Meet The Team
Principal Investigator
Aydın Barış Yıldırım
Aydın Barış Yıldırım is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of St. Gallen. His research focuses on the politics of international trade, global economic governance, and the political activity of firms. His primary interest lies in understanding the role of corporations in politics, and the extent to which international cooperative arrangements are shaped and sustained amid the political mobilization of firms and other actors.
Aydın holds a PhD from the University of Antwerp and led his own Marie Curie project, PROSPER, at the World Trade Institute, examining the politics of standards and private regulation in global trade. He later joined the European Politics Chair and the EUROBORD project at ETH Zürich, focusing on EU trade policy, and was a Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute’s Robert Schuman Centre.
Doctoral Researchers
David Hollenstein
David is a PhD student in the RESHORE team and focusses on the connection between the behaviour of individuals and the responses of firms.
Having a background in both political science as well as business and economics, he holds a master’s degree from ETH Zurich and two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Innsbruck. He has gained experience in multiple research projects at these institutions and has previously worked for the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and public news- and radio networks.
David’s research interests focus primarily on the sources and effects of microeconomic behaviour. In previous research during his master’s, he researched questions like how incumbent heads of state or government react to changes in their public approval or how repeatedly exposed individuals slowly grow accustomed to the emotional consequences of political violence. On a methodological level, David places a heavy focus on quantitative and data-driven research. Key areas of expertise are causal inference, quantitative text analysis as well as (quasi-) experimental research designs.
Ella Stanisch
Ella supports the RESHORE project as part of her Ph.D. in International Affairs and Political Economy at the Institute of Political Science at the University of St. Gallen (HSG), where her research focuses on political risk and firm behaviour.
She brings professional experience at the intersection of business, politics, and international affairs. Most recently, she worked in Group Sustainability at Swiss Re, contributing to the development and implementation of the company’s sustainability strategy. Previously, she worked on economic and financial affairs at the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C., and at the British-Swiss Chamber of Commerce. Her experience is complemented by research work on political risk and international business.
Ella holds dual Master’s degrees in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen and in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, as well as a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the University of St. Gallen.