Bio
Nina Hall is Associate Professor of International Relations at SAIS Europe
Nina Hall is an Associate Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. She focuses on transnational advocacy, international organizations, climate change, and New Zealand foreign policy. She is currently conducting research on how countries led by far-right leaders engage in global environmental politics.
Nina holds a DPhil (PhD) in International Relations from the University of Oxford and a Master’s Degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She was previously a Lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance, a Senior Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute for the Networked Society in Berlin, and a Research Associate at the Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. She is currently a Faculty Affiliate at the SNF Agora Institute and the co-founder of an independent think tank,
Te Kuaka (formerly New Zealand Alternative).
Nina Hall’s most recent book is
Climate Activism, Digital Technologies, and Organizational Change (CUP, 2024), with Mette Eilstrup-Sangiovanni. A previous book,
Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era, Think Global, Act Local (OUP, 2022) won the ISA’s Best Book Award in International Communication. It was shortlisted for BISA’s Susan Strange Best Book and received an Honorable Mention from APSA’s IT and Politics Section. Nina has published widely including in the
International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, and
Global Environmental Politics. Her first book was
Displacement, Development and Climate Change: International Organizations Moving Beyond their Mandates? (Routledge, 2016). She has also written for:
The Guardian, Die Zeit Online, Washington Post, Project Syndicate, and
The Conversation. For a full list of publications,
see personal webpage.
Courses
- Theories of International Relations
This course surveys a variety of broad theoretical approaches to analyzing international politics. Examines approaches to the study of power, state interests, peace and war, international law, and economic cooperation; presents a critique of realist, liberal, and constructivist conceptions of international politics; and introduces basic methodology, weighing the evidence to assess the relative merits of theories.
Prerequisites: Students may not register for this class if they have already received credit for SA.100.761[C]
- Global Environmental Politics
Description: In recent years, environmental considerations have become increasingly important for how we think about politics and policy at the local, national, and international levels. Much has been said on how we should address our troubled relationship with nature – from advice to individuals on what to buy and how to behave, to recommendations at the international level on how to cooperate and take collective action. This course takes a step back from the headlines to consider a more complex and critical analysis of how we arrived at our current environmental predicaments. The course begins with a discussion on the Anthropocene and introduces theoretical tools with which to understand global environmental politics. Analysis of global hierarchies of gender, race, and economic development are interwoven throughout. The second half of the course focuses on policymaking by international, regional, and nonstate actors and culminates in a climate simulation in the final week.
- Transnational Advocacy
The class will examine theories and practices of transnational advocacy. Students will learn about different types of advocacy: from lobbying to mobilizing and organizing, from agenda-setting to reactive, rapid response. Students will read academic scholarship on advocacy alongside texts produced by and/or for practitioners. The course explores current theoretical debates: Why do activists build transnational networks? When does advocacy have an impact? They will also engage with broader debates: How can we evaluate the effectiveness of advocacy? And what drives someone to become an activist? Students should take away an understanding of the benefits and limitations of various strategies, tactics and organizational forms.
