Elizabeth McCallion

Research Interests

Canadian politics & government, gender & politics, women legislators, institutionalism, representation, federalism, regionalism

Elizabeth's CV

Brief Biography

Elizabeth is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University. She studies Canadian politics and gender & politics, with a focus on representation. She is interested in how conceptions of representation can play out within formal political institutions, federal structures, and processes, and through public dialogue. She is particularly concerned with whether and how women politicians act in the interests of women in society (known as substantive representation).

Her doctoral dissertation uses the Canadian Senate to explore how institutional features might shape the representation of women’s interests in parliament. First, her project explores whether changes in the Senate’s institutional structure have facilitated changes in senators’ policy priorities and actions as they relate to women’s issues. She asks whether decreasing partisanship in the Senate has caused an increase in senators’ feminist initiatives. Second, her project aims to establish whether women’s issues receive different levels of attention or support from senators depending on the politicians’ sex and partisanship. Elizabeth hypothesizes that the Senate might provide an avenue for women's representation because of its absence of electoral pressures and its reduced partisanship.

Awards

• SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral (2021-2022)
• Canadian Study of Parliament Group Doctoral Fellowship (2021-2022)
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2018-2019, 2019-2020, 2020-2021)
• Winner – CPSA Three-Minute Thesis Competition (2021)
• J.H. Stewart Reid Memorial Fellowship (CAUT) (2019-2020)
• Duncan and Urlla Carmichael Graduate Fellowship (2017-2018)
• Queen’s Graduate Award (2016-2017)
• University of Western Ontario Gold Medal (Political Science Honours Major) (2016)

Selected Teaching

POLS 110 – Introduction to Politics (Course Co-ordinator, 2021-2022, Head TA, 2019-2020; TA, 2016-2017)

POLS 403 – Gender and Politics: Questions and Challenges (Teaching Fellow, 2021)

POLS 212 – Canadian Politics (TA, 2019)

POLS 280 – Introduction to Women, Gender, and Politics (TA, 2018)

Selected Publications

Op-Eds

McCallion, Elizabeth. "The Canadian Senate Briefly Reached Gender Parity - Here's Why It Matters." The Conversation. March 03, 2021. https://theconversation.com/the-canadian-senate-briefly-reached-gender-parity-heres-why-it-matters-153525.

McCallion, Elizabeth. “Canadian Senators are Critical Actors in Women’s Representation. Policy Options. November 11, 2019. https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/november-2019/feminist-senators-are-critical-actors-in-womens-representation/.