Ana M. Diaz, MA International Affairs, Class of 2021, #IncomingElliott Current Student
Ana M. Diaz will be a first-year Masters candidate in the International Affairs program at the Elliott School this fall, concentrating in European and Eurasian studies. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science at the University of Florida in 2019. Specifically, she is interested in migration and refugee resettlement in Europe. As a Ronald E. McNair scholar, Ana presented her research regarding the “2015 Refugee Crisis” in various conferences and served as a Junior Fellow in the Political Science department at the University of Florida. She also interned at Weiser Immigration Law Firm in where she gained experience in trial preparation and litigation practices. She is fluent in Spanish, Portuguese, and is currently learning French.
What made you interested in your MA program of choice?
I have always been interested in politics and international relations. Growing up in Cuba my knowledge about the outside world was very restricted, and the ideas I had regarding policy and government were very different from those I carry today. After migrating to the United States I became more interested in refugee studies and how the policies differed depending on the host country and the origin of the asylum seeker. As I worked on my undergraduate thesis I began exploring the 2015 refugee crisis in Europe and the different responses seeing throughout the continent. This ignited my curiosity and made me shift my focus from U.S politics to European and Eurasian Studies.
What skills do you hope to pick up/develop at the Elliott School?
I am excited to start this semester and hope to develop the necessary public speaking skills and knowledge to work in an international relations related field.
What’s on your summer bucket list before coming to the Elliott School?
I am planning on learning French before I start in the Fall semester.
If you could have a dinner party with any 3 people from history, fictional or real, who would you invite and what would you serve for dinner?
I would invite Barack Obama, Carl Marx and Pierre-Joseph Proudhon. I would serve pizza, and I personally believe it would be a very interesting, never-ending discussion.
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The #IncomingElliott profile series is managed by the Elliott School Office of Graduate Admissions and highlights newly enrolling students to answer common questions posed by prospective and current students. For more information on this series or to submit questions, e-mail the Office of Graduate Admissions at esiagrad@gwu.edu.
The views expressed by students profiled do not necessarily represent those of organizations they work for, are affiliated with, or the Elliott School of International Affairs.
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