Colloquium | Members

Jackson McGlinchey

Jackson is a sophomore at Tufts University from Norwell, MA, majoring in International Relations with a focus on international security. He maintains a deep interest in the interconnectedness of world events as well as the question of when to use force and when to use diplomacy. On campus, Jackson is a member of Tufts Model United Nations, wherein students act as delegations in simulated United Nations assemblies on historic and current issues. In addition, he is also a member of CIVIC, a political discussion group on campus, as well as the Trivia team and the Tufts Baking Society. In EPIIC, he hopes to delve deeply into the issues of diplomacy versus force and the wider theme of chaos and order in the world, and he is excited to learn from the many different perspectives that EPIIC brings to the table.

Leif Monnett

Leif Monnett is a sophomore at Tufts University who is currently double-majoring in Peace and Justice Studies and Environmental Studies. Leif was drawn to Tufts because of programs such as EPIIC which offers students extraordinary opportunities to explore interdisciplinary issues at the international level. Hailing from Alaska, Leif was aware of environmental and societal effects of climate change from an early age. He understands that climate change is not just an environmental issue: it is also a human rights issue, an inter-generational justice issue, a national security issue, an international stability issue, and an international economic issue. Tackling these complex issues will take inter-disciplinary, international, and decadal cooperative efforts, and Leif intends to be part of that effort. Leif is also interested in following up on work he started at Stanford’s Environmental and Water Studies Summer program on the use of “smart technology”, including pervasive sensing, and the potential for this technology to have both positive and negative impacts on human rights.

Michael Olesberg

Michael Olesberg is a member of the class of 2019 and the Marketing Director for Tufts Sino-U.S. Relations Group Engagement. In addition to SURGE, Michael is part of the Tufts Debate Society, Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, and ALLIES. He is majoring in International Relations, in the security concentration, Political Science, and German Studies. Michael’s particular interests are the military and diplomatic interplay, East Asian Politics, and Germany. Michael loves learning about the similarities and differences that make the world run. He is considering a future in diplomacy. Michael hails from Iowa City, Iowa.

Shaan Shaikh

Shaan Shaikh is a senior from Buffalo, NY majoring in International Relations and Arabic. On campus, Shaan is the Senior Advisor of the Tufts’ Muslim Students Association and is also involved in ALLIES. His academic interests focus on security concerns in the MENA region, the role of Islam in Muslim-majority countries, and political philosophy. Previously, Shaan was a Tisch Summer Fellow at the Department of Defense, working on a cost-benefit analysis of US ballistic missile defense system sales to the Middle East. Shaan has also interned at The Syria Institute, a DC-based think tank focused on the ongoing civil war in Syria. In his free time, Shaan enjoys reading manga, exploring Boston, and poker nights with friends.

Alexis Tatore

Alexis is a freshman at Tufts University, intending to major in Economics and International Relations. Growing up near New York City, she was exposed to multiculturalism and international affairs at a young age — naively leading her to believe that she was prepared to debate such topics at the dinner table. However, as she became even more conscious of the world around her, she became involved in activism and economic development. She has worked for various political campaigns for the Connecticut Democratic Party and has conducted economic research twice — once on innovation and shared prosperity, and another time on Brazilian free-trade agreements — for the World Bank. These experiences served as a catalyst for her decision to take EPIIC, since while researching, she noticed a spike in populism across the globe. In EPIIC, Alexis hopes to assess how these changes will fundamentally re-shape the current balance of power.

Jonathan Vincent

Jonathan Vincent is a senior at Tufts University, majoring in International Relations and Political Science. He comes from Houston, Texas and just returned from a year abroad in Germany and Egypt, where he studied the German and Arabic languages and Middle Eastern politics and history. Academically, he’s interested in how different ways of looking at the world influenced by politics and international relations. In the future, he hopes to use his language skills to facilitate his understanding of disparate cultures. He joined EPIIC after attending the symposium his sophomore year and being impressed by the depth in which the students learned about the subjects during the year.

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