Elizabeth Baisley

Research Interests

Canadian politics, Canadian political development, historical institutionalism, political parties, interest groups, and social movements, identity/inequality, qualitative and mixed methods

Brief Biography

Elizabeth Baisley (PhD Princeton) is an Assistant Professor of Political Studies at Queen’s University.  Both their teaching and research focus on Canadian politics.  Broadly speaking, Elizabeth’s research examines questions of Canadian political development in comparative-historical perspective.  This research considers how history, institutions, and identity interact to explain large-scale political change.  Their ongoing work foregrounds the role of political organizations, especially political parties, interest groups, and social movements.  This work uses both qualitative and quantitative materials.

Elizabeth’s current book project examines party position change on sexuality politics in the US and Canada.  It focuses especially on interest group involvement in federal party nominations, leadership races, and party policy conventions.  This project draws on restricted materials from private archives, interviews, newspapers, surveys, roll call voting records, party platforms, and observations from attending political events. 

Before joining the faculty at Queen’s, Elizabeth held postdoctoral positions in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto.  They earned a PhD and MA in Politics at Princeton, an MA in Political Studies at Queen’s, and an Honours BA in Human Rights and Human Diversity at Wilfrid Laurier University. 

Teaching

POLS 210 Canadian Government (Fall 2022) 

POLS 410 Seminar in Canadian Politics - Comparing Canada (Winter 2023)

POLS 810 & POLS 910 Canadian Politics - Field Course (Fall 2022) 

For more details on political studies courses, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages. 

Service (2022/2023)

• Field Convenor (Canadian)