Red Couch Talk with Lena Schaffer

Lena Schaffer is a Professor of Political Science and International & Transnational Relations at the University of Luzern. From February until September 2023, she was a guest professor at the Excellence Cluster “The Politics of Inequality” of the University of Konstanz.Before joining the University of Luzern,  she was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz (2014-2016) and in the “International Political Economy” group at the Center for Comparative and International Studies (CIS) and the Institute for Environmental Decisions (IED) at ETH Zürich (2011-2014). Her postdoctoral research projects focused on the spatial and temporal dynamics in climate change policy-making, the link between climate change and migration as well as on individual trade preferences. From 2006-2011, she completed her dissertation on the interdependencies in decision-making between local governments within the United States with a special focus on voluntary climate change policy at ETH Zürich.

In her research activities, she is interested in how global problems (climate change) and enhanced interdependence (globalization) that transcend the traditional sphere of the nation state impact on politics and governance aspects within and between nations. In both of the overarching research domains of globalization and climate change,  she combines insights from international political economy, comparative politics and theories of regulation.