Fellows 2011-2012

The Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance (NCGG), directed by Helen V. Milner, is pleased to announce the selection of its 2011-2012 fellows for the Center's three fellowship programs: Globalization and Governance Fellowship ProgramPostdoctoral Fellowship Program in Regional Political Economy, and the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Program.

The cohort of NCGG fellows chosen from a large pool of applicants from all over the globe will be in residence pursing their own research projects and contributing to the intellectual life of the Center and the School of Public and International Affairs.

Globalization and Governance Fellowship Program

Through the Globalization and Governance Fellowship Program, NCGG awarded six one-year research positions to a group of very talented scholars chosen from a large pool of 121 applicants. These awards are designed to promote basic research in the areas of international and comparative political economy, international organization, global governance, and globalization. Our scholars for the 2011-2012 academic year will be:

Leonardo Baccini earned his Ph.D. from the Department of Political Science at Trinity College Dublin in September of 2009. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Center for Political Economy at New York University (2008-2009) and assistant professor at IMT Lucca (2009-2011). While at the Niehaus Center, Leonardo will work on a book project on north-south trade agreements. The book's core argument is that the formation of EU and US trade agreements is driven by the willingness of new leaders in developing countries to implement and lock in economic reforms. This thesis is tested using a combination of qualitative data from interviews and analytical case studies with quantitative data from an original dataset on the scope of trade agreements. His other research interests include the design of international institutions and diffusion of international organizations in sectors as diverse as trade, labor standards, and energy. His work has been published or is forthcoming in the British Journal of Political ScienceEuropean Union Politics, and European Journal of International Relations. Leonardo will join the department of international relations at LSE in July 2012.
Jorge Bravo received his Ph.D. from Duke University and is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University in New Brunswick. He is interested in Comparative Politics, Political Economy (domestic and international), and Political Behavior. His research revolves around Latin America (and in particular Mexico) and aims to contribute to the growing scholarship on globalization and domestic politics by highlighting a little studied area of inquiry: how migration may influence the relationship between politicians and citizens in a country of emigration. He is currently working on a book manuscript tentatively titled Mexico without (some) Mexicans: Migration, Remittances, and Politics. He is also working on several papers that address some of the consequences of migration and remittances on a wide variety of outcomes - from economic evaluations and presidential approval to lop-sided sex-ratios and women's political participation.
Simone Dietrich received her Ph.D. in political science from Penn State University in 2011. In her research, she is working on developing a general theory about the politics of aid giving among OECD donors and how it has changed over time. At the heart of the theory is the decision-calculus of donors whose goal is to maximize aid success in the recipient country. Specifically, she explores donor decisions about how to deliver aid, with possible delivery channels including recipient governments, NGOs, multilateral organizations, and private contractors. Her argument posits that outcome-oriented donors opt for delivery channels that increase aid effectiveness ex ante: while they prefer to cooperate with governments in countries with good governance, they bypass governments in poorly governed aid receiving countries. Her research also shows that donor selectivity in aid delivery channels reduces poverty in developing countries, as measured by infant health.
Erin Graham will receive her Ph.D. in Political Science from The Ohio State University in August 2011. Her research interests focus on the evolving role and relative effectiveness of international organizations (IOs) in global politics. In her dissertation project she theorizes how the relationship between IO bureaucracies and powerful donor states influences the effectiveness of IO efforts to build capacity and provide services in developing countries. The theory is tested in the areas of global health and climate change. Her other research interests include IO accountability and legitimacy, and domestic and international policy diffusion.
Tuan-Hwee Sng is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Economics at Northwestern University. His research interests include economic history and political economy. His dissertation examines how geographic size shaped fiscal possibilities and the quality of governance in late imperial China, and whether this can help to explain China's developmental trajectory during the age of industrialization. Tuan-Hwee earned his B.Sc. in Economics from the London School of Economics and his M.A. in Economics from Northwestern University. Between 2002 and 2005, he worked in China as a foreign correspondent for a Singapore newspaper.
Kevin L. Young received his PhD from the London School of Economics in August 2010. His dissertation was an extensive empirical study of the role that banking associations and business lobbyists have played in the formation of global regulatory standards in banking. A key finding, arrived at through mixed methods, is that transnationally organized lobbyists are less successful at achieving regulatory policy change than national lobbyists are. Kevin's broader research interests include how the system of global financial governance is changing, the political economy of international negotiation, and the transformation of private sector power in contemporary politics. His current research focuses on how private sector groups and regulators have changed their policy shaping strategies in response to the recent global financial crisis. Kevin has a BA from Trent University, an MA from Carleton University, and an MRes from the London School of Economics.

Postdoctoral Fellowship Program in Regional Political Economy

During the 2011-2012 academic year, the Center will welcome its fourth class of fellows in the regional political economy fellowship program created with the goal of developing a new generation of scholars able to analyze and make policy recommendations about the regional political economy in the Middle East, East, South, or Southeast Asia, Africa and Latin America. This fellowship program attracted 70 applicants for only two slots. The Center will welcome Hoda Youssef and Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl in September.

Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl will receive his Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University in 2011. His dissertation research examines how support that external states provide to domestic armed actors can increase the length of civil wars. His dissertation tests this theory of external support as a subsidy using interviews with former commanders who participated in the civil war in Lebanon from 1975-1990, cross-country statistical evidence, and focused comparisons of other civil wars. While at the Niehaus Center, Jonah will expand his research on the implications of this theory for alliance behavior and the operational aims of violence during civil wars, and pursue its implications for security and development in the Middle East. His research interests, in addition to the conduct of civil wars, include economic growth and development in the Middle East.
Hoda Youssef received her Ph.D. in Economics from Sciences Po Paris in February 2010. Her research work focuses on monetary and fiscal policy, more specifically on the economic, political and institutional preconditions that are necessary for a successful adoption of an inflation targeting framework. Her broader research interests are in macroeconomics and political economy of the MENA region. Before joining the NCGG, Hoda has worked as an Economic Research Analyst at the World Bank Cairo office. She also acquired experience through her work and internships in many other international and multicultural institutions, including the European Commission, the Global Development Network, l'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), the Free University of Brussels ULB, as well as local organizations in Egypt. She is also a lecturer at Cairo University. Hoda speaks English, French and Arabic and has publications on growth and economic policies in both English and French.

Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship Program

Building on a partnership established in 2001, Oxford University and Princeton University launched a postdoctoral fellowship initiative, the Global Leaders Fellowship Program, created to enhance the capacity of developing countries in the areas of scholarship and policy.

Beginning in September 2008, up to six fellowships are to be awarded annually to promising, early-career scholars from developing countries, which will allow fellows to spend one year at Oxford and one year at Princeton pursuing post-doctoral research, with funding provided by the program to cover fellows' full living costs. At Oxford they will be based at the Global Economic Governance Programme and the Centre for International Studies within the Department of Politics and International Relations. At Princeton fellows will be based in the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs.

Global Leaders Fellowship (GLF) scholars for two-year period, FY2011-2012:

Ousseni Illy is a Burkina Faso national, and has joined the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellowship Program in September 2011. After a year in Oxford, his is currently based in Princeton, at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance. His research interest focuses on international trade law and policy, especially on how to strengthen African countries' capacity within the Multilateral Trading System of the WTO. His current project deals with trade remedies (Anti-dumping, Countervailing and Safeguards) in Africa. Ousseni holds a PhD in International Trade Law from Geneva University and a Master in Public Law from the University of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. He worked, among other things, as research assistant for Professor Gabrielle Marceau at Geneva University and for the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. Furthermore, he has been an intern and a consultant for the UN (Legal Affairs, Codification Division) and PhD visiting researcher at the WTO Secretariat, Geneva. He speaks French, English, More and Dioula.
Ren Hongsheng has joined the Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow Programme in 2010. He is working on the "Chinese companies engagement the United Nations Global Compact" in the GLF programme. His research interests include the political economy of FDI, China's Political and Economic Transition, and Asian geopolitics. He holds a PhD in Economics from Nankai University, China. He has worked as a postdoctoral fellow in China University of Political Science and Law from 2005 to 2008. He has been as a visiting scholar at Columbia University in the city of New York, 2008-2009. Prior to coming to Oxford, Ren Hongsheng was an associate professor of International Political Economy at China University of Political Science and Law, Beijing.
Omobolaji Olarinmoye is an Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow currently based at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, New Jersey. Nigerian and political scientist, Dr. Olarinmoye holds a doctorate in Comparative Politics from the University of Ibadan (2007), an M. Phil/D.E.A in African Politics from the Institut d' etudes Politique /Centre d'etudes d 'Afrique Noire, Bordeaux (2001), an M.sc (1998) and B.sc (1996) in Political Science from University of Ibadan. His areas of research interest are: Comparative Politics, African Politics/ Nigerian Government and Politics, Development Studies and Peacekeeping/Post conflict peace-building. Dr. Olarinmoye doctoral thesis on the "Politics of Ethnic Mobilization Amongst the Yoruba of South-western Nigeria" was awarded the Best Thesis Prize in Nigerian Politics and Government from the Department of Political Science University of Ibadan (2007). His M. Phi l/ D.E.A dissertation titled « Programme RECAMP: La Nouvelle Politique de Coopération Militaire Française en Afrique Noire » focused on France's Post-Cold War Military Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He is competent in the use of English, French and Yoruba languages. Dr. Olarinmoye was programme coordinator, South-South Research Exchange Programme on History of Development, SEPHIS in the office of the Executive Secretary, CODESRIA Secretariat, Dakar and programme manager in the Training, Grants and Fellowship programme of CODESRIA with primary responsibility for Africa Capacity Building Foundation funded programmes of CODESRIA from November 2007-June 2010. Before then, he lectured in Comparative Politics at the Department of Political Science, Igbinedion University, Okada, Edo State, Nigeria (2006-2007). He is a recipient of numerous national and international awards/fellowships and grants: Thomas Torries Research Paper Award of the Mineral Economics and Management Society, USA, (2008); Cadbury Fellowship of the Centre of West African Studies, University of Birmingham (2006); Commended Paper Award of the International Sociological Association (2005); Letter of Commendation for Academic Excellence from the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academics), University of Ibadan (2006); the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity (CRISE), University of Oxford research grant (2006); Institut Française de Recherché en Afrique research grant (2004); SEPHIS/CSSSC International Research Programme Fellowship (2004) and the Government of France Scholarship for Postgraduate Studies in France, 2000 -2001.
Valéria Guimarães de Lima e Silva, a Brazilian national, is an Oxford-Princeton Global Leaders Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University. Her current research focuses on International Economic Law and Policy analysis, more specifically on the intersection between International Trade, Intellectual Property Rights, Competition Law and Health. She is currently researching the politics and law of border measures for the protection of Intellectual Property Rights. During the first year of the Fellowship at the University of Oxford, Valéria researched abusive ('sham') litigation in the pharmaceutical sector. Valéria's fields of expertise are International Trade Law, Competition Law, Intellectual Property Rights and Public International Law. Before joining the GLF Programme, Valéria worked for the Brazilian Competition Authority (CADE) as Chief of Staff and International Adviser, where she assisted the Presidency in various matters and was in charge of the International Department of the authority. She previously served as a Blue Book trainee in the European Commission's DG Competition in Brussels. She has also worked in Taipei as a legal counsel for a Taiwanese biotechnology company, and as a lawyer and team manager for a branch of a business law firm in Rio de Janeiro. She started her career as a lawyer in the second largest Intellectual Property Law firm of Latin America. Valéria received her PhD in International Law from the University of Sao Paulo in 2004. Her PhD thesis undertook a comparative analysis of extraterritorial jurisdiction in competition laws of the US, European Union and Brazil, and assessed the viability of regulating competition law internationally in the WTO. Her thesis was unanimously recommended for publication by the Board of Examiners and was published as a book in Brazil in 2006. She also holds a Masters in International Trade Law and Economics from the World Trade Institute, in Berne, Switzerland, where she has graduated with a Summa cum Laude degree. Valéria is fluent in Portuguese, English and Spanish and has a working knowledge of French and German, as well as a basic knowledge of Italian.