About

Research interests

 

  • International organizations & the United Nations
  • Global environmental politics & climate change
  • Critical security studies
  • (De)politicization & global governance
  • Time and space in the study of IOs
  • Qualitative methods
©Felix Imhof

Biography

I am associate professor in political science and international relations at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies and co-director of the Global Governance Centre (GGC). I also hold a position of scientific collaborator  at the University of Lausanne where I was senior lecturer (2021-2023) and lecturer (2017-2021) within the Institute of Political Studies (IEP) and  member of the Centre of International History and Political Studies of Globalization (CRHIM). Before my appointment at the University of Lausanne, I completed and defended a PhD in political science from Sciences Po Paris and the University of Geneva (2015) for my work on the securitization of the environment at the United Nations. Then, with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Early Postdoc.Mobility grant, I conducted a research project focused on the action of the international community in the field of environmental protection in Haiti. During this fellowship, I was a visiting scholar at King’s College London (United Kingdom) in 2016 and at Columbia University (United States) in 2017. In the spring of 2019, I was also a visiting scholar at the University of Montreal’s Center for International Studies and Research (CÉRIUM). Until 2020, I was a research fellow at Sciences Po-CERI, CNRS, where I continue to have strong links, especially through the Research Group on Multilateral Action (GRAM).

My research focuses on international organizations and multilateral practices. I investigate the construction of global public problems and their management within multilateral arenas, as well as international institutions’ inner workings. Drawing on international political sociology, my work is empirically-driven and engages with different theoretical traditions. I have a strong interest in qualitative methodology, relying on eclectic sources and combining different methods in my own research, including participant observations, interviews, discourse analysis and visual analysis.

My recent publications include a monograph on depoliticization and international organizations (Why International Organizations Hate Politics. Depoliticizing the World co-authored with Marieke Louis, Routledge, 2021), a special issue on the climatization of world politics (International Politics, 2021), and another on time and space in the study of international organizations (Global Policy, 2021). I have also co-edited the first handbook dedicated to research methods and international organization studies (International Organizations and Research Methods. An Introduction co-edited with Fanny Badache and Leah R. Kimber, 2023, The University of Michigan Press, available in open access).

I am currently working on a research project investigating the way UN actors attempted to keep the environment on the international agenda during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this context, I am exploring the work of the UN Environment Programme in Haiti. In 2023, I also started a project dedicated to the Swiss first membership at the UN Security Council (2023-2024) which intends to build on this case to better understand elected members’ practices.

I am a member of the academic board of the Groupement de recherche sur l’action multilatérale (GRAM), in charge of the partnerships, and a member of the editorial team of the Observatory of International Organizations and Multilateralism for which I am also associate editor for the section Environmental multilateralism. I am also a member of the editorial boards of Études internationales and of the Annuaire français de relations internationales (AFRI) for which I am also associate editor for the section Energy and environment.

Download full CV here
Last update September 2023