This year the BGInS Student Society presented the Outstanding BGInS Human Awards to individuals at BGInS who support the academic success of BGInS students and play a fundamental role in improving the student life. After receiving nominations from students and other BGInS community members, there were two names that rose to the top of the list. Professor Sean Burges and Professor Ioanna Sahas Martin. They both exemplify a dedication to improving the BGInS community and have gone above and beyond in assisting BGInS students academically and professionally.
Sean Burges
Professor Burges’ research follows an inductive and interdisciplinary approach to questions of development, international political economy, foreign policy, and comparative politics. While many of his publications fit best in the categories of Brazilian foreign policy and inter-American affairs, his work addresses South-South relations, international development policy, regional integration, democratization, international political economy, and comparative policy formulation. He is particularly interested in how developing country governments and actors attempt to mobilize and deploy to achieve domestic development goals. His ongoing work is built around an examination of the business-government relations behind Brazil’s turn to Africa during the presidency of Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva. This in turn is opening angles of research on foreign policy decision-making processes, corruption, and democratic consolidation as well as the reformulation of Southern-based attitudes to and interactions with the global system.
Prior to starting his position with BGInS, he was a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the Australian National University, where he was also the convener of undergraduate international relations studies as well as deputy director of the Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies. He has previously served in the Government of Canada in both the Canadian International Development Agency and the Canada Border Services Agency as well as the Cadieux-Leger Fellowship with the Government of Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. Outside of the academy he continues to engage in the consultancy projects that inform his approach to teaching as well as an active program of media engagement and academic outreach to bridge the practice-academic divide.
Ioanna Sahas Martin
Ioanna has over 25 years’ experience in international affairs, including as an executive at Global Affairs Canada and at the Canadian International Development Agency. She also served as a Senior Policy Analyst with the former Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada. Before joining government in 2001, Ioanna gained policy research experience at the Institute On Governance and the International Development Research Centre. Earlier roles included Membership Relations Manager at the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, and Editor with Oxford University Press Hong Kong.
Ioanna has a keen interest in international development, corporate social responsibility, inclusive governance and gender equality. She brings practical expertise in international policy and programming; knowledge of Canada’s bilateral, multilateral and regional engagement; linkages with civil society and knowledge sharing networks in Canada and abroad; and human resources and financial management know-how. Ioanna serves as a volunteer in the Ottawa community, and enjoys creative writing. Publishing credits include articles on travel and international development, poetry in Bywords.ca and Event Poetry and Prose, an honourable mention in the GritLIT2022 short story contest and a shortlisted story in the 2022 International Amy MacRae Award for Memoir.
Ioanna is an alumna of Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs (M.A., Development Studies, 1995) and of the University of Waterloo (Joint Honours B.A., French and Political Science, 1993). She is currently on leave from the Government of Canada.
Congratulations to you both for being named a 2023-2024 Outstanding BGInS Human. We cannot express to you how much we appreciate your commitment to the program as well as empowering student life and academic success here at BGInS. Thank you!