Core Staff
Meet the core staff behind Global Transformations and Governance Challenges, which consists of a Professor, a postdoctoral researcher, three PhD candidates, and a Programme Officer.
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Jan Aart Scholte chairs the GTGC Steering Group as Leiden University's Professor of Global Transformations and Governance Challenges. He has previously convened other interdisciplinary global studies research initiatives based in Britain, Germany and Sweden. His main current research interests include polycentric governing of global problems, legitimacy in global governance, global democracy, complex hegemony, and Internet governance. You can learn more about his work here.
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Shiming Yang is a member of the GTGC core staff, working as University Lecturer in Global Transformations and Governance Challenges. She is interested in global environmental politics with an emphasis on developing countries. Her research projects aim to explain the evolving landscape of global environmental negotiations, rising power politics in environmental governance, and comparative environmental policy. Her other published work investigates China’s political economy, environmental health, and political economy of global health. You can learn more about her work here.
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Alies Jansen is a PhD candidate and Programme Officer in the GTGC programme. Her dissertation looks at the rapid growth of computational power that has increasingly put digital technology at the heart of military decision-making. In particular, Alies investigates how the relation between humans and artificial intelligence is shaping the data used, the theories that are applied, and the perceived legitimacy of military decision-making since the Cold Ward. You can learn more about her work here.
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Laura Birbalaite is a PhD candidate and researcher part of the Multistakeholder Global Governance (MGG) project. She brings a blend of political science and counterterrorism expertise, as well as hands-on experience in grassroots movements. Her main research interests are in socio-political innovation and power dynamics in global governance structures, global environmental governance and global democracy through an analytical lens of care ethics, posthumanism, and critical political economy.
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Sarah Anne Stevens is a PhD candidate and researcher at the Institute of Political Science, where she supports the Multistakeholder Global Governance (MGG) project. Her research focuses on the intersection between multistakeholder governance, the triple planetary crisis, and sustainable development. Prior to starting her PhD, Sarah Anne conducted research for human rights defenders and civil society organizations, addressing critical issues such as trade, corporate power, and human rights within green energy supply chains.
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Martina Prieto Beghelli is the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges Programme Officer. She manages GTGC communications and project management, supports stakeholder engagement, and assists the Steering Committee.
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George Soliman is the Project Officer for the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges. His focus is on the implementation of events and connecting with key partners.
