RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests center on questions of democratic governance, identity, and leadership in Canadian politics, with a focus on gender and inclusion. In my current research, I seek to identify solutions to the problem of gender-based violence in politics.
​
In 2024, I co-edited a book with Dr. Cheryl N. Collier (University of Windsor), Gender-Based Violence in Canadian Politics in the #MeToo Era, published with the University of Toronto Press. This book includes leading experts on the subject and introduces new concepts and methods to better understand the problem of gender-based violence in a Canadian context. It also proposes solutions directed at decision-makers, policy analysts, anti-violence advocates, and the academic community.
Current Projects:
Gender and Inclusivity in Canada's Parliament
This project is a book-length manuscript under contract with UBC Press that examines how and in what ways Canada's Parliament can become more gender-sensitive and inclusive. Once published, the book will be part of a series on political leadership and trust in Canada organized by Dr. Alex Marland, Jarislowsky Chair in Trust and Political Leadership at Acadia University.
This is a collaborative project with Politics & Governance student Parmida Khanchi which is supported by a URO Grant at Toronto Metropolitan University. This project seeks to: 1) document and analyse violence and harassment against Canadian women mayors; 2) collect and analysis global best practices on addressing violence in municipal governments globally; and 3) propose solutions to combat this problem in Canada.
Women in the (Other) House: An Analysis of Gender Representation in Canada's Senate (2015-2019)
This project is funded by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Insight Grant (2020-2025). In it, I seek to study women's representation in the Senate of Canada. The central research question of this study asks: what does a gender-balanced Senate mean for women’s equality outcomes in Canada? To answer this question, the project has three objectives: (1) to analyse the Senate’s institutional rules and norms from a gendered perspective; (2) to evaluate women’s representative roles in this institution; and (3) to examine how and in what ways gender considerations have been integrated into the Senate’s legislative processes.
Gendering Canada's Legislatures: a comparative examination of federal, provincial, and territorial efforts to combat sexism and sexual harassment in politics
This project is in partnership with Dr. Cheryl N. Collier (University of Windsor) and is funded by an Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. In this project, our goal is to understand how legislatures across Canada have sought to address the problem of sexual harassment in politics. To do so, we employ a Feminist Institutional perspective to examine codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies in the federal and provincial legislatures in Canada. We are interested in assessing how and why some legislatures have responded to this problem while others have not. For those legislatures that have adopted formal rule changes, we evaluate whether such changes will make these workplaces safer for those who work in them.
Recently Completed Projects:
Gendering the Upper House: Combatting Sexual Harassment in
Canada’s Senate in the #MeToo Era
This project was funded by a James R. Mallory Grant from the Canadian Study of Parliament Group. In this study, I analysed efforts to address sexual harassment in the Canadian Senate from a gendered perspective. The goal of the project was to further develop best practices for legislative bodies seeking to (re)design rules that prohibit violence against women who work in legislatures, broadly defined (ie. administrative and political staffers, Senators, members of the press, visitors, interns, etc..).
Understanding Violence Against Women in Politics
This project was funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engage Grant in partnership with Equal Voice, a non-profit organization that seeks to promote more women in Canadian politics. The study included a cross-institutional, cross-sectoral team of Dr. Cheryl Collier (University of Windsor), Dr. Grace Lore (Equal Voice) and Andrea Spender (PhD in Policy Studies student). As Principal Investigator, I co-authored a comprehensive scope report with the team that tracks incidents of violence against women in Canadian politics. It also proposes solutions to address this problem that are targeted at political leaders, political parties, social media companies, civil society organizations and members of the public.