International Studies Association (ISA) 2025
We are pleased to share that earlier this month, SGAIN was represented at the 66th Annual Convention of the International Studies Association (ISA) in Chicago by several team members.
Principal Investigator Yixian Sun participated in several roundtable discussions to share insights on the construction and use of databases in global environmental governance and politics research, climate leadership in Chinese cities and also ways to enhance diversity and inclusion at ISA. Yixian Sun and Yitong Ye presented their paper 'Governing sustainable infrastructure through a public-private initiative', which investigates how the FAST-Infra Label emerged through coordinated interactions among diverse public and private actors. Dr Hina Aslam delivered a presentation on her work about the growing complexity and challenges arising from diverse frameworks for embedded emissions accounting in the Iron steel sector, and Dr Randy W Nandyatama presented his paper on the dynamics of civil society organisations within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) experiencing increased autocratisation practices.
We also celebrated the presentation of the 2025 Distinguished Scholar Award from the Environmental Studies Section to SGAIN advisory board member Prof Ben Cashore. This award was a well-earned recognition of his decades of groundbreaking scholarship to environmental policy and governance research, including the creation of the term "non-state market driven" (NMSD) global governance and researching climate change as a “super wicked problem”. Congratulations Ben!
All SGAIN researchers enjoyed the conference and got useful feedback on their work. Our team also had a small gathering in Chicago. We look forward to sharing more work at the next year’s ISA!
