Professor (she/her)
B.A. (Hons) (Laurentian) M.A., Ph.D (Queen’s)

Research Interests

My research considers the politics of ethnically divided societies, peace processes and democratization in post-conflict states. Broadly, I’m interested in the processes and institutions that facilitate democracy, security and stability in post-conflict settings, with a focus on power-sharing arrangements. Specifically, I am interested in how power-sharing governments handle political crises, the incentive structures for ethnopolitical moderation and extremism that power-sharing offers, and how power-sharing arrangements can be made more inclusive of identities beyond the ethnonational divide.

I am currently working on three long-term projects:

1)  I am a principal investigator on a Open Research Area 7/SSHRC grant on Citizen Inclusion in Power-Sharing Settlements. Working with colleagues in the United Kingdom, Japan, and New Caledonia, the project offers a comparative and multi-methods research program that investigates how power-sharing settlements emerge, perform, and evolve. The project also considers what influences a citizen’s decision to endorse or reject a power-sharing settlement as well as the capacity citizens have to shape those agreements, e.g., through elections or referendums. We will employ qualitative techniques, including archival research, focus groups and elite interviews, and quantitative methods, including experiments and longitudinal public opinion surveys focusing on citizens, community leaders, and government policies.

2)  I am a co-investigator on the collaborative project, Power-Sharing for Peace? Between Adoptability and Durability in Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq, funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies. Led by Swisspeace, the project brings together research team members from Switzerland, Canada, Lebanon, and Iraq to work with local civil society organizations to examine expectations of power-sharing and on-the-ground assessments of its durability in the case countries.

3) I am co-editing a volume on Deliberative Peacemaking, with Ian O’Flynn (Newcastle, UK) and Ron Levy (Australian National University) for Oxford University Press. The book maps a growing field at the intersection of deliberative democratic theory and peace research, offering empirically grounded designs and practices for making deliberation work even amid deep and violent conflict.

Selected Publications

Books

Gender, Peace, and Power-Sharing, with Siobhan Byrne. University of Toronto Press (in press, expected June 2026)

Power-Sharing in the Global South: Patterns, Practices and Potential. Co-edited with Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif and Soeren Keil. Federalism and Internal Conflict Series. Palgrave Macmillan (2024).

Power-Sharing Pacts and the Women, Peace and Security Agenda. Co-edited with Siobhan Byrne. Routledge (2022).

Power-Sharing in Europe: Past Practice, Present Cases, and Future Directions. Co-edited with Soeren Keil. Federalism and Internal Conflict Series. Palgrave Macmillan (2021).

Power-Sharing: Empirical and Normative Challenges. Co-edited with John McGarry. Routledge Studies on Challenges, Crises and Dissent in World Politics. Routledge  (2017).

Power-Sharing and Political Stability in Deeply Divided Societies. Security and Governance Series. Routledge  (2014).

Journal Articles

“Power-Sharing Between Adoptability and Durability: Insights from Lebanon and Iraq,” with Soeren Keil, Eduardo Wassim Aboultaif, and Sahar Ammar, Regional and Federal Studies, OnlineFirst (2025): 1-23.

“Getting Things Done? Process, Performance and Decision-Evasion in Consociational Systems,” British Journal of  Politics and International Relations 27, 3 (2025): 799-816.

“Lebanon’s ‘Concomitant Crises’ and Consociationalism as a Leading Form of Conflict Management,” Middle East Law and Governance 16, 2 (2024): 230-240.

“How do Consociations Craft Asylum Policy? Lebanon’s Response to Conflict-Induced Displacement as an Exploratory Case,” with Tamirace Fakhoury. International Studies Quarterly 67, 3 (2023).

“Stories of Gender Inclusion, Power-Sharing and the Good Friday Agreement,” with Siobhan Byrne. Treatises and Documents: Journal of Ethnic Studies 90 (2023): 31-44.

“Veto Rights and Vital Interests: Formal and Informal Veto Rules for Minority Representation in Deeply Divided Societies.” with Aleksandra Zdeb. Representation 58, 3 (2022): 427-442.

“Beyond the Core: Do Ethnic Parties ‘Reach Out’ in Power-Sharing Systems?” with Cera Murtagh. British Journal of Politics and International Relations 23, 3 (2021): 533-551.

“Understanding Power-Sharing Performance: A Lifecycle Approach.” with Joanne McEvoy. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism 20, 2 (2020): 109-116.

“Power-Sharing: A Gender Intervention.” International Political Science Review 41, 1 (2020): 44-57.

Service

I am the editor-in-chief of Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. The journal, which publishes four issues a year, explores the varied political aspects of nationalism and ethnicity in order to develop more constructive inter-group relations, and to address the sources of both contemporary and historical identity-based conflicts. See here for more information on the journal and how to submit a manuscript.

Teaching Areas

A recipient of the Brandon University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching award, I teach broadly in the areas of  Comparative Politics and International Politics, and the occasional course in Political Theory and Analysis.

In the Fall 2025 term, I am teaching Authoritarian Politics (78.373)

In the Winter 2026 term, I am teaching Comparative Politics (78.272) and Political Analysis (78.450).

Courses Regularly Taught

• 78.458 Gender, War and Peace
• 78.452 Issues in Comparative Politics
• 78.450 Political Analysis
• 78:392 Democracy and Democratization
• 78:383 Peace and Conflict Transformation
• 78:382 International Law
• 78:378 Ethnic Conflict
• 78.373 Authoritarian Politics
• 78:372 European Politics
• 78:272 Comparative Politics