Dr. Krista Wiegand Receives Fulbright Specialist Award to the Philippines at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University
The U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board awarded Center for National Security and Foreign Affairs Director Krista Wiegand a Fulbright Specialist Program award to complete a project in the Philippines at Don Mariano Marcos Memorial State University (DMMMSU).
Wiegand will spend the next month completing a project that aims to exchange knowledge and establish partnerships benefiting participants, institutions, and communities both in the U.S. and overseas through a variety of educational and training activities within Peace & Conflict Resolution. Wiegand will collaborate with the university on community resilience and governance, a program designed to strengthen institutional capacity, incorporate peacebuilding into development projects, assess and improve natural disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, and promote collaborative approaches to resilience, climate adaptation, and effective governance. While at DMMMSU, she will give lectures and keynote talks on American excellence, reimagining global education, national security and resilience, global conflict and governance, and international politics of East Asia and the Indo-Pacific region.
Wiegand’s project began on November 24 and will run through December 14. After the project, she will brief the U.S. Embassy in Manila about her work at DMMSSU, as well as her expertise on the tensions between China and the Philippines in the disputed South China Sea. She is one of over 400 U.S. citizens who share expertise with host institutions abroad through the Fulbright Specialist Program each year. Recipients of Fulbright Specialist awards are selected based on academic and professional achievement, demonstrated leadership in their field, and their potential to foster long-term cooperation between institutions in the U.S. and abroad.
As the director of NSFA at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs, Wiegand oversees externally funded research projects that involve faculty fellows, affiliates, and both graduate and undergraduate students. Her role also includes policy engagement with government agencies and think tanks, as well as public outreach through workshops, lectures, and guest speaker programs.
A member of the University of Tennessee faculty since 2014, Wiegand is a professor specializing in international relations, territorial and maritime disputes, conflict management, Indo-Pacific security, and U.S. national security. She taught for nine years at Georgia Southern University and earned a PhD in political science from Duke University.
About the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs
The Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, prepares skilled public problem solvers, grounded in the legacy of Howard H. Baker, Jr., and prepared to take leadership roles in their communities. The first and only institution of its kind in Tennessee, the Baker School offers academic programs, research opportunities, and outreach initiatives that foster thoughtful dialogue and informed decision-making at the local, national, and global levels. For more information, visit baker.utk.edu.