Desh Girod
Desh Girod (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2008) is an associate professor in the Department of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University and an affiliate with the Departments Conflict Resolution Program and Georgetowns Center for Social Justice.
Desh Girod (Ph.D., Stanford University, 2008) is an associate professor in the Department of Government in the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown University and an affiliate with the Department's Conflict Resolution Program and Georgetown's Center for Social Justice.
Dr. Girod's latest research examines how racial projects function globally and in the United States. He is currently writing a book, Jim Crow Foreign Policy, on how domestic race politics shaped the rise of the United States as a global power. Dr. Girod is also researching the relationship between political science and U.S. foreign policy formulation. Dr. Girod expanded his methodological training to undertake this work. He now uses interpretive methods and engages in archival and ethnographic research.
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Dr. Girod developed an early interest in how powerful countries influence less powerful ones. He published his research on foreign aid in periodicals including the American Journal of Political Science and International Organization, as well as his first book, Explaining Post-Conflict Reconstruction, with Oxford University Press. (His first name appears as Desha on these and other publications prior to 2021; as a transman, he has since changed it to Desh).
In 2017-18, Dr. Girod served as President of the Foreign Policy Section of the American Political Science Association. From 2018 to 2021, he directed the Master's program in Conflict Resolution at Georgetown. In 2020, Out in National Security recognized him as a National Security Leader, and as an LGBTQIA+ Foreign Policy Expert, and the Diversity in National Security Network recognized him as a Latine Foreign Policy Expert.
Dr. Girod earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2008, an M.Phil in International Peace Studies from Trinity College, Dublin, in 2002, and a B.A. in Political Science from Penn State in 2000. His research has received support from Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the Political Instability Task Force, Georgetown's College of Arts and Sciences, the Office of the Provost, and Stanford's Center for Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. The Bunton-Waller Fellowship for underrepresented groups funded his Bachelor of Arts degree, the Mitchell Scholarship funded his M.Phil., and the Harry S. Truman Foundation, Stanford's Political Science Department, and the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law funded his Ph.D.