Real and ideal: Research for changing the world

While our faculty research interests and approaches are highly diverse and richly varied, they share two common attributes. The first is a commitment to research which has direct relevance to politics in the contemporary world. Across the fields of political economy, global governance and public policy/administration, there is a shared commitment to research that combines an understanding of how the political world really is with consideration of how the world ought to be as well as suggestions for solutions to some of the most pressing current problems.

The second is a commitment to academic research excellence – for which the Department has an established reputation.  In addition to numerous major research awards and an impressive track record of external grants, our faculty have the highest rate of journal publications per faculty member of any department of political science in English Canada.  

(See Social Science Quarterly, 89, 3: 802-16.)

Faculty                                                                        Areas of research
 Gerard Boychuk       
  • Global social governance
  • Comparative public policy
  • Public administration
Angela Carter
  • Political economy
  • Comparative politics
  • Environmental policy
Alana Cattapan
  • Gender, politics and public policy
  • Health policy
  • Reproductive politics
  • Interest groups and social movements
  • Canadian politics
 Andrew Cooper
  • Conventional and un-conventional forms of international diplomacy
  • National perspectives on global governance and rising powers/middle powers/small states
  • Canadian and comparative foreign policy
  • International political economy
Anna Drake
  • Political theory (contemporary political philosophy, democratic theory, rights, justice)
  • Gender and politics (feminist theory, justice and gender)
 Anna Esselment
  • Intergovernmental relations
  • Campaigns and elections
  • Canadian institutions
  • Canadian & provincial politics
  • Political parties
  • Political marketing
Jasmin Habib
  • Diaspora, refugees and migration
  • Cultural theory
  • Ethnography and ethnographic writing
  • Indigenous practices and relations
  • Israel/Palestine conflict

Eric Helleiner 

Faculty of Arts Chair in International Political Economy
  • International political economy
  • International money and finance
  • North-South economic relations
  • History of political economy
Daniel Henstra
  • Public administration
  • Public policy
  • Local government
  • Federalism and multilevel governance
  • Emergency management
  • Climate change adaptation
Jingjing Huo
  • Political economy
  • Political parties (advanced industrialized countries)
  • Methods of political analysis
Alexander Lanoszka
  • International security
  • Alliance politics
  • Theories of war
  • European security  
Veronica Kitchen
  • International relations
  • Security studies
Emmett Macfarlane   
  • Canadian politics
  • Public policy
  • The Supreme Court of Canada
  • The Charter of Rights and Freedoms
  • Comparative politics of rights
Bessma Momani         Centre for International Governance Innovation Senior Fellow
  • Politics of international organizations
  •  International Monetary Fund
  • Middle East politics
Mariam Mufti
  • Comparative politics
  • South Asia
  • Democratization and regime change
  • Electoral and party politics
John Ravenhill
  • International Political Economy
  • Regionalism & Preferential Trade Agreements
  • Global Value Chains
  • Economics and Security
Horatiu Rus
  • International trade
  • Environmental and natural resource economics
  • International development
  • Political economy
Hongying Wang

Centre for International Governance Innovation Fellow

  • Chinese politics
  • International relations
  • Political economy
                                                                     

David Welch     

Centre for International Governance Innovation Chair in Global Security

  • International relations
  • International security
 Heather Whiteside
  • Political Economy
  • Public Policy