It has been six months since the Crowell Committee submitted its report of concrete, actionable recommendations to SAIS leadership to advance the school’s diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Of the myriad of ideas and recommendations that were submitted, Dean Eliot Cohen determined that in the time remaining in his tenure, the priority areas of focus would be to create a role at leadership team level, reporting to the dean, that would help guide diversity efforts at SAIS and ensure accountability; develop ways of expanding recruitment of underrepresented minority students and faculty; and begin to develop external partnerships to help align SAIS with organizations that support international relations practitioners.

In December, Dean Cohen expanded Miji Bell’s role from director of communications to senior director of marketing, communications, and community engagement. Bell now serves as the dean’s principal adviser on diversity, equity and inclusion issues and provides oversight for diversity strategy at SAIS. In addition, she collaborates with faculty and staff to cultivate and implement initiatives and programs that seek to enhance diversity across the entire SAIS community. She also develops external partnerships and represents SAIS on the University-wide Diversity Leadership Council. Bell joined SAIS in 2020 and has an extensive background as a diversity trainer and conference leader and has advised corporate and nonprofit entities on crisis response strategy and best practices for prioritizing and advancing a climate of diversity and inclusion.

In recent months, Bell has advised leadership on a number of diversity-related issues and has served as diversity adviser to the search committee for the Burling Chair in International Law, which yielded several candidates from underrepresented minority groups.

As SAIS seeks to become more intentional about efforts to strengthen its minority student recruitment pipeline, Cohen and SAIS leaders from academic affairs, global careers, and admissions met in March with senior academic officers from several historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), including Spelman College, Morgan State University, Bennett College, and Howard University for a dynamic discussion about how to develop short- and long-term SAIS/HBCU pipeline development opportunities.

The SAIS Office of Global Careers has begun meeting quarterly with members of the International Career Advancement Program to develop ways for SAIS to partner with their ICAP Fellows and ICAP Aspen initiatives. This partnership will connect SAIS students and alumni directly to ICAP’s support network of mentors and career advising for underrepresented mid-career minority professionals pursuing careers in international affairs.

SAIS recently joined the Think Tank Diversity Consortium, which consists of senior leaders from more than 30 think tanks, including Brookings, Aspen Institute, AEI, Pacific Council, Pew Research Center, Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security, and a host of others. The consortium is focused on increasing access to paid internship and employment opportunities for underrepresented minorities and on providing a collective means of holding organizations accountable for exemplifying diversity within their recruitment and retention practices, and helping to dismantle institutional racism within their organizational processes and systems.

Internally, the SAIS Diversity Council — which consists of faculty, staff, and students — continues to actively assist with planning and facilitating programming that honors the diversity of the SAIS community with a myriad of events held during Black History Month, Women’s History Month, and throughout the year in recognition of other celebrations and heritage months. The Council has also made recommendations to Cohen for diversifying guest speakers for the Dean’s Speaker Series and other key programs. The SAIS Office of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs also works closely with the Dean’s Office to address diversity-related concerns from students and faculty, and to connect members of the SAIS community to support resources as needed within the JHU Office of Diversity and Inclusion.

Provost Sunil Kumar has appointed Kent Calder, Director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies, as interim Dean of SAIS beginning July 1, following the conclusion of Dean Cohen’s term. Calder previously served as Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs and International Research Cooperation from 2018 to 2020 and Director of Asia Programs from 2016 to 2018.Prior to his arrival at SAIS in 2003, he served as Special Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), professor at Princeton University, and the first Executive Director of Harvard University’s Program on U.S.–Japan Relations.

In addition, Jessica Fanzo, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Global Food Policy and Ethics, and Peter Lewis, the Warren Weinstein Chair of African Studies and Director of Africa and Middle East Programs at SAIS, will assume interim leadership roles at the school beginning July 1.

Fanzo will serve as interim Vice Dean for Faculty Affairs at the conclusion of Mertha’s term. She joined SAIS in 2015 and holds appointments at the University’s Berman Institute of Bioethics and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She currently leads the Johns Hopkins Global Food Policy and Ethics program and serves as Director of Food and Nutrition Security within the University’s Alliance for a Healthier World initiative.

Lewis will serve as interim Vice Dean for Education and Academic Affairs at the conclusion of Campante’s term. He has previously served as the school’s Vice Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs from 2015 to 2018. Since joining SAIS in 2006, Lewis has directed SAIS’ Africa program and also currently oversees its Middle East program. His research and teaching focus on economic reform and political transition is in developing countries, with particular emphasis on governance and development in Sub-Saharan Africa.

University leaders note that the search for the next dean of SAIS is proceeding on schedule. It is expected that the new dean will be in place prior to the fall semester.

Jones has been a key member of the faculty at SAIS Europe and an important part of the entire SAIS community for almost two decades, including currently as director of the Master of Arts in Global Risk, director of European and Eurasian Studies, and in the past as director of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research.

In addition to teaching, Jones has written four books and edited or co-edited more than 30 books or special issues of journals relating to European politics and economy. He is co-editor of Government & Opposition, a contributing editor ofSurvival, and a frequent commentator on European political and economic events, who has written pieces in The New York Times, Financial Times, and many publications across Europe.

Jones, who earned his AB from Princeton University in 1988, went on to earn both his MA and PhD from Johns Hopkins SAIS (1990, 1996). Prior to joining the faculty at Johns Hopkins, he worked at the Centre for European Policy Studies, the Central European University, and the University of Nottingham.

“[My] time at SAIS Europe has been transformative,” he says. “When I came to Bologna in 1988, I never imagined I would spend the next 33 years studying Europe, and the last 20 years teaching at SAIS. I cannot even begin to list all the amazing experiences I had or colleagues and students I have had the chance to work with.

“Even now, I cannot stop thinking about ways to connect people to SAIS or to show the world what SAIS graduates can do. I am enormously proud of my connection to this institution and my relationships with the students, alumni, and colleagues who make it such a great place to be. The fact that the European University Institute has invited me to direct the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies is only possible because of my SAIS experience and because of the tremendous strengths of the SAIS European Studies tradition.”

Professor Jones will finish this academic year at SAIS Europe and will continue to be engaged with us in the future. We are looking forward to welcoming him back after his leave.

SAIS Europe offers its students exposure to a range of faculty members, including SAIS Europe resident faculty, adjunct faculty (European scholars and policymakers), and visiting professors from across SAIS’ different campuses. The unique mix facilitates the cross-pollination of ideas, enables imaginative scholarship, and provides students the best possible professional education in international affairs.  Cross-campus exchange is further enhanced by the Integration fund, an essential part of the James Anderson Matching Gift Program, which provides SAIS Europe with the financial flexibility to pool talent from across SAIS’ different campuses and with Homewood.

In the upcoming academic years, students at SAIS Europe will have the opportunity to work with Cristino R. Arroyo (2021–22 and 2022–23), Eugene (Evgeny) Finkel (2021–22 and 2022–23), Jessica Fanzo (2021–22), and Daniel Honig (spring 2022). In addition Guido Sandleris will be in residence in Bologna for the spring of 2022.

In an interview with The Washington Post (April 5), Assistant Professor of Political Economy Ling Chen added her voice to those of other women in the world of academia who say that the COVID-19 pandemic has put them at a major disadvantage when compared to their male colleagues.

“On your CV, you can’t say, ‘I didn’t get things done this year because day care was closed,’” said Ling Chen, mother of a 3-year-old daughter. In a normal year, she probably would have published two articles, submitted two more, and finished at least a third of her book, she said. Instead, she was only able to submit one article. She hasn’t touched the book. “My CV will reflect the gaps,” said Chen. Read more.

Cold War history shows that diplomacy can still play a critical role in U.S.-China relations if U.S. officials view negotiation as a tool of competition rather than a replacement for it, writes Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at SAIS, in Bloomberg Opinion (March 31).

The new era of competition and distrust must include realistic, even ruthless, negotiation, Brands contends. “Diplomacy is not an alternative to competition; it is a means of prosecuting competition more effectively,” he writes. Read more.

“He came in with this portfolio. He did what he could. But it’s a speck in an ocean.” So says Francisco González, Riordan Roett associate professor of Latin American Studies, in a Politico article (April 3), speaking about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s efforts to address burgeoning migration from El Salvador and Honduras during his earlier tenure in the Oval Office.

“Did it solve the problem? No, obviously, it didn’t. Did they allocate enough resources? No, it was nowhere near enough. And did then-Vice President Biden end up knowing more about the U.S. southern border and Central America? The answer is, yes, he did,” notes González, in an article that explores Biden’s current efforts to change how Americans think about migration. Read more.

In light of Israeli attacks on Iranian ships, a semicovert conflict between the arch foes has intensified, notes Inside Arabia in “A New Front in the Covert Conflict Between Iran and Israel” (March 26).

Raffaella A. Del Sarto, Associate Professor of Middle East Studies at SAIS Europe, tells writer Mohammad Hashemi: “In terms of both psychology and logistics/capabilities, the normalization of relations between Israel and the Emirates and Bahrain on the one hand, and the (still) covert good relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, give a new impetus to Israel’s containment and deterrence strategy vis-à-vis Iran.” Read more.

In Quartz Africa, Deborah Bräutigam, who created the China-Africa Research Initiative at SAIS in 2014 to improve understanding of China’s engagement in Africa, discusses stereotypes that persist and the next stage of China-Africa relations (April 1).

Bräutigam cites two key areas of focus of African governments in their future engagement with China: “First, passing legislation or complying with legislation that provides domestic accountability and oversight on lending. By this I mean things like independent debt management offices or giving parliaments the right to sign off on central government borrowing or anything that has a government guarantee,” she says. “Second, I do think African countries should have a prerequisite that every public project should have competitive bidding. And if they can’t get a competitive bid it doesn’t happen. This would ensure value for money for citizens and not over-stretching.” Read more.

“The SAIS expectation of academic excellence never wavered, but the additional obstacle became surviving a global pandemic, being in isolation, and balancing one’s mental health.” So said Jelani Legohn, a California native who is completing his MA in International Affairs at the SAIS Europe campus in Bologna.

Having campuses on three continents is one of the aspects that makes SAIS unique among schools of international affairs. During the global pandemic, however, there was nowhere to go to escape the virus. The effects of a once-in-a-century COVID-19 pandemic have been pervasive and highly disruptive all around the globe. This challenge forced SAIS to adapt quickly to meet needs of the new virtual reality, finding new ways to improve instruction, organize teaching, and better integrate among SAIS’ campuses in Washington, D.C., SAIS Europe, the Hopkins-Nanjing Center (HNC), and Baltimore.

SAIS has given students the flexibility to continue their graduate education in unconventional ways. For example, when the pandemic caused the SAIS D.C. campus to close, offering only online classes, some students from Washington, D.C., and Nanjing were able to travel to Bologna, where they attended their classes virtually while having opportunities to engage in activities in person with their Bologna counterparts.

We asked some of our current students about their experiences across the three campuses as they faced the challenges from COVID-19:

Rhea Menon, a native of India, graduated from the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, and then returned to India for several years to work for Carnegie India. She enrolled in the SAIS joint program to receive a Certificate in Chinese and American Studies plus Master of Arts in International Relations, intending to spend the first year in Nanjing. Instead, due to the pandemic, she remained in India, but is able to attend HNC classes virtually. She has had to cope with more than “just” the time zone difference: At the height of growing India-China tensions, China restricted the access of residents of India to certain class materials on Chinese websites. Notwithstanding the difficulties, Menon says she is grateful for the opportunity to spend time at home with her family, especially after having spent so much time living and studying abroad.

Hailing from Hamburg, Germany, with an undergraduate degree in economics and political science from the University of Gottingen, Moritz Luetgerath came to SAIS Europe in the fall of 2020 to pursue his master’s in global risk degree. The first semester he attended all classes in person, but the government-imposed restrictions that began in February 2021 meant that all classes were virtual. Moritz believes that “the SAIS Bologna administration has done a great job at communicating the COVID-19 rules at SAIS Bologna as well as the uncertainties we continue to face. In the process, it has made weathering the pandemic a community effort, giving the students ownership of the challenge.”

Laura Rong grew up in Nanjing, China, leaving at age 18 to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and expecting to remain abroad for work or study. But after the first year of her Master of Arts in International Relations study at SAIS Europe, she returned to Nanjing, where she found a unique opportunity at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center. She is able to study in the HNC library, use their facilities, and socialize with graduate students enrolled in the HNC program, while attending virtual classes originating from SAIS D.C.

Rong has had to adjust to a big time difference — such as getting up at 2:30 a.m. to attend a class that ends at 5 a.m. As for her next steps, she says, “Since COVID-19 happened and tensions rose between China and the West, I started to rethink my future.” She says, “I cannot deny the opportunities I got because of COVID-19, but this is not what I originally planned for my life two years ago.” That plan included interning in a think tank in D.C. or Europe, attending SAIS D.C., working as a researcher in the U.S., and traveling in Italy. Due to the current travel restrictions, she has applied for a PhD program in Shanghai, but hopes to be able to attend an international program instead.

Jelani Legohn is from Oxnard, California. In 2018, he graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a BA degree in both linguistics and international relations. When the pandemic began, he had been in his first year of the MAIA program at SAIS Europe, but returned home to California, completing the semester taking virtual classes originating in Bologna. In August 2020, he returned to SAIS Europe to finish his degree program in person, only to find that in early 2021, the city ordinance barred second-year students from attending in-person classes.

Grateful that he has had the opportunity to spend more time with his family, Jelani misses being able to go out dancing, “finishing exams and celebrating at Guilio’s cafe at the Bologna campus or spending the night out with the local Bolognese.” He has found comfort in the SAIS Europe community during the Italian lockdown, like his roommate, Alexis Keys, who is also finishing her MAIA at SAIS Europe and “understands the unique challenges of coping with the current state of the world while trying to finish a master’s degree at SAIS.”

Shiselle Povedano is originally from Spain and grew up in Florida, earning both a BA in public relations and a BS in economics from University of Florida. She is in the last semester of her two-year, D.C.-based SAIS MA, concentrating in African Studies with a specialization in emerging markets. For Shiselle, the second-semester change — whereby each student was allowed to take one in-person class — was her “lifeline and one of the biggest helps to get through this last semester.” In contrast, she found the virtual classes to be extremely challenging, as professors faced difficulties coping with the video technology.

Reflecting on life during the pandemic, Shiselle hopes that this experience gives students a greater understanding of “what it feels like to be trapped, to be unable to have a choice over seeing your family, mourn them, be ‘free.’ This is an experience a lot of immigrants deal with, especially in the U.S., but around the world. Therefore, I hope this experience has opened everyone’s mind to the privileges we have to choose, to travel, to study, to pay for things.” She’s grateful that “despite everything we’ve gone through or weren’t able to do, I do not feel like the last year of my life was a waste .... Although we did not share lunch in our makeshift cafeteria, I know my peers did their best to survive and I couldn’t be more proud of them, of us.”