Dr Kirsten Haack

Associate Professor

School: Humanities and Social Sciences

Kirsten Haack is Associate Professor in International Politics. She is a researcher of international organisations with a focus on the United Nations, specialising in the study of people/individuals in international relations, specifically leadership in international organisations by the UN Secretary-General, women executive heads and women diplomats, and questions of representation at the UN. She is further interested in international law as practice, specifically relating to the use of force. Kirsten is currently co-leading the international WiLiGG (Women in Leadership in Global Governance) network and engaged in three projects: a history of gender equality at the UN; conceptualising women's leadership in international organisations; and visual IR, art/artefacts and representations of IR, statehood and political practice.

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Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Kirsten's research explores the shape and governance of international organisations and international community, focussing on the United Nations. She is especially interested in exploring international organisations beyond their commonly assumed epiphenomenal status in IR, and taking their continued existence as part of a global political structure seriously.

Kirsten is interested in the role of people in global governance, such as the UN Secretary-General and women executive heads, and questions of leadership, recruitment and representation. Her work contributes to the IR gender literature as well as the organisational study of the UN.

Current research focuses on the material and visual cultures of international community as embodied by the UN, both historically and in the context of hegemonial decline and organisational change.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Women and the feminization of international organizations, Haack, K. 9 Dec 2024, Routledge Handbook of International Organization, London, Routledge
Trygve Lies unmöglichster Job der Welt, Haack, K. 11 Dec 2023, In: Vereinte Nationen
UN Women: a case of global feminist governance?, den Boer, A., Haack, K. 24 Feb 2023, Handbook of Feminist Governance, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar
Where are the Women Leaders in Internal Organizations and What Difference Do They Make?, Haack, K., Karns, M. 28 Nov 2023, Handbook on Governance in International Organizations, Edward Elgar
From Aspiration to Commitment: The UN’s “Long March” toward Gender Equality, Haack, K., Karns, M., Murray, J. 4 Jul 2022, In: Global Governance
Introduction, Haack, K. 1 Jan 2022, Women's Access, Representation and Leadership in the United Nations, Cham, Switzerland, Palgrave Macmillan
Women's Access, Representation and Leadership in the United Nations, Haack, K. 5 Jan 2022
The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Where Are the Women in The United Nations Now?, Haack, K., Karns, M., Murray, J. 1 Oct 2020, In: Ethics and International Affairs
UN Women, Haack, K. 2019, Handbook of International Organizations, Berlin, De Gruyter
Catherine Ann Bertini, Haack, K. 19 Jan 2018, IO BIO, Online, Radboud University

PGR Supervision

Damaris Husulei Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 17/10/2025
Jacob Hickey De-Europeanisation or business as usual? The effects of Chinese norm contestation through economics, discourse, and coercion on European solidarity Start Date: 01/10/2021
Jacob Hickey De-Europeanisation or business as usual? The effects of Chinese norm contestation through economics, discourse, and coercion on European solidarity Start Date: 01/10/2021 End Date: 17/10/2025
Damaris Husulei How did politicisation in Brexit negotiations (the UK’s sovereignty demands and EU’s coercive strategy) turn human trafficking from a depoliticised area of security cooperation into collateral damage? Start Date: 01/10/2025