2026-27 Fellows
Clough Postdoctoral & Visiting Fellows
Loyle Campbell
Loyle Campbell is a research fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations Center for Climate and Foreign Policy. His work focuses on the geopolitics of the energy transition, energy security and industrial transformation. Loyle has completed a foreign policy fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars and an energy security fellowship at Securing American Future Energy. He has also served as a Harold W. Rosenthal Fellow on the United States House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. Before working in policy, Loyle worked for 5 years in the Canadian oil field. Loyle obtained his master’s in international energy from the Sciences Po Paris School of International Affairs and a BSc in political science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Kim Kwangsup
Kwangsup Kim, PhD, is a scholar-practitioner specializing in constitutional democracy, democratic accountability, and comparative political institutions. He recently completed his PhD in Law and Democracy, with a minor in Political Science, at Indiana University Bloomington. He currently serves as a senior legislative advisor at the Jeju Special Self Governing Provincial Council in South Korea. Dr. Kim has more than twenty years of experience in democratic institutions, including the Korean National Assembly, the Jeju Provincial Council, and the Maryland State Legislature. His work bridges constitutional theory and democratic practice, focusing on institutional cooperation, executive-legislative relations, public participation, and democratic resilience. His international work includes constitutional advisory projects in Sierra Leone in cooperation with the American Bar Association and UNDP. His dissertation, Presidential Power and Democracy: Achieving Political Balance through Checks and Cooperation in South Korea, develops a framework of “checks and cooperation for balance,” contributing to contemporary debates on democratic governance at scale.
Andres Munoz-Mosquera
Andres B. Munoz-Mosquera is a scholar of international law and international relations, attorney-at-law, and former judge. He has been specializing in institutional and treaty law, as well as in the intersection of international law and religion, and also in the relation between international humanitarian law and human rights law. He holds a PhD from Leiden University, an MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and JD/LLM from Universities Complutense and Europea. He is a graduate from the NATO Defence College (GFAC) and US Army JAG School. His master’s thesis, Democratization through UN peacekeeping operations? Peacekeeping regimes, examines the question of whether peacekeeping operations establish democratic regimes in the territories in which they deploy. His doctoral dissertation, North Atlantic Treaty Organization: An International Institutional Law Perspective, explores the legal frameworks governing international organizations, using NATO as a case study. Before coming to BC, Professor Munoz-Mosquera served as the NATO Supreme Headquarters’ fifth Director of the Office of Legal Affairs from 2014-2025, following thirteen years as deputy. Earlier in his career Professor Munoz-Mosquera started as a case officer/paralegal and tank commander. He was a member of the Spanish inter-ministerial delegation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva. He also deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was involved in negotiating anti-sniping agreements and facilitating the exchange of prisoners and corpses in Sarajevo. Later, as a counter-intelligence officer for the US-led Allied Military Intelligence Battalion, he identified and collected evidence of war crimes in support of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He served as a judge at the European Union SatCen Appeals Board before it was absorbed by the European Court of Justice. He has been involved in rule of law matters in the Balkans and the Middle East, where he provided pro bono support to his bar association. He developed the concept of strategic legal intelligence and vigilance (Legal Operations). Professor Munoz-Mosquera handled multi-million-dollar court cases related to NATO operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan before the courts of the Netherlands and Belgium. Among his professional activities, Professor Muñoz-Mosquera has been consulted in the drafting of the 2018 U.S. Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act and its subsequent update bill (2023–2025). He has provided written testimony to the governments of the United Kingdom and Switzerland and has negotiated and concluded more than eight hundred international agreements. Professor Muñoz-Mosquera has held fellowships at Marine Corps University and The Fletcher School, and has taught and lectured, inter alia, at Reichman University, the Sorbonne, the University of Seville, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the U.S. National Defense University. He also teaches pro bono at the Catholic University of Murcia. He has received numerous awards from the military and from his bar association, and has been knighted twice. Since January 2026, he has held the inaugural appointment of Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Boston College Law School.
Elias Opongo
Elias Omondi Opongo, SJ is a Senior Lecturer at the Hekima University Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations, in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a peace practitioner with a focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, community peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, transitional justice, post-conflict reconstruction, and state-building. Most recently he is the co-editor of Elections, Violence, and Transitional Justice in Africa (2023) and has published many books, chapters, and articles on the complex causes of conflict today, especially in Africa. He received a Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Bradford (UK).
Isabelle Schäfer
Dr. Isabelle Schäfer is a research fellow in DGAP’s Center for Migration, where she conducts research on the foreign and development policy effects of migration cooperation. Before joining DGAP, Schäfer was a research associate at Germany’s Expert Council on Integration and Migration. She contributed to its Annual Report 2024, mainly on asylum and return policy. She was also a research associate for the University of Exeter, where she worked on a research project on refugees in universities in the UK. Previously, she had worked in communications at the World Bank in Latin America for several years and lived in Mexico City. Schäfer completed her PhD in social and policy sciences at the University of Bath in England on the topic of refugee integration and the role of universities. Prior to this, she completed her master’s degree in comparative and international education at the University of Oxford. Schäfer also holds a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City and from Sciences Po Paris.
Isaiah Sterrett
Isaiah Sterrett is the Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, where he also leads the Junior Fellows program for outstanding undergraduates. An historian of the United States, Isaiah has published in American Nineteenth Century History and The New England Quarterly, and he is currently at work on Freedom and Temptation: Children and Political Culture in the North's Age of Emancipation. Isaiah holds a B.A. and M.A. in Political Science and a Ph.D. in History (2023), all from Boston College.
Clough Faculty Affiliates
Paulo Barrozo
Paulo Barrozo currently serves as Associate Dean of Faculty and Global Programs. He works on public law and legal theory. He offers new understandings of rights, punishment, cruelty, structural mercy, legal education, distribution, institutionalization, the nature of the political realm, the nature and evolution of law, and the history of legal thought. Before joining Boston College Law School, he was a lecturer in social thought at Harvard University, where he was the first recipient of the Stanley Hoffman Prize for Excellence in Teaching. Barrozo received an S.J.D. from Harvard University and a Ph.D. in political science from the Rio de Janeiro University Research Institute. In his pro bono activities, Barrozo advocates for the rights of children and the neurodiverse. His work is available at SSRN and on his website paulobarrozo.bc.edu.
Hannes Kerber
Hannes Kerber is an Assistant Professor of Political Philosophy at Boston College, where he studies and teaches primarily 18th century political thought. Prior to joining BC, he was the academic program director at the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung and a lecturer in philosophy and religious studies at the University of Munich, Germany. In 2022/2023 he held a position as a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and in 2024 as a visiting professor at the Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy. His first book, Die Aufklärung der Aufklärung: Lessing und die Herausforderung des Christentums, was published in 2021 by Wallstein Verlag and was awarded the first Chodowiecki Prize by Interdisziplinary Centre for European Enlightenment Studies in Halle-Wittenberg, Germany. He has co-edited Leo Strauss on Plato’s “Euthyphro”: The 1948 Notebook, with Lectures and Critical Writings (2023) and Die Praktiken der Provokation. Lessings Schreib- und Streitstrategien (2024).
Florence (Flo) Madenga
Florence Zivaishe Madenga is an Assistant Professor in the Communication Department and the African and African Diaspora Studies program at Boston College. Her core area of study is in journalistic practices, specifically how journalists and peripheral media-makers challenge or are affected by state censorship. Her most recent research focuses on iterations of humor and journalism in tricky political contexts, satire journalism’s affordances and limitations as a liberatory practice in Zimbabwe, journalism in the United States, and popular culture in the African diaspora. She is currently working on her first book tentatively titled Black Satire Journalism: Dark Humor and Play in a Military Dictatorship. Her commentary and scholarship has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Media, Culture & Society, Catalyst: Feminism, Theory, Technoscience, the International Journal of Communication and other journals. She holds a doctoral degree in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
Chandra Mallampalli
Chandra Mallampalli is a historian of modern South Asia with interests in religious pluralism, nationalism, and the secular state. At the Clough Center, his research examines challenges facing India’s multi-religious democracy, especially in light of the surging Hindu nationalism and violence against religious minorities. His scholarship and teaching span the fields of modern India, British Empire, World History, and Global Christianity. His recent book with Oxford University Press (New York), South Asia’s Christians: Between Hindu and Muslim, describes how the lives of Roman Catholics, Syrian Christians, and Protestants have been shaped by centuries of interactions with Hindus and Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. Mallampalli’s new project, “The Virtues of Mixture: Religion, Labor Migrants, and Cosmopolitanism in the Indian Ocean,” explores the role of religious institutions in the lives of South Indian migrants to the Persian Gulf and Southeast Asia since the late 19th century, and whether religion either facilitated cultural mixture and engagement or contributed to sharper boundaries and accommodations to ethnic nationalism. Mallampalli returns to the Clough Center this year as its first Senior Research Fellow.
Thibaud Marcesse
Andres Munoz-Mosquera
Andres B. Munoz-Mosquera is a scholar of international law and international relations, attorney-at-law, and former judge. He has been specializing in institutional and treaty law, as well as in the intersection of international law and religion, and also in the relation between international humanitarian law and human rights law. He holds a PhD from Leiden University, an MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and JD/LLM from Universities Complutense and Europea. He is a graduate from the NATO Defence College (GFAC) and US Army JAG School. His master’s thesis, Democratization through UN peacekeeping operations? Peacekeeping regimes, examines the question of whether peacekeeping operations establish democratic regimes in the territories in which they deploy. His doctoral dissertation, North Atlantic Treaty Organization: An International Institutional Law Perspective, explores the legal frameworks governing international organizations, using NATO as a case study. Before coming to BC, Professor Munoz-Mosquera served as the NATO Supreme Headquarters’ fifth Director of the Office of Legal Affairs from 2014-2025, following thirteen years as deputy. Earlier in his career Professor Munoz-Mosquera started as a case officer/paralegal and tank commander. He was a member of the Spanish inter-ministerial delegation to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) in Geneva. He also deployed to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where he was involved in negotiating anti-sniping agreements and facilitating the exchange of prisoners and corpses in Sarajevo. Later, as a counter-intelligence officer for the US-led Allied Military Intelligence Battalion, he identified and collected evidence of war crimes in support of the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. He served as a judge at the European Union SatCen Appeals Board before it was absorbed by the European Court of Justice. He has been involved in rule of law matters in the Balkans and the Middle East, where he provided pro bono support to his bar association. He developed the concept of strategic legal intelligence and vigilance (Legal Operations). Professor Munoz-Mosquera handled multi-million-dollar court cases related to NATO operations in the Balkans and Afghanistan before the courts of the Netherlands and Belgium. Among his professional activities, Professor Muñoz-Mosquera has been consulted in the drafting of the 2018 U.S. Hamas Human Shields Prevention Act and its subsequent update bill (2023–2025). He has provided written testimony to the governments of the United Kingdom and Switzerland and has negotiated and concluded more than eight hundred international agreements. Professor Muñoz-Mosquera has held fellowships at Marine Corps University and The Fletcher School, and has taught and lectured, inter alia, at Reichman University, the Sorbonne, the University of Seville, the United States Military Academy at West Point, and the U.S. National Defense University. He also teaches pro bono at the Catholic University of Murcia. He has received numerous awards from the military and from his bar association, and has been knighted twice. Since January 2026, he has held the inaugural appointment of Distinguished Scholar in Residence at Boston College Law School.
Mary Murphy
Mary C. Murphy joined Boston College in Fall 2024. Her main research and teaching interests include: Ireland/Northern Ireland and the EU, peace and conflict in Northern Ireland, and the politics of Brexit on the island of Ireland. Her current research focuses on post-Brexit Northern Ireland and relations with the EU and US. In addition to being a member of the Political Science Faculty, she is the Director of the Irish Institute at Boston College.
Her latest book, co-authored with Jonathan Evershed, A Troubled Constitutional Future: Northern Ireland after Brexit, Agenda/Columbia University Press 2022, won the UACES Best Book Prize in 2023. The book examines the factors, actors and dynamics that are most likely tobe influential, and potentially transformative, in determining Northern Ireland's constitutional future after Brexit. It offers an assessment of how Brexit and its fallout may lead to constitutional upheaval, and includes a cautionary warning about the need to prepare for it.
She is also the author of Europe and Northern Ireland’s Future: Negotiating Brexit’s Unique Case, Agenda/Columbia University Press 2018 which was one of the first book-length studies of Northern Ireland and Brexit. Her previous book, Northern Ireland and the European Union: The Dynamics of a Changing Relationship, was published by Manchester University Press in 2014. She has guest edited special issues of Irish Political Studies, Administration and Irish Studies in International Affairs (forthcoming) and her work has also been published in leading academic journals including The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, International Political Science Review and Territory, Politics, Governance.
Before joining the faculty at Boston College, she was Head of the Department of Government and Politics at University College Cork, Ireland. She is the former President of the Irish Association for Contemporary European Studies, has twice been awarded an Erasmus+ Jean Monnet Chair award and holds a fellowship with the Centre on Constitutional Change at Edinburgh University. She was also previously a Fulbright-Schuman scholar and has won the Political Studies Association of Ireland (PSAI) Teaching and Learning Prize.
Elias Opongo
Elias Omondi Opongo, SJ is a Senior Lecturer at the Hekima University Institute of Peace Studies and International Relations, in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a peace practitioner with a focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, community peacebuilding, humanitarian assistance, transitional justice, post-conflict reconstruction, and state-building. Most recently he is the co-editor of Elections, Violence, and Transitional Justice in Africa (2023) and has published many books, chapters, and articles on the complex causes of conflict today, especially in Africa. He received a Ph.D. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Bradford (UK).
Juan Qian
Jingyuan Qian studies comparative political institutions, state-building, and political economy, with a regional focus on China and East Asia. His book project, Statebuilding by Campaign: The Making of the Modern Chinese Bureaucracy, 1949–1976, examines the mechanisms employed by the Chinese party-state under Mao Zedong to manage and control subordinate bureaucrats during the first three decades of the People's Republic of China. Qian’s research has been published in peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes, including Comparative Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, The China Quarterly, Ethnopolitics, and The Routledge Handbook of Anti-Corruption Research and Practice. His interviews and commentaries have been featured in global media outlets, including Bloomberg TV, The Atlantic, South China Morning Post, Made in China Journal, The Initium Media, and Azerbaijan's ARB24 News. At Boston College, Qian teaches courses in Chinese and East Asian politics, comparative politics, and formal theory. Prior to joining Boston College, Qian served as an Earl S. Johnson Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Chicago (2023–25) and as an Associate in Research at the Duke-Margolis Institute at Duke University (2016–18). Qian was born and raised in China. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and History from Macalester College.
Rana Aziz
Aziz Rana is the J. Donald Monan, S.J., University Professor of Law and Government. He joins Boston College from Cornell Law School, where he was the Richard and Lois Cole Professor of Law.
His research and teaching center on American constitutional law and political development. In particular, Rana’s work focuses on how shifting notions of race, citizenship, and empire have shaped legal and political identity since the founding of the country.
His first book, The Two Faces of American Freedom (Harvard University Press) situates the American experience within the global history of colonialism, examining the intertwined relationship in American constitutional practice between internal accounts of freedom and external projects of power and expansion. His latest book, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document that Fails Them (University of Chicago Press, 2024), explores the modern emergence of constitutional veneration in the twentieth century -- especially against the backdrop of growing American global authority -- and how veneration has influenced the boundaries of popular politics.
Rana has written essays and op-eds for such venues as n+1, Dissent, The Boston Review, The Washington Post, The New York Times, New Labor Forum, Jacobin, The Guardian, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, Jadaliyya, Salon, and The Law and Political Economy Blog. He has articles and chapter contributions published or forthcoming with Yale and Oxford University Presses, The University of Chicago Law Review, California Law Review, UCLA Law Review, Texas Law Review, and the Yale Law Journal Forum, among others.
Rana is an editorial board member of Dissent, The Law and Political Economy Blog, Just Security, and The Journal of American Constitutional History. He is also a Life Member of the Council of Foreign Relations and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
He received his A.B. from Harvard College summa cum laude and his J.D. from Yale Law School. He earned a Ph.D. in political science at Harvard University, where his dissertation was awarded the University's Charles Sumner Prize.
Daniel Ziblatt
Daniel Ziblatt is the Eaton Professor of Government at Harvard University and Director of Harvard University’s Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies. He also leads a research group on democracy and democratic erosion at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center in Germany.
He is the author of four books, including How Democracies Die (Crown, 2018), co-authored with Steve Levitsky, a New York Times best-seller and described by The Economist magazine as “the most important book of the Trump era.” The book has been translated into thirty languages. In 2017, he authored Conservative Parties and the Birth of Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2017), an account of the history of democracy in Europe, which won the American Political Science Association’s 2018 Woodrow Wilson Prize for the best book in government and international relations and American Sociological Association’s 2018 Barrington Moore Prize. His first book was an analysis of 19th century state building, Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism (Princeton, 2006). In Fall 2023, his newest book entitled Tyranny of the Minority (co-authored with Steve Levitsky) puts America’s contemporary transition into a multiracial democracy in comparative and historical perspective, and shows the distinctive vulnerabilities of the U.S. constitutional order.
Ziblatt maintains an active research program that is published in journals such as the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, and World Politics. In 2023, he was elected member of the American Academy for Arts and Sciences.
Student Affiliates
Camilla Alvarez
My name is Camila Alvarez. I'm a rising senior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College, where I major in Political Science and English. My main academic interest centers on the growing role of artificial intelligence in politics, particularly its implications in democracy and public discourse. As a McNair Scholar, I have been conducting research on the intersection of AI and politics, exploring how emerging technologies are reshaping political messaging and voter perception, and as a Student Affiliate I look forward to learning more about how technology influences political participation, public decision-making, and the relationship between local, national, and global democratic processes.
Jeronimo Ayesta Lopez
Jeronimo Ayesta is a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Fellow in the Philosophy Department at Boston College. His research explores the role of aesthetic experience and narrative in the constitution of selfhood and the cultivation of moral character. His dissertation, "The Relation between Ethics and Aesthetics in Hans-Georg Gadamer and Paul Ricœur," draws on two of the most important figures in the hermeneutical tradition to reframe the classical question of the relationship between the beautiful and the good in a hermeneutic key. Beyond the dissertation, his current projects include a study of Augustine's account of attention to the self; an inquiry into Gadamer's concept of Darstellung and its underexplored connection to the philosophical aesthetics of Gaudí's architecture; and an essay on the claim, shared by both Gadamer and Ricœur, that hermeneutics must absorb aesthetics. Running through all of these is an interest in film hermeneutics—particularly in the philosophical significance of the face in the cinema of Terrence Malick—with film serving as a privileged site through which the broader questions of selfhood and moral character come into focus. He holds an M.A. in Film Studies with First-Class Honors from King's College London and dual undergraduate degrees in Philosophy and Journalism from the University of Navarra. Outside the academy, he trains for marathons and half-marathons, skis in winter, hikes year-round, and is a devoted cinephile.
Brianna Biggins
I am an Economics major and International Studies minor at Boston College with interests in law, public policy, and global development. My academic work focuses on international law, migration policy, and economic policy, including research on the legal status of the United Nations Right to Development framework and policy simulations addressing refugee governance in the European Union. I also studied abroad at Venice International University, where I presented research on the regulation of emerging technologies in international law. I am especially interested in opportunities that combine analytical thinking, policy research, and public service.
Jacob Cohen
Jacob Cohen is a first-year masters student in the Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences with a specialization in Philosophy, Law, and Politics. Jacob grew up in Los Angeles California, and has a strong interest in public service. As an undergraduate student, he volunteered at the Graybird Foundation advocating for housing inequality, undocumented citizens and education assistance for lower-income residents of Sun Valley, Idaho. In addition to his service in the private sector, Jacob has spent time in Washington DC interning at the U.S. House of Representatives. Academically, Jacob enjoys conversations revolving epistemology, meta-ethics and theology. He has interests both in existential thinkers such as Nietzsche, Dostoevsky, and Kierkegaard and utilitarian political theory. He hopes to continue his research into existentialist thought and the connection between determinism and traditional morality.
Nicholas Cremona
Nick Cremona is a junior at Boston College, majoring in Political Science with a minor in American Studies. He is a member of the Political Science Honors Program and captain of the Boston College Mock Trial team. Nick has interned with the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of New Jersey. He has also worked in local government and civic engagement initiatives in New Jersey. He was part of the inaugural class of Junior Fellows at the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy and is interested in constitutional law, democratic institutions, political polarization, and American political culture.
Carina D'Urso
Carina D’Urso is a doctoral student in Formative Education at Boston College. She is dedicated to cultivating learning, engagement, access, and belonging in art museums. Carina received her B.A. from the Macaulay Honors College at CUNY Brooklyn College. A member of the CUNY Baccalaureate Program for Unique and Interdisciplinary studies, she majored in “The Arts, Education, and Social Change.” She received her M.Ed. in Human Development and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. From 2023 to 2024, she was the Post-Baccalaureate Fellow in PreK-12 Museum Education at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University. Her research interests include aesthetic experience and imagination, collaborative forms of knowledge production and pedagogy, and the construction of public space. In her spare time, she serves as a docent at the McMullen Museum of Art at Boston College.
Rebecca Diaz
Rebecca Diaz is a rising junior in the Carroll School of Management, majoring in Management and Leadership with minors in History and Managing for Social Impact & Public Good. Growing up in the swing state of Pennsylvania taught her to value open dialogue and actively listen to opposing viewpoints. As a 2026–2027 Junior Fellow, she is excited to explore this year’s theme, “Democracy at Scale,” with a particular interest in bridging the gap between direct service and policy work to make democratic systems more equitable and responsive to marginalized communities. On campus and beyond, Rebecca is a Career Prep Fellow with Management Leadership for Tomorrow and mentors students through the Pine Manor Institute and WorldTutors. She is guided by her hands-on service experiences, including volunteering with a local women’s homeless shelter and serving as a student leader for APPA.
Elyse Everest
Elyse Everest is a rising Junior studying Transformative Education and International Studies from Honolulu, Hawaii. She is passionate about human rights and NGO work, specifically focused on refugees and educational equity. At BC, she mentors for Girls Inc., tutors high school students through the Pine Manor Institute, volunteers with Outdoor Adventures, and holds three research positions in mixed-ethnicity adoption in the US, student wellness with the DOS, and is researching/editing a textbook for BC law focused on higher educational law. This summer, she is interning at the headquarters of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She was a Clough Junior Fellow last year and is excited to be continuing as an Affiliate and a Correspondent. With aspirations to work all over the world and with some of the most vulnerable communities, she hopes that the Clough Center will be an amazing stepping stone into the world of policy and democracy.
Oluwabori ("Anjy") Fadairo
Oluwabori "Anjy" Fadairo, a sophomore from Dallas, TX, majors in Political Science andTransformative Educational Studies with a minor in African/African Diaspora Studies.Inspired by the storytelling traditions of the African Diaspora, Anjy is passionate about reading and creating diverse, culturally nuanced literature. She strives to increase equity in literacy while ensuring that individuals of all racial and socioeconomic backgrounds are empowered to create literature that authentically represents them.
In the realm of policy, Anjy has a deep-seated passion for studying (and eradicating) systemic barriers to healthcare access, high-quality education, and third spaces. Further, she’s interested in studying 21st-century redistricting and disenfranchisement in the American South through a Constitutional lens. She's elated to serve as a Clough Center Student Affiliate for the 2026-27 academic year.
Alisa Fixler
Alisa is a rising senior studying History and Public Health at Boston College on the pre-law track. She is passionate about the intersection of health policy and historical inequity, with a particular interest in how structural injustices have shaped access to healthcare, housing, and nutrition over time. As a History student, she is interested in how political power and policy shape the fight for equitable reform. Last summer, she worked on a food resiliency program in the Maryland government, contributing to a Food as Medicine initiative aimed at improving food access by integrating nutrition into healthcare policy. She continues to work on health policy initiatives at Johns Hopkins, with a particular focus on community-based health interventions at the policy level.
Paige Folli
Paige Folli is a rising senior on the pre-law track, majoring in Political Science and minoring in Journalism. She is particularly interested in the intersections of law, politics, and media, especially how democratic institutions and constitutional law respond to political polarization, legal challenges, and evolving public policy. On campus, Paige previously served as the Newsletter Editor for The Heights and continues to write for the paper while also serving as an elected representative on BC’s Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC). Over the past two years, she has interned with law firms in New York City, London, and Atlanta, experiences that strengthened her passion for pursuing a legal career. She also interned for the campaign of former New Jersey Congressman Tom Malinowski, which deepened her interest in the relationship between law and government. Paige looks forward to exploring this year’s theme of “Democracy at Scale” through thoughtful conversation and collaboration.
Emily Foote
Emily Foote is a rising Junior studying Political Science with a minor in International Studies concentrating in Cooperation and Conflict, on the Pre-Law track. Emily was a 2025-26 Junior Fellow with the Clough Center, which deepened her passion for preserving American democracy. Her academic interests lie in American constitutional law, civil rights, and international conflicts. She plans to pursue a career in the legal field. Last summer, Emily was a legal intern for her State’s Attorney’s Office, getting an understanding for American criminal law, and for the Summer of 2026 is an undergraduate legal intern for the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation, working on public interest litigation. At BC, Emily is a member of the Undergraduate Student Government, Entrepreneurs for Social Impact, and the club Alpine Ski Team. She is thrilled to continue working with the Clough Center and further exploring the intersection of law, policy, and American Democracy.
Maria Gallego Ortiz
María Alejandra Gutiérrez-Torres
María Alejandra Gutiérrez Torres, MD, MA, is a Colombian physician, peacebuilding scholar, and PhD student at the Boston College School of Social Work. Her research sits at the intersection of public health, mental health, forced migration, and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on children, adolescents, and families affected by armed conflict and displacement. Her work examines how adversity becomes biologically and socially embedded across generations, and how culturally grounded psychosocial interventions can be adapted, implemented, and scaled in fragile settings. She is currently involved in research on war-affected youth, migrant families, and mental health equity across Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. She has worked with institutions including Yale School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, the World Health Organization, and the Pan American Health Organization. Her long-term goal is to generate actionable evidence that strengthens systems of care and helps conflict-affected children build healthier futures.
Nina Hemsey
Nina Hemsey is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2027 at Boston College, where she is majoring in Political Science and minoring in History. Nina has aspirations of going to law school, where she is most interested in studying criminal and constitutional law. On campus, Nina is actively involved with the Undergraduate Government of Boston College, serving as the Montserrat Student Representative. She has had the honor of interning in the Boston Office of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, working in constituent services. This summer, Nina will be interning in the Clerk's Office of Waterbury Superior Court in Connecticut. Nina is looking forward to pursuing a career in public service, where she hopes to use her education to advocate for fairness, accountability, and equitable access to justice.
Austin Lamb
Austin Lamb is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science specializing in political theory and American politics. Originally from Fargo, North Dakota, he received his B.S. in Political Science and B.A. in Spanish from Boise State University. Austin’s research focuses on the connections between Enlightenment political philosophy and the theory and practice of American politics. He is especially interested in late-modern political philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith, and Immanuel Kant. His dissertation traces the concept of public opinion from the early Enlightenment to the Progressive Era, arguing that public opinion is a contingent phenomenon that exists only under liberal, constitutional governments. As a Student Affiliate, Austin looks forward to exploring the Clough Center’s annual theme, “Democracy at Scale”, by comparing various approaches to the problem of public opinion in large-scale republics throughout the history of American political thought.
Nicole Murphy
Nicole Murphy is a rising junior at Boston College majoring in Political Science and Economics and minoring in Journalism on the Pre-Law track. Her academic interests center on comparative politics, foreign policy, international studies, and law—with a particular interest in Middle Eastern politics and the role of the press in shaping public opinion and policy. On campus, Nicole is actively engaged in The Heights, Boston College’s largest independent student newspaper, where she has worked across both the editorial and business sides of the organization as a former copy editor and current Outreach Coordinator. She is also a research assistant for Professor Peter Krause’s Project on Political Violence. This summer, Nicole will join FRONTLINE as an editorial intern on the Vetting and Research Team, where she hopes to further explore investigative journalism, newsroom operations, and the intersection of media and politics. She is thrilled to continue developing these interests and experiences as part of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy community.
Griffin Noumair
Griffin Noumair is an undergraduate in the Class of 2028, concentrating in Finance in the Carroll School of Management and on the pre-law track. Originally from Long Island, New York, he has experience working in the New York Attorney General’s Office in New York City. Griffin is passionate about politics and social justice, and hopes to make a positive, long-term impact in underserved communities – especially through improving education and housing. As a former Junior Fellow in the Clough Center, he researched the recent outgrowth of campaign financing and its impact on US elections. On campus, he is a member of the BC Men’s Rugby Club, the Sales & Trading Association, and Eagle Volunteers. Outside of academics, Griffin enjoys working out and spending time with friends and family.
Siro Pino-Cardona
Siro B. Pina Cardona is a PhD candidate in the Higher Education program at Boston College. His research examines how universities navigate democratic backsliding and geopolitical pressures, focusing on academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and international collaboration. As a Student Affiliate, he will continue to explore how universities can safeguard democracy by promoting intellectual diversity, supporting inclusive governance, and sustaining global academic partnerships. Siro has held research roles with the United Nations, the OECD, and the International Association of Universities, and is currently a Graduate Research & Teaching Assistant at the Center for International Higher Education at Boston College. He holds degrees in Psychology, Health Sciences, and Educational Studies, including the Erasmus Mundus Master's in Research and Innovation in Higher Education.
Sina Rezaei
Sina Rezaei is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department at Boston College. Before joining BC, he graduated magna cum laude with an M.A. in Philosophy from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and earned his LL.B from the University of Tehran. His research interests are Classical German Philosophy (esp. Hegel), Social and Political Philosophy, and Decolonial Philosophy.
Last year as a Clough's Doctoral Fellow, he tried to connect his main project on Hegel's political philosophy to the contemporary debates about democratic resilience. In his journal essay, he argued that Hegel's critique of democracy—that market-driven, self-interested individualism corrodes any rational common good—remains valuable today not as a case for monarchy but as a warning to defend democracy realistically (by regulating money's influence over elections) and pragmatically (by countering populists, who exploit democracy's own vulnerabilities, with their own concrete, interest-based tactics rather than abstract appeals). As a Student Affiliate, he aims to deepen his understanding of these contemporary challenges of democracy and to examine the possible answer to these challenges through the lenses of history of political thought.
Fazli Salim
Fazli Salim is a doctoral researcher in social psychology investigating the mechanisms that drive, or stall, collective action on shared societal problems. Her research starts from the premise that crises like climate change, and democratic backsliding are not isolated issues but interconnected symptoms of deeper structural histories. She studies how people construct who is responsible for harm, how social norms shape what feels possible, and how a sense of efficacy, or its absence, determines whether individuals act with others or retreat into blame. Across populations, she traces how these processes converge in scapegoating: the psychological shortcut of locating complex, diffuse harms in a single group. As a Clough Center Affiliate, Fazli is developing interventions that interrupt this shortcut and cultivate the psychological conditions for democratic resilience and collective problem-solving.
Stephen Samartzis
Stephen Samartzis is a rising junior at Boston College from Chicago, Illinois, majoring in Economics with a minor in Finance. He is interested in the relationship between finance, democratic institutions, energy security, and equitable economic opportunity. Stephen previously served as a Clough Center Junior Fellow, where his work, “Too Young to Vote, Old Enough to Sue: When the Future Puts Democracy on Trial,” explored questions of youth civic agency, climate justice, and democratic accountability and was featured in the Center’s Spring 2026 publication.
Professionally, Stephen is pursuing a career in investment banking and will join Perella Weinberg Partners as a Summer Analyst in 2027. He has also gained experience across finance, strategy, and capital markets, including work related to energy transition and sustainable aviation fuel. On campus, Stephen is involved in professional business organizations and has been actively engaged with Messina College through BC’s Messina College Student Advisory Board. Outside of his academic and professional interests, he enjoys playing intramural basketball, participating in service events, and spending time with friends and family.
Cate Schultz
Cate Schultz is a third-year doctoral student in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. From studying education and psychology during her bachelor's to researching play for children’s social and emotional well-being at Cambridge University, Cate has made children’s mental health and coping skills the central focus of her research and passion. She is currently researching science equity, primarily through brain health programs, community science initiatives, and research-to-policy translation on informal science education accessibility internationally. She believes that students can be, and are, agents of change. Her research with the Clough Center examined the impact of early participatory models in Scandinavian education systems to strengthen children’s democratic self-efficacy.
Kylie Taube
Kylie Taube is a junior at Boston College majoring in Political Science and Transformative Educational Studies with a minor in Restorative and Transformational Justice. Her academic interests center on the intersection of constitutional democracy and education policy. At BC, Kylie is involved in the Bellarmine Law Society and Global Conversations, where she enjoys engaging with questions surrounding law, dialogue, and global citizenship. She has also conducted research and community-based work focused on language acquisition and educational access for immigrant students in Florida.
Jocelyn Tucker
Jocelyn Tucker is a junior at Boston College double majoring in Political Science and Economics. As a Student Affiliate at the Clough Center, she is particularly interested in exploring how economic frameworks intersect with constitutional and democratic systems. She brings research experience across several initiatives, including work as an Undergraduate Research Fellow studying property rights and governance in Sub-Saharan Africa, a summer position at the Center for the Study of Guns and Society at Wesleyan University, and as an incoming member of Professor Peter Krause’s Political Violence Project team, each of which has deepened her thinking about the economic dimensions of law and policy. She also serves as Editor-in-Chief of The Colloquium: The Political Science Journal of Boston College. Jocelyn plans to pursue a legal career in constitutional law or trust and estates, where she hopes to bring an economics lens to complex legal questions.
Callie Walsh
Callie Walsh is an undergraduate student in the class of 2027 at Boston College. She is pursuing a double major in Political Science and Philosophy with a concentration in Perspectives. On campus, Callie is involved with Boston College Mock Trial as well as the Gabelli Presidential Scholars program. With aspirations for a career in law, Callie has previously interned for the Innocence Program at Boston College Law School and is currently working as an Undergraduate Research Fellow for Fr. James Keenan. Callie is looking forward to pursuing a career in housing and tenant rights after her undergraduate education.
Marcus Ye
Marcus is an undergraduate student at Boston College’s Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences pursuing a Political Science major on the pre-law track in the class of 2028. His academic interests are international politics, civil ligation and political philosophy, specifically the intersection between ethics and how they interact with the political/legal systems. From Newton, Marcus spends his free time supporting his parent's family business, teaching at the Calculus Project over the summer, and debating with the Boston College British Parliamentary Debate Club. He will also be interning with the Boston College Law Schools, innocence project clinic over the summer. After graduation, he plans on attending law school.
Clough Junior Fellows
Victoria Awadallah
Victoria Awadallah is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2029. She is majoring in psychology (on the B.S. track) and philosophy, with a minor in Hispanic Studies, on the pre-law track. A Gabelli Presidential Scholar and Stamps Scholar, Victoria hopes to become a lawyer to advocate for marginalized groups. Victoria is from Queens, NY and has worked at a law firm, at a law foundation working to exonerate wrongfully convicted people, and at the Queens District Attorney’s Office. At Boston College, she is a research assistant in the Bernhard Lab, a TA for "Brain, Mind, & Behavior" (a psychology course), and a TA for Perspectives (a philosophy and theology course). Victoria is also a public policy research assistant for Boston College Coalition for the Homeless. Victoria is excited to research constitutional democracy at the intersection of philosophy, psychology, and law as a Clough Fellow.
Teddy Campagna
Boston College junior, Teddy Campagna, is a Boston Consortium Navy ROTC Midshipman whowill serve in the US Navy post graduation. While he majors in Biochemistry, he also devotesmany hours to the Boston College Dynamics, an all-gender a cappella group, and attends as many BC Athletic events as he can. An Eagle Scout from Rochester, NY, Teddy grew up playing piano daily, rowing crew on the Erie canal and camping throughout western New York and theAdirondacks. John Fitzgerald Kennedy is his favorite president, Billy Collins is his favorite poet,and bacon is his favorite pizza topping.
Kacey Cognevich
Kenneth "Kacey" Cognevich III, son of Katie and John Cognevich, is a sophomore at Boston College studying Finance and Pre-Med. A native New Orleanian and graduate of Jesuit High School of New Orleans, Kacey served as Junior and Senior Class President as well as Executive Director of Hams for Fams- a Christmas meal drive feeding over 300 underprivileged families in his home community. At Boston College, he is a Gabelli Presidential Scholar and a member of Jenks Leadership Program, while serving Boston's homeless and immigrant populations at Project Place and Catholic Charities' Laboure Center over the summer. Outside of academics, he enjoys spending time with family, being on the water, and traveling. He hopes to pursue a career at the intersection of business, medicine, and public service, and joins the Clough Center as a Junior Fellow for the 2026-27 academic year.
Khyla Cohen
Khyla Cohen is a member of the Class of 2028 at Boston College’s Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences. She is a double major in Political Science and History with a focus on American political behavior and political psychology. She is particularly passionate about the expansion of political polarization, group-based politics, andelite-led partisanship. After graduation, she plans to pursue a Ph.D. in American political behavior.
At Boston College, Khyla also serves as a John Marshall Fellow in the Political Science Department and competes on the Model United Nations team. In theseroles, through engaging in complex dialogues, she is dedicated to finding mutualcompassion and understanding. As a Clough Junior Fellow, she looks forward toexploring the Constitution's role in guiding the nation towards ideologicalreconciliation.
Isabella DosAnjos
Isabela DosAnjos is an undergraduate student at Boston College majoring in International Studies and minoring in art history. With a concentration in ethics and social justice and on the pre-law track, she is passionate about advocating for underrepresented groups and hopes to work with public policy after graduation. She is a staff writer for The Gavel, Boston College’s progressive student newspaper, and serves as WVBC coordinator for WZBC-Newton, Boston College’s student radio. She is currently writing a senior thesis investigating modern democratic participation through public art in Brazil’s favelas, and is excited to further examine how democratic norms are constructed within the Clough Center’s 2026-2027 theme, “Democracy at scale.”
Kylie Drakos
Kylie Drakos is a rising junior at Boston College, majoring in Political Science and History. Her academic interests involve global modern politics, including American politics and the factors that have contributed to the current climate. She is currently working as an Undergraduate Research Fellow with Professor Shlala, assisting with her book on Gender and the Law in Modern World History. This summer, Kylie is in Amsterdam taking courses such as the History of Democracy and Its Alternatives in Europe and Its Empire. Upon her return, Kylie will internat a New York City-based law firm, as she hopes to attend law school in the future. As a CloughJunior Fellow, Kylie is looking forward to engaging with the theme of Democracy at Scale.
Elaine Kim
Elaine Kim is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2028 at Boston College. She is pursuing a major in International Studies with a concentration in Ethics and Social Justice and minors in Math and Russian. Her academic interests are in international relations and humanitarian policy, and she aspires to work closely with people and the law. On campus, she is a copy editor for The Heights, a Gabelli scholar, and a math grader. She is focusing on the identity of Koreans in Central Asia and its politics. She is also interested in using her academic work to bridge cultural understanding and advocate for marginalized communities globally.
Zach LaTour
Zach LaTour is an undergraduate senior at Boston College’s Morrissey School of Arts and Sciences from Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. He is pursuing a double degree in political science and English with a minor in philosophy. On campus, Zach is a copy editor for the Colloquium, Boston College’s political science journal, and was previously a copy editor for The Heights, the independent student newspaper. During the summer of 2026, he interned as a summer campaign fellow with Seth For Massachusetts in Salem. Zach is passionate about social justice and how politics can be used to better the United States. Upon graduation, he plans on applying to law school and eventually making a career in politics.
Eli Marsalek
Eli Marsalek is a senior at Boston College majoring in both Political Science and Philosophy. From Arroyo Grande, California, his academic focus centers on international law and the global economy, alongside an interest in agricultural policy shaped by working on his family’s cattle ranch on the central coast of California. At BC, Eli works within University Research Finance and serves on the Campus Ministry Liturgical Council. As a McGillycuddy-Logue Fellow, he studied at Charles University in Prague last spring and assisted in teaching English to local Czech students. This past summer, Eli focused on election reform as a Democracy House Renovation Fellow with the philanthropic venture fund Unite America. He looks forward to serving as a Clough Center Correspondent and Junior Fellow for the 2026–27 academic year.
Andrew Nazarenko
Andrew Nazarenko is a junior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College, where he majors in Political Science and Economics with a minor in Philosophy. He intends to attend law school following graduation. His academic interests revolve around transatlantic affairs, political cultures, defense, and law. He has explored this focus through research experiences in European security and Russian hybrid warfare, as well as emerging weapons technologies and the laws of war. Andrew is from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and has also lived in Berlin before settling in Boston. On campus, he serves on the executive boards of The Linden Paper, German and Slavic Clubs, and is part of the Public Discourse Society. As a Clough Junior Fellow, Andrew looks forward to working through questions at the intersection of political cultures, law, and constitutional democracy.
Connor O'Brien
Connor O’Brien is an undergraduate student in the class of 2028 studying International Studies and Economics, with a minor in Russian. On campus, Connor is Co-President of the Effective Altruism Club, a graphics editor for The Heights newspaper, and is an editor of the Al Noor Middle Eastern Research Journal. He previously had the honor of representing BC at the United Nations’ COP30 Conference on climate change in Brazil, where he followed negotiations on just transitions and sustainable development. Prior to coming to BC, Connor spent 9 months living in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan to Russian with the US Department of State, and recently returned to Central Asia as a Critical Language Scholar to study Persian in Tajikistan. He hopes to use his background in Russian and Persian to pursue a career in international diplomacy, bridging historic tensions to ensure a more prosperous, cooperative future.
Fiona Rataj
Fiona Rataj is an undergraduate student in the class of 2029. She is on the Pre-Law trackpursuing a double major in Political Science and Environmental Studies with a concentration inJustice and Policy, and a minor in theater. On campus, Fiona is involved in Student AdmissionsProgramming, Boston College Democrats, and plays on an intramural volleyball team. She hasbroadened her goals to promote environmental advocacy and civic responsibility through aprevious internship with her state representative in her hometown of Madison, WI, and currentlyserves on the Outreach Committee for the League of Women Voters of Boston. Fiona is excitedto continue her academic interests at the Clough Center and explore this year’s theme,‘Democracy at Scale’, particularly through local politics. Post-grad, she hopes to attend lawschool with a focus on environmental law.
Henry Reichman
Henry Reichman is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2027 studying English literature and political science. He is particularly interested in American cultural history, especially the literature and culture of the American south, post Civil-War American political thought, and the role that nostalgia plays in American life. He is writing a thesis on the representation of the small town in early twentieth-century literature, focusing on authors like Eudora Welty, William Faulkner, and Sherwood Anderson. On campus, he is a Gabelli Presidential Scholar and the Features Head of the BC Gavel, and recently published an article in The Hedgehog Review about Joan Didion's aesthetics and misrepresentations. In his free time, he enjoys reading and playing jazz piano.
Peter Scott
Peter is a junior at Boston College majoring in philosophy. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Boston College Linden, a print publication devoted to the liberal arts, human flourishing, and civil discourse. His intellectual interests draw deeply on the Catholic intellectual tradition and thinkers such as Bernard Lonergan, Martin Heidegger, Aristotle, and John Henry Newman, as well as the political thought of the American founding. Originally from Alameda, California, Peter spends his time outside of academics on endurance sports, leading Bible study, and watching movies—especially those of Terrence Malick.
Sumi Shah
Sumi Shah is an undergraduate student in the Class of 2029 at Boston College, majoring in Political Science and Hispanic Studies with a minor in Finance. Originally from Long Island, NY, she is passionate about understanding how different countries approach immigration policy and integration. As a Clough Center Junior Fellow, Sumi is excited to explore how democratic institutions and public policy can promote equitable access to opportunities for immigrant communities. On campus, she is involved with the Boston College Coalition for the Homeless, where she researches local, state, and federal housing laws and policies aimed at supporting vulnerable populations in the Boston area. Through her academic and extracurricular experiences, Sumi hopes to deepen her understanding of public policy and pursue a future career focused on immigration and social equity.
Clough Doctoral Fellows
Sinwoo Bae
Sinwoo Bae is a fifth-year PhD candidate in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College. Her research examines the psychological and collective conditions that give rise to profound, meaning-saturated experiences—moments of deep engagement, self-transcendence, and felt connection that resist linear prediction. Her dissertation proposes an integrative theoretical framework for understanding individual and collective self-transcendent experiences in ecological settings, and provides an initial empirical exploration of selected framework propositions through naturalistic pre-post concert surveys at the Berklee Performance Center and in-depth narrative interviews. She holds a Master's degree from Harvard University in Language and Literacy and a Bachelor's degree from Korea University in English Language Education. Her work extends across disciplines and contexts, from wellbeing research at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health's Lee Kum Sheung Center for Health and Happiness, to translating scientific insights into experiential and artistic forms through public programming at the MIT Museum. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, she will develop a measure of philosophical orientation along the empiricist-to-holistic continuum, examining how individuals' fundamental assumptions about knowledge, reality, and ethics shape meaning-making and openness to experience.
Dimitrios Daskalopoulos
Dimitrios Daskalopoulos is a first-year Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department at Boston College. He received a B.A. from Brown University, where he concentrated in Philosophy and International and Public Affairs. Dimitri is primarily interested in ancient philosophy. His undergraduate thesis focused on Plato’s method of division and collection in the Philebus, an ethical dialogue exploring pleasure, knowledge, and the Good. Dimitri also has a strong secondary interest in the critique of technology and the impact of technology and entertainment on pleasure, desire, and what is valued. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Dimitri seeks to investigate how political constitutions shape personal identity and the creation and construction of meaning from lived experience. He particularly hopes to identify how democracy can support human flourishing as digital technologies rapidly advance. Dimitri believes that such questions are most effectively answered in conversation with cultures throughout time and history, and seeks to engage with a variety of texts and perspectives.
Eli de Graaf
Eli de Graaf is a first-year doctoral student in History at Boston College. They hold an M.A. in European and Mediterranean Studies from New York University, as well as an M.A. in History and an M.A. in Education from Leiden University, where they also completed their B.A. in History. Their doctoral research treats reconciliation as a transnational historical puzzle, examining the discrepancy between legal and social recognition of forgiveness in post-conflict societies. Through comparative archival and oral history research on post-conflict cases, Eli traces how constitutional frameworks both shape and are shaped by the slow emotional work of healing from political violence. As a Clough Center Fellow, Eli will explore how the center's 2026–27 theme of "Democracy at Scale" illuminates one of reconciliation's core tensions: that the mechanisms democracies design to heal societies are national in scope, yet the wounds they seek to address are deeply local.
Catelyn Devlin
Originally from Northwest Arkansas, Catelyn Devlin is a third year law student at Boston College Law School. Prior to law school, Catelyn worked as a social worker with unaccompanied refugee minors and later as a Grants Director with a nonprofit serving children in the Texas foster care system. She serves as the chair of the Texas LGBTQ+ Child Welfare Workgroup. She holds a bachelors in social work from Texas Christian University (TCU) and a masters in social work from the University of Texas at Arlington where she focused on direct practice with children and families and social service administration. Catelyn is interested in how governments assign status by race and gender, how different privileges and burdens are experienced by assigned or perceived status, whether these assignments or their resulting differential treatments can ever be anything but arbitrary or capricious, and the importance of self-definition as advanced by Black Feminist Thought and queer theories
Stephen Gaunt
Stephen Gaunt is a third-year doctoral student in the Philosophy Department at Boston College, where he teaches Philosophy of the Person and Logic. He holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Emory University and a master’s degree in philosophy from Boston College. His research is primarily in value theory, with a focus on poetics and environmental ethics, drawing on American transcendentalism, pragmatism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Stephen plans to investigate how projects of self-cultivation call for novelty and the protection of a pluralistic society. His aim is to further establish a positive connection between individual growth and the political availability of different ways of living.
Max German
Max German is a rising 3L at Boston College Law School. He holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in Political Science from Boston College, where he matriculated upon transferring from Quinsigamond Community College in his hometown of Worcester, MA. At Boston College, German won several honors, such as being named a Dean's Scholar, and received a Truman Scholarship. Max has a background in government and politics, working on many local, state, and federal campaigns, as well as various roles within the Attorney General's Office, State Legislature, and Governor's Legal Office.
Jesse Goodman
Jesse D. Goodman is a current Doctoral Student in the Philosophy Department. He is broadly interested in the political and aesthetic dimensions of social and religious debates, especially as they are treated by philosophers and artists of the long 19th century. His research spans across linguistic, racial, and national divides, with work addressing Søren Kierkegaard, T. S. Eliot, Ottobah Cugoano, Friedrich Nietzsche, Walter Benjamin, Martin Delany, Bob Dylan and others. His approach is broadly materialist, historicist, and inter-textual, de- and re-constructing texts with an eye to their context and their decontextualized receptions. At the Clough Center, he is particularly interested in the question of democratic legitimacy in othered populations of the American hinterland, and the ways self-consciously “rural” artistic and theological products position themselves in relation to broader American society.
Yuejiao Jiang
Yuejiao is a first-year PhD student in social psychology. She studies social influence and social change, with a focus on how social norms emerge, spread, and become meaningful in everyday life. Currently, she is especially interested in perceptions and misperceptions. For example, her work examines how the public perceives and misperceives AI through mass media and everyday interactions, and how these perceptions shape AI-related norms and attitudes. Across her projects, she asks how people understand what others think, value, and do, and how these understandings influence individual and collective behavior. Ultimately, she aims to use theoretical, behavioral, and computational approaches to better understand social dynamics and design interventions that promote positive social change.
Violetta Lato
Violetta Lato is currently a PhD student in the Department of Philosophy at Boston College. She earned her BA and MA degrees from Sapienza University of Rome, as well as an MA in Philosophy from Sorbonne University. Her main research interests include metaphysics and continental philosophy, with a particular focus on the history of modern philosophy and especially on the thought of Immanuel Kant.In recognition of her teaching, she received the Donald White Teaching Award as one of the best PhD student instructors for the academic year 2025–2026. In 2026, she was also awarded the Engelhard Pingree Award for her research achievements and received the Wiedemann Fellowship at the Interdisciplinary Center for European Enlightenment Studies in Halle, Germany, for the summer term of 2026.
Lydia O'Donnell
Hui Pan
Hui Pan is a Ph.D. student in the Political Science Department at Boston College, specializing in comparative politics with a focus on the politics of infrastructure and the materiality of power. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in political science from China University of Political Science and Law and a Master’s in Political Science from Nanjing University. His previous research combined archival research, fieldwork, and quantitative analysis to explore the political metaphors of state-led engineering projects, how state power shapes social space, and how modern engineering technologies influence the operational dynamics of power. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Hui will investigate under what circumstances a state's democratic systems empower or constrain its capacity for infrastructure development.
María Rubiano Quintero
María Juliana Rubiano Quintero was born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana and an MA in Mental Health Counseling from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She is an incoming PhD student at the Boston College School of Social Work. Her work has focused on examining how structural barriers within health, education, and housing systems affect the mental health of migrant and forcibly displaced populations across diverse cultural contexts. She has also supported individual and group-based mental health interventions for migrant adolescents, women, and families affected by trafficking, sexual violence, and domestic violence. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, María Juliana aims to explore how strengthening democratic institutions and civic participation can support the social integration and inclusion of migrant, displaced, and minoritized communities amid rising polarization and the dehumanization of marginalized groups across the Global North and Global South.
Bill Stephens
Bill Stephens is a first-year doctoral student in the Boston College History department, where he is studying 20th Century postwar urban renewal. He received his B.A. in Greek & Latin Language and Literature, Classical Studies, and American Studies at Saint Louis University, during which he served as the Alderman of the 12th Ward for the City of St. Louis. Being both the youngest elected official in the State of Missouri while also being a first-generation student, afforded him a unique opportunity to unite public service with scholarship in the pursuit of restorative justice for historic harms against marginalized St. Louisans. His scholarship pursues a better understanding of the intersections between collective memory, postwar public housing, and the use of federal law and constitutional philosophy to redefine the boundaries between—and within—the American home, city, and suburb.
Mira Ward
Mira Ward is a 3L at Boston College Law School concentrating in International and Comparative Law. She received her B.A. in International Politics & Economics from Middlebury College. Mira studies illicit economies and terrorist financing on the dark web. Her research examines extremist recruitment forums, virtual drug networks, and digital forensics for cryptomarkets. As a Clough Doctoral Fellow, Mira will study dark web marketplaces with democratic features. More specifically, she intends to focus on how law enforcement can deter dark web cybercrime while protecting the constitutional and democratic principles that govern many decentralized, encrypted communities.
Clough Correspondents
Isabella DosAnjos
Isabela DosAnjos is an undergraduate student at Boston College majoring in International Studies and minoring in art history. With a concentration in ethics and social justice and on the pre-law track, she is passionate about advocating for underrepresented groups and hopes to work with public policy after graduation. She is a staff writer for The Gavel, Boston College’s progressive student newspaper, and serves as WVBC coordinator for WZBC-Newton, Boston College’s student radio. She is currently writing a senior thesis investigating modern democratic participation through public art in Brazil’s favelas, and is excited to further examine how democratic norms are constructed within the Clough Center’s 2026-2027 theme, “Democracy at scale.”
Elyse Everest
Elyse Everest is a rising Junior studying Transformative Education and International Studies from Honolulu, Hawaii. She is passionate about human rights and NGO work, specifically focused on refugees and educational equity. At BC, she mentors for Girls Inc., tutors high school students through the Pine Manor Institute, volunteers with Outdoor Adventures, and holds three research positions in mixed-ethnicity adoption in the US, student wellness with the DOS, and is researching/editing a textbook for BC law focused on higher educational law. This summer, she is interning at the headquarters of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. She was a Clough Junior Fellow last year and is excited to be continuing as an Affiliate and a Correspondent. With aspirations to work all over the world and with some of the most vulnerable communities, she hopes that the Clough Center will be an amazing stepping stone into the world of policy and democracy.
Emily Foote
Emily Foote is a rising Junior studying Political Science with a minor in International Studies concentrating in Cooperation and Conflict, on the Pre-Law track. Emily was a 2025-26 Junior Fellow with the Clough Center, which deepened her passion for preserving American democracy. Her academic interests lie in American constitutional law, civil rights, and international conflicts. She plans to pursue a career in the legal field. Last summer, Emily was a legal intern for her State’s Attorney’s Office, getting an understanding for American criminal law, and for the Summer of 2026 is an undergraduate legal intern for the Pioneer New England Legal Foundation, working on public interest litigation. At BC, Emily is a member of the Undergraduate Student Government, Entrepreneurs for Social Impact, and the club Alpine Ski Team. She is thrilled to continue working with the Clough Center and further exploring the intersection of law, policy, and American Democracy.
Eli Marsalek
Eli Marsalek is a Junior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences, majoring in Political Science and Philosophy on the pre-law track. His academic interests include international politics and law, specifically around supranational organizations such as the EU and NATO and their expansion, which he hopes to study in law school. Eli also has a personal interest in Environmental and Agricultural policy and law as they relate to his hometown in California. A McGillycuddy-Logue Fellow with the Boston College Office of Global Education, Eli will study abroad in Prague with Charles University’s Eastern and Central European Studies program in the Spring of 2026.
Andrew Nazarenko
Andrew Nazarenko is a junior in the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College, where he majors in Political Science and Economics with a minor in Philosophy. He intends to attend law school following graduation. His academic interests revolve around transatlantic affairs, political cultures, defense, and law. He has explored this focus through research experiences in European security and Russian hybrid warfare, as well as emerging weapons technologies and the laws of war. Andrew is from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and has also lived in Berlin before settling in Boston. On campus, he serves on the executive boards of The Linden Paper, German and Slavic Clubs, and is part of the Public Discourse Society. As a Clough Junior Fellow, Andrew looks forward to working through questions at the intersection of political cultures, law, and constitutional democracy.
Emily Turner
Emily Turner is a doctoral student in the Theology Department at Boston College studying historical theology and theological ethics. Her areas of interest are Patristic theology generally and, in particular, the co-emergence of Christian legal and theological traditions in the 3rd to 5th centuries. She is also interested in the development and application of contemporary canon law, especially since its codification in 1917. Emily is a past Research and Doctoral Fellow of the Clough Center, and now provides administrative and event support for the Center’s work.
Griffin Weiss
Griffin Weiss is a rising sophomore studying History at Boston College. He was born and raised in New York City, where his passion for history and local politics began. New York fostered Griffin’s rich interest in housing policy, public education, and political engagement. In his academic life at BC, he’s enjoyed researching Middle Eastern history, Korean literature, as well as suburban growth. On campus, Griffin is a member of the Jenks Leadership program at the Winston Center as well as an active writer for The Gavel, the progressive student newspaper at Boston College. There, he writes opinion pieces focused on activism on campus as well as current events around the world. Outside of academics, Griffin is also an active member of DJ Club. He looks forward to joining The Clough Center as an Undergraduate Correspondent in the Fall of 2025.