I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, specializing in the intersection of human rights, global governance, and transnational advocacy. Previously, I was a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University (2023–2024). I obtained my PhD in Political Science and Master in Statistics from the University of Pennsylvania (2023), complemented by a B.Sc. from the University of San Andrés (Argentina, 2011) and a M.Sc. in International Studies from Torcuato Di Tella University (Argentina, 2018).

I combine large-N quantitative methods with extensive fieldwork to analyze the dynamics of norm adoption and resistance within global governance systems, with a focus on how international actors — including NGOs, intergovernmental organizations, and transnational networks — shape policy reform and accountability mechanisms. My research has been published or is conditionally accepted in International Organization, British Journal of Political Science, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, and Journal of Democracy, among others. It has been recognized with the Ken Sherrill Best Dissertation Award in LGBTQ Politics and the LGBTQ Caucus Best Paper Award from the American Political Science Association, and the Steve Poe Best Graduate Student Paper in Human Rights from the International Studies Association.

Prior to academia, I contributed to policy innovation through roles at the MERCOSUR Institute of Public Policy on Human Rights, and the Argentina Council for International Relations (CARI), a preeminent Latin American think tank advising on foreign policy and multilateral diplomacy.

The Paradox of Condemnation: When Criticism Fosters and Undermines LGBT Rights

Book Project

Why does international pressure for human rights sometimes spark reform and sometimes trigger backlash? This book tackles that puzzle through the lens of LGBT rights, one of the most contested fault lines in contemporary global politics. Drawing on an original cross-national dataset spanning 1990 to 2024, it documents the global expansion of LGBT rights across two dimensions: how states incorporate LGBT protections into their foreign policies, and how those advocacy efforts shape, or distort, domestic law abroad. At its core, the project argues that the relationship between critic and target matters as much as the criticism itself: whether states perceive each other as belonging to the same political and cultural community determines whether condemnation fosters compliance or fuels resentment.

To build that argument, the book combines large-scale quantitative analysis of over 250,000 diplomatic statements with in-depth case studies and 100 elite interviews, tracing the mechanisms of norm diffusion from the halls of the UN to municipal politics in Poland. The findings challenge conventional "naming and shaming" wisdom, showing that outgroup criticism can entrench the very policies advocates seek to change while ingroup pressure quietly enables reform. With implications extending well beyond LGBT rights, the project offers a new relational framework for understanding how human rights norms spread, stall, and sometimes backfire in a divided world.

Trust Or Fortify? Border Walls in International Relations

R&R — International Studies Quarterly

with Michael Kenwick and Beth Simmons

We propose a relational rather than issue-centric approach to border governance. Two aspects of interstate relations condition border fortification: (1) neighboring states’ degree of shared trust and (2) a neighbor’s relative capacity to participate in border management. Both predict whether as well as where walls are built. We demonstrate this using an innovative measure of bilateral trust and a new global geolocated dataset of border walls and wall segments between 1990 and 2020. The main contribution is to highlight the importance of international relationships, and especially trust, for unilateral border hardening decisions.

Human Rights Consolidation or Fragmentation? A Network Analysis of Resolution Sponsorship in the UN Human Rights Council

R&R — Network Science

with Jared Edgerton and Cecilia Cavero Sánchez

This article examines the fragmentation within the international human rights regime by analyzing state sponsorship of resolutions at the United Nations Human Rights Council. Through network analysis, we find that fragmentation is issue-dependent: topics like Israel-Palestine exhibit higher levels of division while others, such as physical integrity, show more consistent state collaboration. These results challenge the assumption of a universally cohesive human rights framework and highlight the complexity of global norm dynamics.

Finding the Right Forum: Non-State Actor Engagement in International Organizations

Working Paper

with Rachel Schoner

How does institutional design affect non-state actors’ preference for regional versus global organizations? We consider these actors as strategic decision-makers, choosing where to engage based on the costs and benefits of each IO’s institutional design. Focusing on the human rights regime, we compare the Inter-American System of Human Rights and the UN human rights treaty system using novel individual petition data. Our findings show that when actors have access to a legally binding decision, petitions increase in such organizations and decrease in alternative ones.

Working Paper

Gino Pauselli

Gino Pauselli