At a moment when executive authority is under renewed scrutiny, Philippe LagassĂŠ is tracing the roots and limits of supreme military command. His work connects centuries-old constitutional ideas to modern debates on defence spending, procurement, and democratic accountability.

What are you focused on these days?

My academic research is focused on the history of supreme military command authority and contemporary powers of Commanders-in-Chief in liberal democracies. This is part of a new Insight Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. I’m leading a multidisciplinary team of political scientists, legal scholars, and historians examining how supreme military command authority has evolved over time and what powers are considered inherent in the office of Commanders-in-Chief today.

In addition to my academic work, I write two newsletters, one on Canadian defence policy and procurement, called Debating Canadian Defence, and the other on the Westminster system, called In Defence of Westminster. The newsletters are more targeted at practitioners and focused on contributing to public debate.

Why is this work important right now?

As we’re seeing with the second Trump presidency, the powers of Commanders-in-Chief are considerable. Chief executives are expected to use these powers, and the discretion they provide, to protect national security. But these powers can also be abused. Our project on Commanders-in-Chief became especially important after the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a President enjoys immunity when acting in their official capacity. Since the Commander-in-Chief is an official capacity, the stakes involved with uses and abuses of these powers became even greater.

I use my Debating Canadian Defence newsletter to critically analyse, and offer sardonic takes on, defence policy and procurement at a time when these issues are becoming increasingly important in Canada. Prime Minister Carney has outlined a significant increase in defence spending and the government is looking to speed up the acquisition of military capabilities, notably through the establishment of a Defence Investment Agency. Canada is also increasing military spending by tens of billions. My aim is to put these developments in context and make sure that readers appreciate some of the trade-offs Canada is facing.

What is a question you hope to answer with your research?

Our project on supreme military command authority aims to understand what powers are inherent in offices of Commander-in-Chief and similar positions in liberal democracies today. To do that, we’re going all the way back to the Roman Republic to look at the original concept of supreme command authority, imperium, and tracing how it evolved over time until the present. We want to see how these authorities have expanded or contracted, and we want to compare how the powers of Commanders-in-Chief vary between countries. Basically, we want to know what powers are viewed as essential to these offices and under what conditions they are allowed to act independently of legislatures and with deference from the courts. We want to understand the boundaries that Commanders-in-Chief should operate under in liberal democracies today.

On the defence procurement side, I’m aiming to inform people about why it’s so hard to buy military capabilities, even when there’s a push to simplify processes. I also try to show why it will be hard for Canada to distance itself from the United States militarily, and what it will actually take to build up a vibrant defence industrial base.

What is something people would be surprised to learn?

I’ve been asked how I came to research two fairly distinct subjects, defence policy and constitutional studies. I originally began working on the Westminster system as part of a project on Canadian civil-military relations. I saw that one could only understand the constitutional and legal frameworks behind Canadian civil-military relations by studying the Crown, Cabinet, and Parliament. My current research on supreme military command authority extends that thinking to liberal democratic regimes beyond those that are part of the Westminster system. The project is animated by the idea that military and political authorities are closely connected and that we can understand a lot about constitutional systems by studying how they empower and constrain the use of armed force.

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area?

Studying defence policy and procurement doesn’t necessarily involve focusing on specific military capabilities or equipment. Defence policy and procurement are more about public administration and governance than military operations and tactics. It’s not that different from studying, say, health policy. Those who research health policy aren’t focused on medicine per se. Like students of defence policy and procurement, they’re often more focused on things like process and organizational structures.

Any new projects you’re excited about?

Right now, I’m excited about a book I’m co-authoring with Emmett Macfarlane from University of Waterloo on Canada’s unwritten constitution. We’re nearly done and the book feels like the culmination of many years of research on the subject for me.

What’s your favourite class to teach?

My class on Canadian government is definitely my favourite. I love discussing the finer points of our system of government and why it matters for students who are embarking on careers in the public service.

Field Notes
Daniel Rosenbloom, School of Public Policy & Administration

Professor Daniel Rosenbloom’s research sits at the intersection of climate, energy, and innovation policy. Grounded in , he studies the policy dimensions of past and present transitions in energy systems. His work develops governance strategies for overcoming resistance to and accelerating decarbonization pathways in Canada and abroad. 

What are you working on these days? 

My work as the Ivey Research Chair in Sustainability Transitions keeps me very busy. 

I’m currently leading a SSHRC Insight Development Grant that maps stakeholder positions surrounding electrification across Canada. Electrification, understood as shifting energy end-uses met through fossil fuels to clean electricity sources, is well recognized as the most credible pathway for reaching our climate commitments. This project aims to reveal where the main points of friction lie across sectors and regions, unpack the basis for these frictions, and formulate policy strategies to smooth out electrification pathways. A highlight of this project is collaborating with colleagues from across Canada and several bright ĐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ students. 

I also continue to work closely with policy practitioners on unfolding energy transitions. A major focus right now is developing decisionsupport frameworks that help decision-makers align nearterm choices with longterm netzero transformations. This work connects to my role on the Executive Committee of the Energy Modelling Hub â€“ a national consortium of universities dedicated to enhancing Canada’s modelling capacity and insights, which . It also links to work I am conducting with the Sustainability Transitions Research Network on enhancing science-policy engagement and impact. 

Beyond this, I am coediting a special issue on accelerating netzero transitions with Karoline Rogge (Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex) and Qi Song (Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, Cambridge University). The goal of this work is to sharpen how we conceptualize â€˜acceleration’ in transition processes and to highlight practical interventions that can support more rapid change. Contributing to this, I’m collaborating with Runa Das through another Insight Development Grant focused on regulatory innovation, which explores how regulators can become agents of accelerated change. 

Then there are dozens of individual paper projects and collaborations stretching across transition topics and contexts â€“ many of which involve our students. 

What piqued your interest in sustainability transitions? 

Early in my career I focused on the individual motivations for poor environmental outcomes, drawing on insights from psychology. But quite quickly, it became clear to me that the systems that condition individual behaviour merit the bulk of our attention. This is what drew me to both policy and transition perspectives as together they offer critical insights on how technological, political, and institutional dynamics interact in shaping societal trajectories.  

I was also drawn to a field that isn’t afraid to be normative. Indeed, it is important to understand that our work is inseparable from the urgent societal problems we aim to address. 

In the same way, I value that the field is solution‑focused. It doesn’t stop at diagnosing or deconstructing problems but asks what kinds of governance arrangements, policy mixes, and institutional reforms might actually move us toward more sustainable futures. 

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

People are often struck to learn about the drivers behind the profound and sometimes quite rapid transformations of the past. Consider, for instance, how the shift from horsedrawn carriages to internal combustion engine vehicles in the early 20^th century took only a few short decades and was propelled in part by a deepening public health crisis surrounding the accumulation of horse manure in major urban centres. These types of transition histories show that deep changes can occur more quickly than we tend to assume when the right pressures, innovations, business models, and policy signals align. 

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area? 

An important misconception is that transitions are primarily technological shifts induced by markets â€“ that they happen because a better widget is invented and markets follow. Rather, transitions relate not only to technologies and markets but also policy interventions, business models, and political struggles. Returning to the diffusion of the automobile, this technology benefitted from technical advancements but also from a business strategy focused on mass production and decades of favourable state efforts, from the build out of road networks to the design of cities. The governance of sustainability transitions can learn from these episodes of change to deploy a much wider set of policy tools. It is not enough to passively encourage innovation, get the market structure right, and then wait for change to happen. 

Any new projects you’re excited about? 

One major initiative that I am quite energized about is my work with Professor James Meadowcroft to join up and strengthen the Canadian community of transitions scholars and practitioners. In November 2025, we brought together scholars from across the country to articulate a shared agenda for transitions research and action anchored in Canadian realities. The goal here is to both strengthen the Canadian community but also further translate transition insights to our context so that we can realize desirable futures. 

What’s your favourite class to teach? 

SERG 5005: Applied Interdisciplinary Project is a clear favourite of mine for three reasons. First, it is built around the principle of experiential learning, whereby students work handson with real societal partners on actual transition challenges. This year, student teams are working with societal partners on building out microgrids in Quebec, carbon dioxide removal solutions in the Prairies, and electrifying mass transit in the City of Cornwall. Second, it is solution oriented. I push students to design actionable proposals that help build along credible and prosperous pathways to net-zero. Third, it is fundamentally interdisciplinary. Recognizing that sustainability challenges span disciplinary boundaries, students from engineering and policy backgrounds work together to integrate insights from technology, economics, business, and policy. Overall, the course mirrors the systems approaches needed to advance transitions in practice, and these are precisely the skills policymakers are seeking in the job market. 

Field Notes
Erin Tolley, Political Science

Professor Erin Tolley studies how race and gender shape who runs for office, who gets elected, and how power works in Canada. Her research challenges myths about representation and tackles urgent issues like the harassment of municipal leaders, helping build a more inclusive understanding of Canadian politics.

What are you working on these days? 

Broadly, my research looks at how race and gender shape politics in Canada. This includes work that focuses on why women and racialized minorities run for office, the experiences they have once they get there, and how race and gender shape the ways Canadians think about political representation. I also spend a lot of time thinking about how to better study these questions and whether there are ways to improve our methodological toolkit. 

What piqued your interest in the relationship between socio-demographic diversity and political representation in Canada? 

For me, there wasn’t a clear a-ha moment where suddenly I knew what I was meant to do. However, looking back, I can see where some of the seeds were planted. I grew up in Saskatchewan in the 1990s when the country was embroiled in a series of constitutional crises, so politics was sort of all around me at that time. I went to university with the intention of becoming a journalist and, as part of that training, I was required to take a political science course, something I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about. But that course made me realize that politics isn’t just something people read about in the newspaper or argue about around the dinner table: politics is about how we live and get along as a community. So that was a turning point. I then started to think about who gets to make those decisions, whether that power is equitably distributed, and how identities like race and gender might be part of the explanation. 

What is a question you hope to answer with your research? 

Introductory political science courses often tell students that politics is about “who gets what, when, and how,” which comes from the title of a book published in the 1930s. Nearly 100 years later, those questions all remain relevant. I hope that my research helps people understand that politics is not a neutral, disembodied space. Answers to questions about the distribution of power can’t be divorced from identity. As I tell my students, no one talks about the “mothers” of Confederation because they weren’t allowed at the decision-making table; that exclusion, and others, is infused into Canada’s institutional DNA. My research asks how these legacies continue to shape political behaviour, representation and outcomes today. 

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

Almost 15 years ago, I published a paper called, “Do Women Do Better in Municipal Politics?” It countered the conventional (and somewhat stereotypical) wisdom that women will find greater electoral success in local politics, which is often viewed as kinder, gentler, and closer to so-called women’s interests. Although that belief was widespread, I showed there was little evidence for it: women’s electoral success was approximately the same at the federal, provincial and municipal levels in Canada, a conclusion that remains true today. Even so, the conventional wisdom persists, so people are often surprised to learn it’s not the case.   

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area? 

There are two misconceptions that I encounter fairly frequently. The first is that research incorporating attention to race and gender is â€œniche” and therefore less important than research on, say, national security or foreign policy. The reason this is a misconception is that race and gender absolutely shape how decisions about those areas are made, who makes them, and how they are received by the public. If we think that identity is somehow apolitical or pre-political or not political science, we aren’t fully understanding the world around us, and our conclusions will be flawed. 

The second misconception is that only quantitative or statistical approaches to the study of politics are rigorous or sophisticated and that qualitative approaches are somehow “easier” and more “biased.” As someone who uses both types of methods, I find this viewpoint so limited and damaging. The political world is enormously complicated: people are unpredictable, they exist in uncontrolled environments, and they don’t always tell us the truth! So we need to study political problems using a variety of approaches. That’s the only way we’re going to get to rich, nuanced explanations that we are confident are leading us in the right direction. 

Any new projects you’re excited about? 

The last time I counted, I had more than a dozen different papers and projects on the go, so it’s hard to pick just one. But one that I am particularly focused on right now looks at the harassment of elected officials in Canadian municipalities. This study is part of the Canadian Municipal Barometer, which is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Every year, our research team is surveying mayors and councillors across the country, so we now have a lot of new insights on their experiences, including differences related to their gender, race, and other factors. Municipal associations across the country have recently characterized harassment as a “serious problem” that has “reached crisis levels,” and our research will help address this issue. 

What’s your favourite class to teach? 

I have been lucky to always teach classes in areas that interest me, which means I’ve never had to slog through anything I really didn’t like. For the past few years, I’ve taught PSCI 4506, which focuses on Women, Power and Political Representation, which gives me an opportunity to read and discuss research directly related to my own interests. How lucky is that? Getting paid to do things you would want to do anyway! The other part of teaching that I value is the mentorship I get to engage in with students in my Gender, Race, and Inclusive Politics Lab. We write together collectively, and we meet regularly to talk about research and academic life. I love this kind of community-building, and it’s central to how I see my role as a researcher and teacher.  

Field Notes 
Jane Dickson, Law and Legal Studies

Jane Dickson’s work focuses on strengthening Indigenous access to justice through the development, training, and evaluation of Gladue reports and culturally informed sentencing practices.

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic? 

My research area is Indigenous access to justice, most notably in the criminal justice sphere and with a focus on what are called the ‘Gladue principles’ across the criminal justice system and increasingly, into other areas of law as well. These principles require the courts to consider the unique background and circumstances of an Indigenous person and any alternatives to incarceration that are reasonable given the offence and degree of culpability of the offender.  

Ideally, this information is provided to the courts in the form of a Gladue report. I train people to write these reports and have completed several research projects on the impacts of those reports and the Gladue principles more generally; I have also evaluated some of the largest Gladue service providers in the country. 

What piqued your interest in this topic? 

 My research originally focused on the reclamation of Indigenous law and legal structures through the revitalization and implementation of that law and structures within First Nations.  

However, It quickly became apparent that outside governments were supportive of ‘restorative justice projects’ but much less so of the reinstitution of traditional law. This led to me shift my attention to addressing inequities in the colonial system and to focus on Gladue, sentencing and pushing back on the mass incarceration of Indigenous people in Canada. 

What question were you hoping to answer in your research? 

 Broadly speaking, how can we better respect and support Indigenous justice systems within Indigenous nations and maximize access to justice for Indigenous citizens who become involved with the colonial justice system?

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

The Department of Law and Legal Studies houses the Ottawa Pro Bono Gladue Project, which I run with my former graduate student, Kerry MacDonell. We have a group of certified Gladue writers who volunteer to provide reports to Indigenous people in the Ottawa-Kingston area; we are now also supporting people across Canada, which is very exciting and keeps us very busy. 

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area? 

The biggest misconception is that Gladue considerations are a ‘get out of jail free card’ – since the advent of Gladue in 1999, rates of incarceration of Indigenous people have continued to climb. Since 2000/2001, the incarcerated Indigenous population has risen by 56.2% 

Any new projects that you’re excited about? 

I have a few very exciting projects on the horizon, but will just mention one, which is a research project to support the development of national standards for Gladue reports, Gladue writers and Gladue training. This is important to me as a Gladue writer, educator and ally of Indigenous people who understands the challenges of this work and the magnitude of task Gladue is intended to address.

What’s your favourite class to teach? 

That’s a tough question! I like teaching first year very much but am presently also enjoying teaching my fourth-year seminar, which exposes students to the research on Gladue and to those working with Gladue in the system. I am fortunate to have a number of amazing guest speakers, including the Chief of the Ottawa Police Service, Indigenous and non-Indigenous senior Judges and Justices of the Peace of the Ontario Court of Justice, Crown and defence counsel, Gladue writers, and the Director of Special Projects at the Office of the Federal Correctional Investigator. It is a great blend of theory and practice. The course has also opened up employment opportunities for some of my students and helped others to locate mentors and resources to assist them with careers in the law and legal services.  

Mehdi Ammi investigates the long-term value of preventive public health spending, analyzing how smarter investments can save lives and improve population health.

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic? 

If only I had just one! I’m half-joking there, but I’m a curious person, and it seems that answering one research question tends to lead to more. There’s a bit of a sprawl of research interests. Still, my research falls within health economics, health policy, health services research, and public health. Overall, I want to understand how the characteristics of health and healthcare systems can be modified to balance comprehensive access, high quality, and low cost of care, along with healthcare providers’ satisfaction, and ultimately improve population health. This is known as the quintuple aim, and my research touches on different aspects of it. 

One of the things I’m particularly interested in is the value of expenditures on public health, meaning spending that’s more preventive than curative. These expenditures tend to be small, around 5% of total health spending in Canada. While there’s a general sense that prevention is better than cure, I’m trying to understand the differential returns of spending on preventive versus curative care. 

What piqued your interest in this topic? 

For my overall research topic in health, I’d say it’s not what got me into economics in the first place. Initially, I was interested in finance – until I realized I really, really didn’t like the idea of making more money from money. I discovered health economics, along with other areas related to human capital (like labour and education), and realized this was more “me.” Health raised fascinating problems: it’s mainly public, full of market issues like information asymmetry and uncertainty, and lacks real prices to guide resource allocation. That intrigued me, and I thought, maybe research in this area could actually help improve society. 

As for the value of public health expenditures, two things made it both interesting and challenging. First, when public health succeeds, nothing happens. It prevents bad things from occurring, so how do you prove you matter when success looks like nothing? Second, despite its importance, public health is often under attack, seen as paternalistic or an easy target during austerity. Third, I kept hearing from public health professionals and decision-makers that they needed evidence to justify their budgets, especially given pressures on hospitals and primary care. I didn’t know what the answer would be, but it felt like an important and fascinating puzzle. 

What question were you hoping to answer in your research? 

I wanted to see whether public health produces results in the long run, over several decades. As I mentioned, nothing happens immediately in public health, but what about all the lives saved down the road? Can we measure that? It turns out there’s some good, long-term data from national agencies and the OECD, spanning 40 to 50 years. Plus, new econometric methods now exist to address known issues in these datasets. 

With co-authors, we did two studies. One focused in Canada, looking at all the provinces, published last year. And one looking at OECD countries, including Canada of course, published last month. Go read them, they are both open-access thanks to Tri-Council funding: and .  

What is something people would be surprised to learn? 

The punchline is that public health spending does make a difference in the long run. A 10% increase in public health expenditures leads to a 2% decrease in preventable mortality in Canada over the past forty years. Across OECD countries, a 10% increase in preventive spending reduces all-cause mortality by 1% and increases life expectancy at age 65 by 0.4% over fifty years. 

That might not sound dramatic, but remember, curative spending saves lives now, while preventive spending saves lives later. And given that public health accounts for only around 6% of total spending in Canada in 2024 ($22 billion out of $372 billion), those long-run effects are pretty remarkable. It’s not about cutting curative care, of course, people who show up in emergency rooms need treatment. But it’s a reminder: just because the benefits aren’t visible right away doesn’t mean it’s not working. 

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area? 

The number one thing I hear is that “health isn’t about money.” I agree. It’s not about money; it’s about value. They’re not the same thing. The biggest misconception is that health economists only care about cutting costs. That’s completely wrong. We’re social scientists trying to understand how people and societies work, including incentives, efficiency, and equity. 

We don’t say, “cut here.” We ask, “If you had $1 more, where could it do the most good?” Maybe that dollar saves more lives in prevention than in hospitals, or vice versa. Our role is to bring evidence to the table, not to dictate policy, but to help make it better informed. 

Any new projects that you’re excited about? 

I have too many projects, and I’m excited about all of them! That’s the beauty of being a professor: you choose what you want to work on (as long as you can fund it). If it doesn’t excite you, you just don’t do it.

Some projects I can’t talk about yet. Research ideas are only good if they’re original! But one I can share is a grant proposal on the impacts of public health expenditures on equity. We know these expenditures improve health in the long run, but we don’t know for whom. For example, do the health gains go mostly to wealthier groups, or do they help reduce disparities? The project will develop measures of health disparities in Canada (by income, ethnicity, gender, and more) and test whether public health spending helps narrow them. What I find especially rewarding is the number of public health policy makers and practitioners involved as full partners. That’s what “research for the public good” should look like in my mind. 

What’s your favourite class to teach? 

I am in a graduate school. At the Master’s level, it’s my Health Policy in Canada (PADM 5221) elective in the Master of Public Policy and Administration program. The title says it all (and if that’s not obvious, you clearly weren’t paying attention…  go back and read from the start). 

At the PhD level, it’s the Doctoral Seminar (PADM 6201) in the PhD in Public Policy program. I love it because it’s about teaching future researchers what a research plan really is: how to come up with interesting, answerable questions and secure the resources (financial, human, intellectual) to get the work done. The course is different every year depending on the students’ interests and methodologies. It’s also a humbling experience; it pushes me to revisit the foundations of social sciences. I learn something new every time I teach it. Remember, I’m a curious person! 

By creating the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging, Nana aba Duncan is working to expand how we think about journalism—by amplifying underrepresented voices, challenging the lack of diversity in Canadian newsrooms, and carrying forward Shadd Cary’s legacy through a new lecture series.

What led you to create the ? 

When I learned about Mary Ann Shadd Cary, I thought, why am I just learning about her now? She was the first Black woman to publish and edit a newspaper in Canada—The Provincial Freeman in 1853. She’s also the first woman to publish a newspaper in North America.  

My hope was to create a place where people are inspired to continue thinking about journalists and journalism and media in a more expansive way. I mean, I’m Black and my research has to do with reporting in Black communities and the experiences of Black journalists. But my goal for our industry is to always be thinking about those who are not represented or underrepresented or misrepresented, and to consider them at the intersection of journalism. 

How diverse are newsrooms in Canada in 2025?

The Canadian Association of Journalists runs a diversity survey every year and invariably every year you see that there are low numbers of Black people who are part of the industry. In about 66% of the newsrooms that participated in the survey, there are no Black people, no people of color.

And so for the center, my hope is that we just are always thinking about inclusion and diversity, deeply and in whatever ways that maybe we haven’t thought of before. For example, I have lived most of my life not thinking about disability because of my privileges, but this is a place where I can consider disabled journalists.

It’s really important because so many of our newsrooms, if you go and look at their mandates, many of them say they want to represent the diversity of Canada. And if you’re going to do that, it means that you have to have those folks in your newsrooms, and you have to support them in the way that they need to be awesome.

How does a newsroom change when marginalized voices are heard?

It’s really important that we take the opportunities that we can to highlight the achievements of Black people in journalism and to recognize the impact that they have when they do enter newsrooms.
Something that I say to my students is that, when it comes to Black people or any person who is part of a marginalized community, if they come into a newsroom and they say that this issue is important to my community, who is the expert?

You’re the expert. It doesn’t mean that you know everything, but it means that if you are saying something is important to your community, then other people should listen.

You’re hosting the first ever Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture on October 6, as part of the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture Series: Voices of Change in Canadian Journalism. How will this contribute to Shadd Cary’s legacy?

This lecture series, which was the idea of my colleague Trish Audette-Longo, is the first lecture series in the School of Journalism and Communication named after a woman. It will feature leading women and non-binary journalists from historically under- and misrepresented communities who will share their stories and expertise.

Our inaugural lecturer is Camille Dundas, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of ByBlacks.com, Canada’s leading Black online magazine. We’ll also hear from Adrienne Shadd, a descendant of Shadd Cary.

Find out more about the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Lecture.

Field Notes: Research Profile
Minjoon Lee, Economics

Through surveys and economic modelling, Minjoon Lee explores how individuals and governments can better prepare for the financial and caregiving needs of older adults.

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic?

My research mainly focuses on the issue of aging. The population is aging in many advanced economies. With increased longevity, households face various economic challenges. Most people expect to live for many years after retirement, and they need to be financially prepared to maintain their quality of life. With aging, physical health deteriorates, and at some point, individuals will need to constantly receive care from others for so-called activities of daily living (including eating, getting in and out of bed, bathing, etc.). They will need to plan ahead how they can and want to receive such care. Aging also comes with cognitive decline. With cognitive decline, people may lose the ability to make the right decisions for themselves. In particular, when they lose the ability to make financial decisions, they may fall victim to financial abuse or scams.  

My research studies how well households are prepared for these late-in-life issues and how to improve their preparedness. Most of my studies are based on household surveys, which I design with my colleagues, to learn about what people have done facing these challenges, what they plan to do, and what the remaining gaps are in their preparation. After gaining insights from the survey responses, I bring those data to economic models to design policies that can improve people’s well-being in late life.  

What piqued your interest in this topic?

Well, I am a person who loves to plan ahead for the future. There are people who like to set up saving goals for each year until retirement, and I am one of them. When I was setting up a spreadsheet with lifetime savings goals (which I am still using) during my Ph.D., my wife teased me by saying that I was planning for retirement even before getting my first job. 🙂 With my interest in this topic, I also became curious about how others are doing for their future, which naturally led me to this research topic.  

On the other hand, when I was doing my Ph.D., I was lucky to participate in a large survey project where we surveyed older clients at a large mutual fund company to learn about their retirement preparedness and motivations for savings. This opportunity allowed me to learn about the issues the aging population faces, and they all seemed important enough to study.  

What question were you hoping to answer in your research?

The eventual goal of all my research is to help improve the quality of life of many households in late life. This could be achieved by designing better policies. We cannot leave this just to the individuals, and there are many things the government can do to improve the situation, including a better design of pensions, better provision of elder care, finding ways to promote employment of elderly workers, etc. All these policies often come with higher public expenditures, and my research aims to find the optimal design of such policies that maximize the benefits per dollar of tax money spent.  

Improving the quality of life could also be achieved by affecting individuals’ behavior. Improper management of their financial assets, not fully utilizing the tools designed to help their financial well-being after retirement, and not understanding how much they need to have adequate health care in old age can all result in a lower quality of life at old age. In my research, I try to detect common mistakes among households using surveys and propose ways to fix them.  

What is something people would be surprised to learn?

One of my recent projects studied cognitive decline and how that affects financial decision-making. Using a survey, we found that many older individuals (aged 55 – 80 at the moment of the survey) are deeply concerned about losing the ability to make good financial decisions at some point and eventually doing harm to their own financial well-being. Some respondents used an analogy to driving—at some point, they should stop driving, but they may not notice when that point is once they have already significantly declined.  

A good way to protect themselves against such risks is to hand over control of their finances to someone they can rely on, such as family members, typically one of their children (particularly after being widowed), if they are reliable in terms of financial literacy and aligned interests. Somewhat to our surprise, we found that the survey respondents were mostly very confident that they have someone who can make decisions on their behalf if needed.  

What was more surprising was that, even with that support, they do not want to hand over control of their finances until they see a clear sign that their cognition has declined. This still exposes them to the risks of making mistakes. The desire to hold onto control could come from the desire to be one’s own agent while still capable. Given this tricky situation, we find that many individuals would appreciate it—and actually, be willing to pay quite a large amount of money—if there is a way to help them detect their decline (e.g., periodic tests on cognitive ability).   

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area?

Many people think that Economics is only about money. Decisions involving money are, of course, important subjects in Economics research. However, in economics, we study a much broader range of decisions people make, often those that do not include non-pecuniary factors. Examples of this include types of health care people want to receive at very old ages, as discussed in my answer to the next question.  

Any new projects that you’re excited about?

One of the new projects I am excited about is looking at robot caregivers. In Japan, many nursing homes now use robot caregivers to address the increasing demand for elder care and the lack of labor supply. There are many different types of robots, including those that help move patients from one place to another and those that communicate with residents so they feel less lonely. Though it is not common in Canada, some nursing homes have started experimenting with communication robots.  

With recent developments in AI, robot caregivers may seem to be a sensible solution to this critical issue—elderly health care—in aging societies. However, whether this is a good solution or not depends on how care provided by robots is seen by potential users. Some may think that care provided by robots is inhumane, particularly if residents are supposed to chat with robots instead of humans to feel connected. Some may, on the other hand, feel better if robots instead of humans help them with certain activities of life, such as bathing and toileting. There is no large-scale evidence of how potential users of elder care feel about robot caregivers. I am planning to launch a large-scale survey, both in Canada and Japan, to learn about people’s perceptions of robot caregivers so that we can shed light on how robots can be best used in addressing care shortages.  

What’s your favourite class to teach?

It is hard to choose one course, but if I had to, I would choose Econ 5029: Research Method course. This is a mandatory course for all the MA students in Economics. In this course, students are asked to produce their own research paper. Transitioning from a consumer to a producer of research is never easy, so this is a challenging course for students. But, in the end, students leave the classroom with outcomes of their own research, which can be a part of their CV and also may be a basis for their future research. Seeing new ideas from students every semester and discussing how to improve the proposed projects with the entire class is always a fun and rewarding experience.

Field Notes: Research Profile
Chris Russill, Journalism and Communication

Chris Russill’s research explores climate communication and its role in public engagement, policy development, and crisis management – and even murder!

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic?

I study how climate communication has been transformed by changes to our information environment over the last decade or so. These changes have led to surges of false and misleading communication that we have yet to conceptualize or address adequately.  

These surges are especially prominent during moments of crisis, so I wade into those moments to figure out how people make sense of them. Whether it is journalists, emergency responders, information officers, crisis communicators, affected communities, the wider public, etc., they are usually quick to form an understanding of the situation. I’m interested in what information is available to them and found these are moments of collective sensemaking, not simply cognitive processing or factchecking issues.  

People often talk about misinformation in its consequences for individuals or the pollution of public discourse. This is a part of it.  But I’m concerned with how it degrades the conditions for institutional decision-making or collective sense-making, and so I look to concepts from these areas to understand what’s going on. People got this wrong during covid. We can still get it right on climate.

What piqued Your Interest in This Topic? 

Crisis, conspiracies, conflict, who isn’t interested in these things? 

What Question were you hoping to Answer in your research?

Well, in an immediate sense, I’m curious what it means that our climate discussions have become more conspiratorial, more animated by actors that feel threatened by climate solutions and climate policies, and more influenced by content creators seeking to undermine institutional decision-making and public sense-making. These voices have outsized influence because they leverage the incentives and affordances of the digital systems organizing the flow of our information. The content produced is often manipulative because it is designed to capture online engagement. These pundits and influencers recognize that the largest digital platforms (TikTok, Facebook, Instagram) amplify content that captures user engagement and design their communication accordingly. And, on these platforms, the systems for determining veracity have been stripped down or eliminated completely, so questions of truth or accuracy just don’t figure into the design and circulation of much of our communication online.  

During the next big crisis, these systems will flood with false, misleading, and manipulative content, and undermine our collective ability to understand and respond. This happened during the the last two years in Canada, it happened in LA this winter, and it’ll happen next time too. This isn’t about blaming social media for our troubles. It is about understanding how the design features of our information environment are leveraged by political actors to affect our decision-making and how we make sense of reality. We need to integrate this understanding in crisis communication and disaster management as soon as possible.  

But the larger question is why engagement is higher for content that speaks so intensely and emotionally to our insecurities? And why we have failed to ground desires and policies for climate protection in these feelings? Part of the problem is the incentives and affordances of the digital systems organizing our information environment as discussed above. But another part of this is an institutional and governmental failure of climate communication. We tend to emphasize policy elegance or cost/benefit analysis over public engagement in communicating the need to protect our climate systems – often these policies fail to resonate with people as a result. Our work at is about trying to get this policy + public engagement mix right.    

So, it is these things together, our genuine insecurities and the tools we have for making sense of them, it is that intersection we work toward for more inclusive and effective climate communication. 

What is Something People Would Be Surprised to Learn?

It is probably that the fossil fuel era, as the dominant industry and driver of our geopolitics, is effectively over, and that energy transition to cleaner sources of energy is well underway. This is a huge change. It might not feel like it because of Trump’s support of fossil fuels, his attempts to force U.S. natural gas on countries, his support of Russia, his desire to tie American and Canadian futures to fossil fuels. This is a big problem. But he can’t turn it back entirely. So, it is a question of how the transition will unfold. Will it take positive shape and form in Canada? I think most of us want that for our students and kids. Or do we wait until its shape and form are determined from afar and imposed on us? These questions are getting decided now.

What’s the Biggest Misconception?

It is the idea that public opinion is shallow or fickle or fatalist about protecting our climate system. It isn’t. People want action, they want it faster, and they want to be part of a country that cares about this. This is a consistent finding, year over year, and it gets lost in the way we obsess over shifts in polls, surveys, or the priorities of political leaders. It gets lost in the despair of having failed to act quickly enough. It gets lost when we focus on climate conspiracies, funny memes, or the anti-climate ravings of celebrity influencers. Climate trends, anxiety, and disinformation matter, but so does the durability of the bigger picture.  

So, the problem isn’t getting lots more people to care and or call for protection of our climate systems – the problem is why we underestimate how many other people feel the same way we do. If you ask people how they feel about doing something on climate, they usually tell you. If you ask people how other people feel about protecting climate, they often underestimate how many people want action – and often by a lot. This is true in my classes but also true in Alberta. When we close that gap, when we recognize how we feel is how others also feel about climate protection, then the sense of isolation or impasse or inaction will be lessened or broken. Of course, the oligarchs will still be standing in our way! But I like our chances at that point.

New Projects? 

I’m excited about a climate visuals project we are developing at Re.Climate to help people communicate with visuals and imaging. Too often, graphical elements are an afterthought. People tend to rely on what is most accessible, so you get the same kind of images and emotional appeals circulating. Or people get caught up with inauthentic and misleading representations. Our goal is to improve the circulation of visuals in climate communiation by researching the wider lifecycle: from development, creation, authentication, and procurement into display, use, contextualization, and evaluation of these visual elements. Ideally, we will develop a public repository of images people can access to expand the range of stories they tell with images. We are focused on the role of images in crisis and risk communication right now but hope to extend to climate communication more broadly.

We are also working on a project titled, ‘Who Killed the Carbon Tax,’ and having some fun with that. It is based on interviews and makes visible the different explanations people have for why the policy failed. Some people feel the policy was poorly conceived at the outset, while others feel it was murdered by malevolent forces using disinformation or the general ineptitude of government efforts to explain their approach to people. These are the leading suspects so far! But what we want to do is illustrate the different ways that people understand the relationship of policy and public engagement when discussing climate solutions with people. After all, this is hardly the first climate policy to die a brutal death in this country.

I’m really hoping we develop and share our findings via a true crime podcast later this year. Stay tuned!

Favourite Class… 

Ha, ha, the who is your favourite child question!  Does anyone answer this honestly? 

I have had a great time with our second-year course, COMS 2400: Climate Coms. Anyone can enrol from any field, any background, part time or full time, 1^st year, 4^th year, and we might even have a 6^th student in there. People working at the university or other professors sometimes come. It is open to all students which means we get a good mix of people and perspectives in there.  

Communication is for everyone. The quality of our lives and of those around us is determined by it – helping people realize that, to act on it in their own lives, those are the best classes.   

Field Notes: Research Profile
Andrea Chandler, Political Science

Andrea Chandler’s research explores Canada’s Cold War relations with Soviet-aligned Eastern European nations, examining how smaller states on both sides of the Iron Curtain navigated global power struggles and Canada’s evolving role in democracy promotion.

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic?

My book, has just been published by Central European University Press, in October 2024. It is essentially a history of Canada’s relations with the Soviet-allied countries of Eastern Europe (Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Romania and Bulgaria) during the Cold War. I wanted to provide a view of the Cold War from the perspective of smaller, non-superpower countries from both sides of the Iron Curtain that divided East and West.

What piqued your interest in this topic?

My second and third monographs focussed on contemporary Russia, and I wished to return to the historical themes that were such an important focus of my first book. Quite frankly, I had begun to tire of writing about Russia, as political conditions under Vladimir Putin continued to stagnate. In 2014 Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, and the outbreak of conflict in eastern Ukraine, further strengthened my belief that it was essential that Canadians learn more about the East European countries with which we have so much in common. Like Canadians, east Europeans live close to one of the world’s greatest military powers – sometimes too close for comfort.

What question were you hoping to answer in your research?

I had no particular preconceived notions – I wanted to approach the topic with as much of an open mind as possible. I wasn’t sure there would be enough material for a book. I suppose that I began with the question of democracy promotion: determining whether Canada played a role (positive or negative) in the east European countries’ eventual transition to democracy when the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. It was certainly a stated goal of the Canadian government to try to encourage some kind of liberalization in the authoritarian regimes known as the “Soviet satellites,” although this was more of a wishful-thinking narrative about Canada’s role in the world than a reality.

What is something people would be surprised to learn?

In a general sense, I suppose it would be that Canada’s foreign policy was more independent of the United States than people might otherwise assume, and much of the credit for this belongs to the diaspora communities of Canadians of Central and East European heritage. The question of Eastern Europe helped to convince the Canadian government that Canadians deserved to have their voices heard when it came to foreign policy, that international relations should not be determined purely by government ministers and diplomats.

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area?

I think that Canada’s Conservative party has an undeserved reputation as being well-disposed to the countries of Eastern Europe. In the period that I looked at, the Conservatives dropped the ball on this file whenever they were in power. While Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (in power for most of 1968-1984) made some very tactless comments towards Eastern Europe, his Secretaries of State for External Affairs were much more active on human rights in the communist world than their successors under Brian Mulroney, who was Prime Minister when the Soviet bloc collapsed.

Any new projects that you’re excited about?

I recently completed a manuscript for a short book entitled Fomenting Friendship: The Politics and Policy of Interpersonal Warmth, based on a project funded by a Knowledge Synthesis Grant awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada in 2022. Fomenting Friendship is currently in press with Routledge, and is expected to be published later in the spring of 2025, as part of the series Routledge Research in Comparative Politics.

What challenges have you encountered in your research, and how have you addressed them?

I was trained as a specialist in Soviet and Russian politics at Columbia University, where I earned my Ph.d. I invested a lot of time into learning the language and doing field work. It was painful to accept that I no longer wanted to spend time researching a country that had descended into such a cruel and stagnant authoritarianism. But I did accept that, and used it as an opportunity to study the German language and brush up on my very basic Ukrainian language abilities. Those skills have been valuable to me in recent years.

What’s a key finding from your research that you think everyone should know?

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, there has been much critique of the concept of “Wandel durch Handel” – the phrase, attributed to the late Chancellor of Germany Willy Brandt, is the idea that through building trade and other forms of cooperation with authoritarian regimes, democracies can gradually induce authoritarian regimes to liberalize. This is a wonderful idea, but there is little evidence to support it, and I think my research on Canada in the Cold War shows that cooperating with authoritarian regimes must be done with eyes wide open to the possible impacts on citizens.

What’s your favourite class to teach?

I would have to say PSCI 3208, the political science course on the politics of Russia and Ukraine. When I first started teaching Russian/post-Soviet politics in the 1990s, I never dreamed there would be a war between these two countries. As sad as this topic is, it opens a door for guiding students to gather evidence as thoroughly and systematically as possible to elucidate the “fog of war.” Furthermore, I feel I have a role to play in modelling ways to discuss politically-charged topics while maintaining a calm and respectful atmosphere.

Crina Viju-Miljusevic delves into the dynamics of competing regional cooperation frameworks within the Europe-Caucasus-Asia region, analyzing the initiatives led by China, Russia, and the European Union.

Can you offer a “lay” description of your research topic?

My current research focuses on the dynamics of competing regional cooperation frameworks within the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (ECA) region, with an emphasis on the overlapping regionalism initiatives led by China, Russia, and the European Union. These frameworks facilitate collaboration among countries within a specific geographical area to address shared challenges, promote economic integration, enhance security, and foster sustainable development.

I am particularly interested in analyzing the trade routes and corridors emerging in this context, as well as the interplay of geopolitical rivalry and interdependence among the key actors—the People’s Republic of China, the Russian Federation, and the European Union. The historical and institutional legacies of the region significantly shape the opportunities and challenges for cooperation.

Additionally, my research examines how initiatives like the EU’s Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia, China’s Belt and Road Initiative, and Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union intersect and compete, alongside localized efforts such as the Lapis Lazuli Route, initiated by regional states. This area of study provides valuable insights into the evolving geopolitical landscape and its implications for trade and regional integration.

What piqued your interest in this topic?

My interest in this topic was sparked by the profound impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on global trade and supply chains. The pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of major trade routes and highlighted the importance of alternative routes to maintain the flow of goods.

In particular, the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (ECA) corridor became a critical infrastructure link between Western Europe and Central and Southeast Asia, helping to reduce reliance on the busiest seaports. This shift in global trade dynamics, especially the growing significance of lesser-known trade routes, provided a unique opportunity to explore how international trade patterns evolve in response to geopolitical and global challenges.

What question were you hoping to answer in your research?

What roles do the core powers—the European Union, Russian Federation, and People’s Republic of China—play in reshaping and reorienting international trade, investment, and the mobility of human capital along the Europe-Caucasus-Asia link of the global supply chain? To what extent are the existing formal mechanisms for regional cooperation sufficient to ensure adaptability and resilience of supply chains during disruptions? How does this model of interregional integration contribute to our understanding of the emerging theory of new regionalism?

What is something people would be surprised to learn?

First, the findings of this research are not confined to any specific region but have a global scope. They provide valuable insights for policymakers on how state positions toward regionalism have shifted due to the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s growing isolationism and economic tensions with the West, and Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Second, in the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (ECA) region, regional integration has primarily been driven by state actors in Russia and China (as with the Eurasian Economic Union and China’s Belt and Road Initiative) rather than market forces or civil society. As the primary architects of regionalism and dominant players in regionalization, these states wield significant influence over its scope and depth. This contrasts with regionalism pursued by the EU, Canada or the US, which is largely propelled by market forces and non-state actors.

What’s the biggest misconception about your research area?

An important misconception about this research area is that the competing regional cooperation frameworks within the Europe-Caucasus-Asia (ECA) region operate in isolation from one another. In reality, these mechanisms are not only competing but also deeply interwoven, with overlapping trade routes, economic interdependencies, and shifting geopolitical influences. The interactions between these regional efforts often blur the lines between cooperation and rivalry, creating a complex web of strategic maneuvering.

For instance, countries may simultaneously engage with multiple initiatives, balancing economic opportunities with political and security considerations. Understanding this nuanced dynamic is key to appreciating how regionalism is evolving—not just as a collection of separate efforts, but as a multifaceted and interconnected process that is reshaping global trade, regional power structures, and political alliances.

Any new projects that you’re excited about?

Along with my colleagues, Profs. Paul Goode and Jeff Sahadeo, we recently launched the Eastern Europe and Transatlantic Network. This initiative is supported by the Department of National Defence through the Mobilizing Insights in Defence and Security (MINDS) program. The project aims to provide a critical Canadian perspective on the transformations in Europe and Eurasia since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Our objectives include building a network of subject matter experts, fostering the development of a new generation of specialists on Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and enhancing Canadians’ understanding of defence and security issues in the region.

What’s your favourite class to teach?

I enjoy teaching all my classes, but one that stands out is my second-year course, EURR 2002: Europe and Russia in the World. This interdisciplinary course explores the roles of the European Union, and the Russian Federation in international affairs. It allows me to engage students with diverse perspectives, foster meaningful discussions, and connect the material to current events, making the subject both dynamic and relevant.