Ashlyn Hand was a Post-Doctoral Fellow in public policy at Duke University. Previously, she served as an America in the World Consortium Pre-Doctoral Fellow at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins in Washington, D.C.

Her research focuses on the intersection of U.S. foreign policy and religion and considers the role of human rights promotion in American grand strategy. By analyzing the first two decades of the International Religious Freedom Act, her dissertation examines the durability of foreign policy approaches to promoting freedom of conscience abroad.

Ashlyn’s work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution and Foreign Policy. Ashlyn received her Ph.D. (2021) and a Master in Public Affairs (2015) from the LBJ School of Public Affairs, and her B.S. in public relations from the University of Texas at Austin (2012).