George Mason University PhD graduate Nazia Hussain has been awarded a postdoctoral fellowship by the United Nations University-Centre for Policy Research in Tokyo.
Hussain will conduct research on organized crime and violent extremism for the UN’s conflict management efforts.
The two-year fellowship “is a real tribute to our PhD program, as this is an incredibly difficult fellowship to get, with candidates applying from all over the world,” said George Mason’s Omer L. and Nancy Hirst Professor of Public Policy Louise Shelley. Shelley, one of the world’s foremost experts on transnational crime, recommended Hussain for the award based on Hussain’s dissertation regarding the changing nature of urban governance and conflict in megacities with high rates of violence, crime, and informality.
Hussain said she will use the experience to produce scholarship, and added she hopes it will lead to ways for her to contribute to policy as well.
“The UNU-CPR fellowship presents me an opportunity to research emerging problems in an increasingly complex world in which instability in one region creates ripple effects in other parts of the world,” she said.
“The institute's forward-looking approach, in combination with their focus on policy solutions, allows me to use my education and training earned at the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs as well as Mason’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center.”
Hussain earned a master’s degree in international relations from Boston University as a Fulbright scholar.