20/09/2022
IE School of Global and Public Affairs works tirelessly to recruit the best and brightest professional minds to lead students on their academic journeys. Every program, every discipline and every degree has faculty who constantly go the extra mile in order to make a lasting difference in their fields of expertise. Their publications and research initiatives have been lauded around the world.
At IE School of Global and Public Affairs, several of our faculty members are also scholars who explore and work on the challenges democracies in the 21st century face around the globe. Their drive to tackle today’s most pressing issues while simultaneously training the leaders of tomorrow are part of what set our faculty apart from the rest.
Our institution stands firm in our values and on the importance of education, and we are proud of our faculty and their work.
To that end, we’d like to introduce you to a few of our IE School of Global and Public Affairs professors to give you a small glimpse into their current—and incredibly important—research and publications.
Tackling the challenges of democracy
Several key research themes for our faculty include inequality, misinformation, populism and polarization. They use their research to gain an in-depth understanding of how these themes contributed to the COVID-19 pandemic and European economic crises.
Michael Becher, Political Economy at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Prior to joining IE University as an assistant professor, Michael taught at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse and the University of Konstanz. His main fields of research are in comparative politics and political economy, with an emphasis on the functioning of democracy, accountability and representation, political institutions and inequality.
In his most recent published work, he studied the extent of political inequality in legislatures and how to increase political equality in the scope of economic inequality. He has also worked on articles and papers related to the COVID-19 pandemic in terms of ideology and compliance of health rules, vaccinations, tax preferences and how people blame governments. Read more about this research in his faculty story here.
D.J. Flynn, Political Science at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Before joining our faculty, D.J. was in the US completing his Ph.D. at Northwestern University and later working as a researcher at Dartmouth College, after studying abroad in Valencia. When he saw an opening at IE University, he knew it was time to make the move back to Spain—he’s been working as an assistant professor since 2018. His research and teaching are both focused on public opinion, political communication and quantitative methods. Fascinated by why people hold the opinions and beliefs they do, he mainly studies the causes and consequences of misinformation and misperception about politics and public health.
He was recently published in the British Journal of Political Science, where he compares the factual beliefs of government officials to the public opinion, highlighting the potential for polarization. He has also researched the effects of vaccine messaging regarding COVID-19.
Nikitas Konstantinidis, International Political Economy at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Nikitas is an associate professor whose main research interests include comparative and international political economy, applied formal theory, international organizations and European Union politics. Additionally, he is active in Greek politics and serves as a member of the political movement Forward Greece.
Most recently, his work focuses mainly on the political and economic challenges the European Union faces. He’s examined how voters vote when their governments face constraints on policy, as well as if people will fight to keep the Euro as a currency if their country is facing a crisis.
Irene Menéndez González, International Political Economy at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Irene joined the IE University faculty as an assistant professor in January of 2020. Prior to that, she taught at the University of Zurich, the Institute for Advanced Studies in Toulouse and the University of Mannheim. Her main research interests have spanned international and comparative political economy, the political consequences of globalization, the effects of electoral institutions on political representation, as well as the political economy of labor markets and redistribution.
A recent study of hers was published in Comparative Political Studies, which looked at the polarization of policy preferences in Latin America’s labor market.
She also published a paper in the British Journal of Political Science on the correlations between electoral reform and the rise of right-wing populist parties before Brexit.
Nina Wiesehomeier, Political Science at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Before joining IE University as assistant professor of comparative politics, Nina held a position as a Senior Lecturer at Swansea University (UK), was a research fellow at the Social Science Institute in Lisbon (Portugal) and a visiting fellow at the Kellogg Institute at the University of Notre Dame (USA). Her research focuses on questions of political representation, political preferences, and political behavior, and she has published on women representation and populism, among others.
With PREPPS, the Political Representation, Executives, and Political Parties Survey, Nina is collecting information on political parties and executives using expert surveys, an on ongoing effort of providing the academic community with comparative data on policy positions across several continents. Recently, Nina has been awarded a research grant from the “La Caixa” Foundation to study the impact populism had on representation in Spain.
Zuheir Desai, Political Economy at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Zuheir joined the IE University faculty as an assistant professor in 2021. Prior to that, he was a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University. He got his PhD from the University of Rochester in 2020. His main research interests lie in studying strategic aspects of electoral competition and political accountability, both from a theoretical standpoint as well as empirical applications to developing democracies such as Brazil and India.
His work on descriptive representation and how appearing less educated has helped right-wing candidates in Brazil was featured in the American Journal of Political Science. He also was featured in the Indian media over his research on Indian electronic voting machines and why they are important.
Carlos Lastra, Political Economy at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Carlos is an assistant professor of Political Economy and he is also the director of research for the Center for the Governance of Change. He completed his PhD in Government and Social Policy at Harvard University and was a postdoctoral fellow at The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute. His main interests lie in the intersection of policy and political economy, with a particular focus on education policy.
His work has been featured in the Journal of Comparative Economics, among other scholarly journals. He has analyzed ways where universities can become major driving forces in developing their local environment, as well as detailing how education needs to be retooled to be more tied into the labor market in order for students to be more prepared when starting the workforce.
The study of conflict
The IE University faculty is well-rounded and their initiatives are far-reaching. In addition to research on today’s challenges in democracy, faculty members have also made relevant and important contributions in the realm of conflicts including civil wars, terrorism and interstate wars.
Xiaoyan (Christy) Qiu, International Relations at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Xiaoyan is an assistant professor who focuses on formal political theory and conflict. Currently, her research delves into rebel strategies, state support for insurgent groups and state and border formation, as well.
Her work on rebels and civil wars using game theory has spurred her to be featured in the American Journal of Political Science, where she wrote a piece on rebel strategies and how peace can be on the horizon. She’s been published twice in this journal, which is one of the leading journal’s of the discipline.
Andrew Bertoli, International Security at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Andrew’s path has truly been an international one. Before joining the IE University staff, he taught international relations and research methods at the University of California, Berkeley. To that end, his research focus is on how sports can have an effect on politics, political leadership and social issues.
He has written various articles, but one about international sports and its impact on nationalism and conflict was featured in International Studies Quarterly, which was covered in international media. Andrew is currently working on an academic piece on the role of sports in other international conflicts.
Henry Pascoe, International Security at IE School of Global and Public Affairs
Henry received his Ph.D. in Government and his Master of Science in Statistics from the University of Texas at Austin. His research has been published in a variety of media and venues. He focuses on international cooperation for counterterrorism, economic sanctions, foreign aid and political violence.
His current reseach is based on terrrorism and interstate war, and his most recent publication was an article on the local geography of transnational terrorism.
Additionally, he is participating in ongoing work with our previously mentioned professor, Nikitas Konstantinidis, on issues of inequality and military conscription.
The faculty of the IE University boasts some incredible research and scholarly articles with well-deserved recognition. We continue to support the incredible research they do and ensure they transmit their knowledge and expertise to their students.
