As of 2024, The Harry S. Truman Good Neighbor Award Foundation of Kansas City will no longer offer its Edwin J. Beinecke, Jr. Scholarship for International Studies; however, in honor of the Foundation’s years of generosity, the Graduate School will provide one final $10,000 Good Neighbor Award for graduate study or research abroad during the 2024-25 academic year. Only one award is available.
Program Guidelines
In keeping with the Foundation’s former award criteria, nominees should be studying such disciplines as international relations, public service, political science, diplomacy, history, the humanities or related fields. Nominees should be students with the potential for a meaningful public service career or contribution to international studies or service. International students are eligible for this award.
Each eligible department or program may nominate up to two students. Final selection of the awardee will be made by the Graduate Research Steering Committee.
The awardee should use the funds for international travel taking place in 2024 (public health conditions and travel authorization permitting). Award funds will be available at the beginning of summer 2024. After the travel period, awardees are expected to submit a report to the Office of Graduate Fellowships & Awards.
Nomination Process
Nomination Process: Each graduate program is allowed up to two nominations. Required materials to be submitted as one PDF document include:
- A three to five page statement, double-spaced from the student describing the foreign study that the award would support, the proposed study plan and methodology, and the award’s importance to the student’s research project and degree completion. Students should clearly outline their budget and how the funds would be applied.
- Georgetown transcript (unofficial copies are accepted)
- Two letters of recommendation, one from the student’s adviser, the other from either the director of graduate studies or the department or program chair.
Submission Process and Deadline
Nominations should be submitted via this form by the Director of Graduate Studies or or designated faculty or staff member submitting on behalf of the program.
Deadline: Friday, April 5, 2024
Past Recipients of Edwin J. Beinecke, Jr. Scholarship in International Affairs
2023-24
Sopanit Angsusingha is a Ph.D. student in History. Her dissertation investigates the influence of American missionaries’ involvement in Iraqi education, particularly its impact on Iraqi youth identity formation and exposure to American socio-cultural values. The Beinecke scholarship will provide Sopanit with the means to support her archival research in the United Kingdom, Lebanon and Israel over two months in the summer of 2023. After graduating from Georgetown, she plans to return to her native country of Thailand, where she is poised to serve as the only Middle East historian in the country.
2022-23
Olivia Shoemaker is a master’s candidate in the Security Studies program in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Her mixed-methods research focuses on the role of gender identity in the operationalization of Boko Haram’s terrorism and the effectiveness of Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) processes in Northeastern Nigeria. The Beinecke Scholarship allowed her to conduct first-hand interviews and provide policy recommendations based on lessons learned regarding gender, terrorism and DDR processes.
2021-22
Casey Donahue is a dual master’s candidate in History and Foreign Service at Georgetown University. His project will examine youth history education in Liberia, Northern Ireland and the United States. His research focuses on curricular and narrative techniques that educators use to teach children about their nations’ civil conflicts. With this comparative study, Casey hopes to identify cross-cultural patterns in how children learn about painful historical events, as well as investigate new modes of international dialogue and resource sharing among youth history educators.
2020-21
Jonas Heering is a master’s student in the Master of Arts in German and European Studies program. His project, which will form the basis for his master’s capstone, will consist of independent research on the impact of foreign electoral interference on democratic processes in the European Union, focusing particularly on interference operations conducted by Russia. His research has the potential to contribute to our understanding of how democracies can shield their democratic institutions and processes from foreign electoral interference.
2019-20
Jessica Spanswick is a student in the M.A. in Latin American Studies Program at Georgetown University. Her research project examines public opinion on democracy, specifically that of Venezuelan migrants living in the border city of Cucuta, Colombia, along the 1,400 mile-long border with Venezuela. Once completed, her research has the potential to contribute to our understanding of migrants/refugees and their perceptions on democracy; the challenges they face in leaving their homes and acclimating to a new social and physical environment; and the humanitarian demands placed on countries like Colombia who accept refugees.
2018-19
Thomas Lloyd
Ph.D. in History for research in Tanzania, Ghana, and the United Kingdom
2017-18
Anthony Eames
Ph.D. candidate in History for research in the United Kingdom
2016-17
Gregory Brew
Ph.D. candidate in History for research in the United Kingdom
2015-16
Douglas McRae
Ph.D. candidate in History for research in Brazil