B.A. (Trinity College, Dublin); Ph.D. (Western Ontario); FRSC
PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL STUDIES; CANADA RESEARCH CHAIR IN NATIONALISM AND DEMOCRACY; TRUDEAU FELLOW; KILLAM LAUREATE  

 

Research Interests

Ethnic and national conflict; state responses to ethnic and national diversity; consociationalism/power-sharing; federalism; integrationism; minority rights; asymmetric federalism; European integration and the protection of minorities; politics of Iraq; politics of Northern Ireland; politics of Cyprus; electoral systems in divided societies; policing divided societies

Brief Biography

John McGarry is Professor of Political Studies and Canada Research Chair in Nationalism and Democracy.   Before coming to Queen's, he was Professor of Political Science at the University of Waterloo (1999-2002) and at the University of Western Ontario, King’s College (1989-99).

He is a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin (1979), and of the University of Western Ontario (1987).

McGarry’s academic work is mainly concerned with the design of political institutions in divided political systems.  He is particularly interested in power-sharing institutions, federalism, minority rights, the politics of Northern Ireland, and the relationship between European integration and the protection of minorities.  He has co-authored, co-edited and edited twelve books on these subjects, including four with Oxford University Press (UK).  He has also authored and co-authored over 70 refereed articles and book chapters

McGarry’s work has had an important public policy dimension and impact.  He has appeared as an expert witness before the U.S. Congress; and worked with a number of governments. His work on policing reform in Northern Ireland, conducted with Brendan O’Leary, was singled out by the press as crucially influencing the Report of the Independent Commission on Policing Reform (the Patten Commission), which reported in 1999.  In 2008-09, McGarry served for fifteen months as  "Senior Advisor on Power-Sharing" to the United Nations (Standby Team, Mediation Support Unit). He was the first person appointed to this position. McGarry is currently an advisor on governance to the UN led negotiations in Cyprus, and has visited the island in this capacity many times. He was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2010 and won the Trudeau Fellowship Prize in 2011. In 2013 he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and the Killam Prize (Social Sciences).

McGarry has been a regular contributor to public media, in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.  He has written op-ed pages for several newspapers, including the Globe and Mail, and has also been interviewed for CBC TV, CBC Radio, National Public Radio, and TVO.

Born and brought up in Ireland, McGarry now lives in Kingston, Ontario.

Selected Publications

Tristan Mabry, John McGarry, Margaret Moore, and Brendan O'Leary, Divided Nations and European Integration. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013

John McGarry and Michael Keating eds.,  European Integration and the Nationalities Question.  London: Routledge 2006.  

John McGarry and Brendan O’Leary,  The Northern Ireland Conflict: Consociational Engagements.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.

John McGarry ed.,  Northern Ireland and the Divided World.  Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 2001.

Michael Keating and John McGarry eds.,  Minority Nationalism and the Changing International Order.  Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.

Course(s) taught in 2012-2013

POLS 243 - Comparative Politics: States and Nations (Fall term)

POLS 930 - Field Course in Comparative Politics (Fall term)

 

*PDF files can be viewed using Adobe Reader.