Virginia Haufler is Associate Professor in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park USA. I am an associate faculty member of the Center for International Development and Conflict Management, and Director of the Women’s Initiative for Network Development. I was awarded the 2022-23 Fulbright-Trudeau Foundation Fellowship and the Joint Chair in Contemporary Public Policy at the Institute for the Study of Canada at McGill University. From 2011-2021 I was Director of the University of Maryland Global Communities Living-Learning Program, which introduces freshmen to scholarship and experiences that explore globalization, global issues and intercultural understanding.
My research explores the changing nature of governance in the global political economy with a focus on private authority, industry self-regulation, and corporate social responsibility. My current projects analyze the extractive sector and conflict, corruption and climate issues; the financial sector as leverage for industry climate commitments; and rethinking capitalism in an age of cascading crises.
I have been a visiting scholar at McGill University, University College London, University of California-Irvine, the University of Southern California, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. I have presented my work at conferences, workshops and public lectures in more than a dozen countries.
I currently serve on the Board of Women in International Security (WIIS), a membership organization supporting women’s contributions to peace and development. I also serve on the Board of the Center for the Study of Business Ethics, Regulation and Crime. In the past, I was a board member of advisor to a number of research institutes and non-profits, including the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt and OEF Research.
I earned a M.A./Ph.D from Cornell University in Government, and dual B.A. from Pennsylvania State University.
In my free time, I love to play the mandolin, cook from my numerous cookbooks, and indulge my two cats, Suzi and Ollie.