Michael Williams, associate professor of public administration and international affairs and director of the master of arts in international relations program, has been elected to the Governing Council of the International Studies Association and the Executive Committee of the Governing Council for 2023-24. 

The International Studies Association is one of the oldest interdisciplinary associations dedicated to understanding international, transnational and global affairs. The association, which has more than 7,000 global members, was established in 1959 and is composed of academics, practitioners, policy experts, private sector workers and independent researchers. The association serves as a central hub for the exchange of ideas, networking and programmatic initiatives among those involved in international studies teaching and practice. 

Each year, through its annual convention and regional conferences as well as its journals, the association promotes discussion, research and writing on wide-ranging topics within international studies. It also offers various funding and mentorship opportunities. 

Williams is the director of the International Affairs Seminar Series offered by the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Institute of Global Affairs, based at the Maxwell School. He researches international security with a regional concentration in 20th-century Europe and Russia. He is a fellow of the Inter-University Seminar on the Armed Forces and the Royal Society for the Arts (U.K.) and a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. He received a Ph.D. at the London School of Economics and Political Science in 2006. 

By Jewell Bohlinger