Shayna Vayser is a BA/MA candidate at American University’s School of International Service, currently completing her third and final year as an undergraduate in International Studies and her first year as a graduate student in the Intercultural and International Communication program. She is currently researching the relationship between state and polity through methods of self-conceptualization, national memory, and cosmopolitan citizenship. Her interests include immigration policy, gender construction, and media as an agent of diplomacy.