Jennifer Wistrand

Dr. Jennifer S. Wistrand is the Associate Director of the Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center where she advises undergraduate majors and minors, teaches courses, and manages grants and budgets.

Dr. Wistrand has a BA in Anthropology and French from Northwestern University and a PhD in Anthropology from Washington University in St. Louis.  Her research interests include, but are not limited to, migration and forced displacement (refugees and IDPs) in the South Caucasus and Central Asia, building on fieldwork in Georgia and Azerbaijan; and humanitarian and development approaches to managing migration and forced displacement.   She has held a number of fellowships, including a Fulbright Fellowship in Azerbaijan.

Prior to joining the University of Illinois, Dr. Wistrand was the Deputy Director of the Kennan Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.  In this role, she briefed government officials and policy makers and provided commentary for the media about international affairs in Russia, Ukraine, the South Caucasus, and Central Asia.

Dr. Wistrand has been a term appointee and a Mellon / ACLS Fellow / Franklin Fellow at the U.S. Department of State, including in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.  She has consulted for the World Bank and been an Assistant Teaching Professor at Miami University (Ohio) and an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.  She was also a Peace Corps Volunteer in Turkmenistan.