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Centre for International Environmental Studies
11 May 2020

A testimony from a visiting fellow: Noémie Laurens

Noémie Laurens has joined the CIES as a Visiting Fellow from February 2020 to the end of April 2020 and has been working on her research under the supervision of Prof James Hollway. 

The CIES had the pleasure to welcome Noémie Laurens as a Visiting Fellow. She is currently a Political Science PhD Candidate at Université Laval (Quebec city, Canada). Her research interests include trade and environment politics, norm diffusion, complex systems and network analysis. More specifically, her PhD project focuses on the trade-offs between innovation and rule diffusion in the trade and environmental governance systems, relying on a combination of complex system and network theories. 

She has written a testimony on her experience working with the CIES as well as working during the COVID-19: 

"I decided to come the Graduate Institute as a visiting fellow to work with James Hollway, who is on my PhD committee and whose expertise in social network analysis is a very valuable input for my research. This visit was also an opportunity to meet other students who share my research interests on trade and environment politics and international law. During my stay in Geneva, I was able to meet with James several time to discuss on my dissertation. His guidance and ideas were particularly helpful and motivating. I was also very pleased to be able to present some of my work on the contribution of trade agreements to international environmental law during a CIES lunch seminar. The questions and comments that I got will definitely be useful for my research. Unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had to shorten my visit and leave Geneva quite hurriedly. However, thanks to the amazing work of Joëlle, Andhina and Céline, I was still able to participate to CIES virtual coffee breaks and seminars, even after the official end date of my visit. All of this made my experience with the CIES very enjoyable. I am really grateful for the warm welcome I have received and to have met such a great group of dedicated people. I hope we will stay in touch and I will have other opportunities to come to the Graduate Institute when times are less challenging. "

The CIES is very grateful for her help and wishes her all the best for her ongoing and future projects.