship in Tbilisi, Georgia. This year, Ethan is interested in investigating various aspects of Russia's relationship with Europe, particularly in regards to collective security policies in central, eastern and northern Europe. Beyond academics, Ethan enjoys watching sports, exploring Boston and is optimistic about learning how to cook.

Mile Krstev

Mile is a freshman at Tufts from Macedonia. He is interested in pursuing a major in environmental engineering and a minor in Spanish. Before coming to Tufts, Mile spent two years at the United World College of the Atlantic in Wales, where he got his International Baccalaureate. After graduating from UWC, he went on to take a gap year. For three years in a row he has organized and led a service-based learning project for UWC students in the Ex-Yugoslav countries, with a focus on Macedonia. During his gap year, he attended several youth exchanges, training courses as well as a European Voluntary Service project, which form part of the Erasmus+ program of the Council of Europe. Through these projects, he had the chance to pursue his interests in European politics, human rights, minority issues and inclusion policies. He is also passionate about Balkan history, sustainability issues and linguistics and loves learning new languages. Mile is very excited to be part of this year's colloquium on the Future of Europe and expects to expand his views on current European affairs through a critical approach and discussion with the other colloquium members.

Jérôme Krumenacker

Jérôme is a senior at Tufts majoring in International Relations, with a focus on East Asia, and in Japanese. Born in Paris, he moved to Philadelphia when he was four and has lived there since, though he maintains close family and cultural ties to France. In his time at Tufts, he has focused almost exclusively on Asian relations and culture, but is overjoyed to join EPIIC this year and to dive headfirst into the countless and seemingly overwhelming problems currently facing Europe. As a citizen of the EU and with a personal stake in its rapidly shifting social landscape, he is interested in studying Europe, particularly France's, minority and immigrant populations and the way they are perceived by older variants of European society. He is also looking for intellectual fodder to fuel arguments with his parents at the dinner table. His hobbies include baking, backpacking, land conservation, urban exploration, and judo.

Giovana Rodrigues Manfrin

Born and raised in Brazil, Giovana began her undergraduate career in international relations at a community college in Miami, Florida. There, she got involved with Model United Nations. Soon after, she was playing the politician, the analytical thinker, the builder of successful resolutions to conflicts, and, eventually, the debate captain of the team. Yet, it was not until she met her first IR professor, a Greek-German intellectual, friend and mentor, that she became deeply (and closely) involved with European affairs. Working with her professor, their ideas gave rise to the debut of The Diplomat, an undergraduate think tank of foreign policy on campus. From Matteo Renzi to Germany's hegemony, from British populism to Greek loan programs, the weekly discussions were thought-provoking. She transferred to Tufts avid to enhance her culture of inquiry, analysis, research, and scrutiny of the European and global arena. More than any other endeavor, EPIIC reminds her of the reason she came to Tufts. EPIIC's theme this year will not only entice her mind fervently; it will make her nostalgic about the lattes, peers, and professors who helped shape her intellectual drive. To them she cheers and owes the energy, overnight readings, and most of all, the anchored passion she is about to dedicate to unraveling The Future of Europe.

Lionel Muller

Lionel comes from the French-speaking part of Switzerland. He earned a bachelor degree in general and historical linguistics at the University of Bern and the Higher School of Economics in Moscow. He participated in several expeditions in the Caucasus region and in remote villages of Northern Russia to record the last speakers of some Russian dialects. He is now enrolled in an interdisciplinary master's program in European Studies at the Global Studies Institute in Geneva and is currently at Boston University as an exchange student. He is particularly interested in the different models of foreign policy developed by the European Union towards its neighborhood and the effects of the exportation of its values - democracy, rule of law, market economy - in the states of the Eastern partnership. He is also curious about what defines the European culture, especially in comparison to other Western cultures such as the North American culture. He considers EPIIC a unique opportunity to gain more insights into the dynamics of the European polity and to understand how the developments of the continent are understood from the other shore of the Atlantic Ocean.

Shawn Patterson

Shawn is a junior from Buffalo, NY, majoring in International Relations. Prior to studying at Tufts, Shawn received a Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange scholarship from the Department of State and studied German for ten months in the Erzgebirge region of Germany. At Tufts, Shawn has studied European affairs, Post-World War II German literature, and Western ethics. He proudly serves as the President of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on campus. He is also a QuestBridge Scholar and hopes to set an example for other high-achieving, low-income students by succeeding in the academic and professional worlds. Last summer, Shawn received the Critical Language Scholarship to study Arabic in Ibri, Oman. This year, he looks forward to participating in EPIIC and is interested in European far-right political parties, the German demographic crisis, and Arab migration to Central and Eastern Europe.

Dan Pechi

Dan Pechi is a freshman hoping to dual major in International Relations, with a thematic concentration in International Environmental Economics, and Russian and Eastern European Studies. Dan hails from the suburbs of Chicago, where he was a member of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and a research assistant at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Dan was also selected for the State Department's National Security Language Initiative for Youth Russia Summer program in 2014. In addition to pursuing his academic interests in Russia at Tufts, Dan is writing for Tufts' music magazine Melisma and hopes to get more involved in Boston's rich music scene. He looks forward to developing a better understanding of Europe and creating valuable experiences through EPIIC.

James Randaccio

James is a senior majoring in International Relations, with a concentration in International Finance, and minoring in Economics. He is from Buffalo, New York, where he attended the Nichols School before going on to spend a gap year playing junior hockey in New Hampshire. A member of the hockey team at Tufts, he is an avid sports fan, and believes Sundays in the fall are for watching the Buffalo Bills. James' academic pursuits involve the intersection of politics and economics, especially in regards to developing economies and transnational economic policies. While excited about EPIIC's concentration on Europe this year, James is also very interested in Latin America and is working to improve his fluency in Spanish. James is pursuing a career in finance or economic policy through an internship with Merrill Lynch during the fall semester.