Sarah Erickson has started the Ph.D. program at the School of Public Policy and has been selected as the sixth recipient of the Kelleher Fellowship for International Security Studies. The Fellowship honors emeritus professor Catherine M. Kelleher, a founding faculty member of the School of Public Policy and the first director of the Center for International and Security Studies at Maryland (CISSM).
“Sarah has Catherine’s trailblazing spirit,” said CISSM Director Nancy Gallagher. “She is the first in her family to get a college degree, to live in Russia, and to work in Vienna and Geneva. Now, she’s at the forefront of a new generation of scientists and policy experts charting a more cooperative path for space security.
Erickson’s research focuses on multistakeholder governance in outer space, including the outer space-nuclear nexus, the impacts of emerging space technology, and the development of global space policies and strategies. She has been working at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), where she served as the substantive consultant to the secretariat of the 2024 Group of Governmental Experts on further practical measures for preventing an arms race in outer space. There, she gathered regional perspectives on space security issues through the organization of regional workshops around the world and acted as the research lead for the Institute's Space Security Portal.
Erickson decided to pursue her Ph.D. at UMD in part due to CISSM’s long-standing research project on space security and connections to UNIDIR. She seeks to “continue contributing to work on space security and global governance at the multilateral level from a place of deepened expertise, bridging the gap between what takes place at the UN level and the regional and domestic levels.”
CISSM’s ongoing work on U.S.-Russia security relations was also a major draw for Erickson. She graduated with a dual degree M.A. from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the Moscow State Institute of International Relations in WMD Nonproliferation, Nuclear Policy, and Global Security. Her thesis focused on the political aspects of preventing an arms race in outer space. She also received her M.A. in Russian Linguistics, Literature, and Language, as well as her B.A. in Linguistics and Russian from the University of Arizona. Washington and Moscow have been cooperating in space for as long as they have been competing there. As a graduate research assistant for a project funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Sarah will be looking for opportunities to expand U.S.-Russia space cooperation as a way to improve their overall security relationship. “I hope that my research will help anticipate future issues that can aid with preemptive de-escalation and better understanding of varying perspectives.”
Sarah grew up on a ranch near the U.S.-Mexico border, where, through observation of the desert skies, she developed a passion for space and astronomy. After graduating from college in 2019, Erickson received a Fulbright Scholarship to work at the Perm National Research Polytechnic University in Perm, Russia. She has also worked with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, the Russian Center for Policy Research (PIR Center), and the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Nonproliferation. In 2021, she was a recipient of the IAEA Marie-Sklodowska Curie Fellowship.
Erickson credits her position now to the legacy of Catherine M. Kelleher. “My first week of graduate school at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, two fellow students invited me to join an event by the Women in International Security chapter at MIIS. I attended and met with a group of people who would soon become friends and the support system I needed. This community is the legacy of Catherine M. Kelleher,” Erickson said. “Her efforts and those who support her have made tangible differences for people like me and other women around the world. I only hope I can give back, encourage, and support any person wanting to make a positive difference in this space.”
Past recipients of the Kelleher Fellowship include Sanjana Gogna, Samuel Hickey, Lauren Samuelsen, and Lindsay Rand.
