Colloquium | Members

Leif Monnett

Leif Monnett is a sophomore at Tufts University who is currently double-majoring in Peace and Justice Studies and Environmental Studies. Leif was drawn to Tufts because of programs such as EPIIC which offers students extraordinary opportunities to explore interdisciplinary issues at the international level. Hailing from Alaska, Leif was aware of environmental and societal effects of climate change from an early age. He understands that climate change is not just an environmental issue: it is also a human rights issue, an inter-generational justice issue, a national security issue, an international stability issue, and an international economic issue. Tackling these complex issues will take inter-disciplinary, international, and decadal cooperative efforts, and Leif intends to be part of that effort. Leif is also interested in following up on work he started at Stanford’s Environmental and Water Studies Summer program on the use of “smart technology”, including pervasive sensing, and the potential for this technology to have both positive and negative impacts on human rights.

Jonathan Moore

Jonathan Moore is a freshman born and raised in Detroit, MI, where he attended Southfield High School and directed the student newspaper and poetry club. He is a competitive slam poet and 2012 Detroit Youth Poet Laureate who hopes to create a Spoken Word Alliance at Tufts (SWAT) team. He is exploring studies in International Relations, Political Science, and Sociology with a focus on the dynamics of poverty, education, and minority groups in the United States and abroad. As an openly gay, bi-racial man, he is particularity interested in the LGBTQ community and its relationship with minority groups, especially in the Middle East, which is the driving force that has drawn him to EPIIC this year. In the past, Jonathan has served as an organizing fellow and youth volunteer recruitment director for Obama for America's Detroit office during the 2012 re-election campaign of Barack Obama. In the summer of 2012, his love for Spanish led him to Peru, where he lived in the country for a month and helped a community construct a recreation room for senior citizens in the Inca village of Ollantaytambo. On campus, he is a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Association of Latin American students. Jonathan hopes to take away from EPIIC, along with a greater understanding of the unique issues that face the Middle East and North Africa, a more refined sense of what he wants to focus on academically and the role that the Middle East may play in his future. He is currently studying Arabic and enjoys the simple pleasures of listening to poetry, drinking chai, eating alfredo and playing with his Collie mix, Mary Jane.

Jessica Muganza

Jessica Muganza is Rwandan by origin but was born on in Bujumbura, Burundi. Her family then relocated to Rwanda after the 1994 Rwandan Genocide and there she attended primary and secondary school. In 2010, Jessica become one of the first three Rwandans to be admitted at the African Leadership Academy, a prestigious school in Johannesburg South Africa that brings together bright students from all over the African continent to nurture them into the next generation of African leaders. She is passionate about Health care in Africa, especially maternal and child health, and plans to play an active role in the eradication of malnutrition in Africa and in the world. Jessica is currently a freshman at Tufts University where she is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Community Health and International Relations. She is also interested in fashion, drama and cultural dances.

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.

Adam Nagy

Adam Nagy is a Tufts undergraduate studying International Relations and Political Science with a focus on International Security. Adam is greatly interested in the increasing role environmental issues will play in International Relations. He is also interested in the ways in which media impacts government decision-making. In 2011, Adam worked at Forbes as an online contributor. More recently Adam worked at the New York Public Interest Research Group, New York state's largest environmental and consumer advocacy group. Adam is fluent in Hungarian and French and keeps himself busy as President of the Interfraternity Council and as a host of a radio show on a WMFO 91.5.

Brittany Neff

Brittany Neff is a senior from Santa Monica, California, majoring in International Relations and Spanish.  Brittany is passionate about travelling the world and engaging in other cultures.  She has had the privilege to work, study and live for extended periods of time in Spain, South Africa, and Argentina.  Abroad in South Africa, Brittany worked for an organization called SHAWCO, which allowed her to volunteer in health clinics and schools in Khayelitsha, a township beside Cape Town.  This first sparked her interest in Global Health and its many dimensions.  Through EPIIC, she is passionate about exploring social justice in relation to health, health ethics, and the connection between traditional medicine and biomedicine.  When not reading for EPIIC, Brittany can be found leading tours around the Tufts campus or hanging out at the women’s center.  She enjoys playing volleyball, frisbee, and playing the guitar.

Aidan Nguyen

Aidan Nguyen is a senior at Tufts, studying International Relations, with a concentration in international security, and Political Science. Before coming to Tufts, he served as a congressional page in the US House of Representatives and graduated from high school with his International Baccalaureate. He has since joined several congressional and gubernatorial campaigns and worked in the offices of Rep. Kathy Castor and Sen. Bill Nelson as an intern and fellow. He has also worked with a microfinance firm in Bucerias, Mexico. He spent last year in Paris where, after an appointment from the US Embassy in Paris, he moved to an internship at UNESCO headquarters and was later appointed to serve as a second deputy there. He was also asked by Ambassador Taha Mikati and Prime Minister Najib Mikati to join the central team of the Mikati Foundation during its expansion from a national to an international organisation. Aidan is excited to be joining EPIIC this year and is interested in the future of Russian politics and the organisation of opposition parties, the emergence of new media, independent press, and relations with former Soviet states. He also participates in ALLIES, the Field Ex Committee, LCS, and MUN on campus.

Michael Olesberg

Michael Olesberg is a member of the class of 2019 and the Marketing Director for Tufts Sino-U.S. Relations Group Engagement. In addition to SURGE, Michael is part of the Tufts Debate Society, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and ALLIES. He is majoring in International Relations, in the security concentration, Political Science, and German Studies. Michael’s particular interests are the military and diplomatic interplay, East Asian Politics, and Germany. Michael loves learning about the similarities and differences that make the world run. He is considering a future in diplomacy. Michael hails from Iowa City, Iowa.

Rena Oppenheimer

Rena Oppenheimer is a senior from Newton, Massachusetts. She studies anthropology and Arabic, and spends time outside of class working on sustainable development projects with BUILD: India. Rena was fortunate enough to visit BUILD's partner village twice on research and project implementation trips. She spent her junior year abroad in Jordan and South Africa, studying the ways in which new nationalism informs awareness and acceptance of abortion rights in the latter. Rena loves learning languages, bindis, sketching, and squat toilets. She attended Seeds of Peace camp in high school, which radically shifted her worldview and intensified her motivation to engage in the peace process in Israel/Palestine. She hopes to one day put her passion and trilingual abilities to work and help end the conflict.

Bahar Ostadan

Bahar (class of 2017) is an Iranian-American from the San Francisco Bay Area. She plans to major in International Relations with a focus in global development and poverty alleviation, but is always open to any unexpected interests. Throughout high school she interned for her local city government and non-profits addressing issues ranging from micro-finance to campaign finance. With a fiery passion for people-watching, Bahar hopes to meet many strangers while living abroad during and after college. When she's not falling asleep in the library Bahar sings in Essence, Tufts' all-female a cappella group specializing in music of the African diaspora, and strives to be a disco queen through Tufts Dance Collective.