Contact information
Email: amdrake@uwaterloo.ca
Areas of specialization
- Deliberative democracy
- Activism
- Structural justice
- Feminist theory and practice
- Deliberative consociationalism
Anna Drake (she/her) works in the area of democratic theory with a focus on deliberative democracy, intersectionality, and activism. Her current research examines structural injustice in deliberative theory and analyzes the ways deliberative systems might better respond to problems such as systemic racism, sexism, and ableism. Another project picks up on previous work and applies arguments for a transformation of power (using the radical intersectional analysis of the Combahee River Collective as a starting point) to post-conflict societies, arguing for an expansive form of deliberative consociationalism and for a wide engagement of civil society.
Dr. Drake's fields are political theory and gender and politics. She is happy to supervise students in these areas.
Selected Publications
Books:
- Activism, Inclusion, and the Challenges of Deliberative Democracy. 2021. Vancouver: UBC Press.
- Legislating Under the Charter: Parliament, Executive Power, and Judicial Norms about Rights. (With Emmett Macfarlane and Janet Hiebert). 2023. University of Toronto Press.
- The Sciences of The Democracies. (With Jean-Paul Gagnon and Benjamin Abrams et. al.) Forthcoming August 2025. University College London Press (and distributed by University of Chicago Press).
Selected articles & chapters:
- “Deliberative Democracy and Systemic Racism. 2023. Canadian Journal of Political Science 56 (1): 92-112.
- “Normative Justifications for Democratic Design: The Case of Canadian Electoral Reform.” 2019. Canada: The State of the Federation 2017: Canada at 150: Federalism and Democratic Renewal. McGill-Queen’s University Press. Pp. 161-179. (Co-authored with Margaret Moore: 50% contribution).
- “Secularism, Religious Diversity, and Democratic Politics.” 2013. Secular States and Religious Diversity. Eds. Bruce Berman, Rajeev Bhargava, and André Laliberté. Vancouver: UBC Press, 293-309.
- “Deliberating and Learning Contentious Issues: How Divided Societies Represent Conflict in History Textbooks.” 2013. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 13 (3): 277-294. (Co-authored with Allison McCulloch.)
- “Deliberative Consociationalism in Deeply Divided Societies.” 2011. Contemporary Political Theory 10 (3): 372-392. (Co-authored with Allison McCulloch.)
Selected public writing:
- “When we are the barriers to systemic change.” The Loop: ECPR’s Political Science Blog, November 9, 2023.
- “So-called ‘freedom convoy’ is a symptom of a deeply unequal society.” Policy Options, Feb. 8th, 2022.
Current projects
- Deliberative democracy, activism, and structural injustice
- Responsibility for structural justice
- Deliberative consociationalism and conflict transformation
Courses taught
- PSCI 621 - Contemporary Political Theory
- PSCI 423 - Democratic Theory and Practice
- PSCI 421 - Justice and Gender
- PSCI 370 - Gender and Politics
- PSCI 324 - Contemporary Political Theory
- PSCI 226 - Modern Political Thought
- PSCI 225 - Ancient Political Thought