Collegium Helveticum
Switzerland
fellow
Grace Ballor
2024-2025
Home institution
Bocconi University
Country of origin (home institution)
Italy
Discipline(s)
Earth, environmental and climate sciences; Geography
Theme(s)
Environment, Sustainability & Biodiversity; Future Studies
Fellowship dates
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Biography
Grace Ballor is a historian specializing in the international political economy of contemporary Europe, the economic consequences of climate change, and the intersections of global capitalism and global governance. Grace is currently an Assistant Professor of International Economic History at Bocconi University (IT). She has held research fellowships at Harvard Business School (US), the European University Institute (IT), the Graduate Institute Geneva (CH), and LMU Munich (DE). She earned her PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (US).
Research Project
Climate Risk Management in Europe and the World
In the late 20th century, even as national governments and international organizations accepted scientific conclusions about anthropogenic climate change and promoted adaptation measures and the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions, they also began to recognize the shortcomings of those efforts for preventing damages caused by severe weather, droughts, wildfires, rising sea levels, and more. In response, they increasingly adopted risk management approaches to climate change and developed actuarial thinking about its economic consequences.
During her fellowship at the Collegium Helveticum, Grace will focus on her second book manuscript, examining the history of climate risk management in Europe and the world. Her research is enriched by collaborations with Associate Fellow Frank Schimmelfennig, other Zurich-based colleagues, and the Collegium’s dynamic environment.
Research Interests:
climate risk management; climate change history; environmental history; actuarial thinking; risk assessment; climate adaptation; climate mitigation; greenhouse gas emissions; extreme weather; sea level rise; wildfires; drought; international climate policy; European climate policy.