Curriculum Vitae

Contact: yolaine.frossarddesaugy@mail.mcgill.ca

Current Employment

• Post-Doctoral Research Fellow, African Studies Program, McGill University

Other Positions

• Research Assistant, Canada School of Public Service
  • Project: “bringing immersive foresight training to the public service”, PI Prof. Gitanjali Adlakha-Hutcheon
• Research Assistant, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
  • Project: “Leaders’ assassinations at the dawn of independence in sub-Saharan Africa”, PI Prof. Daniel Douek
    • Managing the team of 5 undergraduate students responsible for qualitative data analysis
• Research Assistant, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
  • Project: « Entre tension et harmonie : conversations autour de la consommation de cannabis chez les femmes enceintes au Québec” (“Between tension and harmony: conversations around cannabis consumption among pregnant women in Quebec”), PI Prof. José-Ignacio Nazif Muñoz
• Associate Researcher, Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, Rutgers University
  • Project: “aging with HIV”, PI Dr. Kristen Krause
• Analyst & consultant, Health Financing, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Geneva, Switzerland

Professional Affiliations

• Member, réseau des jeunes chercheur.e.s en sciences sociales sur le VIH/sida (“young social sciences researchers on HIV network”) (2022-present)
• Member, Center for International Peace and Strategic Studies, McGill University (2018-2025)

Education

• PhD in Political Science, McGill University, Montreal, Canada (2025)
  • Dissertation: “Incomplete Norm: HIV/AIDS, States, and Ideological Battlegrounds”
  • Qualifying Fields: International Relations and Comparative Politics (Sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East)
  • Dissertation Committee: Fernando Nuñez-Mietz (supervisor), Jennifer Welsh, Tania Islas-Weinstein
• MSc in African Politics, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, London, UK (2018)
  • Thesis: “’We Are Not Gays’: Homophobia, Identity and Politics in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe”
  • Supervisor: Dr Rahul Rao
• MA in International History, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva, Switzerland (2014)
  • Thesis: “Same Conflict, New Headlines: The Impact of the End of the Cold War on the US Intervention in Angola”
  • Supervisor: Prof. Jussi Hanhimäki
• BA in History, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, Paris, France (2012)
• BA in Geography, Université Paris IV-Sorbonne, Paris, France (2012)  

Research Interests

• Global health diplomacy and diplomacy of HIV
• International norms
• HIV and minority rights
• African Politics – Western and Southern Africa, democratization, queer politics

Peer-Reviewed Publications

As first author:

•  “We Are Not Gays”: Regime Preservation and the Politicization of Identity in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. African Studies Review. 2022;65(3):591-614. doi:10.1017/asr.2022.55
• “Closing the Arab Democratic Gap: A Re-Assessment of the Tunisian Democratic Transition” in Potentia, University of Ottawa, 2020
• “’It’s the framing, stupid’: Social Movements and Mobilization for Access to HIV/AIDS Treatment in India and South Africa” in The Pardee Periodical – Journal of Global Affairs, Boston University, 2019
• “Biased Security? National Priorities and Regional Intervention in the Gambian and Burundian Election Crises” in Inquiry and Insight, University of Waterloo, 2019  
• “Falling Apart? Government Failure, Usurped Sovereignty and Alternative Governance in Africa” in Journal of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, 2014

As co-author:

• “Navigating cannabis use during pregnancy: life trajectories, relationships, and contextual influences”, Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare, September 2025
• “Talking with pregnant women exposed to cannabis use after cannabis legalization: experiences of professionals working in Québec’s Social and Healthcare system” in SSM – Qualitative Research in Health, January 2025

Invited Presentations

As first author:

• Presented at the International Political Association 75^th Anniversary Conference, Montreal, Canada, April 2024
  • “International Norms as Ideological Battlegrounds: Value Debates and Foreign Policy Maneuvering within the Global HIV/AIDS Response”

As co-author:

• Presented at the Early Life and Prenatal Health in Neurodevelopment Conference, Montréal, Canada, March 2023
  • “Challenges for developing interprofessional collaboration between health professionals working with pregnant women exposed to cannabis”, authors: Karen Aileen Dominguez Cancino, Kristelle Alunni-Menichini, Pablo Alberto Martinez Diaz, Rose Chabot, Yolaine Frossard de Saugy, Karine Bertrand, Nadia Lespérance, Julie Loslier, José Ignacio Nazif-Munoz

Awards and Grants

• Guy Drummond Memorial Fellowship in Political Science, 2023-2024
• Heather Munroe-Blum Fellowship in Public Policy, McGill University, 2021-2022 and 2022-2023
• Fulbright 2022-2023 Visiting Student Researcher
  • Visiting researcher at the Center for Health, Identity, Behavior and Prevention Studies, Rutgers School of Public Health, Rutgers University, USA
• Alexander Mackenzie Fellowship in Political Science, McGill University, 2020-2021 and 2022-2023
• Arts Class of 1951 Fellowship, 2021-2022
• Graduate Excellence Award, McGill University, 2018-2023

Works in Progress

As first author:

• Incomplete Norm and Ideological Battles: How the Global HIV/AIDS Response Became a Foreign Policy Playground (Book)
• “If You Can’t Join Them, Beat Them: Russia’s HIV/AIDS Diplomacy” (article)
• “Becoming Key Populations: The Politics of HIV/AIDS Vulnerability” (article)
• “A Convenient Truth: France in Central Africa and the Death of Barthélémy Boganda” (article), with Prof. Daniel Douek

As co-author:

• “CARB: Inciting the (Im)possible via a Practice of Proactive Policymaking” (article), with Prof. Gitanjali Adlakha-Hutcheon

Supervising and Mentoring

As Teaching Assistant (assisting in the preparation of lecture materials, teaching one-hour seminars four times a week, grading all coursework, and assisting students with their assignments):

• International Relations/Foreign Policy of Africa (POLI 352): Winter 2019, Fall, 2020, Fall 2021
• Violence and Transformation in Southern Africa (POLI 422): Winter 2021

Professional Services

Assistant to the Editor-in-Chief (Prof. Juliet Johnson), Review of International Political Economy, 2020

Media Contributions

• « Trump White House’s disengagement from HIV/AIDS response could have lethal consequences”, The Conversation, February 2025
• “France’s military withdrawal presents opportunities and risks to West African states”, The Conversation, January 2025

Activism

• GRIS-Montréal: volunteer, admin and school interventions – 2019-present