One of my main priorities during my first term as a Canada Research Chair was to establish robust capacity for the recruitment and training of senior undergraduate and graduate students, primarily through securing external funding. My research has benefited greatly from working with a number of excellent research assistants.

Current Research Assistants:

Teresa Lindman joined the team in September 2019. She is a second year undergraduate student in the Laurier-Sussex Law Program. During the summer months in 2019, Teresa worked also full time in the House Leader’s Office through the Liberal Summer Leadership Program.

Neven Vincic joined the team in November 2018. After having completed his undergraduate degree in political science at Laurier in 2019, Neven is now enrolled in the Master of International Public Policy Program at the Balsillie School of International Affairs, Waterloo.

Former Research Assistants:

Rachel Suffern (2018-2019). Rachel joined the team as a senior undergraduate political science student at Laurier. She is now a graduate student at the University of Western Ontario.

Jacob Gorenkoff (2016-2018): Jake joined the team as a senior undergraduate political science student, and continued as a graduate student enrolled in our Master of Applied Politics (MAP) program. I also served as his MRP supervisor. In his thesis “Internal Trade Reform in Canada: Closing the Gap Between Rhetoric and Reality?”, Jake examined the emergence of the new Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) with a particular focus on the role of the provinces and territories in that process. Since September 2018, Jake is about to earn a second Master degree in Political Management at Carleton University.

Michael Piaseczny (2017-2018): Mike became research assistant as a graduate student. He was also enrolled in the Master of Applied Politics (MAP) program, and supported our research on federalism and trade policy. Like Jake, he is now a graduate student at Carleton University’s Political Management program.

Joshua Mechler (2016-2017): Josh received his Honours Bachelor of Arts in Political Science at Laurier, and a Master’s degree from the London School of Economics. After returning from the United Kingdom, Josh worked with me as a research assistant until he took up a new position with the Department of Finance in Ottawa in 2017.

Visiting Researcher:

It was a pleasure to host Katya Paustyan, a doctoral student from the Central European University, as a Visiting Researcher in the fall 2018. Katya deploys the QCA (Qualitative Comparative Analysis) approach to explore fiscal federalism in Russia. During her research stay at Laurier, she finished the first draft of a new paper that examines the factors that influenced the selection of distinct regions in Russia as locations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.