Academic Profile

I am a Research Fellow and Postdoctoral Researcher on the Konrad Adenauer Synergy Research Project Rethinking Global Governance and Human Security, exploring how the multifaceted history of the 1990s shaped today’s international order. My wider research interests include global and European history, disasters, humanitarianism, and international organisations.

I am currently working on my second book project, tentatively titled Rescue and Sovereignty: Maritime Lifesaving and the State since 1800. It builds on the assumption that, while the humanitarian cause of saving people in distress at sea has mostly been organised on a non-governmental basis, the ambition to become functional, far-reaching rescue services has made these organisations rely on the recognition, collaboration, or support of state authorities. The historical examples examined in this project show how different forms of sea rescue reflect different configurations of governance and sovereignty.

My first book, A World Unprepared: The International Governance of Disaster in the Twentieth Century, forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, examines the emergence of “natural disasters” as an issue of global governance by analysing the creation and activities of international institutions responding to these phenomena from the interwar period to the end of the Cold War. The book explores how projects for international disaster management were variably promoted and opposed by actors from scientific, humanitarian, and political contexts at national, transnational, global, and (post-)colonial levels.

I hold a PhD in International History and Politics from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, as well as an MA in History of International Relations and a BA in Social Sciences from Sciences Po. I previously held research or visiting posts at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL Berlin), the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (LMU Munich), the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (IWM), the University of Geneva, St. Anne’s College (Plumer Visiting Fellow), Columbia University, and Sciences Po. Consultancy work has included projects for the World Health Organisation (GISRS) and the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE).

My teaching experience spans undergraduate and graduate seminars and lectures in international and European history, as well as disaster and humanitarian history and studies, at institutions such as Sciences Po, the Graduate Institute, the University of Manchester, and the University of Vienna, and has also included serving as a teaching fellow for the EUROPAEUM Scholars Programme for doctoral students.