Gul-i-Hina van der Zwan is a Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science.

More information about Gul-i-Hina van der Zwan

Gul-i-Hina van der Zwan is a Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Milan, Italy. Her doctoral research focused on understanding the role of rising China vis-à-vis its impact on democratic governance, international development, and geopolitics. Specifically, she examined Chinese infrastructure investments under China’s global connectivity plan – the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and their political implications on democratization and regime changes in partner countries. Using the theory of Chinese Linkage and Leverage she conducted mixed methods research – a quantitative analysis of Chinese linkage and democracy in Asia and a qualitative case study of Pakistan. 

Moreover, she has been an affiliated Research Fellow at the International Institute of Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden University since 2019. During her fellowship at IIAS, she contributed to the project Building the New Silk Road. China's Belt and Road Initiative in Context from 2019-2022, and authored a book chapter ‘Gwadar Port and China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)” in ‘China and the Ports of the Indian Ocean’. She has also contributed to articles in the IIAS Newsletter, a webinar lecture on China’s Belt and Road Initiative: the case of Pakistan, and the Belt and Road podcast on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Before joining the Institute of Political Science, Gul-i-Hina worked as a Lecturer in the International Relations and International Organization department, Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where she taught several core and advanced BA seminars. Moreover, she was part of the China team for the ReConnect China – European Commission’s Horizon Europe project coordinated by Ghent University, Belgium – to analyze trade and economic dimensions of Sino-European cooperation.

Previously, Gul-i-Hina acquired extensive experience in teaching, research, and data analysis through working across diverse sectors of academia, corporate, and non-governmental organizations in Hungary, Italy, China, and Pakistan. She holds an MA in Political Science from Central European University (CEU), Hungary, and a BSc(Hons) in Politics and Economics from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan.

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