Laura Rahm

Laura Rahm, Ph.D., is a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research Fellow at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University. She received her Ph.D. in Political Sociology and Demography from the Sorbonne University, Paris. She is also an Associate Researcher at the Paris-based Center for Population and Development and a Fellow at the School of Transnational Governance at the European University Institute, the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, and the Sociology Department of the University of Toronto. She recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Barcelona for an ERC-funded research project.

Laura specializes in global governance, population, and gender policies. Her research interests include global social policy, global programmes, comparative policy analysis, knowledge transfer, policy transfer, network governance, and the role of international organisations and epistemic communities in addressing global public challenges and harmful practices towards women and girls, such as gender-biased sex selection, female genital mutilation/cutting and child marriage.

Her recent publications appeared in Population and Development Review, Critique Internationale, and Men and Masculinities Journal. Her book Gender-Biased Sex Selection in South Korea, India and Vietnam: Assessing the Influence of Public Policy was published in Springer in 2020. Her upcoming book chapters will appear in the International Handbook on Population Policies (Springer) and the Demographic Dynamics and Development (ISTE Editions). She also authored over a dozen technical reports for international agencies including the United Nations Population Fund, the World Bank and the German Development Cooperation.

Dr. Laura Rahm has over 15 years of work experience in international gender programmes. She has worked with NGOs, national governments, international banks and development partners. She has served as a Senior Consultant for the World Bank and UN agencies providing technical support, trainings and policy reform recommendations on subjects linked to son preference, social protection and sex selection.