Megan Brand is a 2023-24 Thomas W. Smith Postdoctoral Research Associate with the James Madison Program. Prior to this, she was the Postdoctoral Fellow at the Christopher Browne Center for International Politics at the University of Pennsylvania. She researches foreign policy strategy and comparative constitutionalism. Her first book project examines the strategic development of international refugee law in the U.S., Middle East, and Europe.

While at the Madison Program, she will work on a natural law theory of international law. She will also continue policy research on national security of water law in the U.S. She has been a Marshall Scholar, Truman Scholar, NSEP Boren Scholar, Morgenthau Fellow, and Critical Language Scholar. Prior to doctoral studies, she worked as a consultant to UNHCR’s Division of International Protection and in philanthropic strategy.

She received her PhD in Politics from Princeton University, MSc in Forced Migration from the University of Oxford, an MSc in Middle East Politics from the School of Oriental and African Studies, and BS in Economics and BA in Political Science from her hometown area, Arizona State University.