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Rachel McNally

PhD candidate

• MA Political Science �Ӱ�ԭ�� (2020), BA Hons Politics Acadia University (2018)
• Email Rachel McNally

Rachel’s PhD research under the supervision of Professor James Milner considers the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the resettlement of refugees with disabilities, 1951 to present. Rachel completed her comprehensive exams in International Relations and Public Policy.

Beyond her own research, in Fall 2024, she was a Contract Instructor in the department teaching a First-Year Seminar on the Global Politics of Refugees. Rachel was the Project Editor-in-Chief for the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN), where she worked on the working papers series and projects about the history of solutions for refugees, the impacts of resettlement for refugees living in Kenyan refugee camps, and the representation of authors based in different regions in academic journals. She also served as Student Director at the  from 2022 to 2025.

In the past, Rachel has published work about Canada’s refugee sponsorship programs and refugee sponsorship in small and rural communities across Canada. She worked as one of the lead researchers with the project “From Anecdotes to Evidence: Research-Based Recommendations for Supporting Rural and Remote Sponsorship” funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada and hosted at the  at the University of Lethbridge.

Recent publications

McNally, Rachel, Pascal Zigashane, Mark Okello, Arte Dagane, Abdikadir Abikar and Ochan Leomoi. 2025. . Ethnic and Racial Studies. Special issue ‘Resettlement as an Institution’.

McNally, Rachel. 2024. “(Dis)Ability and Medical Conditions in Canadian Refugee Resettlement.” In Forced Migration in/to Canada: From Colonization to Refugee Resettlement, edited by Christina R. Clark-Kazak, 192–203. McGill-Queen’s Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Series. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Labman, Shauna, and Rachel McNally. 2024. In Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy, edited by Jane Freedman, 95–111. Elgar Handbooks in Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Haugen, Stacey, Rachel McNally, and Lars K. Hallström. 2024. Canadian Geographies / Géographies Canadiennes 68 (4): 456–67.

McNally, Rachel. 2023. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 39 (1): 1–17.