Martina is a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia (Political Theory & International Relations) and a graduate of the MPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford (Ermenegildo Zegna and De Breyne Scholar) as well as a professionally-trained concert pianist.

Her dissertation at UBC focuses on the meanings of civilization in the 19th-century. More specifically, she explores the ways in which the “standard of civilization” was reflected, inflected and contested in art.

Research interests include the history of modern political thought, international legal history, theories of empire, aesthetics, and postcolonialism.