PROFILE

Dr. Laura Bullon-Cassis is a postdoctoral researcher at the Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy. Her research brings together media and communication studies, political sociology, and global governance to examine how multilateral institutions and political cultures adapt in times of crisis. She studies how youth movements, corporations, and technological elites contest and reshape governance, and how digital media, communication infrastructures, and sociotechnical systems mediate these struggles by redistributing attention, authority, and political imagination.

Her first book, based on her PhD in Media, Culture, and Communication from New York University (with Distinction), explores the symbolic politics of “youth” in UN climate summitry and the role of media and visibility in global diplomacy. It traces how youth have become central figures in the communicative politics of climate change, revealing the sociological mechanisms through which visibility substitutes for influence. Current projects extend this agenda by studying grassroots democratic renewal and acts of civil disobedience in Paris, as well as AI literacy, data infrastructures, and algorithmic mediation in democratic decision-making.

Her writing has appeared in both scholarly and public venues, including the Journal of Youth Studies, Global Policy Journal, Global Perspectives, NEOS, OpenDemocracy, and The Conversation. She also reports on multilateral environmental negotiations as a team leader and writer for the International Institute for Sustainable Development, analyzing how communicative practices and institutional narratives shape consensus-building within the IPCC, UN Climate Change Conferences, and the High-Level Political Forum.

She has held visiting fellowships at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (University of Cambridge), the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics (George Washington University), the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, and Sciences Po Paris. She has taught at NYU and Pratt Institute, served as Assistant Editor of Public Culture, and was named an Emerging Scholar by Global Perspectives in 2024.

Before her academic career, Laura worked with several UN bodies, including UNEP, UN-Habitat, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti, and the United Nations University. She holds an MSc in Global Politics and a BSc in Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

SELECTED Publications AND OUTPUTS

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2025). Who Gets to Shape Climate Futures? Voice, Representation, and Urban Experimentation at the Paris Climate Academy. Global Perspectives, 6(1), 143126.
• Bullón-Cassis, L., Lutringer, C., Mexi, M., & Welp, Y. (2025). Democratic innovations for youth: Promises and perceptions of ‘voice’. Societies.
• Bullón-Cassis, L., & Tchermalykh, N. (2025). Dialogues subversifs: Redéfinir le musée occidental par des interventions performatives. Marges, 40, 23–38.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). A game show at the end of the world: The currency of youth in UN climate summitry. Journal of Youth Studies, 27(1), 1–18.
• Hubacher, M., Bullón-Cassis, L., Duberry, J., & Lutringer, C. (2024). Stories of the Future: Mit Geschichten mögliche Zukünfte erforschen – ein Praxisbericht. POLIS, (14), 27–30.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2021). Beware of Generationalism: The Structural (In)Visibility of BIPOC Youths in Global Climate Summits. NEOS, 13(1).
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2011). Towards ‘Post-Globalization’? G20 Communications during the Global Financial Crisis.UNU-CRIS.

Television, Podcasts, and Op-Eds

• The New Oligarchs, invited guest expert on Geopolitis (RTS and TV5Monde), international broadcast on technology elites and global governance, 18 May 2025.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). 2024: A Year of Reflection, Unrest, and Lessons for Democracy. Global Challenges and Globe, Geneva Graduate Institute.
• Co-host, Who is Voting in 2024? podcast. Sample episode: France: How is Civil Society Fighting the Rise of the Extreme Right Online? with Sarah Durieux.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2024). Can Young People Still Sway UN Climate COPs? The Conversation (French and English).
• Duberry, J., Lutringer, C., Bullón-Cassis, L., & Hubacher, M. (2024, May 27). Une gouvernance mondiale de l’IA est-elle possible et si oui, peut-on y intégrer la jeunesse? The Conversation.
• Podcast episode with Jennifer Telesca (2024). Navigating Environmental Governance Through Ethnographic Ways of Knowing. Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2022). Youth at Climate COPs: An Exercise in (Suboptimal) Planetary Care? Weather Matters,Fall Series.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2020). Why is Youth Embracing ‘Alter-Democracy’? An Interview with Fridays for Future Activist Marie-Claire Graf. Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2020). Democratic Disenchantments: COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, and Fridays for Future.Albert Hirschman Centre on Democracy.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2015). The UN is Imperfect, but We Need It More Than Ever. OpenDemocracy, 10 December.
• Bullón-Cassis, L. (2012). When Anti-Globalizers are Pro-Globalizers. The Global Journal, March.

Policy (Selected)

• Bullón-Cassis, L., Gutierrez, M. (2025). The Frascati Principles: Towards Trusted, Coherent, and Inclusive Environmental Data Systems. UNEP High-Level Expert Group on Environmental Data.
• Bullón-Cassis, L., Davenport, D., & Mwangi, W. (2024). Summary and Analysis of the Summit of the Future. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Vol. 3, No. 22.
• Bullón-Cassis, L., Lutringer, C., & Bellenot, H. (2024). Understanding the Links between Multilateralism and Democracy: Issue Brief on Democracy and Climate. Kofi Annan Foundation.
• Bullón-Cassis, L., Sharma, A., Jones, J., Leone, F., & Verkuijl, C. (2019). Summary and Analysis of the UN General Assembly Summits. Earth Negotiations Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 57.