Dr. Coit D. Blacker, Director, FSI

Coit Blacker is the director of Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the Olivier Nomellini Family University Fellow in Undergraduate Education; an FSI Stanford senior fellow; and a professor of political science, by courtesy.

During the first Clinton administration, Professor Blacker served as special assistant to the president for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Russian, Ukrainian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council (NSC). At the NSC, he oversaw the implementation of U.S. policy toward Russia and the New Independent States, while also serving as principal staff assistant to the president and the National Security Advisor on matters relating to the former Soviet Union.

From 1998 to 2003, he served as co-director of the Aspen Institute's U.S.-Russia Dialogue, which twice each year brings together prominent U.S. and Russian specialists on foreign and defense policy for discussion and review of critical issues in U.S.-Russian relations. He was a study group member of the U.S. Commission on National Security in the 21st Century (The Hart-Rudman Commission) throughout the Commission's tenure.

A member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, he also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) in Washington, DC. Currently, he is also co-chair, with Professor Elisabeth Paté-Cornell, of the Faculty Steering Committee of the International Initiative.

He has held fellowships at Harvard University, Stanford University and the Council on Foreign Relations. In 1993 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Russian Academy of Sciences for his work on U.S.-Russian relations. He is a graduate of Occidental College (AB, Political Science) and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (MA, MALD, PhD).

Katherine M. Kuhns, Director, IDL

Katherine Kuhns is director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies’ Initiative on Distance Learning (IDL), and co-director of the International Outreach Program, which is a collaborative effort between FSI and the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning. The IDL Program offers five Stanford courses in international security to Russian regional universities, with the goal of helping to rejuvenate the study of the social sciences in Russian institutions of higher education and to foster the development of higher-order thinking skills. In collaboration with SCIL, Kuhns worked with assessment experts to evaluate the effectiveness of the IDL program's learning model and its broader application to the field of international distance and distributed learning. Her latest project is the E-Learning Initiative in South Africa (ELISA), which is a project of the International Outreach Program. ELISA will adapt the IDL model to offer a course in international environmental policies to journalism students at the Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, and will incorporate a mobile communication device research component into the academic implementation. In collaboration with TUT colleagues, ELISA will research how mobile devices can enhance the learning experience.

Kuhns received a BA in Russian and Soviet studies and economics from the University of Arizona in 1990. After receiving her degree, she traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan to pursue studies in Russian and Kazakh language and culture as a Samantha Smith Memorial Exchange Student. She then returned to the University of Arizona to oversee several educational and research exchange programs in Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan sponsored by the U.S. Information Agency. Kuhns later joined the university's Office of International Programs, where she oversaw the development of relations between the university and foreign institutions with regard to study-abroad programs and other exchange opportunities.

In 1993 she was awarded a Fascell Fellowship at the U.S. Department of State to work at the American consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia. During the local and national elections that ensued after the 1993 October Crisis, she traveled throughout the northwestern region of Russia monitoring the elections and interviewing local officials and citizens about the political and economic situation. After returning to the United States in 1994, she entered the MA program in international relations and international economics at Johns Hopkins University's School for Advanced International Studies. After successfully completing her degree with distinction in 1996, she returned to the West Coast to join FSI. Overall, she has more than 15 years of experience in international program development and management, particularly in the former Soviet Union.

Ganka Hadjipetrova, Academic Coordinator

Ganka Hadjipetrova graduated with a master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University in June 2004.  Currently, she works at the Stanford Institute for International Studies as the academic coordinator for the Initiative on Distance Learning and a Program Coordinator for the Stanford Summer Fellows on Democracy and Development.  Before coming to the United States, she worked as a Program Manager on a project sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, which supported the development of the non-governmental sector in her native Bulgaria.  Ganka received her B.A. in political science and intentional relations and in business administration from the American University in Bulgaria.

As a political scientist, Ganka is very much interested in issues of transition to democracy, particularly, in building efficient institutions in different societal contexts. Ganka is married, with one daughter.  In her leisure time, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her family, traveling, debating politics, and enjoying a good cup of coffee with friends.

E-mail: ganka@stanford.edu

Dan Berkenstock

Dan Berkenstock is a native of Chicago and a young man aspiring to lead dual lives in aerospace engineering and international security. In addition to designing airplanes and working in the machine shop, Dan is a diligent student of foreign policy, Russia, nuclear nonproliferation, and all things space. Dan received a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan in aerospace engineering. During school breaks, he worked as a cooperative education student for NASA at Johnson Space Center, where he began studying Russian, as well as slightly more technically productive ventures. After working for several start-up companies in Chicago, Dan returned to graduate school at Stanford in the Aero/Astro department where he will receive a Masters of Science in December 2005 before (hopefully) moving on to the PhD program. In addition to technical activities, Dan recently worked as a technical scholar at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the Nonproliferation, Arms Control, and International Security Directorate, and traveled to Yaroslavl, Russia for the 2005 Stanford Initiative on Distance Learning (IDL) Student Conference on International Security, where he presented a paper on US foreign policy towards the Russian Space industry.

E-mail: dberkens@stanford.edu

Iliana Brodziak

E-mail: ilibrodziak@stanford.edu

Ilja Gruen

Ilja Gruen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Slavic Department at Stanford, working on Russian-German literary relations. He received his B.A. with a double major in English and Slavic studies from University of Regensburg, Germany, in 2003. Born in Russia in a German family and having moved to Germany shortly after the fall of the Berlin wall, Ilja was able to observe the development of democracy and new social order from both the Russian, and later, from the German side.

At Stanford, Ilja worked in 2003-2004 as the Osher Fellow at the Hoover Institute on the Archives of Radio Liberty, mainly on questionnaires conducted in Eastern European countries, dealing with the perception of the West and it institutions during the Cold war. He was one of the organizers, in spring 2004, of the large international conference "Hostage of Eternity" at Stanford, and published his article in the recently appeared conference volume. In 2005, Ilja worked on the development of "Poetic justice" class with Prof. Gregory Freidin. In Fall 2007, Ilja helped organize another international conference on Pasternak: “The Life of Doctor Zhivago,” which presented new materials on the novel and the drama of its publication, involving international politics and workings of secret service agencies. Ilja's latest project (in progress) is preparing a translation and commentaries of Moscow diaries from 1936 of Erwin Sinko (a Hungarian writer), which is a rare document of a witness, who dares to discuss Stalinist terror and Nazi's regime openly during the most fearful times. In Spring 2008, Ilja will be teaching a class on Russian literature of opposition to the Soviet authorities from Stalin's death to the present.

E-mail: igruen@stanford.edu

Karina Hodoyan

Karina Hodoyan is a Ph. D. candidate in Latin American Literature at Stanford University. Her work focuses on popular and literary approaches to the tensions emerging from extreme urbanization and migration. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of San Francisco where she teaches Latin American Literature and a Hybrid Online Pedagogy course. She received a BA in Political Science and Latin American Literature from the University of California, San Diego and holds a Master in Comparative Literature from San Francisco State University.

E-mail: khodoyan@stanford.edu

Andrey Kunov

Andrey Kunov is a PhD candidate in political science at Stanford University. Andrey has published several articles and a book on Russia’s transition to democracy and a market economy. He also holds an MA in international economics from Newcastle University in the UK, an MA in politics from Central European University in Budapest, and a BA from the Kazakh State University.

E-mail: andreyy@stanford.edu

Barnabas Malnay

Barnabas Malnay is a PhD candidate at the Political Science Department of Stanford University.  His fields of specialization are political theory and international relations, and his specific research interest centers on the study of collective political identities.  He is writing his dissertation on the linkages between the idea of a united Europe and political identities.  Barnabas is from Budapest, Hungary, where he earned his BA in history and English language and linguistics at ELTE, and received an MPhil degree in Social Theory from the Central European University.  He expects to complete his PhD at Stanford in 2006.

E-mail: bmalnay@stanford.edu

Julie Maurin

Julie Maurin recently completed her master’s degree at Stanford University in International Educational Policy. She is particularly interested in education and other social services in conflict and post-conflict settings as well as the impact of globalization. Julie received her bachelor’s degree in 1998 from Brown University in Human Development.

Before coming to Stanford University, she worked in Washington, DC on issues of international development policy. She also worked closely with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), more specifically for their offices of Democracy and Governance and Conflict Management and Mitigation. She contributed to manuals addressing topics such development in fragile states, and how to conduct democracy, governance and conflict assessments in developing countries. Julie has traveled and worked extensively overseas including assignments in Namibia, Ethiopia, Thailand and Kazakhstan.

E-mail: juliemaurin@stanfordalumni.org

Vidal Romero

Vidal Romero is a Ph. D. candidate in political science at Stanford University. His research focuses on topics of political economy and the comparative study of presidents’ decision-making and its implications on policy, particularly on privatizations and particularistic spending. He has been awarded different fellowships and distinctions from the Institute for International Studies at Stanford, the Institute for Humane Studies, Fulbright, the Center for Latin American Studies at Stanford, and the Ford, McArthur, and Hewlett Foundations.

E-mail: vromero@stanford.edu

Natalia Roudakova

Natalia Roudakova was born and raised in Kazan, Russia, and in 1997 graduated from Kazan State University with a degree in Russian and English literature and language. She spent the school year of 1995-1996 in Beloit College, Wisconsin, as an international student, and on a fellowship through the American Collegiate Consortium (ACC) at Middlebury College. When she returned to Kazan in 1996, Roudakova worked closely with two American Fulbright scholars, interpreting their lectures to law, sociology, and medical students across the universities in Kazan.  This experience inspired her to pursue a graduate degree in social sciences. In the fall of 1997 she applied for a number of graduate programs in the United States, and was successful in getting into Stanford’s Ph.D. program in Cultural and Social Anthropology. Her coming to Stanford was made possible through the generous New Democracy Fellowship Program, administered by Stanford’s Institute for International Studies.  For several years, the program made it possible for several graduate students from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to pursue their doctoral degrees in social science departments at Stanford.  She is currently completing her doctoral dissertation on the cultural transformation of Russian journalism after the fall of the USSR. Roudakova conducted ethnographic fieldwork among journalists in Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan, learning how journalists have understood their public role and mission both before and since 1991.  She is interested in what public space both in the Soviet Union and in post-Soviet Russia actually looks like; how the meanings of public and private came undone during the post-socialist transformation; and how the new political-economic conditions of post-Soviet Russia shape public and private space and action.

E-mail: roudakov@stanford.edu

Alexei Sitnikov

Alexei Sitnikov received his Diploma in History from the Yaroslavl State University, Russia in 1995. After a brief period of working as a news reporter for a local television station, Mr. Sitnikov departed for Budapest, Hungary to enroll in Central European University. He was awarded an MA degree in Political Science and Transition Economics in 1996. While at the CEU, Mr. Sitnikov did research and completed a thesis on the constitutional developments in the Russian Federation and their effect on the democratic transition.

In 1996 Mr. Sitnikov received the New Democracy Fellowship for graduate study in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. He was awarded an MA degree in Political Science from Stanford University in 1997 and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Stanford.

As a program coordinator for the FSI Initiative on Distance Learning Mr. Sitnikov works with Stanford faculty on developing the academic content of the courses, develops the Internet component of the project and serves as a teaching assistant for the students in participating universities.

Mr. Sitnikov has published several articles on the issues of democratic transition in Russia and the organizational developments in the lower house of the Russian Legislative Assembly. He is a member of AAASS and APSA.

E-mail: sitnikov@stanford.edu

Carol St. Louis

Carol St. Louis is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. She has an MA in Political Science from Stanford University, and BAs in International Economics and in Political Science from the University of California at Los Angeles. Her research interests span international security, globalization, monetary and fiscal policy, and European politics. She is currently completing her dissertation on economic and fiscal reform in Germany, Italy, and France in the 1990s.

E-mail: stlouis_c@yahoo.com

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