McCall MacBain Scholarships - Master’s and Professional Programs

A full graduate scholarship and community to help you make a difference in the world.

Current PhD Students

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Philip-Emmanuel Aubry

M.Sc. in Political Science, Université de Montréal

Diploma in German studies in the European context, Université de Montréal

B.Sc. in Economics and Politics, Université de Montréal

philip-emmanuel.aubry [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Philip-Emmanuel's research interests lie at the intersection of the history of ideas, intellectual sociology, and political theory. Philip-Emmanuel'sdissertation interrogates the links between social science methodology and politics in the works of Max Weber, Joseph Schumpeter, and Karl Polanyi. It investigates the strategies used by those actors to legitimize their theoretical production (above all vis-à-vis the rise of neoclassical economics) and examines the ties between their epistemological and ontological assumptions and their political views.

Maxime Blanchard

Maxime Blanchard

B.A. UQÀM (History & political science)

M.A. Université Laval (Political science)

maxime.blanchard [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

My work focuses on the development and evolution of political preferences in a comparative perspective. I am also interested in developing methods to improve survey data analyses.

Esli Chan

MSc (Distinction) Risk Analysis, King's College London

BA (Honours) Political Science,

esli.chan [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Esli's research focuses on gendered forms of extremism, conservatism and the far-right, and media and politics. Her doctoral work focuses on women's mobilization in radical right movements in the US and Canada. Her previous work on gender-based violence and the men's rights movement has also been published in Violence Against Women, Harvard Women’s Policy Journal, and The Conversation. She is a doctoral fellow at the Media Ecosystem Observatory, evaluating threats to the Canadian information ecosystem.

Andrey Davydov

Andrey Davydov

Postgraduate in Theory and History of Culture, Lomonosov Moscow State University

Specialist in Western European Studies, Lomonosov Moscow State University

andrey.davydov [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Andrey's research interests include ethnic nationalism, the radical right and its tensions with the centre-right, white identity, and the comparative study of these topics in Eastern Europe and Western democracies. His current project examines the impact of Russia's international support for the radical right on domestic Russian audiences and social movements.

Uvin Dissanayake

Uvin Dissanayake

MSc (Philosophy & Public Policy), The London School of Economics and Political Science

BA (Philosophy, Politics and Economics), University of York

uvin.dissanayake [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

My research examines the politics of expertise, focusing on how knowledge claims are authorized, enacted, and institutionalized to legitimize political authority. I am particularly interested in the relational and performative dimensions of expertise, how actors strategically deploy different categories of knowledge and the social processes through which claims to the possession of knowledge gain recognition as legitimate.

My dissertation explores the politics of post-independence development projects in Sri Lanka, examining the mechanisms by which assertions of different kinds of expertise become politically generative in contestations over political power between competing actors. Methodologically, I combine interpretive approaches with process tracing to analyze how context-specific meanings shape the causal efficacy of knowledge practices. My broader research interests include conflict and development, theories of nationalism, technocratic populism, and the politics of ethnic and religious identity in South Asia.

David Dubé

MAPolitical Science, Université du Québec à Montréal

BA Political Science, Université du Québec à Montréal

david.dube2 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

David studies the political economy of informality, digital economies, and the political dynamics of Central and Eastern Europe. His work examines the intersection of state capacity, institutional trust, and informal economic practices, with a focus on sectors such as cryptocurrency, the gig economy, and short-term rentals. Additionally, David researches the development and application of computational methods and natural language processing models to political science issues, particularly in the realm of misinformation and digital governance.

Merve Erdilmen

Merve Erdilmen

MA in Political Science,
BS in Sociology, Middle East Technical University
Academic Exchange Year Certificate, Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po Paris)
BA in Philosophy, Middle East Technical University

merve.erdilmen [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Merve's research interests include humanitarianism, gender-based asylum, and the role of state and non-state actors in refugee management in the Middle East. Her research aims to unpack the norms and practices of women refugee empowerment policies in Turkey.

Motunrayo Esther Esan

BA International Relations with Journalism (University of Buckingham)

MA International Security (University of Sussex)

motunrayo.esan [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Motunrayo Esther'sresearch explores violence and insecurity, identity politics, and democratisation in Africa. Motunrayo Esther isalso engaged in social impact research in the areas of menstrual health and equity.

Yolaine Frossard de Saugy

Yolaine Frossard de Saugy

MA in International History from IHEID in Geneva
MSc in African Politics from SOAS, University of London

yolaine.frossarddesaugy [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

My PhD project focuses on the international fight against HIV/AIDS and minority rights, and I work on global health and African politics

Akanit Horatanakun

Akanit Horatanakun

MPA in Economic and Political Development, Columbia University
B.A. in Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

akanit.horatanakun [at] mail.mcgill.ca

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Research Interests

I study the formation of social movements and political parties, the extent to which they are institutionalized, their dynamics of interactions, and the ways in which parties and movements make use of human rights salience to create institutional and policy change. My cases involve countries in East and Southeast Asia with an in-depth investigation on Thailand and Taiwan. Before joining , I spent several years working on human rights advocacy and campaigning in Southeast Asia with a particular emphasis on Thailand.

Research Interests: Comparative Politics and Southeast Asian Politics; Parties, Social Movements, and State Relations; Politics of Human Rights.

Daniel Jacinto

M.A. in Political Science, University of British Columbia

B.A. (Hons.) in Korean Language and Culture, International Relations, University of British Columbia

daniel.jacinto [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Daniel (he/him) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at . His doctoral research, supported by the Richard H. Tomlinson Doctoral Fellowship and SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, examines the dynamics of 'rogue statehood' from the perspective of international norm violation, status, and social hierarchy. He also maintains a research interest in East Asian politics and international relations, with a focus on Korea.

Keywords: East Asia (esp. Korean Peninsula), international norms, order and hierarchy, rogue states

Lucas Jerusalimiec

lucas.jerusalimiec [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Lucas's research explores how the French civil wars of the sixteenth century led to both political breakdown and governmental centralization. His project examines the conflict between increasing legislative professionalism and growing national identity using historical comparative and text analysis methods.

Research interests:early modern state development, nationalism, text-as-data methods

Diya Jiang

MSc in International Political Economy, The London School of Economics and Political Science

BA in Quantitative Economics and Journalism, New York University

diya.jiang [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Diya Jiang is a researcher specializing in the politics of international trade and protectionism, with a focus on supply chain geopolitics. Her most recent work focuses on US-Canada relations and the economic and political consequences of declining free trade. She works closely with think tanks, research centers, and government actors to provide policy insights and inform decision-making.

Peter Kerenyi

MSc Political Theory, London School of Economics and Political Science

BA Politics, Sociology and East European Studies, University College London

peter.kerenyi [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Peter's research focuses on Marxism, radical republicanism, theories of social power and collective agency, and critical political economy. Peter isalso interested in the political and economic development of the European Union, particularly its Eastern periphery.

Se Hyun Kim

MA in Political Science, Seoul National University

BA in Political Science and International Relations, Kyunghee University

se.h.kim [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Se Hyun’s research explores how different imaginations of social boundaries, such as nations and ethnicities, are constructed, dissipated, reinterpreted, and challenged. With a specific focus on China and Korea, his research examines the conditions under which a conceptually vague and contested symbol such as China becomes cognitively salient to the members of the imagined communities through machine learning text analysis (word embedding based on neural network language models) and interpretive methods such as ordinary language analysis.

Marjolaine Lamontagne

Marjolaine Lamontagne

MA in Political Science (International Relations) Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

BA in International Relations and International Law Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)

marjolaine.lamontagne [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Marjolaine's research interests are at the junction of IR and Comparative politics and encompass global governance, multilateral diplomacy, and international organizations, as well as federalism, multi-level governance, cultural and national diversity, and paradiplomacy (the international activities of “substate” - federated and regional - governments such as Quebec and Flanders). She mobilizes practice theory (IR) to analyze the consequences of substate involvement in multilateral organizations and conferences (UNESCO, the Council of the European Union, United Nations' Climate Change conferences) for the practices and politics of global and national governance.

Qinggang Li

MA in Social Sciences, University of Chicago

BA in Political Science, University of Toronto

qinggang.li2 [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Qinggang's research focuses on patron-client relations between political and business elites in developing countries. Specifically, Qinggang isinterested in how elite networks adapt to significant shifts in political power, such as autocratization and democratization. Drawing on an original panel dataset, Qinggang'scurrent working paper—presented at the 2023 APSR Annual Conference—examines how fiscal dependence on land finance shapes local governments’ responses to the central government’s anti-crime campaign in China. Qinggang has received training in both quantitative and qualitative methods and isproficient in a range of tools, including R, Stata, and Python.

Rupinder Liddar

MA in Political Science, McMaster University

HBA in Political Science, University of Toronto

rupinder.liddar [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Rupinder studies visible minority political behaviour with a focus on the South Asian diaspora and the Sikh community. Her work seeks to articulate variations in race, ethnicity and religion and has regional interests in Canadian politics, as well as in other Western democracies.

Sarah Nandi

Sarah Nandi

MSc Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, Oxford University
MA in History, UC Davis
BA in International Relations, History, and French Language and Literature from Montana State University

sarah.nandi [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Sarah's interests include humanitarianism and gender-based violence (GBV) in protracted refugee situations. Using qualitative methods, she examines questions surrounding long-term GBV prevention programming, immediate GBV assessments, and informal remedies comparatively in the South Asian subcontinent and the Levant.

Teresa Pian

MA in European, Russian, and Eurasian Affairs, Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy - University of Toronto

BA in Political Studies, Queen’s University

teresa.pian [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Teresa studies political behaviour, with focus on public perceptions and political attitudes in democratic contexts. Her research examines the intersection of digital media and politics, particularly the role of online humour and internet memes in political communication, engagement, and participation. Methodologically, Teresa works with mixed-method and cross-disciplinary approaches to analyze digital political communication and political attitudes.

Samantha Puzzi

Bachelor of Arts with Distinction in Government (magna cum laude) and Philosophy, Cornell University - Minor in Crime, Prisons, Education, and Justice

samantha.puzzi [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Samantha’s dissertation project explores the role of activist architectures (encampments, squats, graffiti, and barricades) within deliberative democratic theory. Her research interests, broadly speaking, lie at the intersection of democratic theory, urban politics, and spatiality.

Étienne Sinotte

M.Sc. in Political Science, Université de Montréal

B.A. in Applied Political Studies, Université de Sherbrooke

etienne.sinotte [at] mail.mcgill.ca

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Research Interests

Étienne's research examines how people and organizations mobilize in zones and periods of state scarcity, despite having incomplete citizenship rights and being subjected to various types of violence. Étienne isparticularly interested in instances of criminal governance, environmental activism, and collaborative governance taking place in these conditions. Étienneprimarily works in Comparative Politics, with a regional focus on Latin America.

Brooke Steinhauer

MA in Political Science, Memorial University

BA (Honours) in Political Science, Memorial University

brooke.steinhauer [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Brooke’s research interests include political behaviour and public opinion, especially when they intersect with gender. Her current dissertation work focuses on the harassment of women politicians and journalists online as well as the spread of gendered disinformation

Stepan Verkhovets

MA in International Relations, Kadir Has University

BA in International Relations, Siberian Federal University

stepan.verkhovets [at] mail.mcgill.ca

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Research Interests

International political economy with a focus on state capitalism, rising powers in the global economic governance, financialization, institutional transformations of development finance, and the implications of these phenomena for developing countries.

Vertika

Vertika

Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Political Science, University of Delhi (Lady Shri Ram College for Women), 2010
Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding Post Graduate Diploma, University of Delhi, (Lady Shri Ram College for Women), 2011
Certificate Course in Human Rights, Indira Gandhi National Open University, 2011
Master of Arts in Political Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2012
Master of Philosophy in Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, 2014

vertika.vertika [at] mail.mcgill.ca

Research Interests

Normative Political Theory with those who struggle, Comparative qualitative research on gender in India intersected with contemporary political theory on agency, Democratic Theory with special emphasis on Habermas' 'Discourse Ethics' and alternatives to deliberative democracy such as agonistic politics, Feminist, Race and Postcolonial Theory, Critical Theory, Biopolitics, Foucault and Foucauldian Methods, Marxism and Marxist scholarship, State and Constitutional Theory.

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