Asha Herten-Crabb

Assistant Professor

Email:

Room: S0.42

Advice and Feedback Hours:

In person: Mondays 14.30 - 15.30 S0.42 Social Sciences, please book hereLink opens in a new window

Online: Fridays 13.30-14.30, please book here Link opens in a new window

Profile

Hello! I am Assistant Professor of International Organisations at the University of Warwick. My research sits at the intersection of international political economy and the politics of trade, health, and the environment. I examine how the legacies of Western European imperialism continue to shape global governance, with particular attention to North-South inequalities and the prospects for economic and ecological justice.

At the heart of this agenda is ontological political economy, an approach I am developing within international relations. It brings questions of being and relation into the study of the global political economy. My work investigates how material dependence, dominant forms of knowledge, and hierarchical understandings of human relationships with land and nature are reproduced and resisted through global governance and policymaking.

My principal empirical case is European Union trade policy, particularly the EU-MERCOSUR negotiations. Through the agreement’s treatment of sustainable development and intellectual property, I examine how trade governance sustains unequal relations between Western Europe and the Southern Cone. I also explore the openings it creates for resistance and alternative approaches to economic and ecological life.

This research provides the foundation for a wider programme on the enduring legacies of Western European imperialism and struggles for economic and ecological justice. It asks how global governance might move beyond managing the harms produced by existing political-economic arrangements and support more reparatory forms of transformation.

Alongside my academic work, I co-founded and organise the Peoples’ Educational Forum on the British Empire. The Forum creates space for public truth-telling about empire and supports work towards reparatory justice.

I completed my PhD in International Relations at the London School of Economics in 2024. Before entering academia, I worked at Chatham House, the Fiji Ministry of Health, the Centre for Feminist Foreign Policy, and ActionAid.