Stephen graduated from our MA program in summer 2017. He graduated from UIUC with a BA in History. His academic path has been shaped by courses in political science and geopolitics that sparked his interest in Middle Eastern studies. He has occasionally focused on the Iranian revolution when writing papers in history courses, but has begun to tackle Arabic language study as a way to broaden his understanding of the histories and current experiences of the Middle East. He aims to eventually become a policy analyst at a think tank in New York or DC.