Nina Hall is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Europe. Her research explores the role of transnational advocacy and international organizations in international relations. Her most recent book, Transnational Advocacy in the Digital Era, Think Global, Act Local (Oxford University Press, 2022), won the ISA ICOMM Best Book Award in 2023. It was also shortlisted for the Susan Strange Book Award and received an honorable mention from the APSA ITP Best Book Award. Nina's first book explored how UNHCR, IOM and UNDP adapted to climate change Displacement, Development and Climate Change: International Organizations Moving Beyond their Mandates? (Routledge, 2016). She has published her research in: the International Studies Quarterly, European Journal of International Relations, Global Environmental Politics, and Global Governance.
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 previously worked as a Lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance and is on the steering committee of an independent think tank, Te Kuaka which focuses on New Zealand foreign policy. She was previously a Senior Fellow at the Weizenbaum Institute (the German Internet Institute), a Research Associate at the Centre for Strategic Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and a Research Fellow at the Global Economic Governance Programme, University of Oxford. She is currently a Faculty Affiliate at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. For a full list of publications, see personal webpage.
The class will examine theories and practices of international advocacy. Students will examine different types of advocacy: from insider lobbying to people powered campaigns, from agenda-setting to rapid response and digital campaigning. They will read academic scholarship on advocacy alongside texts produced by and/or for practitioners. The first half of the course will focus on theoretical dimensions of advocacy – who drives norm change and who resists it? When is advocacy effective? The second half of the class will focus more on advocacy for refugee and migrant rights. Students will evaluate a campaign for refugee and/or migrant rights and develop their own campaign recommendations. Learning Objectives: critically assess theories of international advocacy; identify and compare different types of advocacy organizations, strategies and tactics; develop practical skills in designing and evaluating campaigns.
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.