Miriam Marks

Miriam is expecting her BAH in Public Policy in June 2011. Her concentration within the major, Middle East security policy, is a focus that she has deepened with the concurrent study of both advanced Arabic and Hebrew in addition to courses on regional politics and terrorism. This year, she will be writing an honors thesis through Public Policy that analyzes the rising age of male marriage in the Middle East and examines the potential security concerns associated with this trend. For the past two summers, Miriam has engaged in research projects as part of the Summer Research College program. In 2009 she explored the application of economic game theory to morality with Professor Avner Greif (in Economics). This past summer she investigated case studies for a project with Assistant Professor Mary Sprague (in Public Policy) that examined the efficacy of academic research upon policy-making. On campus, Miriam is currently a Haas Center Residential Public Service Coordinator at Branner Hall, financial officer and past president of Sanskriti (Stanford's South Asian Undergraduate Organization), and office assistant for the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies as well as the Mediterranean Studies Forum. She is also working as a research assistant for her thesis advisor, Assistant Professor Lisa Blaydes (in Political Science), on a project that uses micro-level data from the Arab world to explain Arab autocracy. Aside from academics, Miriam loves foreign travel. Most recently she has traveled twice with Stanford Hillel students to Moscow, Russia (in 2009) and Kiev, Ukraine (in 2010) on political advocacy trips with the National Council for Soviet Jewry (NCSJ). She eagerly anticipates opportunities to visit or even live in the Middle East. Miriam eventually hopes to use her analytical and foreign language skills in government intelligence and policy.