Vishnu Kannan, a Michigan State University student interested in international affairs, was awarded a nationally competitive research assistant fellowship through the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, D.C.
Each year, the James C. Gaither Junior Fellows Program holds a rigorous national competition to select approximately 12-14 graduating seniors to serve as research assistants. They are matched with senior fellows — academics, former government officials, lawyers and journalists from around the world — to work on a variety of international affairs issues.
Kannan is an Honors College senior majoring in political theory and constitutional democracy and international relations in James Madison College, along with economics in the College of Social Science.
“It is an honor to accept the James C. Gaither Junior Fellowship. I am excited to work with scholars I admire researching and writing about technology policy issues at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,” Kannan said. “I am so grateful to my family, faculty advisors and friends for their support and counsel through the application process and I look forward to making them proud in the coming year.”
Kannan is a research assistant for the Foreign Policy Research Institute and a contributor to Lawfare, a national security law blog. Currently, he is working on research with the James Madison Human Rights Lab about human rights violations in Myanmar and he recently interned with the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Kannan’s research mentors are Benjamin Lorch and Mark Axelrod in James Madison College.
Kannan will work in the Technology and International Affairs Program and is MSU’s 3rd James C. Gaither, formerly Carnegie, Jr. Fellow.
“While at MSU, Kannan has capitalized on opportunities to engage in scholarly pursuits focused on addressing global challenges at the intersection of technology and international affairs,” said Cynthia Jackson-Elmoore, dean of the Honors College. “On behalf of the MSU community, I want to congratulate Kannan for being named a James C. Gaither Jr. Fellow.”
The National and International Fellowship and Scholarship (NIFS) Office at MSU, administered by the Honors College, helps interested undergraduate and graduate students to pursue major national and international opportunities by providing information and direct support throughout the competitive application processes.