Valbona Muzaka

Kort presentation

I joined the Department of Economic History in 2021. My work focuses on intangible assets, the political economy of intellectual property, global governance issues (especially of global health, trade, and plant genetic resources), critiques of development, and, more broadly, global political economy. I teach and supervise on these and other areas.

Biografi

Prior to joining the department in 2021, I was a Reader at King's College London (UK), a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Southampton University, UK (2009-2012), and a Lecturer at University of Sheffield, UK (2008-2009). University of Sheffield is also where I completed my PhD (2004-2008).

In a previous life, I studied Finance and Economics in Tirana, Albania, which is where I am from. I worked as a business analyst in a development bank for two years before deciding to undertake postgraduate studies. This led me to an MA in International Relations in the UK (2002-2003), an internship with the UN Human Rights Commission for Human Rights (2004), and then to a PhD.

I am currently a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK), an editor of New Political Economy, and a member of the international editorial board of International Affairs. During 2022-2023 I was Senior Global Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. I have been a visiting researcher at a number of institutions, including the University of Stockholm (2010), the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (New Delhi, India, 2013), the Fundação Getulio Vargas (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2014), the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 2016), and more recently the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (2022-2023). I sometimes blog here.

Forskning

Research Interests

• Intangible assets
• The political economy of intellectual property rights
• The "knowledge economy" as a particular socio-politico-economic formation
• The political economy of development (with a special focus on India and Brazil)
• Global political economy
• Global Economic Governance, especially of:
  • Public health
  • Trade
  • Intellectual Property
  • Plant genetic resources

My approach to the areas listed above is critical in nature, aiming to understand how the dynamic interplay between actors with different agendas, normative understandings, discursive strategies, and material capabilities operating in specific contexts results in certain outcomes and not others, as well as whose values/interests are represented or marginalised in such outcomes. In short, working in areas listed above, I aim to uncover why things are the way they are and therefore the potential for them to be differently constituted.

From a theoretical perspective, my research draws from diverse quarters, such as political economy, heterodox economics, the regulation school, science and technology studies, critical property rights theory, sociological institutionalism, Gramscian approaches, constructivism, and social movement theory.

Research Grants/Awards

• Jan Wallanders & Tom Hedelius Foundation (2023-2027)
• Senior Global Fellow, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (September 2022-June 2023)
• British Academy Newton Mobility Grant (March 2018- June 2019, with L. Ribeiro)
• CONFAP-British Academies, Fellowship Grant (July 2016- February 2018),
• British Academy Newton Fund Mobility Grant (April 2015- March 2016)
• The British Council Researcher Links Grant (March 2014 – August 2015)
• The Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (October 2012 – December 2013)
• Overseas Research Student Award Scheme, UK Government (2004 –07)
• Endowed Harry Worthington Scholarship, University of Sheffield, UK, (2004 – 2007)