Joshua White of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in July defended his PhD dissertation, "Conflicted Islamisms: Decision-Making and Anti-State Agitation Among Pakistani Islamist Parties," for which he received an AIPS Short Term Lecturing and Research Fellowship. His research sought to explain how and why Islamist parties — with particular emphasis on the major factions of the Jamiat Ulama-e Islam and the Jamaat-e Islami — decide to support or oppose new shariah measures that challenge the authority of the state. The research drew on archival sources and semi-structured interviews with religious and political leaders in Peshawar, Islamabad, and Lahore, and sought to map the parties' vulnerabilities with respect to the state, competitor groups, and party constituents. With particular emphasis on the last two decades, it covered cases such as the emergence of the TNSM in the mid-1990s; the tenure of the MMA government in the Frontier; and the Lal Masjid crisis. Joshua also delivered lectures at his two host institutions, the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) and Pakistan's National Defence University (NDU), as well as Forman Christian College and the Islamabad Policy Research Institute. His dissertation committee was chaired by Karl Jackson and included Walter Andersen (SAIS), Jonah Blank (RAND), Anita Weiss (University of Oregon), and Andrew Wilder (US Institute of Peace).