My research group is broadly focused on democracy and political representation in Canada, with a particular emphasis on local and urban politics. We meet regularly to share ideas, discuss new research, plan research projects, and provide feedback. The research group is based at the University of Calgary but includes members from across Canada. If you have an interest in joining the research group, please get in touch!
Current Group Members
Emerson Krause (B.A., University of Michigan) is a Master’s Thesis student at the University of Calgary. Emerson is interested in political behavior, particularly in the interaction between social identities such as partisanship and municipal identities, and the factors that strengthen them and their influence on issue values.
Dr. Nicole McMahon is a Canadian Municipal Barometer Postdoctoral Scholar at the University of Calgary. Her research broadly focuses on Canadian politics, comparative public policy, and identity politics, with a particular emphasis on LGBTQ+ politics. Her work is published in Governance, Party Politics, Politics, Groups and Identities, Representation, PS: Political Science & Politics, and the Canadian Journal of Political Science. For more information about Nicole’s work, please visit www.nicolefmcmahon.com.
Carter McPherson is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on municipal politics, policy knowledge, spatial voting, and political behaviour. He is also interested in experimental research methods, particularly field and survey experimental techniques in political science.
Dr. Matthew Polacko is a Postdoctoral Associate at the University of Calgary. His research interests lie at the intersection of political economy and political behaviour with a particular focus on class politics, inequality, and public policy, in Canada and other advanced democracies. For more information about Matt’s work, please visit: mattpolacko.com.
Tyler Romualdi is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Political Science at Western University. His research focuses on Canadian and urban politics, with a particular emphasis on the welfare state and the historical development of individuals’ policy attitudes.
Dr. Noam Titelman is the Mark Grosjean postdoctoral fellow at the Political Science department of the University of Calgary. He obtained his PhD in the Methodology department of the London School of Economics. His research interests include the social underpinnings of electoral behaviour, democratic attitudes, and democratic backsliding. His work is published in the British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Research and Methods, and Party Politics.
Shanaya Vanhooren is a Canadian Municipal Barometer Postdoctoral Scholar at INRS. She researches Canadian politics with a focus on provincial party systems, urban and local politics, and public policy. Her dissertation research used election platforms to investigate party position change and programmatic polarization in provincial elections since 1945. Learn more about her work by visiting shanayavanhooren.com
Research Group Alumni
Elliot Dillabough (B.A Honours, University of Saskatchewan) completed an MA at the University of Calgary in 2025. Elliot’s thesis examined partisan behaviour in local politics, especially in officially non-partisan contexts. He is also broadly interested in questions of democratic representation at the local level. When not thinking about municipal politics, Elliot enjoys playing oldtime music and (mis)identifying birds at Bowness Park.
Dr. Sarah Lachance was a Postdoctoral Scholar affiliated with POLPOP-II, a comparative international study of regional and national elected representatives. Her research investigates questions related to political psychology and political behaviour in Canada and other democracies. She is particularly interested in voter and elite decision-making, as well as democratic representation. For more information about Sarah’s work, please visit https://sarahlachance.github.io.