Anna Grigoreva

Anna Grigoreva is a third-year PhD student in International Education Policy at the University of Maryland's College of Education. Her research examines the history of U.S.-Cuban academic exchange, tracing how shifts in bilateral policy across administrations have shaped the possibilities and limits of scholarly collaboration between the two countries. Drawing on decolonial feminist theory and critical policy analysis, she investigates how educational mobility is instrumentalized as a geopolitical tool - and what persists in spite of that instrumentalization.

Her dissertation centers the voices of Cuban women academics navigating successive cycles of opening and closure in U.S.-Cuban relations, bringing qualitative fieldwork conducted in Cuba into conversation with historical and policy analysis. She approaches this work from a critical, non-American standpoint, attentive to how dominant scholarship in international education continues to center Global North perspectives while overlooking the knowledge systems of those most affected by geopolitical rupture.

Anna's broader scholarly interests span academic diplomacy, the politics of international student mobility, and contemplative and holistic approaches to education. She serves as co-editor of a special issue of the Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education, and has published in Teaching in Higher Education, Teachers College Press, and the Emerald Handbook on International Higher Education.

A Fulbright Scholar and Erasmus alumna, Anna brings together scholarly rigor, cross-cultural experience, and a deep commitment to the idea that universities can be sites of genuine peace — not just academic achievement. She brings three years of professional experience in International Admissions and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Studies, a Master’s in Applied Cultural Sciences and a Master’s in International Education Policy from University of Maryland - College Park. 

She serves as the graduate assistant for Academic Advising and Community Coordinator for the Department of Fraternity and Sorority Life of the Division of Student Affairs at UMD.

Anna is annually serving as a volunteer in applications selection process at CIES, NAFSA, graduate student research conference of the Washington Consortium for Comparative International Education and Training (WCCIET) and Fund for Education Abroad (FEA). 

Anna is a current member of the International Graduate Student Government Board (IGSAB) at University of Maryland - College Park, representing the interests of international graduate students and the Education in Conflict and Emergencies Board (EiCE) where she is involved in a role of the Social Media Chair (working on planning, organizing and promotion of the events organized by the board).

She also serves as a peer reviewer of the "Journal of Global Higher Education" (JGHE) within the "Research with International Students" (RIS) network and CIES Higher Education SIG "Journal of Comparative and International Higher Education" (JCIHE).

You can find her in Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=z09lnbsAAAAJ&hl=ru

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2914-5591

ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Grigoreva-6?ev=hdr_xprf

and LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/anna-grigoreva-22110654