SPA alumni Prerita Govil (BA, `22) and Alex Rubin (BA, `23) have won international funding to further their education.

Prerita Govil

Govil has been awarded the John and Daria Barry Scholarship, an initiative of the Canterbury Institute, which provides funding for a minimum of two years of study at the University of Oxford, in any discipline, for any degree. Barry Scholars receive full tuition, a generous living stipend, yearly research and travel allowances, and full reimbursement of health surcharges and university and visa application fees. 

At AU, Govil majored in political science and developed an interest in political theory and philosophy, shaped by her work with SPA professors Alan Levine, Thomas Merrill, Borden Flanagan, and Sarah Houser at the Political Theory Institute (PTI).  

When I took GOVT-105 (Individual Freedom v. Authority) with Professor Houser as a freshman, I had the opportunity to seriously examine the roots of both my political and moral beliefs for the very first time,” said Govil. “Through texts and thinkers of varying perspectives, ages, and ideas, I learned how to engage in thoughtful inquiry and reflect upon the question which drives all others: what does it mean to be a human being?”

Govil eventually served as a Public Affairs and Policy Lab Fellow and as a teaching assistant for GOVT-105, won the PTI annual essay prize, and secured fellowships with the Hudson Institute Political Studies, the Hertog Foundation, the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions, and the Witherspoon Institute. She will pursue her Masters of Philosophy in classical Indian religion at Wolfson College, Oxford.

“Through my studies in both the Ancient Indian and Greek philosophical traditions, I hope to further explore modes of self-reflection,” Govil added. “Both frameworks teach us to step back from the age of illusions and distractions we live in and look inwards, towards the self. . . Does transcendence strive towards external ends, or should we rather understand it as a means to retreat inwards—to understand what lies at the core of the self?”

Alex Rubin

Alex Rubin, who is now pursuing his MS in Terrorist and Homeland Security at SPA, has won the Boren Fellowship, which contributes up to $25,000 to fund research and language study proposals by U.S. graduate students in world regions critical to U.S. interests. He will use the award to study in Tanzania next year, before returning to AU to complete his degree.

“The Boren Fellowship program offers students the option to participate in intensive language and cultural immersion study in multiple countries around the world,” Rubin said. “The strongest way to understand [a country’s] culture and language is to fully immerse yourself in it. Once fully immersed, a pair once unfamiliar with another's culture, from the opposite ends of the world, can form the strongest of bonds.”

Rubin studied Kiswahili, one official language of the East African nation of Tanzania, alongside his coursework on terrorism and homeland security, leading to an interest in its relative state of peace within a war-torn region.

“I have learned about multiple violent extremist organizations (VEOs) causing significant harm all around Tanzania, in nations such as Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mozambique, and Somalia,” Rubin explained. “I want to understand why Tanzania has not become a hotbed for terrorism.”

Rubin plans to leverage the experience into a national security career with the U.S. federal government.

“By improving my Kiswahili and my understanding of the culture of East Africa, I will become a better candidate to work for the U.S. government,” he said, “and to further improve our strategic partnership with Tanzania and our intelligence sharing capabilities to mitigate terror threats against citizens and Americans residing in East Africa.”