Catherine Hecht is a sessional lecturer at the Masters of Public Policy and Global Affairs (MPPGA) program at UBC.  Her research and teaching interests include democratic and sustainable development, international organizations, social psychology and discourse in multilateral diplomacy, global health, and the evolution and contestation of norms, with an empirical focus on the United Nations (UN) system and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

She has held a senior research fellowship at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany and a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) post-doctoral fellowship in Austria. She has taught at the Vienna School of International Studies, Diplomatic Academy of Vienna, the Technische Universität Darmstadt in Germany, and UBC. She holds a Ph.D. in political science from UBC and a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.

Her professional experience includes having served as a consultant with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and working with the World Bank’s Africa region and civil society organizations in Central Europe. She has also observed several elections with the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

Hecht, Catherine (2020): When Democratic Governance Unites and Divides: Social Status and Contestation in the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Cooperation and Conflict 56(1): 44-64.

Hecht, Catherine (2017): Advantages and Disadvantages of Inclusive Multilateral Venues: The Rise and Fall of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution on New or Restored Democracies. International Politics 54(6): 714-728.

Hecht, Catherine (2016): Success after Stalemate? Persistence, Reiteration, and Windows of Opportunity in Multilateral Negotiations. Journal of International Organizations Studies 7(2): 23-38.

Hecht, Catherine (2016): The Shifting Salience of Democratic Governance: Evidence from the United Nations General Assembly General Debates. Review of International Studies. 42(5): 915-938.