Recent PhD Theses

Recent PhD Theses

Here you will find the working dissertation titles of our doctoral candidates (i.e., ABDs) as well as our completed dissertations.

Working Dissertation Titles for Current Doctoral Candidates (ABDs)


Saaka Sulemana Saaka

Gendering Cabinets in Africa: The Impact of Democratization and Post-conflict Politics (Supervisor: Dr. Susan Franceschet).

Comfort Kwarteng

"Explaining the success in reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV: A comparative analysis of Ghana and Uganda".  Supervisor: Susan Franceschet

Dakoda Trithara

"The Struggle over Online Speech: Policy Entrepreneurs' Contestation of Content Moderation Norms". Supervisor: Antonio Franceschet

Sara Winger

“The Logic of Violence Meets the Illogic of Response? Understanding the Linkages Between Forms of Violence and Logics of Response”. Supervisor: Maureen Hiebert

 


Completed Doctoral Dissertations, 2003–Present (By Convocation Date)

2023


Benjamin Adu Gyamfi

“Public Policy Making and Policy Change: Ghana’s Local Governance, Education and Health Policies in Perspective”

Supervisors: Dr. Don Ray and Co-Supervisor Dr. Maureen Hiebert

 

Ryan Dean

“(De)Securitizing the Arctic? Functional actors and the shaping of Canadian Arctic security policy”

Supervisor: Dr. Rob Huebert

2022


Ricardo Vernet

"Peasants, Movements, and Survival of Democracy in Haiti and Nicaragua"

Supervisor, Dr. Pablo Policzer

2021


Julie Croskill

“’Be Professional, Private and Pleasant’: The Conscious and Unconscious Gendering of Campaign Messages in Canadian and Australian Local Elections”.

Supervisors: Dr. Brenda O’Neill and Dr. Susan Franceschet

2020


Elizabeth Pando Burciaga

"Continuity or change? Immigration policy in Chile." Supervisor: Susan Franceschet

2019-20 Best Political Science Doctoral Dissertation Prize

Evgeniia Sidorova

“Incorporating Traditional Ecological Knowledge into Western science in the Arctic Council: Lip service?”

2019


Andrew Basso

" 'All Four Seasons and I Will Die': A Typology of Displacement Atrocities." Supervisor: Dr. Maureen Hiebert

2017


Mark Harding

“Clashing Constitutionalisms in the Bill-of-Rights Era: Strength, Reach and Rights Values”. Supervisor: Dr. Rainer Knopff; Co-Supervisor: Dr. Ted Morton

 

David Torre

“The Energy Frontier: Exploring the Future of Commercial Nuclear Power in Canada, Finland, and Germany”. Supervisor: Dr. James Keeley

 

Mariana Hipolito Ramos Mota

“From Delegation to Limits on Presidential Power: Brazil in Comparative Perspective”. Supervisor: Dr. Pablo Policzer

 

2016


Tim Anderson,

“The Statesmanship of Sir John A. Macdonald and Louis Riel”. Supervisor: Dr. Tom Flanagan; Co-Supervisor: Dr. Anthony Sayers

 

Janine Giles

“The Gender Gap in Political Knowledge in Canada”.
Supervisor: Dr. Brenda O’Neill

2015


Adam Cote

“Social Securitization Theory”. Supervisor: Dr. James Keeley

 

2014


Katrine Beauregard

“Gender Gaps in Political Participation in a Cross-National Perspective: The Gendered Effects of Political Institutions”.
Supervisor: Dr. Brenda O’Neill

Dave Snow

“Failure to Reproduce: Assisted Reproductive Technology Policy in Canada”. Supervisor: Dr. Rainer Knopff

2013


Paul Fairie

“Elite Strategy, Social Structure and Catholic-Protestant Cleavage in the Canadian Provinces”. Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Young

 

2012


Michael Zekulin

“A Growing Disconnect: Can the Contemporary Terrorism Literature Explain Domestic Home-Grown Terrorism?”. Supervisor: Dr. Gavin Cameron

 

Daniel Fitzsimmons

“Tipping the Scales of Conflict:  Defence Policy Decision-Making in the Canadian Federal Cabinet”. Supervisor:  Dr. James Keeley

 

Alex McDougall

“The Politics of Protection and Extraction:  An Examination of the Origin and Development of State Power in Latin America”. Supervisor: Dr. Steve Randall

 

2011


Heather Exner

“The Arctic in International Affairs:  Security in the Circumpolar Region”. Supervisor: Dr. Rob Huebert

 

Gamal Selim

“Egypt’s Democratic Transition and the Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism: The Interplay Between Structural and Agential Factors. Supervisor: Dr. Tareq Ismael

 

2010


Andrew Banfield

“Legislative vs. Judicial Checks and Balances: Rights Policy in Canada and Australia”. Supervisor:  Dr. Rainer Knopff

 

Scott Fitzsimmons

“The Art of  Private Warfare:  A Normative Theory of the Military Performance of Modern Mercenary Forces”. Supervisor: Dr. Rob Huebert

David Coletto

“A Matter of Quality? Candidates in Canadian Constituency Elections”. Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Young

 

Marco Navarro-Genie

“Longing for the Fifth Race: Esoteric Racialist Revolutionaries in Hispanic America, 1910–35”. Supervisor:  Dr. Tom Flanagan

 

2009


Jared Wesley

"Solving the Prairie Paradox: Codes and Party Politics in Alberta, SK. And MB”. Supervisor: Dr. Keith Archer

2008


Mark Milke

“Limits on Deliberate Democracy in Canada:  A Study of Political Culture and How Attitudes Towards the United States Shape Canadian Public Policy Debates”. Supervisor: Dr. Tom Flanagan

 

Kai Xu

“NGOs and Environmental Politics in China”. Supervisor: Dr. Ron Keith

 

2007


Dennis Baker

“Not Quite Supreme:  the Courts and Coordinate Constitutional Interpretation”. Supervisor: Dr. Rainer Knopff

 

2006


Morgan Nyendu

“Enhancing the Participation of Traditional Authorities (Chiefs) in Ghana’s Democratic Decentralization Programme: A Case Study of the South Tongu District Assembly of the Volta Region”. Supervisor: Dr. Donald Ray

 

2005


Tracey Raney

“The Rise of the ‘Civic’ Citizen: A Comparative Study of Political Identity in the EU and Canada”. Supervisor: Dr. Lisa Young

 

2004


Kari Roberts

“Russia-U.S. Relations Under Yeltsin, 1992–1999”. Supervisor: Dr. Bohdan Harasymiw

 

2003


Edward James Maher

“Regional Health Authorities and Federalism: Australia and Canada”. Supervisor: Dr. Roger Gibbons