Affiliated Ph.D. Fellow, Cohort 2022

Research Interests

International organizations (IOs) are active actors of global governance. They direct, fund, and implement different forms of projects that affect people’s lives in different countries. My Ph.D. project focuses on the influence of IOs in China from an educational perspective. Nevertheless, the existing literature has fallen short on the study of international organizations in China mainly due to the challenging interdisciplinary nature of the topic and complex realistic concerns. This study aims to answer the research question - Do international organizations have an influence in China? If so, in what ways do IOs exert their influence?

 

My PhD study will consist of a series of papers. The first paper will carry out an in-depth single-case study on OECD and the change of its influence in China through its well-known international educational program PISA. Then, the second paper will proceed with a comparative case study between the educational programs in China of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. The final paper will be a content analysis of the publications from all the IOs carrying out educational programs in China. Each of the papers will answer one of the above sub-research questions. By studying IO’s educational programs in international ranking programs, funding, and ideas in China, the study aims to illustrate the interaction between IOs and the Chinese government through the educational perspective.

 

In addition, I am a member of the University of Bremen’s Collaborative Research Center 1342. Our team, A05 of CRC 1342, investigates the global development of coverage and generosity of state education in the secondary school sector. We conduct in-depth case studies on the influence of global transformation processes on the national education policy of Senegal, Ghana, Malaysia, and Cambodia. I have just finished a paper on Cambodia’s education system.

Dissertation topic
Do International Organizations Have Influence on China's Politics? A Study of the Educational Programs of International Organizations in China

Academic Supervisors
Kerstin Martens