Rate My Professor Beth Simmons

Beth Simmons is the Andrea Mitchell University Professor in Law, Political Science, and Business Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Carey Law School, with appointments in the School of Arts and Sciences and a secondary appointment in Wharton. She earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Government from Harvard University, an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Redlands. Her career trajectory includes serving as Assistant Professor at Duke University, Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Full Professor at Harvard University where she directed the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and her current position at Penn since 2016. She also spent a year working at the International Monetary Fund and served as president of the International Studies Association from 2011 to 2012.

Simmons specializes in international relations, international law, and international political economy, with seminal research on international political economy during the interwar years, global policy diffusion, the influence of international law on human rights outcomes, global performance indicators as informal governance mechanisms, international border crossings, and transnational crime. Key publications include the books Who Adjusts? Domestic Sources of Foreign Economic Policy During the Interwar Years (1994), Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics (2009), which received the American Political Science Association's Woodrow Wilson Award as well as best book awards from the American Society for International Law, International Social Science Council, and International Studies Association, The Power of Global Performance Indicators (co-authored with Judith Kelley, 2019), The Global Diffusion of Markets and Democracy (edited, 2007), and Handbook of International Relations (edited, 2002, revised 2012). She has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and American Philosophical Society, and serves or has served on editorial boards including American Political Science Review, Journal of Politics, and International Organization (chair 2008-2009). Her scholarship has advanced understandings of policy diffusion and the constraining power of international law, impacting academic fields and global policy on human rights and economic governance.