Guiliano Global Fellow and Brown alumnus Nicholas Sanzi was elected to the Rhodes Scholar Class of 2026 on Saturday, November 15. Nicholas, a native of Providence, Rhode Island, earned his bachelor’s degree in international and public affairs in May 2025.
Much of Sanzi’s research at Brown, where he served as managing editor of the Brown Journal of World Affairs, focused on the origins of populist nationalism and democratic renewal. As a Saxena Fellow, he studied industrial policy and local development in Chennai, India, and he received a William R. Rhodes Fellowship to assist the rollout of rural broadband infrastructure grants at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in Washington, D.C. An oil painter and graffiti muralist, Sanzi was also the recipient of the Guiliano Global Fellowship, which supported his filming of a documentary about street art in France.
The breadth of opportunities Sanzi found at Brown allowed him to connect his academic interests with real-world work in communities and government. Most formatively, he said, he took time off the fall of his senior year to work on the Harris-Walz presidential campaign in North Carolina.
“Brown gave me the freedom to learn the world—to explore disciplines, follow my curiosities faithfully, and to understand the challenges we face as a country and international community,” Sanzi said. “To Oxford, I carry with me that sense of purpose, as well as the inclination to think creatively. “
Sanzi spent the summer after his graduation teaching English and digital literacy at the Refugee Dream Center in Providence. Since September, he’s been living in Washington, D.C., where he works as a legislative intern at the United States Senate. He will pursue a master’s degree at Oxford, where he plans to study political theory to inform his goals for the rehabilitation of contemporary liberal politics and policy.
In a moment of political uncertainty in the U.S. and abroad, Sanzi said he hopes to help shape a future grounded in democratic renewal and public service.
“One day, following the example of my parents, I hope to return to Rhode Island as an engaged public servant, connecting local civic renewal to national democratic transformation for the communities that raised me,” Sanzi said.
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