Sienna Wdowik ‘17

This profile was current as of 2017, when she was part of the on-campus Kellogg community.

My current research for Professor Desch focuses on identifying and analyzing trends in civilian versus government participation in the Council on Foreign Relations’ International Affairs Fellowship. Professor Desch is also advising my senior thesis, which examines non-physically coercive forms of interrogation as an alternative to torture/enhanced interrogation techniques. Specifically, I am researching the standards and efficacy of humane interrogation in the context of domestic law enforcement, utilizing case studies, training manuals and handbooks, and interviews with law enforcement officials. The thesis seeks to establish under what conditions non-physically coercive interrogation techniques are effective, in order to provide an outline for how those conditions can be created and utilized in the context of international counterterrorism efforts, particularly in American-led counterterrorism investigations against non-US citizens.

I recently received a Notre Dame Summer Language Abroad Grant and a federal David L. Boren Scholarship to study Arabic in Amman, Jordan from June 2015 to May 2016. While in Amman, I participated in an intensive Arabic language program through CIEE. I also volunteered at the Baqa’a Palestinian refugee camp, teaching Tae Kwon Do and women’s empowerment classes to a group of young girls. During my time at Baqa’a, I conducted informal research into the effects of Jordan’s foreign and domestic policies on refugee assistance programs, as well as the interplay between cultural and political narratives in the Palestinian-Jordanian refugee experience. I also received funding from Notre Dame to participate in an internship with the Institute for the Study of War during the summer of 2016. At ISW, I utilized online data visualization and analytic software to track the daily global activity of ISIS militants and supporters, and to manage a long-term research project on ISIS’s capabilities and strategies in Bangladesh.