Department of Political Science
Department of Political Science McGill University
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The McGill University Department of Political Science carries on a long and
pioneering tradition in the study of politics in North America. Founded in
1901, the Department's distinguished faculty is actively involved in a wide
variety of ongoing research projects, and is committed to achieving a high
level of academic excellence in research, graduate, and undergraduate
education.
Department News
Éric Bélanger and his coauthor Richard Nadeau have been awarded the Canadian Political Science Association's 2010 Donald Smiley Prize for the best book published in French in a field relating to the study of government and politics in Canada, for Le comportement électoral des Québécois, Montréal: Les Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2009. The award citation reads:
"This work brilliantly revives a tradition of empirical research once prevalent in Quebec political science. With a rigorous and direct style the two authors attempt to provide "avenues of explanation and analysis" illuminating fluctuations in Quebecers' electoral behaviour. Relying on 2007 and 2008 election results and an empirical model drawn from a highly sophisticated original survey, Bélanger and Nadeau draw clear and convincing conclusions about the political and ideological determinants of the vote. Their interpretation of the electoral effects of the debate on the national question and the role of government will undoubtedly influence the political parties and their strategies in the years ahead. More broadly, this book should be mandatory reading for all political commentators in Quebec, who will thereby avoid much misinterpretation – particularly with regard to the ADQ and the party system. Éric Bélanger is Assistant Professor with the Department of Political Science at McGill University; Richard Nadeau is Professor of Politcal science with the University of Montreal.
Stuart Soroka and Dietlind Stolle, along with Patrick Fournier (UdeM, PI) and Fred Cutler (UBC), have been awarded the Canadian Election Study grant from SSHRC and Elections Canada. Working alongside eight other collaborators, including Eric Belanger, this team will be running the next two election studies.
According to SSHRC, "The Canadian Election Study (CES) is a world-class study of Canadian elections and related attitudes of key importance to the study and understanding of democratic processes and elections." The Department of Political Science is proud to continue to play a central role in this important project.
Jason Ferrell’s article,'Isiaiah Berlin: Liberalism and pluralism in theory and practice,' Contemporary Political Theory (vol.8, no.3,2009) has been awarded the Contemporary Political Theory Prize for the best article of 2009.
Princeton University Press has published Christina Tarnopolsky's book, Prudes, Perverts, and Tyrants: Plato's Gorgias and the Politics of Shame.
At the September 2009 meeting of the American Political Science Association, R.B. Angus Professor of Political Science Michael Brecher was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from APSA's Conflict Processes Section.
Vincent Pouliot was awarded the 2009 Vincent Lemieux Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association for the best dissertation in political science. The award citation read:
Vincent Pouliot’s dissertation, “Security Community In and Through Practice: The Power Politics of Russia-NATO Diplomacy,” is impressive on multiple levels. It draws on a broad range of theories in fields ranging from international relations to the sociology of knowledge. It is based on highly detailed research, including interviews in North America, Western Europe, and Russia. It is elegantly written. The empirical analysis of the post-Cold War evolution of Russia-NATO relations is highly convincing. Most importantly, the dissertation is highly innovative theoretically. It breaks new theoretical ground in an analysis of security communities without prior collective identity formation, as well as in a sophisticated account of the priority of practical knowledge and habitus to consequentialist and normative reasoning. Overall, the author makes major methodological advances in constructivist theory and international relations generally, including developing the method of “subjectivism” to interpret the behaviour of (international) actors.Juliet Johnson won the Political Science Student Association Undergraduate Teaching Award for 2009-10.
The Horowitz Foundation has awarded doctoral student Aisha S. Ahmad a grant in support of research for her dissertation "Holy Warlords: The Rise of Islamist Movements in Afghanistan and Somalia," and has further recognized her research with the Harold D. Lasswell Award.
Doctoral student Blake Andrew has won the award for best graduate student paper in the Political Communications section at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association. His paper was "Making Broadcast News Headlines: Heuristic Signals in Campaign Coverage."
