The Johns Hopkins SAIS Office of Admissions welcomes prospective students to specially designed lectures as an introduction to the world-class scholars and practitioners who contribute to the vibrant, academic life of the school.  See firsthand how our lecturers inform and engage students in critical international relations issues. The program is meant to be interactive and will include a question and answer session.

Please note that all Johns Hopkins SAIS Admissions Taster Lectures are off the record. No audio, video, transcription or digital recording is allowed.

Sarah E. Parkinson received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2013 and joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in 2016. Her research examines organizational behavior and social change during and following war. Focusing predominantly on the Middle East and North Africa, she uses social network analysis and ethnographic methods to study the ways that actors such as militant organizations, political parties, and humanitarian groups cope with crisis, disruption, and fragmentation. Parkinson has conducted extensive fieldwork among Palestinian and Syrian refugees in Lebanon and with humanitarian organizations in Iraqi Kurdistan. Her work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Social Science and Medicine, The Middle East Report, and the Washington Post's Monkey Cage blog.

Parkinson holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a BA in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She has held fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota, the Institute for Middle East Studies at George Washington University, and Yale University's Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence. Parkinson serves on the Steering Committee of the Project on Middle East Political Science.