08.27.07

CIS Welcomes Post-Doctoral Fellows Sarah Ellen Graham and John Robert Kelley

We are delighted to welcome the two winners of CIS' 2007-08 Post-Doctoral Fellowship competition, Sarah Ellen Graham and John Robert Kelley. This year's competition sought scholars who are doing innovative research in Public Diplomacy and Soft Power.

Sarah Graham completed her PhD in 2007 at the Department of International Relations, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. Her dissertation, "Narrating Hegemony: Cultural Diplomacy, International Information and the Language of Power in US Foreign Policy, 1936-1953," examined how principles of American liberalism and exceptionalism influenced the formulation of US cultural and informational diplomacy strategies during the 1936-53 period. Sarah was awarded the 2007 Stuart Bernath article prize by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for a 2006 article on US diplomacy within UNESCO published in Diplomatic History. Current projects include an analysis of contemporary US public diplomacy in relation to the Asia Pacific region, and a comparative study of US and British propaganda during the Second World War.

Rob Kelley comes to CIS almost directly from London where he recently completed doctoral studies in International Relations at the London School of Economics. At the LSE, Rob conducted an extensive research project, under the guidance of Professor Michael Cox, on the state of U.S. public diplomacy since 9/11. The product of the research is titled "From Monologue to Dialogue: U.S. Public Diplomacy in the Post-9/11 Era." Along with offering a critical assessment of U.S. activities found in strategic and organizational apprisals, Rob also endeavored to strengthen the empirical study of public diplomacy with new analytical frameworks explaining public diplomacy behavior in the paradigm of the new information age. He is mainly interested in developing modes of political communication that tie together messaging with policymaking channels, linking non-state actors empowered by greater access to information to agents of change at the official level. His research at CIS will explore changing notion of the diplomat as an international actor, and how this is illustrated in contemporary political communication between states, and non-state actors ranging from organizations to individuals.

Prior to his work at the LSE, Rob worked at the U.S. Department of State and also several years in international business consulting. He earned his MA in International Peace and Conflict Resolution at American University and his BA in International Relations at Tufts University. He is originally from Augusta, Maine.

Both scholars will also hold courtesy appointments as Research Associates at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

Email us at lascis@usc.edu or call (213) 740-0800 to learn more.