As the 2024 school year began, the Georgetown School of Foreign Service welcomed nine new faculty members to our community: Amanda Pinheiro, Renee Bowen, Jane Komori, Denise Y. Ho, Rush Doshi, Renanah Joyce, Emma Smith, Lucy Zipf and Jeremy Mathis. Whether serving in new roles or encountering the Hilltop for the first time, these faculty are already enriching SFS with their wealth of academic and professional experience.
Amanda Pinheiro
Assistant Teaching Professor
Institute for the Study of International Migration
Amanda Pinheiro joins the SFS as a faculty member in the Institute for the Study of International Migration, where she teaches in their new master’s degree in international migration and refugees. Pinheiro is a journalist and interdisciplinary scholar whose research focuses on the intersection of race, migration and transnational policy.
Pinheiro earned her Ph.D. in global studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, with emphasis in Black studies and demography. She also holds an M.A. in Latin American and Latino studies from the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Prior to her academic career, Pinheiro was an investigative reporter in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where she covered a wide range of social justice issues. Her scholarly work is grounded in ethnographic methods and centers race and ethnicity in global migration research and policymaking.
Her current research involves a multi-country ethnography that explores how transnational migration politics and policies, imbued with racial discrimination, have influenced the displacement and experiences of Haitian migrants across the Americas. She brings to SFS a commitment to advancing knowledge on the complexities of migration and race, as well as a dedication to mentoring students interested in these critical global issues.
Renee Brown
Professor
International Business and Global Affairs
Renee Bowen joins SFS as the Dean’s Professor of International Business and Global Affairs, holding a joint appointment in SFS and the McDonough School of Business. Bowen is an economist with expertise in international economics, political economy and microeconomic theory. Before returning to Georgetown, where she earned her Ph.D. in economics, Bowen held notable positions at Stanford Graduate School of Business and UC San Diego, where she founded and directed the Center for Commerce and Diplomacy.
Bowen’s research has significantly contributed to the understanding of the design and effectiveness of global institutions and has been published in top-tier economics journals. She is an Economic Theory Fellow at the Society for the Advances in Economic Theory and serves on the editorial boards of leading academic journals. Her professional experience spans various roles, including serving on the California Governor’s Council of Economic Advisors and holding positions at the World Bank and J.P. Morgan Securities. At Georgetown, Bowen will continue to explore the intersection of economics and international policy, contributing to the academic and practical understanding of global economic governance.
Jane Komori
Assistant Professor and Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Fellow
Institute for the Study of International Migration
Jane Komori comes to SFS with a deep focus on the intersections of race, labor and ecology. As a Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Fellow, her current book project delves into the labor history and self-organization of Asian immigrant and Indigenous workers in western Canada’s primary resource industries from the 1850s to the mid-twentieth century. Komori’s work theorizes how racial forms, particularly the racialization of labor, are shaped by settler colonialism, resource extraction, and environmental change.
Her scholarship has been featured in a range of academic journals, including Historical Materialism, Crime, Media, Culture, and Critical Ethnic Studies. Additionally, she has contributed to public discourse through writings in publications including Viewpoint Magazine, The Globe and Mail. Komori also is the coauthor of “Our Edible Roots: The Japanese Canadian Kitchen Garden,” a book written in collaboration with the Tonari Gumi Japanese Community Volunteers Association. At SFS, Komori will continue to expand her research on the relationship between race, labor, and environmental issues.
Denise Y. Ho
Associate Professor
Denise Y. Ho joins SFS from Yale University, where she was an associate professor of history and taught twentieth-century Chinese history. Her expertise lies in the social and cultural history of the Mao period, with research interests extending to urban history, propaganda studies and material culture. Recently, she has focused on the history of the Hong Kong-China border.
Ho is the author of “Curating Revolution: Politics on Display in Mao’s China” and co-editor of “Material Contradictions in Mao’s China.” She has also contributed to the field with a special issue of the Made in China Journal on the Shenzhen-Hong Kong borderlands and a teaching website called The Mao Era in Objects. Her ongoing work includes a grassroots history of the Hong Kong-China frontier, titled “The Nation’s Gate.”
In addition to her academic publications in journals such as The American Historical Review and China Quarterly, Ho has been a prominent commentator on contemporary China and Hong Kong. She holds a B.A. in history from Yale College and an A.M. and Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. Ho was a Fulbright grant recipient and is a member of the fifth cohort of the Public Intellectuals Program of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations.
Rush Doshi
Assistant Professor
Security Studies
Rush Doshi joins SFS as a professor in the Security Studies Program (SSP), bringing extensive expertise in China’s foreign policy, cross-Strait issues and Indo-Pacific security. Before coming to Georgetown, Doshi served as the deputy senior director for China and Taiwan affairs on President Biden’s National Security Council, where he played a crucial role in managing the NSC’s first-ever China directorate from 2021 to 2024. His work included advising the President and the National Security Adviser on China and Taiwan policy, drafting the Administration’s China strategy and coordinating significant negotiations, such as those that launched AUKUS.
Doshi is also a senior fellow for China and Indo-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He received the Edgar S. Furniss book award for his first book, “The Long Game: China’s Grand Strategy to Displace American Order,” and his research has been featured in journals and publications like International Organization, The Washington Quarterly, and Foreign Affairs.
Doshi holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and a bachelor’s degree in public policy from Princeton University, where he also minored in east Asian studies. As a Fulbright fellow in China, Doshi gained further proficiency in Mandarin and deepened his understanding of U.S.-China relations. He looks forward to integrating his academic and government experiences to enhance his scholarship and teaching.
Emma Smith
Assistant Professor and Provost’s Distinguished Faculty Fellow
Institute for the Study of International Migration
Emma Smith joins SFS as a faculty member in the Institute for the Study of International Migration, bringing expertise in development economics, with a particular focus on refugees, migration and social norms. Smith’s research examines how forcibly displaced people make economic decisions and how targeted interventions can meet their urgent needs. Her work, often conducted in collaboration with humanitarian organizations, explores critical issues such as barriers to mental health care, the effectiveness of shelter interventions and access to remote work opportunities for refugees.
Smith’s research on social norms further extends to understanding mental health stigma and gender dynamics, shedding light on how these factors influence economic behaviors and outcomes. Her scholarly contributions include the award-winning paper “Stigma and Social Cover: A Mental Health Care Experiment in Refugee Networks,” recognized with the Weiss/NEUDC Distinguished Paper Award in 2023.
Before joining SFS, Smith completed her Ph.D. in public policy (economics track) at Harvard University, where she also held affiliations with the Center for International Development and the Institute for Quantitative Social Sciences. She holds a BA in economics and Middle Eastern studies from Wellesley College. Smith has received numerous research grants, including substantial funding from the International Growth Center and The World Bank Innovation Challenge on Jobs and Migration, supporting her ongoing research on the economic and social challenges faced by refugee populations.
Lucy Zipf
Assistant Teaching Professor
Environmental & International Affairs
Lucy Zipf joins SFS as an assistant teaching professor in environment and international affairs, bringing expertise in ecology and the study of global environmental changes. Her research focuses on the integrated impacts of climate change, habitat alterations and conservation management on biological communities, with a particular emphasis on birds and insects. Zipf’s work combines observational and experimental field studies with advanced statistical modeling to forecast changes in phenology and reproductive success of various species. Her innovative approach includes close collaboration with community science organizations, actively involving stakeholders in the research process.
Zipf’s interdisciplinary background allows her to bridge the gap between environmental science and international affairs, providing SFS students with a unique perspective on global environmental challenges. Her courses investigate the multifaceted impacts of global changes, preparing students to address pressing ecological issues in an international context. At SFS, Zipf continues to advance her research on the effects of global environmental changes on biological communities while fostering a new generation of environmentally conscious global leaders.
Jeremy Mathis
Associate Teaching Professor of Global Environmental Affairs
Jeremy T. Mathis joins SFS as an associate teaching professor of global environmental affairs, bringing expertise in climate security and environmental policy. His research, which includes over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles cited more than 15,000 times, focuses on global climate issues and their intersection with policy and security.
Mathis’s career spans academia, government, and international organizations. He previously served as the director of the board on chemical sciences and technology at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and held various roles at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), where he specialized in global climate issues. His experience includes a rotation at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and founding the first U.S. Ocean Acidification Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
With a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Miami and extensive international experience across more than 60 countries, Mathis brings a global perspective to SFS. He continues to advance research on climate security and global environmental policy while preparing students to address complex environmental challenges in an international context.