Biography
Layne Vandenberg joined the Department of European & International Studies, with an affiliation with the Lau China Institute, in 2018. Layne is currently part of the King’s and University of Hong Kong joint PhD programme, for which she focuses on international football politics and institutions.
Layne holds a BA in International Relations and Security from the University of Michigan (2015) and a LLM in International Relations (2017) from the Yenching Academy at Peking University. As a Fulbright Research Scholar and Yenching Scholar, her research has focused on football and sports policy, including the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, and football reform in China. She has worked with both the US Soccer Federation and UEFA.
Research
Thesis title: 'FIFA, National Member Associations, and government interference: comparative analysis of the role of the state in multilateral football governance'
Research Interests
- Sports politics
- Political economy
- Comparative governance
- International institutions
- Game theory
- Globalisation
PhD supervision
- Principal supervisors: Ramon Pacheco Pardo and Xu Guoqi (University of Hong Kong)
- Secondary supervisor: Kerry Brown