Global / Transnational

Research Interest

Rupal Mehta

Chair of Research and Postdoctoral Fellows Program
Center for Global Security Research

Rupal Mehta is the Chair of Research and Postdoctoral Fellows Program and Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). She is also an Associate Professor (on leave) in the Department of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her research interests lie in international security and conflict, with a specialization in nuclear proliferation/counterproliferation, extended deterrence, emerging technologies, and elite decision-making.

Trevor Jackson

Assistant Professor
History and Political Economy

Trevor Jackson is assistant professor of History and Political Economy. He studies capitalism, inequality, and financial crisis, mostly but not exclusively in early modern Europe.

Pol Fité Matamoros

Graduate Student
Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning
Pol Fité Matamoros is pursuing a PhD in Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at the University of California, Berkeley, as recipient of the Regent’s Fellowship. His research explores fascism as a spatial matter—i.e. as not only deploying certain spatial tactics, but also as premised on certain spatial imaginaries—through the case of early 20th century Spain. Its key contention is that exploring fascism through a spatial lens illuminates the links between European imperialism and fascism that are hinted at when calling the latter “the boomerang effect of...

Sharad Chari

Associate Professor
Geography
Sharad Chari is Associate Professor of Geography and Co-Director of Critical Theory at UC Berkeley. He is an interdisciplinary geographer working on Marxist political economy, the global Black radical tradition, South India, South Africa, and the Southern African Indian Ocean. His publications include Gramsci at Sea (Minnesota, 2023), Apartheid Remains (Duke 2024) and he is working on a biography of queer struggle in South Africa in the 1990s.

Crystal Chang Cohen

Continuing Lecturer
Global Studies
Political Economy
Crystal Chang Cohen is a Continuing Lecturer in the Global Studies and Political Economy programs. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on Chinese and Indian politics, gender perspectives in Asia, theories of contemporary political economy and development, and Silicon Valley's innovation ecosystem.

Lauren Barden-Hair

Graduate Student
Political Science

Lauren Barden-Hair is a PhD candidate in the Political Science Department studying International Relations and Comparative Politics.

Yue Lin

Graduate Student
Political Science
Yue Lin is a Ph.D. student in the Travers Department of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, with a Designated Emphasis on Political Economy. Her research interests cover global investment, multinational corporations, and computational social sciences. Currently, she works on a project that explores how foreign high technology companies use non-market strategies to overcome regulatory barriers in the United States. Previously, she worked at American Enterprise Institute, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking...

Max Kagan

Graduate Student
Political Science

Max Kagan is a Ph.D. student in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, focusing on international political economy. His main research interest is the political impact of cross-border flows of money and people. In particular, he focuses on how multinational corporations and financial firms interact with international and national politics.

Jennie Barker

Graduate Student
Political Science

Jennie Barker is a Ph.D. student in political science at the University of California, Berkeley, where she studies international influences on democratization. Her current research examines recipient government behavior toward democracy assistance. Prior to coming to UC Berkeley, Barker worked at the National Endowment for Democracy and completed a Fulbright fellowship in Germany.

Barker is also a recipient of the 2021 IIS Pre-Disseration Research Fellowship.

Joanna Vasquez

Undergraduate Student
Political Science

Joanna Vasquez is a junior from La Puente, California who is pursuing a B.A. in Political Science. Her research interests include labor law, immigration, public safety in Latin America, international relations, and foreign policy. Following her time at UC Berkeley, Vasquez hopes to work abroad as a teacher and ultimately go to law school to eventually become a labor law attorney and give back to her community.