This year, SFS welcomes five new members to the faculty and larger SFS community: Danai Angeli, Joshua Byun, Zachary Garvin, Sandra Tombe and Markus Wahl. Bringing a wealth of academic insight and practical experience from around the globe, these new faculty members join Georgetown across a diverse range of disciplines and programs.
Danai Angeli, associate professor of the practice
Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM)
Professor Danai Angeli brings 18 years of experience across academic, legal and policy settings to SFS. She is an international trainer for the Council of Europe and has carried out advisory work for the World Bank. Her research focuses on migration governance, refugee and humanitarian policy and human rights. Angeli earned her Ph.D. from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, where her foundational work examined immigration policies and legal accountability. She has previously taught at institutions such as Bilkent University and has published widely on topics including migrant loss at sea, human trafficking and the evolution of asylum procedures.
Angeli will be teaching two classes this year: Introduction to Humanitarian Crisis in the fall and Migrants, Refugees and the State in the spring.
“I am most excited about the students. My classroom is full of students from around the world, and I very much look forward to hearing their stories, gaining their perspectives and giving them the right tools to carve out their own paths,” Angeli says.
Joshua Byun, assistant professor
Professor Joshua Byun is a scholar of international relations specializing in topics related to American grand strategy. Byun’s research has been supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, the Charles Koch Foundation and the Korea Foundation for Advanced Studies, as well as the Center for East Asian Studies and the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts at the University of Chicago, among others. Before joining academia, Byun served as the personal interpreter to South Korea’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, where he assisted the Chairman during all interactions with English-speaking foreign partners, including the Commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (CDRUSFK), Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command (CDRUSPACOM) and the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS).
Byun will teach Theory and Practice of Security this year and expects to teach courses on American grand strategy and great power competition in subsequent years.
“I hope to help students develop the ability to reason in terms of theoretical puzzles, concepts and mechanisms when trying to make sense of important problems in international politics. All types of students—especially those interested in pursuing professional careers in foreign policy—can benefit handsomely from identifying the ‘folk theories’ that undergird various policy positions and learning to formulate coherent deductive frameworks about the real-world phenomena they care about,” Byun says.
Zachary Garvin, assistant professor of the practice
Science, Technology and International Affairs Program
Professor Zachary Garvin is an astrobiologist and planetary scientist, currently focused on preparing life-detection capabilities for future planetary missions. He is a member of the Mars Organics Molecule Analyzer science team for the upcoming European Space Agency’s ExoMars Rosalind Franklin rover. Garvin conducts research that spans the fields of geomicrobiology, analytical chemistry and astrobiology to explore how life persists at the physical and chemical edges of habitability and the possibility of detecting it elsewhere. Garvin received his Ph.D. from Princeton University in the Department of Geosciences with a dissertation exploring high-affinity trace gas-oxidizing microbes (H2, CO, CH4) in the soils surrounding hot springs in the Andean Altiplano, Chile and Yellowstone National Park. He even proposed a mission concept to search for trace gas uptake activity via gas flux measurements on Mars.
Garvin will teach three courses this year: Foundations of Space Studies, Spectrometry for Space and Earth and Planetary Science.
“I am most excited to help shape and grow the Space Studies program at Georgetown. Space is an emerging domain that can be studied and applied through so many different lenses ranging from science, policy and security to commerce, sustainability and more. Georgetown is the perfect institution to be at the forefront of modern space studies. I cannot wait to share all of the new ways to engage with space at Georgetown that we are developing,” Garvin says.
Sandra Tombe, assistant professor of the practice
Professor Sandra Tombe brings nearly nine years of experience at the intersection of academia, policy engagement and peacebuilding practice to SFS. Prior to joining Georgetown, Tombe served as an affiliate faculty member at the Center for Peacemaking Practice at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, where her research focused on migration and displacement as well as the implications of AI in the Global South. Tombe was also research program officer on the Learning, Evaluation and Research team at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). In this role, she led and managed research initiatives and advised thematic and regional teams on research design, methodology and ethics, monitoring and evaluation and learning. Trained in both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Tombe has published her research on civil war and migration in peer-reviewed journals and has published policy briefs on AI and regional multilateral organizations. Tombe serves as board member of innovations at Peacebuilding International, as advisor for the Foundation for Strategic Engagement and is actively involved with South Sudanese diasporas in the United States. Previously, she served as ACUNS Board Director from June 2025 to March 2026.
Tombe will teach International Organizations this fall.
“I hope my students see the importance of context for the rise and (fall) of international organizations and how much international organizations shape the system that creates them,” Tombe says.
Markus Wahl, DAAD [German Academic Exchange Service] visiting professor
BMW Center for German and European Studies
Professor Markus Wahl is a historian specializing in modern Central European history, medical history and, more recently, migration studies with a focus on Brazil and Germany. Previously, he was a research assistant from 2022 to July 2026 at the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, and from 2017 to 2021 at the Institute for the History of Medicine at the Robert Bosch Foundation in Stuttgart, Germany. He earned his Ph.D. in 2017 at the University of Kent with the dissertation, “Treatments of the Past: Medical Memories and Experiences in East Germany,” which was published by Routledge in 2019.
Wahl will be teaching Gaming the Past: History, Memory and Political Theory in Video Games this fall.
“The most exciting aspect of working, teaching and researching at Georgetown is its interdisciplinary opportunities. Already within this first month, I’ve encountered so many great opportunities to link research and teaching ideas with other faculties from various departments,” Wahl says.