School of Politics and Global Studies Ph.D.s have been accepted to positions at prominent universities all over the world. Others have gone on to pursue careers in government work or other non-academic positions. We encourage those looking to fill positions to contact our students directly about potential job opportunities!
Anntiana Maral Sabeti
Anntiana Maral Sabeti is a PhD candidate within the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. She researches Conflict and specializes in the field of women and conflict. Specifically, she considers how women influence peace processes and what explains their persistent exclusion from both peace-making and peace-keeping despite organizational commitments to gender inclusivity.
Prior engaging in her PhD, Maral completed an M.A in International Relations at the Institut de hautesétudes internationales et du développement (IHEID) in Geneva, Switzerland and an M.A in Development at the Universidad de Valencia in Spain. Her undergraduate work is in International Economics, as well as Spanish Language and Literature, completed at the University of Washington in Seattle.
Professionally, Maral has worked in both the fields of international cooperation and finance. She began her career at Goldman Sachs in interest rate derivatives and later moved to equities at the Capital Group. In Spain, she worked with Devstat, to provide consulting services to national statistical bodies on improving their census systems. In Geneva, Maral worked with the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, advising on IOM, UNDP and OSCE projects. She also provided risk analysis services to the Global Fund to Fight Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis. Maral is still an active member of the Geneva International Rotary club and served as the President of Geneva Rotaract International. She speaks English, Spanish and Farsi at a native level (C2), as well as French (C1).
Alexandra McGarry Williams
Alexandra McGarry Williams graduated Arizona State University in 2023, with her Ph.D. in political science. She also holds a BA in History from Rutgers University (New Brunswick). Her main research interests include feminism and gender and politics, but she is also broadly interested in racial/ethnic politics, electoral behavior, and public opinion. Alexandra also worked in the School of Politics and Global Studies Experimental Research Lab, where she served as Lab Coordinator for two years, and a lab assistant and volunteer for three years. During this time, she both assisted in creating surveys and experiments as well as oversaw their launch to over 1,000 ASU undergraduates. She is both very interested and well-versed in experimental methodologies and survey research.
Alexandra’s dissertation, titled: “Running as a Feminist: How Voters Respond to Feminist Candidates” utilized multiple methodologies, including focus groups, an online student survey, and an online survey experiment of a national sample. Primarily, her experiment varied how candidate gender, party identification, and feminist status influenced voters’ opinions on political candidates.
While at SPGS, Alexandra also had the opportunity to teach three of her own courses: American National Government, as well as Women and Politics, which she has taught twice. Each of these classes had over 60 students enrolled.
She is proficient in STATA, Qualtrics, and iMotions.
Matthew Smoldt
Matthew Smoldt is a doctoral candidate in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. He received a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance from Southern Methodist University and a Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. His areas of emphasis are comparative politics and international relations with a focus on migration and immigration policy. He has written on the rights of immigrants; the environmental consequences of immigration; and the dynamics of migrants' remittances. His dissertation focuses on the determinants and effects of immigration policy enforcement.