Fall 2012 Herbert Scoville Jr. Peace Fellows
Que’Nique Newbill (Henry L. Stimson Center) is working with Mona Yacoubian on Middle East security especially as it relates to the Arab transitions. Newbill graduated from Grinnell College with a BA in Political Science in 2011. He spent his last undergraduate semester enrolled in an intensive Arabic and Middle Eastern studies program while conducting research on the impact of economic crises on Arab countries’ social policies at Jordan’s premier think tank, the Center for Strategic Studies housed at the University of Jordan in Amman. During college, he conducted independent research on Yemen’s poverty, revolution, and prospects for democratization; another on Zimbabwe’s attempt to achieve constitution reform and rule of law; and a third project concerning the U.S. decision to refrain from intervening in the Rwandan genocide and its impact on other efforts by members of the international community. At Grinnell, he served in several leadership positions on student government cabinet, co-founded an international student dialogue group, and created new student initiatives encouraging civic engagement. In addition, he wrote for three undergraduate publications on a range of social issues. He taught English language classes for immigrants in San Francisco and did resettlement work with refugees in Atlanta. He has received a number of scholastic awards including the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award, the 2011 Student Affairs Art Prize, and the 2010 Grinnell College Poetry Grand Slam. He is an all-academic athlete in both cross country and track and field. He studied both French and Arabic. Newbill hails from Atlanta, GA.
Usha Sahay (Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation) is working with John Isaacs and Kingston Reif on nuclear issues in Iran and U.S.-Iran relations, as well as domestic defense spending and the U.S. nuclear weapons budget. Sahay earned a BA in history and political science in 2012 from Columbia University, graduating magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. In her junior year, she spent a semester studying at Central European University in Budapest, taking graduate-level courses in European history, international relations, and public policy, and participating in the university’s debating society. During college, she worked as a research assistant for several International Relations professors in Columbia’s Political Science department, researching civil wars, insurgencies, and other intra-state conflicts. While at Columbia, Sahay helped to found Youth for Debate, a student-led volunteer organization that teaches debate and public speaking to students in New York City public schools. She also wrote for several campus publications; in March 2012 she published a piece on U.S.-Pakistan relations in the Columbia Political Review. Sahay has also interned at Just Foreign Policy, where she worked on research and advocacy campaigns related to the war in Afghanistan, the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the U.S. defense budget. A proficient Hindi speaker, she spent a summer during college in New Delhi, where she served as a research assistant to a noted historian for his upcoming book on Mahatma Gandhi. Originally from Berkeley, California, Sahay grew up in Short Hills, New Jersey.
Marcus Taylor (Arms Control Association) is working with Tom Collina on the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, the U.S. nuclear weapons budget, progress on nuclear disarmament at the United Nations, and updating the nonproliferation and disarmament report card. Taylor received a BA in International Relations with honors from California State University, Sacramento in 2012. During his time at CSU Sacramento, he served as a research assistant to Professor David Andersen, himself a former Scoville Fellow, studying conflict triggers and their impact on civilian casualties, and also served as a teaching assistant to another professor in the Government Department. He served as vice president of Peace and Conflict International, a student organization dedicated to promoting awareness and actions on international issues, such as nuclear and conventional disarmament, the humanitarian crisis in Haiti, and international human trafficking, where he helped organize a seminar on conflict resolution strategies. In addition, he served as the Student Coordinator of University Mentoring Programs, where he successfully petitioned the university to adopt the Government Department mentoring program as a model for the university’s official Graduation and Retention Plan. Taylor was named the Jack Livingston Fellow in Political Theory and American Institutions and attended several Model United Nations conferences, where he received both group and individual awards for his participation and the production of research papers. He was born on Carswell Air Force Base, Texas and lived on military bases until the age of fifteen, when his family settled in Sacramento, California.