“In a world that so often decries the apathy of its youth, we can open our arms for the millions … eager to contribute their new ideas and bounding enthusiasm.”

— Nelson Mandela

Our Team

Founded in 2022 at Duke University — the only university in the American South with a sister campus in the Global South, Duke Kunshan University — the editorial board of Nexus brings together passionate and thoughtful global citizens across continents and between disciplines, from history and economics to engineering and data science.

Nexus is entirely student-led. Our journal is by students, for student-led research, with a focus on undergraduate-led research. Get to know our editorial board below.

We are also informed by the diverse perspectives of faculty and junior scholars at Duke University and other major research institutions worldwide who support the success of the next generation of Global South scholars.

Nino Nadirashvili

Co-Founder and Editor in Chief, Nexus
Co-Director, South-North Scholars

  • Hey, I’m Nino — Editor-in-Chief of Nexus and the first Georgian Yenching Scholar.
    I’m a Class of 2024 magna cum laude graduate of Duke University and Duke Kunshan University, where I majored in Political Economy. As Co-Founder and Co-Director of South-North Scholars, I’m passionate about creating platforms that amplify Global South voices and connect young thinkers across borders. My work centers agency in development and explores global governance, regional integration, and decolonial approaches to global order — with a particular focus on Europe–Asia relations and Georgia’s role at their crossroads.

    Get in touch if you’d like to collaborate, exchange ideas, or work together on amplifying youth research from the Global South.

Michelle Schultze

Editorial Board, Nexus Issue I & II

  • I am a senior at Duke University studying Economics, Political Science, and the Russian language. With the extreme income, education, and opportunity disparities in my hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, I sought educational pathways to locate solutions for real, lasting, and systemic change. Growing up in the Greek-American community, I also grew passionate about immigrant rights and involving local voices in conversations about aid. I seek to center narratives from the Global South and underrepresented communities in discussions about US foreign policy — leading an expansion of Borderless Magazine for the 2023-24 cycle and co-founding the Abdullah Antepli fellowship for the Alexander Hamilton Society. My primary involvement with South-North Scholars is through arts outreach and graphic design. As a board member for Nexus Journal, I enjoy working on layout and editorial aspects in order to lend the best possible platform to our student voices.

Joshua Suh

Editorial Board Member, Nexus Issue I

  • I graduated from Duke University as a QuestBridge Scholar. From Atlanta, Georgia, I studied Public Policy and French with a particular interest in the intersections between front-line, shorter-term humanitarian action with longer-term disaster resiliency against a wide range of humanitarian crises in the Global South. I seek to augment my professional interests with sustainable development experiences spanning diverse roles, organizations, and geographies. I’ve worked in the offices of a large NGO in France, held advocacy roles with a political organization in the United States, and launched an insect-agriculture NGO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Charlie Zong

Co-Founder and Co-Director,
South-North Scholars

  • I graduated from the MicroMaster’s program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy: International Development offered by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology J-PAL (Poverty Action Lab). Previously, I studied philosophy, politics, and economics as a Robertson Scholar at Duke University, where I worked on fine-tuning qualitative experimental datasets for machine learning analysis. I launched South-North Scholars, the first global knowledge network led by and for youth, to build meaningful opportunities for our global generation to engage international institutions as valued thought partners in policy research, technology innovation, and cultural dialogue.

Amanda Niza
Gonzalez Mejia

Editorial Board, Nexus Issue I & II

  • Hey! I'm a Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar at Duke Kunshan University studying Political Economy and Public Policy. Hailing from Caracas, Venezuela, and later immigrating to Washington DC, international political and economic relations have long characterized my dinner table conversations. I first became involved in international initiatives by founding an Amnesty International chapter in my high school, later becoming Virginia Student Action Coordinator. I'm particularly passionate about international economic policy and its effects on Latin American internal politics, decolonizing law and policy frameworks, and sustainable financial development in the Global South. As a board member, I predominantly focus on outreach with scholars around the world, and any/all who have something to say. Through Nexus, I hope to provide a platform to amplify Global South voices and widen perspectives (including my own).

Cody Schmidt

Editorial Board, Nexus Issue I & II

  • I graduated from Duke Kunshan University with degrees in Environmental Science and Public Policy. I grew up in the US primarily between the states of South Carolina, Oregon, and California. This allowed me to experience different economic, political, and cultural systems in my own country. Through this, I developed an interest in comparative politics, the expression of collective identities, and spatial inequities, while widening my lens to an international perspective. I am currently a part of research projects examining international democratic participation and degrowth movements in the Global South, respectively. These have led me to Nexus, where I am looking forward to interacting with scholars across the globe as we examine what it means to live in a globalizing world.

Javier Sebastián Portilla

Editorial Board, Nexus Issue II

  • I am a Yenching Scholar at Peking University, pursuing Politics and International Relations. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, I graduated summa cum laude with a dual degree in Public Policy from Duke University and Duke Kunshan University. My research explores Sino–Latin American relations, focusing on how Ecuador can achieve economic diversification through Chinese foreign direct investment, technology transfer, and value-added production. I am also interested in migration and emerging Chinese diasporas across the Americas under the Belt and Road Initiative.

Maxwell Simbuwa

Editorial Board Member, Nexus Issue I

  • I graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill as a Robertson Scholar, pursuing a major in Anthropology and a certificate in Documentary Studies. Having taken part, from age 10, in human rights advocacy at many levels and having experienced the aid economy firsthand in my home country of Zambia, I have developed an undying interest in global issues.
    I'm very passionate about what it means for global south nations and their peoples to exist in a globalising world with the respect and dignity so often not afforded to them. With South-North Scholars, and particularly Nexus, I'm excited to reimagine sustainable development and contribute to decolonial discourse on the world and its systems, especially those of oppression.