Holly Carabbio is a PhD student in the Department of Politics specializing in International Relations. Broadly, she is interested in security, secession, foreign assistance, and diplomacy, especially in central Africa.

She is a fellow in the Liechtenstein Institute for Self Determination’s Africa Program, as well as in the Center for International Security Studies, both based at Princeton. In 2026, Princeton’s Institute for International & Regional Studies, as well as the Harry S. Truman Library Institute, awarded her funding to conduct archival research.

Holly earned her Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 2018, where she was awarded the Dean’s Undergraduate Fund award to participate in the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights’ Spring 2017 workshop. In 2023, she earned her Master of Arts in International Relations at the University of Chicago, where she was awarded the Social Sciences scholarship and a full-tuition scholarship. She graduated with Honors for her thesis, which explored the relationship between foreign aid and conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Beyond her academic career, Holly has worked at the U.S. Department of State, within its Office of Inspector General, as well as Chemonics, one of the U.S.’s largest foreign aid contractors.