Schwartz Wins Coveted Boren Fellowship

Jack Schwartz, a PhD student in the department, won a prestigious Boren Fellowship to study Arabic in Jordan for the year. Boren Fellowships are awarded through a merit-based, national competition where applicants distinguish themselves through academic excellence, motivation, career goals, and commitment to public service. These fellowships are awarded to US graduate students who design research projects involving language and culture in regions critical to US national security.

Schwartz is combining language training with an internship at the Arab Institute for Security Studies at the University of Jordan. He heads up a research project focused on the formation of a regional organization that will address the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East.

He recently attended the Amman Security Colloquium, a conference addressing security issues in the Middle East that included various politicians, policymakers, and scientists. Additionally, he was invited to present research at the Nuclear Forum, a meeting specifically centered on the topic of Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the Middle East. The same research was subsequently presented in Cairo, Egypt to the Deputy Commissioner of the Human Rights Council and the Dean of the Political Science Department at the British University of Egypt, as well as to a group of undergraduate political science students.