{"id":16910,"date":"2012-04-13T23:28:08","date_gmt":"2012-04-13T23:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.golive.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T05:48:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T09:48:13","slug":"government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major","status":"publish","type":"story","link":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/","title":{"rendered":"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major"},"content":{"rendered":"Desk Officer, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C.\r\n<\/strong>\r\n\r\nJennifer Goldstein ’05 remembers a session of Professor Cynthia Enloe’s Comparative Politics class where the discussion centered on one topic: tomatoes.\r\n\r\n“The basic premise was that you take what would appear to be mundane issues,” Goldstein says, “and discuss how everything is political. People’s motivations are political, whether they realize it or not.”\r\n\r\nAfter graduating from Clark, she worked for Harris Bank as a privacy analyst; for a political media firm; and then moved to D.C. to be an intern for Rep. Melissa Bean of Illinois. A detour to grad school — the London School of Economics and Political Science, where she earned a master’s in human rights — led to four and a half years of living in the U.K., first studying and then working for LSE’s external relations department and the Mayor of London.\r\n\r\nBut an interest in the U.S. Foreign Service had long been percolating, and Goldstein pursued and obtained her current position as desk officer for the countries of Malawi and Botswana.\r\n\r\nGoldstein is “a communication linchpin” connecting the U.S. embassies in Botswana and Malawi, those countries’ embassies in the U.S., the State Department, and other components of the federal government. She is also the Washington, D.C.-based “subject matter expert” on the political and economic climate in the two countries, and is an advocate in Washington on their behalf.\r\n\r\nIn August, Goldstein will prepare for a two-year tour in Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo. Her first task? Learning French so she can properly do her job as consular chief in the U.S. Embassy. She will oversee American citizen services and visa requests, along with other consular duties.\r\n\r\nSometimes a Foreign Service officer’s role is more about conflict resolution, Goldstein says. “You want to get to your goal, and you have to convince people to come along with you — so you need to figure out what’s bothering them and what’s affecting them.”\r\n\r\nEven if it’s tomatoes.<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Desk Officer, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. Jennifer Goldstein ’05 remembers a session of Professor Cynthia Enloe’s Comparative Politics class where the discussion centered on one topic: tomatoes. “The basic premise was that you take what would appear to be mundane issues,” Goldstein says, “and discuss how everything is political. People’s motivations are political, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"story_color":"#525250","story_headerImg":-1,"section_label":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[441],"displayed_author":[324],"featured":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-16910","story","type-story","status-publish","hentry","category-blogs","displayed_author-clark-news-and-media-relations"],"yoast_head":"\nGovernment: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major | ClarkU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Desk Officer, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. Jennifer Goldstein ’05 remembers a session of Professor Cynthia Enloe’s Comparative Politics class where the discussion centered on one topic: tomatoes. “The basic premise was that you take what would appear to be mundane issues,” Goldstein says, “and discuss how everything is political. People’s motivations are political, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ClarkU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-02T09:48:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/13\\\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/13\\\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\\\/\",\"name\":\"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major | ClarkU News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-04-13T23:28:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-02T09:48:13+00:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/2012\\\/04\\\/13\\\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/16910#breadcrumbs\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":0,\"name\":\"ClarkU\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":5,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":6,\"name\":\"Stories\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-json\\\/wp\\\/v2\\\/story\\\/16910\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"ClarkU News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.clarku.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major | ClarkU News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major","og_description":"Desk Officer, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C. Jennifer Goldstein ’05 remembers a session of Professor Cynthia Enloe’s Comparative Politics class where the discussion centered on one topic: tomatoes. “The basic premise was that you take what would appear to be mundane issues,” Goldstein says, “and discuss how everything is political. People’s motivations are political, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/","og_site_name":"ClarkU News","article_modified_time":"2025-04-02T09:48:13+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/","name":"Government: Jennifer Goldstein ’05, Political Science & History Major | ClarkU News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-04-13T23:28:08+00:00","dateModified":"2025-04-02T09:48:13+00:00","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/2012\/04\/13\/government-jennifer-goldstein-05-political-science-history-major\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16910#breadcrumbs","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":0,"name":"ClarkU","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"ClarkU News","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":6,"name":"Stories","item":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16910"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/","name":"ClarkU News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"fimg_url":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/story"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/story\/16910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"displayed_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/displayed_author?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarku.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=16910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}