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Felicity Vabulas Faculty Profile

Felicity Vabulas

Blanche E. Seaver Associate Professor of International Studies
International Studies and Languages Division, Seaver College
PLC 196

Biography

Dr. Vabulas is the Blanche E. Seaver Associate Professor of International Studies at Pepperdine University. Her research focuses on the political economy of international cooperation. Specifically, she is interested in when and why states change how they cooperate internationally and the implications this has for international relations. Her research includes examining states’ exit from international agreements, states’ engagement in informal modes of global governance, and states pushing for different foreign policy strategies through foreign lobbying. Her research is published in the Review of International Organizations, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, Global Perspectives, Global Policy, European Journal of International Relations, International Politics and multiple edited volume chapters. She has been awarded a Seaver College Endowed Professorship and the Howard A. White Award for Excellence in Teaching. Her earlier research received a best paper award from the American Political Science Association and has been supported by the World Bank, the National Science Foundation, and the International Studies Association. She serves as a Council on Foreign Relations Higher Education Ambassador and Vice President of the Board of Directors for the Culver City Education Foundation.

Education

  • PhD, Public Policy, The University of Chicago, 2013

 

Articles

Edited Volume Chapters

  • 2023. Soft Pooling: How IIGOs Govern Collective Decision-making without Delegation. Felicity Vabulas and Duncan Snidal. Informal Governance in World Politics (Cambridge University Press). Kenneth Abbott and Thomas Biersteker (ed.)
  • 2021. Informality in International Political Economy. Chapter for the 2021 Oxford Handbook of International Political Economy. Jon Pevehouse and Leonard Seabrooke (ed.)
  • 2019. Transnational Administration in Informal International Organizations. Handbook on Global Policy and Transnational Administration (Oxford University Press). Kimberly Moloney & Diane Stone (ed.)
  • 2019. Rational Choice and the G20. G20 and International Relations Theory. Stephen Slaughter (ed.)
  • 2013. Consultative and Observer Status of NGOs in Intergovernmental Organizations. Bob Reinalda (ed.) Handbook of International Organization 2013, Routledge: London.
  • Blanche E. Seaver Associate Professor of International Studies (2024-2029)
  • Cluster of Excellence "Contestations of the Liberal Scripts" workshop on Backlash Politics, September 2025
  • Arizona State University Human Rights Hub Human Rights and Democratic Backsliding Workshop, August 2023.
  • European Research Council Decline and Death of International Organizations Workshop, Maastricht, June 2023.
  • Seaver College Pandemic Research Recovery Grant, 2021-22 (with Amanda Rizkallah)

  • Pepperdine University Endowed Fellowship, 2020/21

  • University College London’s Global Engagement Fund: 2020/21 (with Inken von Borzyskowski).

  • Rethinking Multilateralism for the Post-COVID Era Grant: 2021 (administered by Vijayendra Rao (World Bank), JP Singh (George Mason University), and Michael Woolcock (World Bank))

  • Academic Exchange trip to Israel and Palestine, December 6-16 2019

  • International Studies Association Committee Grant for the Workshop on International Organization Dissolution, June 18-19 2019 in Zurich, Switzerland.

  • International Studies Association at UNAI: "The United Nations at 75" event series; Grant for the Workshop on UN Financing, Fall 2020 in New York, NY

  • Dean's Research Grant: Spring 2019
  • International Studies Association Committee Grant for the Workshop on International Organization Dissolution, June 18-19 in Zurich, Switzerland

  • International Studies Association at UNAI: "The United Nations at 75" event series; Grant for the Workshop on UN Financing, Fall 2020 in New York, NY

  • Winner of the 2015-2016 University Professional & Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) Excellence in Teaching Award
  • International Studies Association Travel Grant, February 2015
  • National Science Foundation Grant 1023967 (PI: Jon Pevehouse): Foreign Interest Groups and American Foreign Policy, August 2010
  • P.E.O. Scholar Award, P.E.O. International, August 2011-June 2012
  • University of Chicago: Doolittle-Harrison Conference Award, March 2011, November 2009
  • University of Chicago: Program on Political Institutions Conference Award, March 2011, September 2009
  • University of Chicago: Program on Political Institutions, Graduate Fellow, 2008-2009
  • Harris School of Public Policy Studies: Women in Public Policy Conference Fund Grant, Spring 2012, Winter 2011, Spring 2010, Fall 2009, Spring 2008
  • University of Chicago: Program on Political Institutions, Research Grant (with Boris Shor), 2007

Areas of Expertise

  • International Organizations
  • Global Governance
  • U.S. Foreign Policy

Topics

  • Democratization
  • Diplomacy
  • Global Governance
  • International Law
  • International Organizations
  • International Political Economy
  • International Relations
  • Lobbying
  • NGOs
  • Research Design
  • US Foreign Policy

Courses

  • INTS 344: International Relations
  • INTS 351: The Global Economy

  • INTS 452: Intelligence Analysis

  • INTS 497: Capstone