Auburn graduate will pursue doctorate at University of Cologne with prestigious German fellowship

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Auburn University graduate Benjamin Cole was recently awarded one of five Konrad Adenauer Foundation Doctoral Fellowships. The German-based fellowship provides full funding toward doctoral studies in international relations over the next three years.

Cole, a native of Mobile, graduated in spring of 2016 with a master’s in public administration and in the spring of 2014 with a bachelor’s in political science and a minor in German, both in the College of Liberal Arts.

A 2016 Fulbright Scholarship awardee, Cole has spent the last nine months working under the direction of Thomas Jäger, chair of the Institute for International Politics and Foreign Policy at the University of Cologne. While in Cologne, Cole researched the relationship between migrant integration and terror recruiting in Western Europe. As a Konrad Adenauer Doctoral Fellow, he will expand his study in an effort to better understand the challenge of migrant integration processes and security and counter-terrorism policies between Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

"I am incredibly humbled and honored to have received this opportunity from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation," Cole said. "This is the chance of a lifetime for which I am confident my time as an Auburn student and as a Fulbright Scholar has prepared me well. I'm excited to continue pressing with my endeavors and producing research that has real contributions to our critical security issues."

Cole was assisted through the application process by the National Prestigious Scholarships office housed in the Honors College.

The Konrad Adenauer Foundation is a political foundation closely associated with the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, or CDU, which promotes the democratic values of liberal democracy, peace and justice. The research arm of the foundation encourages and facilitates research that contributes to policy making in issue areas such as democracy consolidation, European integration, global development and transatlantic cooperation.

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