2025-2026

Nataliya Bystrova is a second-year Master of Political Science student whose research examines China-Taiwan relations as a microcosm of power politics and security dilemmas in the Indo-Pacific. As a TERP Fellow, she will assess how Taiwan’s Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project enhances Taiwan’s soft power and supports navigating the diplomatic and security challenges posed by China’s growing influence in Latin America.

Faculty Advisor: Gregg Brazinsky

Research Project: “Development, Diplomacy, and Strategic Competition: The Impact and Trajectory of Taiwan’s Diplomatic Allies Prosperity Project in Latin America”

Jasmine Hernandez is a senior at The George Washington University pursuing a B.S. in International Affairs and Data Science with a concentration in Security Policy. She is originally from California and speaks Spanish and Korean. She studied abroad in Seoul, South Korea at Yonsei University as a Benjamin A. Gilman Scholar, where she gained further interest in East Asian affairs. As a first-generation student, she values the importance of cultural understanding through language study and immersion and hopes to promote greater inclusion and diversity in East Asian studies. During her TERP Fellowship, she aims to bring a Latin American perspective to Taiwan studies by examining how Latin American countries have recognized Taiwan in foreign affairs and exploring ways to strengthen Taiwan’s security diplomacy in the region.

Faculty Advisor: Robert Sutter

Research Project: “Taiwan’s Security Diplomacy in Latin America: Navigating Recognition and U.S.–China Competition”

John Lee is a senior at The George Washington University, majoring in International Affairs and Political Science, with minors in Economics and Public Policy. He is the founder of KORUS and President of the Korean Student Association, and previously served as a research fellow at the GW Institute for Korean Studies. John is currently a Taiwan Studies Research Fellow, where he examines the future of TSMC amid the U.S.–China Chip War and shifting global supply chains. He also works as a co-director at Masil Theatre and a consultant for Steel Sports, focusing on youth engagement and cross-cultural initiatives.

Faculty Advisor: Peter Moody

Research Project:“The future of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company during the time of the Chip War”

Sylvia Ngo is a PhD candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology with research interests in critical museology, knowledge production, indigeneity, and colonial legacies. Her dissertation explores the role of museums in Indigenous cultural production in Taiwan. She lived in Taiwan from August 2022 to November 2024 to pursue language studies and conduct ethnographic fieldwork. Her dissertation research has received support from a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship and a Taiwan Ministry of Foreign Affairs Taiwan Fellowship. During her TERP Fellowship, she will look at how museums are entangled with tourism and broader notions of cultural promotion and cultural transmission in Indigenous cultural revitalization efforts in Taiwan.

Faculty Advisor: Alexander Dent

Research Project: “Do (living) cultures belong in museums?: Intersections of indigenous cultural revitalization, museums, cultural promotion, and cultural “DIY” experiences in Taiwan”

Faculty Advisors

Gregg A. Brazinsky works on U.S.-East Asian relations and East Asian international history. He is interested in the flow of commerce, ideas, and culture among Asian countries and across the Pacific. He is proficient in Mandarin Chinese and Korean. He is the author of two books: Winning the Third World (2017), which focuses on Sino-American Rivalry in the Third World and Nation Building in South Korea (2007), which explores U.S.-South Korean relations during the Cold War. Currently, he is working on two other book projects. The first examines American nation-building in Asia during the Cold War. The second explores Sino-North Korean relations between 1949 and 1992 and focuses specifically on the development of cultural and economic ties between the two countries. He has received numerous fellowships to support his research including the Kluge Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Smith Richardson Foundation junior faculty fellowship, and a fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson Center. Professor Brazinsky also currently serves as the director of the George Washington Cold War Group.

Robert Sutter is Professor of Practice of International Affairs at the Elliott School of George Washington University (2011-Present ). He also served as Director of the School’s main undergraduate program involving over 2,000 students from 2013-2019. He has served as Special Adviser to the Dean on Strategic Outreach (2021-present). His earlier full-time position was Visiting Professor of Asian Studies at Georgetown University (2001-2011).

A Ph.D. graduate in History and East Asian Languages from Harvard University, Sutter has published 23 books (four with multiple editions), over 300 articles and several hundred government reports dealing with contemporary East Asian and Pacific countries and their relations with the United States. His most recent books are Chinese Foreign Relations: Power and Policy of an Emerging Global Force, Fifth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield, 2021), US-China Relations: Perilous Past, Uncertain Present, Fourth Edition (Rowman & Littlefield 2022), and Congress and China Policy: Past Episodic, Recent Enduring Influence (Lexington Books, 2024)

Sutter’s government career (1968-2001) saw service as senior specialist and director of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division of the Congressional Research Service, the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US Government’s National Intelligence Council, the China division director at the Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and professional staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Peter G. Moody is a historian of Modern Korea and is currently a Korean Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the George Washington University. He concurrently serves as the Managing Editor of the Journal of Korean Studies (JKS), which is housed within the George Washington University’s Institute of Korean Studies. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2023 and subsequently served as a Visiting Research Professor at Korea University. His research interests center on the industrialization, ideological evolution, mass media, and cultural politics of the two Koreas, as well as the precursors to those developments taking place during Korea’s period of Japanese colonization. Peter has been awarded fellowships for his archival research, including from the US Fulbright Program and the Academic Exchange Support Program for North Korean and Unification Studies.

Alex Dent is a linguistic and sociocultural anthropologist who works on mediation, digital culture, cellularity, intellectual property, and music in Brazil and the United States. Dr. Dent is the Associate Editor of Anthropological Quarterly; additionally, he is the PI of a grant to study teenage cell phone use in Washington DC.