Our Experts

Anoush Fraser Terjanian currently serves as the Assistant Vice Dean, Partnerships and Research Networks, at the uOttawa Faculty of Social Sciences, and Research Associate at the Centre for International Policy Studies, uOttawa. Her research and teaching focus on 18th-century France—birthplace of political and economic theories under renewed critical evaluation, namely modern democracy and capitalism. She trained at Johns Hopkins, l’ÉHÉSS (Paris), Cambridge, and McGill universities. In 2015-17, Terjanian served (on secondment) as the founding Director of the US Social Science […]

Born in Winnipeg in 1950, Jon Allen (LL.B., University of Western Ontario, 1976; LL.M., International Law, University of London School of Economics, 1977) joined the then Department of External Affairs in 1981. In addition to postings abroad in Mexico City (1983-85), New Delhi (1989-92) and Washington (1997-2001), Mr. Allen held the positions of Director General, North America Bureau (2001-2004), Minister (Political Affairs) at the Embassy of Canada in Washington (2004-2006) and Assistant Deputy Minister, Americas (2010-2012). From 2006 to 2010, […]

John Erik Fossum is Professor at ARENA Centre for European Studies, University of Oslo, Norway. He has a BA from the University of Bergen, an MA from UC Santa Barbara, and a PhD from UBC, Vancouver, Canada. He has published widely on issues of federalism, identity, democracy and constitutionalism in the EU and Canada. He is project co-ordinator for the H2020-project EU3D – Differentiation, Dominance, Democracy (2019–2023), and PI in the H2020-project Differentiation: Clustering Excellence (DICE), and PI in Plurispace […]

James Hamilton Tully is an emeritus professor of Political Science and Law. After completing his BA at University of British Columbia and PhD at the University of Cambridge (Trinity College) he taught in the departments of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University 1977-96 (Chair, Department of Philosophy 1994-6). He was Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at UVic 1996-2001 and cross appointed in Law, Indigenous Governance and Philosophy. In 2001-03 he was the inaugural Henry N.R. […]

Joshua Nichols is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law and an Adjunct in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. His research primarily focuses on Aboriginal Law, colonialism, and the Philosophy of Law. He has a PhD in Law from the University of Victoria, a J.D. Law from the University of British Columbia, and a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto. Joshua Nichols has also held fellowships with the Cedar Trees Institute, Wahkohtowin […]

Rebeccah Nelems is a recent PhD graduate from the Sociology and Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (CSPT) programs at UVic. Her research has been shaped by 15+ years of evaluating social change projects and training organizations in community engagement methods. During this time, she became fascinated with the contexts, processes and experiences that influence empathy in people, institutions, communities and societies. Following her participation in two Global Conferences on Empathy, she co-edited and contributed to the collaborative, interdisciplinary and international […]

Dario Valoncini is a lawyer, his experience includes providing assistance in the acquisition and disposal of businesses with a focus on cross-border transactions and general corporate and restructuring matters. Working for international law firms, Dario assisted a range of international clients in connection to commercial and real estate investment opportunities. Currently, Dario heads the Foreign Direct Investment department at the Italian Trade Agency within the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs in Canada where he facilitates investments and establishment of Canadian […]

Chantal Mouffe is a Professor of Political Theory at the University of Westminster. She has taught at universities in Europe, North America, and Latin America. She is also module leader of the CSD MA modules: The State, Politics and Violence and Current Issues in Democratic Theory. Professor Mouffe has held research positions at Harvard, Cornell, the University of California, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique in Paris. Between 1989 and 1995 […]

Shannon holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Montreal. Her research interests include comparative public policy and the welfare state. She is notably the recipient of the Doctoral Fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the CORIM Prize from the Montréal Council on Foreign Relations. As part of her doctoral research, she was a student fellow at the Centre d’études européennes et de politique comparée at Science Po Paris, the Department of Business and […]

Melissa Haussman is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Carleton. She teaches in both the US and comparative North American fields. Her research focuses on women’s access to political power in North America. It has centered on women’s ability to gender public policy and related debates, especially on reproductive rights and health care systems. She is particularly interested in the roles played by federalism and supranational mechanisms in affording either opportunities or barriers to women’s policy successes.

Jennifer Evans is Professor in the Department of History at the University of Carleton. A historian of contemporary Germany, her expertise includes transnational histories of sexuality, social memory, and visual culture. She also works on the history of populism and authoritarianism, especially as it evolves in social media and memory. Professor Evans has written books and articles on sexual subcultures in the aftermath of WWII, co-edited two books on same-sex sexuality, and another on the history of documentary photography. These […]

Narendra Subramanian is a Professor of Political Science at McGill University. He studies the politics of nationalism, ethnicity, religion, gender, caste, and race in a comparative perspective, focusing primarily on India. Subramanian’s first book (Ethnicity and Populist Mobilization: Political Parties, Citizens and Democracy in South India, Oxford University Press, 1999) examined why the mobilization of intermediate and lower status groups through discourses of language and caste by the Dravidian parties reinforced democracy and tolerance in Tamil Nadu, South India. A revised […]

Mehdi Hashemi is currently working towards a PhD in political science with a focus in international relations and comparative politics. He holds a BA from the Azad University of Tehran and an MA in Political Science from the University of Victoria. His work is focused on forced migration as well as construction and implications of refugee crisis. His other research interests include international security, Islamic movements, radicalization, and foreign fighter recruitment. Research Interests: International Relations, Migration, Refugees and refugeehood, International […]

Robin Celikates is a Professor of Social Philosophy and Anthropology D.D. of the “Center for Humanities and Social Change” at the Free University of Berlin. His research primarily focuses on critical theory, social philosophy, and political philosophy.   Research Interests: Critical theory; Social philosophy; Political philosophy; Theory of democracy

Tom Junes is currently a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. He as a PhD in History from the KU Leuven in Belgium and has held postdoctoral fellowships in Poland, Austria, Hungary, Finland, Germany, Bulgaria and Italy. His research interests include Eastern European history and politics, Cold War history, the history of youth and student movements, and the history of the European Left. He is the author of Student Politics in Communist Poland: Generations of […]

David Owen is  a Professor of Social and Political Philosophy within the School of Economic, Social and Political Sciences at the University of Southampton. He holds a PhD from Durham University. His expertise is in ethics, philosophy, and democratic theory. Owen’s current research focuses on the ethics of politics and migration. Research Interests: Political theory, Philosophy, Ethics, and Migration and refugees