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Einaudi Center for International Studies

Cornell University

Global Hub Salon: Democratic Challenges and Change

Global Hubs Partner Hosts

Ana Elena Fierro Ferráez(link is external)

Director of International Development, School of Social Sciences and Government, Tecnológico de Monterrey

Ana Elena Fierro Ferráez has been a professor of constitutional law, administrative law, and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms for more than 20 years at institutions such as ITESM, CIDE, ITAM, Marista University, and the University Anahuac. Her lines of research are transparency, accountability, and corruption, as well as alternative disputes resolutions (ADR). Recent publications include The Legal Concept of Accountability, First Edition (Tirant the Blanch, 2021); Management of Conflicts and ADR, Second Edition (CIDE); and Responsibility of Public Servants, from Punishment to Trust (FCE). She is co-author of the manual Administrative Justice and Corruption in the Public and Private Sector (USAID, CIDE, RRC, 2020), Guide of Reparations for Violations of Human Rights Related: International Duty and Practices Jurisdictional (TFJA, Open Society Justice Initiative, CIDE, 2019); and the article “Challenges in the Implementation of the Corruption Reform, Accountability, and Justice” (CIDE, World Justice Project, 2020). Ferráez was Senior Official of the Yucatan Congress in the LVI legislature (2001-2004) and worked as a technical secretary of the Federal Judicial Council (1995-2000).

Ransford E. V. Gyampo(link is external)

Associate Professor of Political Science; Director, Centre for European Studies, University of Ghana

Ransford Edward Van Gyampo holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Ghana and Tufts University, and has 20 years of teaching and research experience. His research interest lies in the areas of democratic development, youth empowerment and development, governance and leadership, electoral studies, and natural resource management. He has been a visiting scholar in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of South Florida, and is currently a visiting professor at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bristol. Gyampo has more than 200 research works to his credit within his areas of research interest, which have been published in internationally refereed journals. He is passionate about issues of democracy, governance, and electoral politics in Ghana and Africa, and he comments extensively in these areas with a view to shaping how things are done in a manner that can improve Ghana’s governance landscape and help the maturation of Ghana’s democratization process.

Paolo Moncagatta(link is external)

Associate Professor and Researcher; Coordinator, Program of Political Science, Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Paolo Moncagatta teaches comparative politics, public opinion, and quantitative research methods at Universidad San Francisco de Quito, where he also coordinates the program of political science. His research focuses on the study of citizen attitudes towards democracy, democratization, ideology (and ideological polarization), and electoral behavior. He obtained his PhD in political and social sciences from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, in Barcelona. He also collaborates as a Research Fellow at the Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM) of Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

Vitit Muntarbhorn

Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Law, Chulalongkorn University

Vitit Muntarbhorn is a graduate of Oxford University (MA, BCL) and Université Libre de Bruxelles (Licence Spéciale en Droit Européen). He is also a Barrister at Law (the Middle Temple, London). He teaches international law, human rights, and related subjects. He has held a number of UN posts, including: UN Special Rapporteur on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution, and Child Pornography; UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; UN Independent Expert on Protection against Violence and Discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. He was the Chairperson of the UN appointed Commission of Inquiry on the Ivory Coast (2011) and a member of the UN appointed Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. In 2021, he was appointed as UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Cambodia by the UN Human Rights Council. He has published widely on International Law and Human Rights. His latest book is Challenges of  International Law in the Asian Region (Springer, 2021). He is the recipient of various awards, including the 2004 UNESCO Human Rights Education Prize. He was bestowed a Knighthood (KBE) in 2018.

Mark Pennington(link is external)

Professor of Political Economy and Public Policy, Department of Political Economy, School of Politics and Economics; Director, Centre for the Study of Governance and Society, King’s College London

Mark Pennington holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He works at the intersection of philosophy, politics, and economics with a particular focus on exploring problems of limited knowledge or bounded rationality and their relationship to “ideal” and “non-ideal” theorising in economics and political theory. This approach was exemplified in his book Robust Political Economy: Classical Liberalism and the Future of Public Policy (Edward Elgar, 2011). Pennington has written widely on environmental governance, social capital, and the relationship between markets and democratic citizenship. More recently he has been working on a major project exploring the “Ideal of Self Governance,” as this was understood by Elinor and Vincent Ostrom. He is currently writing a new book, entitled Foucault and Liberal Political Economy, which examines the implications of the “power-knowledge” concept for democratic and economic decision-making. This book is part of a new project on the political economy of knowledge and ignorance. Prior to joining King’s College London, Pennington taught for 12 years in the School of Politics and International Relations at Queen Mary, University of London.

Sudarshan Ramaswamy(link is external)

Professor and Dean, Jindal School of Government and Public Policy, O.P. Jindal Global University

As a Rhodes scholar, Sudarshan Ramaswamy joined Balliol College, University of Oxford. He was elected to a research fellowship at St. John’s College, University of Cambridge, where he studied judicial review of economic legislation by the Supreme Court of India. He has previously worked in the Ford Foundation’s South Asia Office in New Delhi, UNDP India, UNDP Jakarta, the UNDP Oslo Governance Centre, and in the UNDP Asia-Pacific Centre in Bangkok. He has an impressive track record of publications reflecting his interdisciplinary research, teaching, and policy experience in development programmes, human development, law, governance, institutions, and policy.

Sishuwa Sishuwa(link is external)

Lecturer, Department of History, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zambia

Sishuwa Sishuwa’s scholarship locates current political developments in a historical context, showing that the roots of contemporary democratic politics in Africa lie in the early post-colonial and even late-colonial periods. He has published widely on nationalism, identity politics, democracy, civil society, elections, political leadership and historical biography, focusing primarily on the old question of structure and agency. Sishuwa’s current work examines the often-surprising pillars of democratic resilience in Zambia through a close and historically informed analysis of the country’s 2021 general election. His research has had noticeable impact beyond academia. In addition to being regularly consulted by policy makers, donors, and non-governmental organisations in Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa, Sishuwa has also engaged with broader publics through a steady stream of highly regarded writings and interviews on Zambian politics in the print, online, and broadcast media, including international news channels such as eNCA, the BBC, CNN, and Al Jazeera. Sishuwa obtained his DPhil in History from the University of Oxford, where he studied as a Rhodes Scholar. He is currently a postdoctoral research fellow on political parties in East and Southern Africa at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.