Johns Hopkins SAIS is thrilled to celebrate and honor alumni marking their 10th, 25th, and 50th anniversaries of graduation from SAIS and the Hopkins-Nanjing Center — the classes of 2014, 1999, and 1974 — at the 2024 Reunion Weekend in Washington, D.C.

Reunion events will take place on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2, 2024 at SAIS’ new home at 555 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

The weekend’s program begins on Friday afternoon and includes opportunities to:

• reconnect with fellow classmates

• meet students and share your advice

• be inspired by a keynote speaker

• go back to the classroom with current faculty

• learn about the school’s priorities from SAIS leadership

• explore the new building, and more!

WEEKEND SCHEDULE (subject to change)

Friday, March 1

• 2:30pm - Registration begins (Lobby)

  For security reasons, all registered attendees are required to check-in and receive a SAIS lanyard and nametag. You'll also receive a schedule for the day and a small token of appreciation for joining us at Reunion 2024.

• 3:00pm - 4:00pm – Student Showcase and Building Tours (Classroom 422)

  Hear from current SAIS students as they present their recent SAIS experiential learning experiences and share their perspectives on global issues OR tour the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, SAIS’ new home in Washington DC. Featured students:

  • Mustafa Ahmad - International Development (IDEV) Practicum (Indonesia)

  • Noelle Boyd - International Human Rights Law Clinic (Namibia)

  • Ameya Joshi - Taiwan Study Trip (Taiwan)

  • Felix Spiekerkoetter - Technology and Security in Asia (India)

• 4:00pm - 5:00pm – Alumni-Student Networking (Kenney Link, 4th floor)

  Reflect on your post-SAIS journey and share your advice with current students in a facilitated networking session with alumni and students.

• 5:00pm - 6:00pm – Keynote Address (Nitze Theatre)

  Gain important perspectives on global issues from our keynote speaker, Heather A. Conley ‘96, President of the German Marshall Fund. Remarks followed by a fireside chat and Q&A led by SAIS Dean James Steinberg. 

• 6:00pm - 7:00pm – Alumni & Student Happy Hour (Room 920, 9th floor)

  Relive the SAIS tradition of Friday Student Happy Hour. Reconnect with your classmates and current students in a fun social setting.

Saturday, March 2

• 10:15am - Registration begins (Lobby)

  For security reasons, all registered attendees are required to check-in and receive a SAIS lanyard and nametag. You'll also receive a schedule for the day and a small token of appreciation for joining us at Reunion 2024.

• 10:30am – 12:00pm Family Brunch (Kenney Link, 4th floor)

  Join us for a festive brunch and bring your family!

• 12:00pm - 1:00pm Faculty Lecture I (Classroom 256, 2nd floor)

  Join Narges Bajoghli, Assistant Professor, back in the classroom for a seminar titled "Narrative Wars and the World Order”.

• 12:00pm - 1:00pm Faculty Lecture II (Classroom 258, 2nd floor)

  Join Pravin Krishna, Chung Ju Yung Professor of International Economics, back in the classroom for a seminar titled “Multilateral Trade Dis-Order”.

• 1:00pm – 2:00pm Lounge Break, Networking, Campus Tours

  Reconnect and network with your classmates in a dedicated reunion lounge area OR tour the Hopkins Bloomberg Center, SAIS’ new home in Washington DC.

• 2:00pm - 3:00pm Faculty Lecture III (Classroom 258, 2nd floor)

  Join Adam Auerbach, Associate Professor, back in the classroom for a seminar titled "Urbanization and Urban Informality in the Global South”.

• 2:00pm - 3:00pm – Faculty Lecture IV (Classroom 256, 2nd floor)

  Join Olga Belogolova, Director, Emerging Technology Initiative, Lecturer of Technology and National Security, back in the classroom for a seminar titled "Lies, Damned Lies, and Disinformation”.

• 3:00pm - 4:00pm – Meet the Deans (Room 940/944, 9th floor)

  Meet members of the SAIS leadership team for an opportunity to learn about SAIS strategy, priorities, and current initiatives, and ask questions about their vision for SAIS’ future.

• 4:00pm - 5:30pm – Reception with Dean Steinberg (Room 822, 8th floor)

  SAIS Dean Jim Steinberg, hosts our evening reception, the final on-campus vent of the weekend. Dean Steinberg will make remarks at 4:30pm. Refreshments (beer and wine) and heavy hors d'oeuvres will be served.

• Class Dinners (organized by committees)*

  • 6:00pm - Class of 2014 Dinner - Penn Quarter Sports Tavern (additional cost)

  • 7:00pm - Class of 1974 Dinner - Carmine’s Italian Restaurant (purchase your dinner ticket in the registration tab above)

  • 7:30pm - Class of 1999 Dinner - Lebanese Taverna Woodley Park (additional cost)

*Reunion dinner tickets are not included in the reunion ticket price. The reunion dinner for the Class of 1974 requires an additional ticket that can be purchased along with your reunion registration. Reunion dinners for the Classes of 1999 and 2014 are arranged by volunteer reunion organizers and also require a separate registration. Detailed information on these class dinners is forthcoming.

Reunion Weekend schedule is subject to change. If you have purchased tickets and find yourself unable to attend, please reach out to saisalumnievents@jhu.edu for a refund (donations included in ticket purchase are non-refundable). For more information about the JHU SAIS event cancellation and refund policy, please click here.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

HEATHER A. CONLEY is the sixth president of the German Marshall Fund. Ms. Conley arrives at GMF after 12 years at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), where she most recently served as senior vice president for Europe, Eurasia, and the Arctic and as director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program. At CSIS, Ms. Conley developed the acclaimed Kremlin Playbook series, a dedicated research effort that examined the doctrine and methodology of Russian malign economic behavior and its methodology across Europe. She also is a recognized expert on the Arctic region, focusing on the Russian Arctic, climate transformation and U.S. policy toward the region.  

Ms. Conley previously served four years as executive director of the Office of the Chairman of the Board at the American National Red Cross, where she supported the first comprehensive reform of the governance structure of the American Red Cross Board since 1947, incorporating modern best-governance practices. She worked closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the International Movement’s policies and programs in the Middle East and elsewhere.  

From 2001 to 2005, Ms. Conley was deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs with responsibilities for U.S. bilateral relations with the countries of Northern and Central Europe. She co-led the U.S. interagency effort to enlarge NATO and secure Senate ratification of an Amended NATO Treaty, and she created a senior level U.S. dialogue with the eight Nordic and Baltic states, the Enhanced Partnership in Europe (e-PINE).  

Earlier in her career, she worked at an international consulting firm led by former U.S. deputy secretary of state Richard L. Armitage. 

Ms. Conley began her career in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. She was selected to serve as special assistant to the coordinator of U.S. assistance to the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union, and she has received two State Department Meritorious Honor Awards. 

Conley frequently appears as a foreign policy analyst and Europe expert on CNN, MSNBC, BBC, NPR, and PBS, among other prominent media outlets. She received her B.A. in international studies from West Virginia Wesleyan College and her M.A. in international relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).  

JAMES B. STEINBERG is the tenth Dean of SAIS. Previously, he served as University Professor of Social Science, International Affairs and Law at Syracuse University, where he was Dean of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs for five years. Prior, he served as Deputy Secretary of State to Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton, from 2009-2011. From 2005-2008, Steinberg was Dean of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Steinberg was vice president and director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution. Mr. Steinberg was deputy national security advisor to President Bill Clinton from 1996 to 2000.

Steinberg’s most recent books are A Glass Half Full? Rebalance, Reassurance and Resolve and Strategic Reassurance and Resolve: US-China Relations in the 21st Century He has also authored Difficult Transitions: Foreign Policy Troubles at the Outset of Presidential Power (Brookings 2008) with Kurt Campbell.

Steinberg received his A.B from Harvard College and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

FACULTY BIOGRAPHIES

ADAM AUERBACH is Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His research and teaching focus on local governance, urban politics, and the political economy of development, with a regional focus on South Asia and India in particular. His first book, Demanding Development: The Politics of Public Goods Provision in India's Urban Slums (Cambridge University Press, 2020), accounts for the uneven success of India's slum residents in demanding and securing essential public services from the state. The project draws on more than two years of fieldwork in the north Indian cities of Jaipur, Rajasthan and Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. Demanding Development won the 2021 Dennis Judd Best Book Award from the Urban and Local Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). The doctoral dissertation on which Demanding Development is based also won three awards, including APSA's Gabriel Almond Award for best dissertation in comparative politics. Auerbach's second book (co-authored with Tariq Thachil), Migrants and Machine Politics: How India's Urban Poor Seek Representation and Responsiveness, was published by Princeton University Press in 2023.

Auerbach's research on governance and development in India also appears in the American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Contemporary South Asia, Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, Studies in Comparative International Development, World Development, and World Politics.

NARGES BAJOGHLI is Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. She is an award-winning anthropologist, writer, and professor.
 
Trained as a political anthropologist, media anthropologist, and documentary filmmaker, Professor Bajoghli’s research is at the intersections of media, power, and resistance. She is the author of several books, including the award-winning book Iran Reframed: Anxieties of Power in the Islamic Republic (Stanford University Press 2019; winner 2020 Margaret Mead Award; 2020 Choice Award for Outstanding Academic Title; 2021 Silver Medal in Independent Publisher Book Awards for Current Events); How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare (with Vali Nasr, Djavad Salehi-Esfahani, and Ali Vaez, Stanford University Press 2024); and a graphic novella, Sanctioned Lives (2024). 
 
With the support of the Johns Hopkins University Catalyst Award, Professor Bajoghli is currently writing her next manuscript on a global history of chemical warfare. Professor Bajoghli’s research has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the National Science Foundation (awarded/declined), The Wenner Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the American Institute of Iranian Studies, Johns Hopkins University, New York University, and Brown University.  
 
Professor Bajoghli received her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology from New York University, where her dissertation was awarded the Dean's Outstanding Dissertation Award in the Social Sciences. She was also trained as a documentary filmmaker in NYU's Culture and Media Program and at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts. She is the director of The Skin That Burns, a documentary film about survivors of chemical war in Iran, distributed by Film Media Group. The film has screened at festivals and university campuses in The Hague, Hiroshima, Jaipur, Tehran, and throughout the U.S. (New York, New Orleans, New Jersey, Chicago, and Irvine). She has also directed oral history projects on survivors of chemical weapons (archived at the Tehran Peace Museum).
 
At Johns Hopkins University, Professor Bajoghli teaches classes on media, social movements, and counter-movements;  contemporary Iranian politics and society; and ethnographic research methods to masters and PhD students. She is the recipient of the 2022 Excellence in Teaching Award at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS. Professor Bajoghli is the co-director of the Rethinking Iran Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, SAIS, which includes public events and research projects on contemporary Iranian society.   
 
In addition to her academic writing, Professor Bajoghli has written for such publications as The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, Vanity Fair, Foreign Affairs, The Guardian, Foreign Policy, and Jacobin. She has appeared as a guest commentator on Iranian politics on CNN, DemocracyNow!, NPR, BBC WorldService, BBC NewsHour, and PBS NewsHour as well as in Spanish on radio programs across Latin America. 

OLGA BELOGOLOVA is the Director of the Emerging Technologies Initiative at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She also a lecturer at the Alperovitch Institute for Cybersecurity Studies at SAIS, where she teaches a course on disinformation and influence in the digital age.
 
At Facebook/Meta, she led policy for countering influence operations, leading execution and development of policies on coordinated inauthentic behavior, state media capture, and hack-and-leaks within the Trust and Safety team. Prior to that, she led threat intelligence work on Russia and Eastern Europe at Facebook, identifying, tracking, and disrupting coordinated IO campaigns, and in particular, the Internet Research Agency investigations between 2017-2019.
 
Olga previously worked as a journalist and her work has appeared in The Atlantic, National Journal, Inside Defense, and The Globe and Mail, among others. She is a fellow with the Truman National Security Project and serves on the review board for CYBERWARCON.

PRAVIN KRISHNA is the Chung Ju Yung Distinguished Professor of International Economics and Business at Johns Hopkins University, where he is jointly appointed in the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, DC and the Department of Economics in the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences (KSAS) in Baltimore. Professor Krishna is also Co-Chair of the Bernard L. Schwartz Globalization Initiative at Johns Hopkins SAIS and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). Professor Krishna has previously been Professor of Economics at Brown University and has also held appointments at a number of other universities, including the University of Chicago, Columbia University, Princeton University, Stanford University and INSEAD. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Professor Krishna’s areas of research interest include international economics, international political economy, the political economy of policy reform, economic development and the political economy of India. His research has been published in numerous journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Political Economy, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, the Review of Economics and Statistics, International Organization, the Journal of International Economics and the Journal of Development Economics. He has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of International Economics and the Journal of Policy Reform. A recipient of research funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), he is the author of Trade Blocs: Economics and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2005) and along with Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya is co-editor of Trading Blocs: Alternate Analyses of Preferential Trade Agreements(MIT Press, 1999). He holds a BA in Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and an MA, MPhil and PhD from Columbia University.