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Seila Panizzolo is Departmental Lecturer at the Oxford Department of International Development, where she teaches International Institutions, Qualitative Methods and Global Governance. Her research interests include International Organisations, United Nations, International Institutions, Humanitarian Aid, Relational Sociology, Bourdieusian approaches to International Relations, Practice Theory and Gulf Countries.
In her research, Seila unpacks the work of complex international organisations and focuses on their offices at the country level. She proposes a conceptual framework rooted in organisational sociology and practice theory that captures the interactions between these offices and their public authorities of reference. In doing so, she investigates how the country level enables both international organisations and states to shape each other and exercise agency in international relations.
More specifically, in her Doctoral thesis at City, University of London, Seila explored the relations between humanitarian offices of the United Nations Country Team and public authorities in the United Arab Emirates. During her fieldwork in the Gulf, she was based at the United Nations Development Programme in Abu Dhabi and at the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights in Doha.
As an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, Seila has taught a number of courses in International Politics at City, University of London. In 2016, she became a member of the Center of International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS, University of London where she has taught on the MA in International Studies and Diplomacy.
