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Sara Kahn-Nisser, Associate Professor

Contact Info

The Open University of Israel Department of Sociology Political Science and Communication 1 University Road P.O.B. 808 Ra’anana 4353701, Israel
Office:972-9-7780710 Email:sarakn@openu.ac.il

Additional Information

My CRIS profile

Areas of Interest
  • International Relations
  • International Organizations
  • Human Rights in International Relations
  • Compliance with International Law
  • Constructivist International Relations Theory

Sara Kahn Nisser specializes in International Relations and her research interests includei international oanizations, human rights in international relations, Compliance with international law, and constructivist international relations theory. She has also studied the European Union and its human rights policies, particularly in the context of trade relations and enlargement. Recently her research has focused on the politics of human rights shaming, including its determinants, its effects, and backlash against it. She was a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley and at New York University School of Law , and has held positions at Bar Ilan University and at the Israel Democracy Institute. She has published in leading journals such as Review of International Organizations, Journal of Peace Research, Journal of European Public Policy, International Studies Review, Journal Common Market Studies and more.

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2006-2009
PhD (SUMA CUM LAUDE), International Relations, Bar Ilan University
2004-2005
MA (SUMA CUM LAUDE), Political Science, Bar Ilan University
2002
Diploma, Journalism and Communication, Bar Ilan University
1999-2002
BA, Political science, Bar Ilan University
2018-present
Senior lecturer, the Department of Sociology Political Science and Communication, the Open University of Israel
2014-2018
Lecturer, the Department of Sociology Political Science and Communication, the Open University of Israel
2012-2014
Visiting lecturer, the Department of Sociology Political Science and Communication, the Open University of Israel
2011
Adjunct lecturer, the Department of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University
2011
Junior research fellow, New Public Agenda project, Israel Democracy Institute
2010
Emile Noel Visiting Research Fellow, Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice, School of Law, New York University
2004-2009
Instructor, the Department of Political Studies, Bar Ilan University
2004-2009
Instructor, the Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences, Bar Ilan University

2015 The Open University of Israel’s Research Authority, ‘Information is Power: A tripartite model of the influence of human rights monitoring’

2012 The Open University of Israel’s Research Authority, ‘Agents of Norm Diffusion: The ILO, the EU and labor rights in Europe’

2010 The Jean Monnet Center for International and Regional Economic Law and Justice, school of Law , New York University, ‘Drawing the Line: The EU's accession criteria in the cases of Turkey, Poland and Romania’

2006  Department of Cultural Cooperation at the French embassy in Israel, ‘Identity, Inclusion and Diversity: The European Parliaments' Debates on Turkey's Accession 1978-2004’ (funding for a month long research trip to the European parliament’s archives in Luxembourg)

2006-2010  Bar Ilan University's President’s Fellowship of Excellence for Outstanding PhD Students, ‘Identity, Inclusion and Diversity: The European Parliaments' Debates on Turkey's Accession 1978-2004’ (full scholarship and monthly stipend).

2004-2006 Full scholarship for MA studies, Bar Ilan University.

Academic coordinator of the twelfth Annual meeting of the Israeli Association of International Studies, the Open University of Israel, Ra’anana, June 2018.

Convener of a roundtable titled ‘Human rights in international relations’, the 11th annual meeting of the Israeli Association for International Studies, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, June 2017.

Discussant in a panel titled ‘Israel in a Changing International Environment’, the annual meeting of the Israeli Association for International Studies, the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, June 2017.

Convener of a workshop titled ‘European Union Politics: Theoretical, Empirical, and Methodological Advances’, workshop organized as part of the Eleventh Annual Graduate Conference, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, December 2015.

With Maya Sion-Tzidkiyahu, convener of a workshop titled ‘European Integration – Between Convergence and Differentiation, Consolidation and Diffusion’, workshop organized as part of the tenth Annual Graduate Conference, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem, December 2014.

Chair, the subcommittee for Sociology, Political science and Communication.

Member, Senate

Member, committee for Accreditation of Prior studies.

Member, academic committee of the Open University's 40th anniversary events.

Member,  subcommittee for Education and Psychology.

Member, ad-hoc departmental review committee on course offerings, the department of Sociology Political science and Communication.​

Member, the Academic Curricula Committee.

Member, the Social Sciences .

The Social Sciences journal

Journal of Conflict Resolution

International Studies Review

Journal of Common Market Studies

European Journal of International Relations

Asia-Europe Journal

International Studies Quarterly

Journal of Contemporary European Studies

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For better or worse: Shaming, faming, and human rights abuse. Journal of Peace Research. July 2020 doi:10.1177/0022343320905346

2019. ‘When the targets are members and donors: Analyzing inter-governmental organizations’ human rights shaming’, The Review of International Organizations, 14(3), 431-451

2019. ‘The EU China and the effect of trade dependence on human rights’ , Cambridge Review of International Affairs, DOI:  10.1080/09557571.2019.1641067

2018. ‘ Linkage leverage democratization and liberalization: Is promoting democracy the same as promoting human rights’, Policy studies, 39(1), 90-107

2018. Constructive criticism: Shaming, incentives, and human rights reforms. Politics & Policy, 46(1)

2016. The Ripple Effect: Peer ILO Treaty Ratification, Regional Socialization, and Labour Standards. Global Governance, 22(4), 513-532

2015. The hard impact of soft coordination: Emulation, learning and the convergence of collective labour standards in the EU. Journal of European Public Policy, 22(10), 1512-1530

2015. Channels of influence: The EU and Delta Convergence of Core labour Standards in the Eastern Neighbourhood. European Journal of Development Research, 29(1), 127-143

2015.  A Matter of Degree: Europeanization, ILO Treaty Ratification and Labour Standards in Europe. Journal of Contemporary European Studies, 25(3), 356-375

2014. External Governance, Treaty Ratification and Monitoring: The ILO, the EU, and Labor Rights in EU-acceding Central and Eastern European Countries. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 20 (4), 383-398

2013. Conditionality, Communication, Compliance: The Effect of Monitoring on     Collective Labor Rights in Europe. Journal of Common Market Studies, 51 (6), 1040-1056.

2012. Towards a Unity of Ethics and Practice: Interpreting Inclusion and Diversity. International Studies Review, 13 (3), 387-410
5 Year JCR IF 1.177

12. 2010. Nationalism, Identity and Rebellion: An Interpretation of the Wadi Salib Riots. Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, 16 (4), 375-396

2009. Between Ethnic Nationalism, Civic Nationalism and Cosmopolitanism: Discourses on the Identity of the EU and the debates on Turkey's Accession, Alternatives vol. 8(2),1-28

2017. The Common Foreign and Security Policy and the EU as a Global Actor, in: Buonanno, Laurie and Zahariadis Nikolaos (eds.) Routledge Handbook on European Public Policy. New York: Routledge.

2016. Rational Institutionalism, Constructivism or Both? A Spatial Econometric Approach to Measuring the Impact of Incentives and Socialization in the European Neighbourhood Policy. In: Gstöhl, Sieglinde and Simon Schunz (eds.) Theorizing the European Neighborhood Policy. New York: Routledge. pp 42-61

2009. MEP’s perceptions of Inclusion and Diversity in the EU 979-2004, in: Prada Daniela and Pasquinucci Dannielle (eds.) The Road the EU Traveled Along. London: Peter Lang. 215-225

 2010. Drawing the Line: The EU’s Political Accession Criteria and the Construction of Membership Emile Noel Working Paper available at: http://centers.law.nyu.edu/jeanmonnet/papers/papers10.html

 2013. Aydin- Düzgit, Senem (2012). Constructions of European Identity: Debates and Discourses on Turkey and the EU. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol. 51(6), 1210.

 2011. With Gianluigi Palombella Integration and Function: Taming Governance in the EU. Transnational Legal Theory, vol. 1 no. 4, 587-595