Dr. Caileigh Glenn was an America in the World Consortium Postdoctoral Fellow at AGS from 2023 to 2025.
What has been the most memorable part of your AGS experience?
The Program in American Grand Strategy offers so many opportunities to apply the study of international relations to the practice of U.S. strategy and policy. The AGS speaker series and the Phillips Lectures facilitated some fascinating discussions, and getting to hear from policy experts and practitioners enriched my own thinking about pressing foreign policy challenges. I enjoyed them all! But the most memorable part of my time with AGS was the Staff Ride to Gettysburg. Not only was I able to meet the impressive AGS undergrads and affiliates, but we were able to learn from each other in the proverbial “room where it happened.”
What is something you wish you had known when you began your fellowship at AGS?
The AGS network is very broad and AGS folks have a wide array of insights to offer scholars of foreign policy at all levels. Students and fellows can certainly learn from each other and the visiting speakers, but the ability to reach out to AGS alumni, affiliated faculty, and visiting supporters of the program, too, – including members of the wider Duke community – is a hugely valuable resource of the program. I really recommend that students frequently check the AGS calendar for upcoming AGS opportunities to both hear from visiting speakers and connect with others in the AGS Program network.
How has AGS contributed to your professional development?
My time with AGS has been incredibly valuable in a number of ways. My research on foreign policy has benefitted from hearing the experiences of visiting policymakers and policy advisors. By getting a sense of how policy practitioners view foreign policy challenges and opportunities, and how their expertise shapes their decision-making, I am better able to sharpen my own perspective and question the assumptions I am making in my research. The opportunity to facilitate discussions with students in the program has also helped me to be a better teacher-scholar, and I plan on incorporating what I’ve learned from my interactions with AGS students into my approach to teaching. Finally, the interdisciplinary nature of AGS at Duke has helped to enrich my own thinking about best practices for research and policy-relevant scholarship.
What is next for you in your career?
This summer, I will begin the next stage of my career as an Assistant Professor of Political Science specializing in International Relations and Foreign policy at Middlebury College. I am incredibly excited to bring to my new role all that I have learned as an America in the World Consortium Postdoctoral Associate in Duke’s Program in American Grand Strategy.