Adviser: Mr. Mark Feierstein, Senior Advisor with the Albright Stonebridge Latin America practice, former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Western Hemisphere Affairs, NSC

Research topic: “Change through Rapprochement? A Critical Study of US–Cuban Normalization Under the Obama Administration and Its Effects”

Matt Ellison is a senior in the School of Foreign Service studying international politics with a concentration in international security, and is completing an ISD Certificate in Diplomatic Studies. His research with ISD will analyze the recent thaw in US-Cuban relations, with a focus on the history of the negotiation process and the contemporary effects on and within Cuba. Matt has contributed to nuclear security research at the Stimson Center and spent the summer of 2017 as a fellow at Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy. As an SFS undergraduate Matt has served as assistant director of Georgetown’s International Relations Institute for high school students, and as a member of the board of the Georgetown International Relations Association.