Eli Zainea ‘28

Eli Zainea, a member of the Class of ’28 at the University of Notre Dame, studies Global Affairs in the Keough School of Global Affairs, with academic interests centered on geopolitics, foreign policy, and international security. He is particularly interested in regions of the Global South, with regional focuses on Latin America and the Middle East, while strengthening his skills in Spanish and Arabic. Zainea aspires to pursue a career in the Foreign Service.
His research interests include post-conflict reconstruction and governance in the Syrian Arab Republic, as well as comparative questions of development and state capacity across the Middle East and Latin America.

Zainea began his undergraduate studies at the Georgetown University Walsh School of Foreign Service, where he pursued coursework in international affairs and participated in a partnered summer academic program with Universidad de San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador. He is also looking ahead to a semester in Jordan in Spring 2027. He now continues his academic journey at Notre Dame, where global affairs and research remain central to his academic focus.

Currently, Zainea is a participant in the Nanovic Institute’s Diplomacy Fellows Program and a member of the Foreign Language Internship Program cohort for Summer 2026. Through the Kellogg Developing Researchers Program, he seeks to strengthen his quantitative and qualitative research skills while collaborating with faculty on applied research projects.