David Skorski

David Skorski

Ally Carragher

Guest Contributor at SAIS Washington

 Ten SAIS students rose bright and early the Tuesday before break to join Dean Nasr for coffee and donuts.  These coffee hours, sponsored by the SAIS Student Government, are scheduled monthly and offer students the chance to get together informally with our Dean to discuss the school, provide feedback, and hopefully fit in a bit of wonky foreign policy banter.

This month, students questioned Dean Nasr about the class he will be teaching in the spring (a two-credit lecture course on “Islam and Politics: Religion and Power in World Affairs”); the branding of SAIS Europe versus SAIS China (they’re different because SAIS China is a collaborative effort between Johns Hopkins and Nanjing University); and how students can participate in the search for new faculty (some of the lectures on campus are actually job interviews!).

For his part, Dean Nasr was eager to gather student feedback on the academic programs, including whether major as well as minor concentrations should be available and what other types of degrees the school should offer.

Not surprisingly, the conversation closed on foreign policy.  Students took advantage of the Dean’s expertise to ask his opinions on the Beirut bombings that had occurred hours before, and whether President Obama could really get a deal with Iran.

If you want to know what he said, you’d better come to the next coffee hour! Keep an eye on The Blueser to find out when.