Global / Transnational

Research Interest

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.

Aaliyah Pondor

Undergraduate Student
Environmental Economics and Policy
Business Administration

Aaliyah is a sophomore from Mauritius studying Environmental Economics and Policy and Business Administration. Her research interests include economic development and resource mobilization in Africa and its intersection with global energy policy. Being an international student, she has a unique perspective on the social and economic inequities faced by the global North and South. In her free time, Aaliyah enjoys road trips, hiking and exploring coffee shops around the city!

Rodrigo Ramirez-Perez

Undergraduate Student
Political Science
Philosophy

Rodrigo Ramirez-Perez is a third year Political Science and Philosophy major. His academic interests include international organizations and their subversion of state sovereignty, the causes and exacerbating elements of genocides, and the long-term state stability-related effects of state violence on citizen populations. Rodrigo has served as a research assistant to Dr. Susan Hyde since May 2020, researching regional organizations, human rights, and policing in the United States. Since 2016, Ramirez-Perez has worked as a leadership...

Jai Sharma

Undergraduate Student
Computer Science
Political Science

Jai Sharma is a junior at the University of California, Berkeley, studying Computer Science and Political Science, interested in international relations and political theory. Jai has worked as a research assistant to Professor Aila Matanock since January 2021 on various projects. He has also interned at Oracle as a database engineer. Outside of his academic interests, Jai enjoys collecting records and playing guitar.