This semester, the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs is hosting three not-for-credit study groups that give students the opportunity to dive deeper into topics relevant to the current political landscape — including the Trump administration, artificial intelligence and media censorship.
First formed in 2018, the study groups aim to help students “apply theory and research to real-world challenges,” said Kathryn Dunkelman, Watson Institute chief of staff and director of strategic operations and engagement. The groups provide networking opportunities, as participants receive mentorship from the study group leaders, guest speakers and other professionals in the political sphere.
The groups meet five to six times a semester for 90 minutes, and registration is limited to 25 students per group, according to the program’s website.
Topics are chosen to fit within the Watson Institute’s “research pillars of security, development and governance, and that tie to current policy issues,” Dunkelman said.
This semester’s study groups include “How to (not) Kill the Truth: Inside the Dictators’ Playbook of Propaganda, Censorship and Manufactured Hatred,” led by Vera Krichevskaya, a television director and a workshop facilitator at the Watson Institute. This virtual workshop explores how and why authoritarian regimes control the press.
“Trump 2.0 and the Revenge of Geopolitics,” led by Watson Institute senior fellow Edward Luce, focuses on the future of American democracy and foreign policy during the second Trump administration. Luce is currently an editor and columnist at the Financial Times.
The last study group, titled “Human Rights and AI: Impacts, Risks and Opportunities,” is led by human rights lawyer Malika Saada Saar ’92. The former global head of human rights at YouTube, Saada Saar is now a senior fellow at the Watson Institute. Her study group focuses on the connection between human rights and artificial intelligence.
Saada Saar hopes to ensure that “students really have exposure and mastery around these very pressing issues at the intersection of policy, law and tech,” she said in an interview with The Herald.
She aims to expose students in the group to the different backgrounds and career paths of those in the field, noting that “there is a need for the diversity of backgrounds that students can bring with them.”
As a student liaison for Saada Saar’s study group, Sonya Rashkovan ’27 helps facilitate communication between the fellow and the student participants. Rashkovan said her experience in the study group and Saada Saar’s mentorship has given her both the self-confidence to pursue her dream career in human rights and the skills to be able to do so.
Now, she has “someone to look up to” throughout her own career journey, Rashkovan added.
