Colloquium | Members

Stacey Bevan

Stacey Bevan is a sophomore majoring in International Relations and Biology with a minor in Child Development. After spending her childhood in the southern United States, she was excited to attend Tufts University, where she is involved in Residential Life, Tufts Student Resources, tutoring with Breakthrough Cambridge, a local community church and the Tufts Mountain Club. Stacey’s passion for global health originated on a trip to Drăgănești-Olt, Romania, where she interacted with children and families living in abject poverty. She is particularly interested in how health is related to environmental degradation, political climate, education, economics and local culture. Stacey is honored to be part of the EPIIC program this year, as it strives to apply knowledge to practical change in the global community.

Alex Bodden

Alexandra Leigh Boden is a freshman at Tufts, coming from West Morris Mendham High School in New Jersey.  She intends to major in biology and is considering minoring in both community health and computer science, while following a pre-med track.  Outside of academics, Alex is also a sabreuse on the Tufts fencing team and currently working on a project that sends school supplies and classroom aid to an underprivileged school in West Bengal, India.  After Tufts, she hopes to pursue a career in medicine and work with international health organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and conduct clinical research.

Denis Bravenec

Denis is a junior studying International Relations and Entrepreneurial Leadership at Tufts University. He is a native resident of Czech Republic and Mongolia, and spent six years living in Kazakhstan. With work experience in the United States, Czech Republic, and Mongolia, Denis’ interests are centered around tech, business and politics in a global context.

Ryan Buell

Ryan Buell is a senior at Tufts University, majoring in Psychology. Born in Boston, Ryan moved to Idaho when he was eight years old, where he developed a love of the outdoors, particularly skiing and hiking. At Tufts, his interests include social psychology’s application to political and societal problems, environmental energy policy, and modern European politics. He speaks Italian, learned in his time at Tufts and a semester spent studying the language at the University for Foreigners in Perugia, Italy. In EPIIC, he hopes to explore the cultural underpinnings of the region’s problems, including the ongoing fallout of the Greek debt crisis, the integration of refugees and immigrants, and the rise of separatist movements in Catalonia, Crimea, Flanders, and others.

Arik Burakovsky

Teaching Assistant

Though I was born in Israel and have a Ukrainian heritage, I have lived most of my life in the United States. At the University of California, San Diego, I earned a bachelor’s degree in political science with a focus on international relations. My college journalism experience and concern with crisis escalation made me interested in the role of the media and public sentiment during interstate and intrastate conflict. For my undergraduate thesis, I created a computer algorithm to collect data on and analyze the determinants of terrorist attack publicity. I recently returned from a Fulbright fellowship in Russia, where I taught English at a teachers college and researched youth attitudes toward political party membership. Currently I am a master’s student at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, concentrating on international security as well as international information and communication. My goal is to work in U.S. public diplomacy, promoting American foreign policy, culture, and society to populations abroad. My hobbies include film, ballroom dancing, and board games.

Sarah Butterfield

Sarah is a senior majoring in International Relations, with a concentration in international security. She has been involved in other Institute for Global Leadership programs, including a conflict-simulation put on by the IGL program ALLIES, called FIELD-EX in which she assisted in planning a simulation of an international water scarcity induced conflict. Sarah has always had a particular interest in the MENA region, which she has now supplemented with her study of Arabic for the past three years. She spent her junior year abroad in Cairo, studying Arabic and Egyptian politics. Her specific interests lie in the civil-military relationship in Egypt and the future of democracy in the country. Sarah hopes to continue to pursue this area of interest through EPIIC this year, as well as expand her study of the region as a whole.

Sam Cantor

Sam Cantor is a senior majoring in Political Science and minoring in Music. Sam also takes science classes and will finish the Pre-Med track by the end of this year. Sam was raised in West Hartford, CT to a pleasantly loud family where he began to observe the world with particularly wide eyes. Along with his general curiosity, both in class and out, he began to develop a passion for music and was deemed particularly noisy by his (already pleasantly loud) family. As life pressed onward, he found himself travelling: visiting many parts of the US, spending a summer in Israel, singing a cappella in Thailand and Singapore, and studying for a semester in Argentina. These experiences have allowed Sam to expand his conception of identity, place and purpose. Sam has explored in town as well, spending three semesters teaching health workshops in Boston-area public schools. Sam enjoys making and listening to music, reading books, moving around outdoors and writing about himself in the third person. Sam aspires to a life in which all of his passions, be they personal, intellectual, artistic, or otherwise, are accessed and explored. He plans to work hard to make sure other folks have the tools and resources to do this as well.

Katie Cho

Katie is a freshman at Tufts University. Originally from Korea, she spent the majority of her time in Vancouver, Canada. Currently, she is learning Mandarin and rudimentary Russian. In relation to the recent $400 billion gas pact between China and Russia, Katie hopes to better her understanding of the mechanics of Sino-Russo relations and how they affect the rest of the world— both politically and economically. Primarily interested in the roles of inter-governmental organizations and commercial relations in international affairs, she hopes to pursue a major in International Relations with a concentration in International Development Economics. Her fascination in Russian history, its aggressive foreign policy and its language lead her to participate in EPIIC. In her free time, she enjoys exploring Boston cafes. Katie is truly excited about becoming a member of the IGL community and she hopes to enhance her understanding of the dynamics of Putin’s politics and Russia’s near-abroad through involvement in EPIIC this year.
 

Eliza Davis

Eliza Davis is a freshman from Santa Cruz, California interested in International Relations and Peace and Justice Studies. She spends her free time reading memoirs from places like Sierra Leone, Cambodia, and Serbia and is passionate about conflict studies and human rights. As a daughter of lesbians, Eliza is especially interested in women’s rights and the treatment of the LGBT community. On campus she hopes to participate in Amnesty International, Action for Sexual Assault Prevention (ASAP), and the Tufts Mountain Club (TMC). After working at a preschool last year, she also plans to volunteer with Jump Start. Eliza is currently studying Arabic and French and spent six weeks last summer learning Arabic in Morocco through an NSLI-Y homestay. Eliza loves languages and is hoping to learn Russian in the future. In the meantime, she is excited to explore the fascinating culture and history of Russia and its former empire.

Minh Dinh

Minh is a sophomore at Tufts University from Hanoi, Vietnam. He is studying International Relations with a potential minor or major in Political Science or Economics. He was educated in Hanoi – Amsterdam High School. At Tufts, his interests are realism, diplomacy, foreign policy, and security, especially in the East and Southeast Asia areas and the United States. The current issues in the South China Sea and East China Sea are of particular concern to him, since the two areas are adjacent or near his home country. Outside the classroom, Minh is active in the Tufts Model United Nations, being the Undersecretary-General of the Crisis committee. He is also working as a student worker at the Institute for Global Leadership. Career wise, Minh intends to pursue a career in diplomacy. He is really excited to join EPIIC and explore its topics such as diplomacy and the rise of nationalism and modern conflicts.