Rana Shabb

Conveying ideas and arguments and learning from and mentoring students is a deep-seated passion of mine. In addition to a full-time professional commitment in the field of international development and conflict resolution, I have taught courses at the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, when possible. I have taught Globalization at the graduate level, Introduction to Global Development at the undergraduate level, and Middle Relations at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Every course I have taught has received excellent ratings from students as I prioritize their intellectual growth, inquiry, and engagement in the classroom.
My teaching philosophy is to engage students and motivate them with the content rather than apply coercive and punitive approaches. With minimal technology restrictions, my students tend to be focused and engaged during the course period. I approach every class with a combined methodology for teaching. I provide lectures that are no more than 20 minutes long, coupled with directed discussion, just-in-time teaching, experiential learning through application of concepts, case-based learning, and role playing and simulations. This mixed approach motivates students to come prepared because they are expected to deeply engage with the material and their fellow students.

I am driven by action-oriented research with direct impact for developing countries and global security. The field of global development aims not only to better understand the trajectory of the global south, but to engender desired and positive changes towards peace and prosperity. In my academic and professional career, I have published (individually and collaboratively) to contribute to the academic literature and pertinent debates in international development. In addition to scholarly work, which is necessary for knowledge creation and expansion, my objective is to further translate the academic understandings to a broad audience and actionable policy recommendations and programmatic approaches in the field of international development. Thus, I have also published in newspapers and other accessible outlets. My research agenda purposefully bridges the gap between academic inquiry and practice.
Cumulatively, taking my academic and professional experience into account, my areas of research interests are international global development and comparative and regional studies with a focus on conflict studies, technology and the private sector. My research is guided by demand-driven questions and I have applied mixed method approaches to address the relevant questions at hand, inclusive of quantitative analysis and qualitative case studies.