Welcome!

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Sustainability Research Group at the University of Basel (Switzerland) and a research fellow at the Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, KU Leuven (Belgium). I hold a PhD in Sustainability Governance from KU Leuven, a MSc in International Politics from KU Leuven, and a MSc in Global Environment, Politics and Society from the University of Edinburgh.

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Research

I am passionate about transnational sustainability governance, with a specific focus on trade and global value chains.

I explore questions such as: How do governments, private actors, and international organizations shape the governance of global supply chains and address key environmental and socio-economic challenges related to global trade? How do trade governance instruments and institutions integrate sustainability concerns? How do sustainability instruments integrate trade concerns? How effective are these instruments and why? What are their distributional effects and unintended consequences?

More broadly, my research interests lie in sustainability governance, (international) political economy, trade policy, global value chains, global environmental politics, and international relations.

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During my PhD, I researched voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) as private governance instruments aiming to make global value chains more sustainable. I explored questions such as: What are the political economy factors that drive the adoption of VSS? How does the design of VSS matter for their effectiveness in generating more sustainable outcomes? How does the implementation of VSS vary on the ground, and how can this explain shortcomings in their ability to encourage producers to adopt more sustainable practices? What is the role of intermediaries in VSS implementation? How are VSS, as private instruments, integrated into public policy instruments? What are synergies and challenges? How do VSS pose challenges for vulnerable actors (such as smallholder farmers) in developing countries?

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In my current research within the EXPECT-AGRI project at the University of Basel, I look at public sustainable supply chains due diligence regulations, such as the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) among others. I focus on how perceptions of and expectations towards these regulations influence their implementation (and hence their potential for successfully addressing sustainability concerns in global value chains), and how their implementation interacts with the political economy of specific countries and value chains.

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My publications can be found here.

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Teaching

I am passionate about transferring knowledge and analytical skills. My teaching philosophy consists in fostering critical thinking, problem-solving skills, and responsibility among students.

I am lecturer of record teaching the following Master’s courses at the University of Basel:

• “International Organizations & Sustainable Development“

• “Sustainability Governance in International Value Chains“

• “Governance, Sustainable Development and Democracy“

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In addition, I sometimes give guest lectures at other universities (e.g. University of Pisa, Geneva Graduate Institute, KU Leuven).

During my PhD, I was a teaching assistant for the Master’s course “EU Trade Policy” at KU Leuven.

Deeply committed to collaborative scholarship, I coordinate two academic research networks:

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• The Green Trade Lab is an interdisciplinary early career researchers network that gathers researchers working on the intersection between international trade and the environment.
  Our goal is to provide an inclusive and interactive forum to exchange knowledge, develop new ideas, and cooperate on joint research interests. 
  We explore questions such as: How to make international trade more environmentally sustainable? How to reconcile trade interests with environmental protection? What do planetary boundaries mean for global value chains? Why do some trade institutions pay more attention to ecological conservation than others?
  We hold annual early career researchers workshops, and organize weekly webinars where we invite both junior and senior scholars to present their ongoing research on the trade and environment nexus to foster learning across different seniority levels.

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• The Academic Advisory Council (AAC) of the United Nations Forum on Sustainability Standards (UNFSS, part of UNCTAD) is an interdisciplinary group of 30+ leading academic experts on voluntary sustainability standards.
  The objective of the AAC is to provide a platform for exchange to develop a common understanding of voluntary sustainability standards’ effectiveness and the determinants thereof, and to enter in dialogue with policy-makers to ensure the practical relevance of academic research and encourage evidence-based policy-making.
  We organize annual meetings and publish regular reports and academic papers.

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I place a strong emphasis on ensuring the practical and societal relevance of my research through continuous engagement with various policy-making institutions, including U.N. agencies (UNCTAD, FAO, ITC), the WTO, the OECD and others.

In this respect, I have published several policy reports, have been invited as a speaker at various international policy events, and frequently invite policy-makers as guest speakers in my courses.