Asha Herten-Crabb

Assistant Professor

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Profile

Hello! I am Assistant Professor of International Organisations here at PAIS. 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.

Selected Publications

• Herten-Crabb A. 2026. Unreachable, Inescapable: Sustainable Development as Normative Camouflage in EU-MERCOSUR trade, Journal of Common Market Studies
• Herten-Crabb A. 2026. ‘Don’t come with your lessons in morality’: Ontological imperialism and the MERCOSUR-EU intellectual property negotiations. Review of International Political Economy 33(3)
• Herten-Crabb A, Yadanar Y, Wenham C. 2025. Partial Recognition Without Redistribution: Unpaid Care in the Devolved UK during COVID-19. New Political Economy 31(3)
• Herten-Crabb A, Murage A, Smith J, Wenham C. 2025. An opportunity for gender transformation? UN Women’s policy response to COVID-19. Global Public Health 20(1)
• Wenham C, Youde J, Herten-Crabb A, Busby J. 2023. From Imperialism to the ‘Golden Age’ to the Great Lockdown: The Politics of Global Health Governance. Annual Review of Political Science 26
• Herten-Crabb A and Wenham C. 2022. “I Was Facilitating Everybody Else’s Life. And Mine Had Just Ground to a Halt”: The COVID-19 Pandemic and its Impact on Women in the United Kingdom, Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 29 (4)

Teaching and Supervision

Gender Matters in Politics and International Relations (PO241, 2nd year)

International Organisations and Global Public Policy (PO227, 2nd year)

I am open to supervising undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations, as well as doctoral research, on critical questions in international political economy and global governance. I particularly welcome projects addressing:

• International organisations and global governance, especially trade, health, and reparations

• North–South relations

• Imperialism and colonial legacies

• Feminist political economy

• Gender and global governance

• Economic and ecological justice

• Ontological and decolonial approaches to political economy

For prospective PhD students, please note at this time I am only available as a second supervisor. You may wish to prioritise finding a willing first supervisor before contacting me to join your supervision team.