Department of Political Science

The annual fellowships are designed to offer doctoral students the opportunity to explore the world of public scholarship. Fellows focus on engaging the public through their scholarly work – this can take a range of forms, from describing their work in a public forum to partnering with a school, community organization or cultural institution in an ongoing two-way exchange of knowledge and practices.

"The School of Graduate Studies is proud to support the creative work being done by our Connaught PhDs for Public Impact fellows as they find novel ways to engage the public with the incredible research being done at U of T," said Vina Goghari, vice-dean, research and program innovation at the School of Graduate Studies. "We are grateful for the generous support from the Connaught Fund in enabling this type of innovative scholarship, and we congratulate this new cohort of fellows as they begin work on their projects."

The 2024-25 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellows are:

Hanne Bartels, Institute of Medical Science, Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Rhonda Boateng, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME), Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Mohammadamir (Amir) Moghaddam, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Mathew Iantorno, Faculty of Information
Nicolas Ivanov, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Yojana Miraya Oscco, department of political science, Faculty of Arts & Science
Kashoro Nyenyezi, department of social justice education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
Adrian Petterson, Faculty of Information
Paul Pritchard, department of sociology, Faculty of Arts & Science
Jenna Quelch, department of political science, Faculty of Arts & Science
Shivam Sharma, Faculty of Dentistry
Mercedes Sobers, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Rhonda Solomon, department of geography, geomatics, and the environment, U of T Mississauga
Lily Takeuchi, department of biomedical engineering, Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Sarah Urquhart, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)

3 U of T scholars named finalists for 2024 SSHRC Impact Awards

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 12 Sep 2024 16:01:54 +0000

3 U of T scholars named finalists for 2024 SSHRC Impact Awards

Research & Innovation

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rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 09/12/2024 - 12:01

Faculty

Students

St. George

Department of Political Science

Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs

OISE

SSHRC

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(L-R) Lynette Ong, Peter Newman and Louis Busch (supplied images)

Two faculty members and a doctoral candidate at the ��߲ݴ�ý have been shortlisted for the 2024 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Impact Awards.

The annual awards recognize achievements by outstanding scholars and students in research, research training, knowledge mobilization and outreach activities funded by SSHRC, and are considered Canada's highest honours in social sciences and humanities research.

The finalists for the 2024 SSHRC Impact Awards from U of T are:

Professor Lynette Ong (department of political science, Faculty of Arts & Science and Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy) – Insight Award
Professor Peter Newman (Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work) – Partnership Award
Louis Busch (PhD candidate, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education) – Talent Award

The winners in each of the award categories will be announced on Nov. 25, 2024.

Ran Hirschl appointed University Professor

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 06 Jun 2024 15:27:07 +0000

Ran Hirschl appointed University Professor

Community

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 06/06/2024 - 11:27

Faculty

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Faculty of Law

University Professor

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Ran Hirschl (supplied image)

Ran Hirschl, the David R. Cameron Distinguished Professor in Law and Politics in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of political science, has been appointed a University Professor, a designation bestowed on a small number of faculty members in recognition of exceptional scholarly achievement and pre-eminence in their fields.

Hirschl, who is cross-appointed to the Faculty of Law, is regarded as a leading expert of comparative constitutional studies, a cross-disciplinary area of inquiry that explores the dynamic interaction, mutual influence and power relations between the constitutional domain and the political sphere.

“The ��߲ݴ�ý owes much of its reputation for excellence to its world-class professors, and I am delighted that Ran Hirschl – one of our finest faculty members – has been recognized as a University Professor,” said Trevor Young, U of T's vice-president and provost. “The title 'University Professor' is U of T's highest and most distinguished academic rank, which reflects Professor Hirschl’s long and honourable record of scholarly achievement.”

Hirschl began his academic career at U of T as a Canada Research Chair in Constitutionalism, Democracy and Development. He is an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and considered one of the world’s leading scholars of comparative constitutional law, courts and jurisprudence.

“It is a tremendous honour to be recognized in this special way, and to have my name added to the long list of distinguished, world-class scholars at the ��߲ݴ�ý who embody the University’s ‘defying gravity’ maxim,” said Hirschl.

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Khalil Al-Wazir named Schwarzman Scholar

rahul.kalvapalle — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 18:44:59 +0000

Khalil Al-Wazir named Schwarzman Scholar

Academic Achievement

rahul.kalvapalle Thu, 04/25/2024 - 14:44

Students

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Schwarzman Scholar

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Khalil Al-Wazir (supplied image)

Khalil Al-Wazir, a PhD candidate in the department of political science in U of T’s Faculty of Arts & Science, has been named a Schwarzman Scholar, joining a select group of outstanding scholars at a one-year, fully-funded master’s degree program in global affairs at Schwarzman College at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The prestigious graduate fellowship is awarded annually to scholars with exemplary leadership and the ability to bridge and understand political and cultural differences.

An aspiring diplomat, Al-Wazir’s accomplishments include authoring a book, Centrist Reflections on Political Philosophy, contributing to two United Nations secretary-general reports and being awarded the UN Department for Safety and Security Under-Secretary-General’s Excellence Award.

Al-Wazir is currently working with U of T’s Postcor (Post-Conflict Reintegration) Lab to organize a workshop, in collaboration with the United States Institute of Peace, focused on engaging non-state armed groups in peace processes.

"Joining the Schwarzman Scholars is a unique opportunity that I do not take lightly,” Al-Wazir said. "It is, to my knowledge, the only scholarship with a diplomatic mission focused on bridging the differences between the two great powers, which is increasingly a necessary condition for resolving the most intractable conflicts of our day.

“I am heading into this program with open eyes and ears, ready to engage with fellow leaders on the world's most pressing challenges in a shared commitment to peace, progress and prosperity."

Lynette Ong recognized with multiple awards for latest book

lanthierj — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 17:32:58 +0000

Lynette Ong recognized with multiple awards for latest book

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Fri, 09/22/2023 - 13:32

Faculty

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

landscape

Lynette Ong (supplied image)

A book by Lynette Ong that examines China’s inner workings has won the American Sociological Association (ASA)’s Gordon Hirabayashi Human Rights Book Award 2023 and has been named co-winner of the ASA’s Distinguished Contribution to Scholarship in Political Sociology, 2023.

They're the latest in a series of honours for Ong, who received the International Studies Association’s 2023 Human Rights Section Best Book Award earlier this year as well as the 2023 American Political Science Association’s Human Rights Best Book Award.

A professor in the Faculty of Arts & Science’s department of political science with a cross-appointment to the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, Ong has been conducting research on the ground in China since the 1990s, with a particular interest in how the country’s political and economic systems interact. Outsourcing Repression: Everyday State Power in Contemporary China is her third book. Published by Oxford University Press, it examines the use of non-state actors, including paid and unpaid community members and gangsters, to drive urbanization across the country by engaging in low-level violent and non-violent tactics.

Ong says she is in awe of the ordinary citizens who allowed her into their lives while she was researching the book.

“I learned so much about why people would throw away everything they have to protest an authoritarian regime. I spent a lot of time with them, and I felt I had to get their story right,” she says. “I spent 20 years in school trying to understand how social movements work, but they just intuitively get it. My admiration for them is genuine.”

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Six U of T faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

lanthierj — Tue, 05 Sep 2023 19:16:47 +0000

Six U of T faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Tue, 09/05/2023 - 15:16

Faculty

Mississauga

St. George

David A. Dunlap Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Department of Family and Community Medicine

Department of Physics

Department of Political Science

Department of Psychology

Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering

Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering

Faculty of Arts & Science

Royal Society of Canada

Temerty Faculty of Medicine

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Six faculty members at the ��߲ݴ�ý – renowned for their pathbreaking leadership in a wide range of disciplines – have been appointed to the Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists.

“From scientific advances in astrophysics, atmospheric physics and social psychology to timely leadership in climate governance, computer security and privacy, and sexually transmitted infection prevention, these scholars and scientists are making an impact on issues that affect the lives of people across Canada and around the world,” says Leah Cowen, U of T’s vice-president, research and innovation, and strategic initiatives.

“The ��߲ݴ�ý congratulates them on this significant recognition.”

The new college members are:

Jo Bovy of the David A. Dunlap department of astronomy and astrophysics in the Faculty of Arts & Science
Ann Burchell of Unity Health and the department of family and community medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine
Jessica Green of the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science
Nicolas Papernot of the Edward S. Rogers Sr. department of electrical and computer engineering in the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
Nicholas Rule of the department of psychology in the Faculty of Arts & Science; vice-principal academic and dean, U of T Mississauga
Debra Wunch of the department of physics in the Faculty of Arts & Science

Each faculty member receives a seven-year membership in the college, which recognizes and supports academic leadership and collaboration among those who have received their PhDs within the last 15 years.

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Semra Sevi honoured with SSHRC Talent Award

siddiq22 — Fri, 04 Aug 2023 16:35:37 +0000

Semra Sevi honoured with SSHRC Talent Award

Research & Innovation

siddiq22 Fri, 08/04/2023 - 12:35

Faculty

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

SSHRC

Talent Award

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Semra Sevi (supplied photo)

Semra Sevi, an assistant professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has received the Talent Award from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Awarded annually among the council’s annual Impact Awards, the prize recognizes the highest achievements in SSHRC-funded research, knowledge mobilization and scholarship, as well as the highest achievements resulting from a SSHRC fellowship. In particular, the Talent Award recognizes outstanding research achievement and career potential from a SSHRC doctoral or postdoctoral fellowship or scholarship holder.

“Despite having only just received her doctorate in political science (with distinction) from Université de Montréal in 2021, Semra Sevi has already demonstrated she is an outstanding and prolific researcher with impact as a public scholar,” noted SSHRC in its award citation.

“I am committed to open science and developing research-driven responses to political inequality,” says Sevi, who was most recently a Banting postdoctoral researcher in the department of political science at Columbia University and received the award prior to joining U of T.

“SSHRC support gives my research credibility and has encouraged me to keep going.”

Sevi has earned global recognition for creating and making public datasets of all candidates for office in Canadian federal elections since 1867. This achievement was central to her doctoral dissertation, titled What Voters Want: Identifying Voter Preferences for Candidates. The datasets were first published on the Harvard University Dataverse in 2019 and have since been downloaded thousands of times. They have also formed the basis of eight of nearly 20 peer-reviewed articles that Sevi has written.

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Five Faculty of Arts & Science professors recognized with Dean's Research Excellence Awards

lanthierj — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 22:25:43 +0000

Five Faculty of Arts & Science professors recognized with Dean's Research Excellence Awards

Research & Innovation

lanthierj Mon, 12/12/2022 - 17:25

Faculty

St. George

Faculty of Arts & Science

Department of Psychology

Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology

Department of Political Science

Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy

Department of Linguistics

Department of Physics

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The five recipients of this year’s Dean’s Research Excellence Award (L-R): Megan Frederickson, Kaley Walker, Naomi Nagy, Randall Hansen and Wil Cunningham

Wil Cunningham, Megan Frederickson, Randall Hansen, Naomi Nagy and Kaley Walker are the first recipients of a new award from the Faculty of Arts & Science created to recognize faculty members whose research achievements have been cited as especially noteworthy.

The Dean’s Research Excellence Award was established with the aim of helping accomplished mid-career researchers compete successfully in national awards competitions. Winners have contributed a wealth of research that has had a significant and sustained influence in their chosen disciplines.

The winners represent a wide range of fields: Cunningham is a professor in the department of psychology, Frederickson is a professor in the department of ecology and evolutionary biology, Hansen is a professor in the department of political science, Nagy is a professor in the department of linguistics and Walker is a professor in the department of physics.

“It is with enormous pride that I announce the inaugural winners of the Dean’s Research Excellence Awards,” says Melanie Woodin, dean of the Faculty of Arts & Science. “The scholars we honour this year are widely recognized as having made an important and ongoing impact on research in their respective fields. As the very first recipients of these annual awards, they set a shining example for those who will follow them.”

The five honourees will each receive $10,000 to further their professional development.

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Ron Deibert wins 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

lanthierj — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 14:35:43 +0000

Ron Deibert wins 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Community

lanthierj Thu, 09/23/2021 - 10:35

Faculty

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy

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(Photo by Riley Stewart)

Ronald Deibert, the founder and director of the Citizen Lab in the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and a professor of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has won the prestigious 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing for his book RESET: Reclaiming the Internet for Civil Society (House of Anansi Press).

Delivered by the Writers’ Trust of Canada, the prize is awarded annually to an “exceptional book of literary nonfiction that captures a political subject of relevance to Canadian readers.”

“It was a great honour to be invited to deliver the 2020 CBC Massey lectures, for which I wrote RESET,” said Deibert. “To receive the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize from the Writers' Trust is a wonderful surprise and truly humbling. I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all of the other shortlisted authors.

“I hope this award helps underscore how important it is for all of us to reclaim the Internet for civil society and work collectively towards a sustainable, secure, and mutually-beneficial public sphere.”

Recommended by Margaret Atwood and Edward Snowden, RESET was also a finalist for the Donner Prize, a Financial Times best book of Summer 2021 (Technology) and a Quill & Quire book of the year.

“Ronald J. Deibert combines leading-edge research and gripping stories to expose the dangerous, even deadly, forces lurking online,” the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize Jury wrote. “With trailblazing originality, he explains why Canadians are at risk, and why it’s time to reset the internet to thwart cybercriminals, safeguard political activists, rein in environmental costs, and restrain the mayhem of social media. Reset sounds a warning siren not only for Canada, but for the world.”

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Grace Skogstad receives JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision

lanthierj — Thu, 08 Jul 2021 20:03:12 +0000

Grace Skogstad receives JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision

Teaching

lanthierj Thu, 07/08/2021 - 16:03

Faculty

St. George

Department of Political Science

Faculty of Arts & Science

JJ Berry Smith Doctoral Supervision Award

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Grace Skogstad, a professor in the department of political science in the Faculty of Arts & Science, has been awarded a 2021 JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision.

The annual awards honour faculty members who, over a minimum of a 15-year period, have demonstrated excellence in graduate supervision at the ��߲ݴ�ý.

“I’ve really enjoyed working with my students and getting to know them,” says Skogstad, who specializes in the areas of comparative public policy and Canadian politics and has been teaching at U of T for 35 years. “Not just as the intellectual heavyweights they are, but also as the wonderful people they are.”

Skogstad, whose first doctoral student became a professor at Yale, has worked closely with more than 60 graduate students as supervisor or dissertation committee member. Her students, many of whom have gone on to prestigious careers in public policy and academia, often single out the time and energy she invests in each student.

“Dr. Skogstad is an incredibly prolific scholar with an active program of research, and yet she was also always available,” says one former student, now an assistant professor of comparative public policy. “She would read and comment extensively on grant proposals, research ethics submissions, and draft dissertation chapters within days with prescient critiques that would push me conceptually and methodologically.”

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Department of Political Science

15 doctoral students receive Connaught PhDs for Public Impact fellowships

Read more about the 2024-25 Connaught PhDs for Public Impact Fellows

3 U of T scholars named finalists for 2024 SSHRC Impact Awards

Read more about the SSHRC Impact Awards

Ran Hirschl appointed University Professor

Read the Faculty of Law story

Khalil Al-Wazir named Schwarzman Scholar

Read more about the Schwarzman Scholars

Lynette Ong recognized with multiple awards for latest book

Read the Faculty of Arts & Science story

Six U of T faculty members named to Royal Society of Canada’s College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists

Semra Sevi honoured with SSHRC Talent Award

Read the Faculty of Arts & Science story
Read the SSHRC citation

Five Faculty of Arts & Science professors recognized with Dean's Research Excellence Awards

See the Faculty of Arts & Science story

Ron Deibert wins 2021 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

Read the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy story

Read the CBC story

Grace Skogstad receives JJ Berry Smith Award for Doctoral Supervision

Read the School of Graduate Studies story