Ellen Jenny Ravndal

Dr Ellen Jenny Ravndal, FHEA, is an Associate Professor in Political Science in the Department of Media and Social Science at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Her main research areas include international organisations, the UN Secretary-General, and international relations in the nineteenth century. Her research examines international organisations from a historical perspective and addresses the broader questions of what the emergence and development of international organisations can tell us about broader developments of global order, and what kind of actors international organisations are and how they and their representatives gain autonomy. 

Prior to joining the University of Stavanger she was a research fellow / lecturer in the Department of International Relations, Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs, the Australian National University, from 2017 to 2019, and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Political Science, Lund University from 2015 to 2017. At Lund University, she was attached to the research project State-Making and the Origins of Global Order in the Long Nineteenth Century and Beyond (STANCE), funded by the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond). 

Ellen holds a DPhil in International Relations from St Antony's College, University of Oxford. Her dissertation (defended 2 September 2015) examined the development of the political role of the UN secretary-general while Trygve Lie held the office (1946-1953). Her first monograph, published with Bristol University Press in January 2023, is based on the dissertation project.