Research

My research unifies historical, theoretical, and practice-based approaches to global governance to examine how technical expertise shapes international order. I focus on domains often considered peripheral to IR, health, technology, and environmental governance, and show how they produce lasting institutional and normative effects on the international system. Across my book project and other work, I demonstrate how ostensibly neutral and technical forms of governance play central roles in structuring global hierarchies, defining legitimate governance actors, and shaping the goals of international cooperation.

  • Governing the Sick World: Health Governance and the Making of Modern International Order

    My dissertation examines how health governance shaped foundational aspects of the liberal international order between the mid-19th century and World War II. Drawing on archival research, I show how technical shifts in health governance helped redefine global hierarchies, incorporate private actors, and standardize data collection. The project challenges the assumption that health is peripheral to international order by revealing its formative historical role.

  • “Constructing Business Authority in Global Governance: A Bourdieusian Account of Multi-Level Meaning Fixation”

    In a forthcoming article at the Review of International Studies (co-authored with Adrian Calmettes) I explain the rise in business authority in late 20th century global governance by highlighting the importance of narratives of governance and technological change that position business actors as the proper leaders of global governance. The article emphasizes the crucial role played by the World Economic Forum, an international organization representing business actors, in disseminating these narratives.

  • “Plastic Governance Objects: Object Reorientation and the Governance of Plastic Pollution”

    This ongoing project examines how shifting framings of plastic pollution from environmental to public health risks affect international regulatory efforts.

  • In this project, I examine how governance meetings like the 2024 UN Summit of the Future construct imaginaries of the future that influence contemporary institutional agendas.