News and events

  • Making Sense of the 2016 Presidential Election

    Tuesday, November 01, 2016 | By

    Panel Event
    Tuesday, November 1
    7-9 pm
    St. Catharines Public Library

    For more than a year, Americans (and frankly, most of the world) have been riveted by the 2016 presidential race. While most of us are finding it hard to look away, we are also trying to make sense of what we’re seeing. What are the conditions that gave rise to Donald Trump? How did Hillary Clinton manage to become the Democratic nominee? What are the big issues in this campaign that are being ignored? What might be the lasting consequences of this election? And, of course, what is the impact for Canada?

    Join us as we explore these questions with an public lecture, featuring:

    • Stefan Dolgert (Department of Political Science, Brock University)
    • Paul Hamilton (Department of Political Science, Brock University)
    • Tami Friedman (Department of History, Brock University)

    Each will make a brief presentation about the state and history of the current race and help to put the election in context as well as answering questions from the audience.

    Please note you must register online for this event. To register, click here.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Politics and Film: Brace yourself for US Election 2016 by reliving the first time a Clinton won the presidency

    Friday, October 28, 2016 | By

    The War Room (Dir. DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus)
    1993, Oscar nomination, Best Documentary, 93 mins
    Followed by Q&A and audience discussion

    As the most improbable and high-stakes US presidential election in modern times careens to an unpredictable close, the Brock University Department of Political Science invites you to join us for a screening and discussion of The War Room, the influential 1993 documentary of the first time a Clinton ran for President.

    The War Room, the third film in the department’s Politics and Film Series,offers a behind-the-scenes account of Bill Clinton’s insurgent and (at the time) improbable campaign for the presidency, and offers an illuminating contrast to the 2016 campaign between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Republican candidate Donald Trump.

    This special screening of The War Room will be followed by a discussion of the film and of the current presidential race with Brock political scientists Stefan Dolgert and Blayne Haggart. “The stakes for the current election couldn’t be higher, for Americans, Canadians and the whole world,” says Politics and Film series coordinator Blayne Haggart. “It’s also been a really, really unusual election. Tonight’s event will give us and audience members a chance to talk about the state of the most bizarre election in recent memory, and to see what’s changed and what’s stayed the same since Bill Clinton ran in 1992.”

    The War Room is presented in conjunction with the PAC Film House. Tickets are $9 (general admission) and $7 for Film House members. Tickets can be bought online at https://firstontariopac.ca/Online/article/FilmHouse or by calling the box office at 905-688-0722. Tickets are also available the day of show.

    For further information, please contact Blayne Haggart.

    Categories: Events

  • An Interactive Forum on Electoral Reform in Canada

    Thursday, October 20, 2016 | By

    Thursday, October, 20, 2016
    7:00 pm
    Thistle Hall 325

    This event will be hosted by the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship at McGill University, but will be live-streamed into Thistle Hall 325 and will allow both in-room and remote attendees to ask questions and vote on their preferred electoral system via a mobile platform.
    The forum itself will feature commentary by Canada’s Minster of Democratic Institutions, the Honourable Maryam Monsef, as well as four political scientists, each making the case for a particular electoral system: Peter Loewen (University of Toronto), Laura Stephenson (University of Western Ontario), Marc André Bodet (Université Laval) and Sven-Oliver Proksch (McGill University).

    Political scientists from Brock will also be on hand to answer questions/offer commentary to audience members whose online questions are not addressed via the Mobile Platform.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Advocacy Coalitions in Ontario Land Use Policy Development

    Thursday, October 20, 2016 | By

    Thursday, October 20, 2016
    2:00pm – 4:00pm
    GL 164

    In 2005, the Ontario government passed the Places to Grow Act and the Greenbelt Act, both major changes in land use policy designed to preserve greenspaces and combat urban sprawl in the Greater Golden Horseshoe, Canada’s largest conurbation. This research presentation examines the actors, actor beliefs, and inter-actor alliances in the southern Ontario land use policy subsystem from the perspective of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF). Specifically, it shows the results of an empirical examination of the ACF’s Belief Homophily Hypothesis, which holds that inter-actor alliances form on the basis of shared policy-relevant beliefs, creating advocacy coalitions. The analysis finds strong evidence of three advocacy coalitions in the policy subsystem – an agricultural coalition, an environmentalist coalition, and a developers’ coalition – as predicted by the hypothesis. However, it also finds equally strong evidence of a cross-coalition coordination network of peak organizations, something not predicted by the Belief Homophily Hypothesis, and in need of explanation within the ACF.

    Tim Heinmiller is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science. Profesor Heinmiller came to Brock’s Department of Political Science in 2005, after completing a Ph.D. in Comparative Public Policy at McMaster University, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Western Ontario. His research focuses on Canadian and comparative public policy, investigating why governments choose some policies over others. Much of his research has focused on water policy development in Canada and elsewhere, but his more recent work has expanded into other environmental policy areas and even into health and criminal justice policy. A common strain in all of his research is the application and development public policy process theories, and he has published work using most of the mainstream theories of the policy process.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Downtown Revitalization in St. Catharines: Building the Vibrant Public Space

    Monday, September 26, 2016 | By

    Michael Ripmeester, Geography
    With guest panelists: Walter Sendzik, Mayor of St. Catharines; and David Siegel, Political Science
    Moderator: Charles Conteh, Director of the Niagara Community Observatory

    Brought to you by the Department of Geography, the Department of Political Science and the Niagara Community Observatory

    Monday, September 26, 2016
    10:00 am – 12:00 pm
    Carins 207

    Recent downtown redevelopment efforts in St. Catharines have focused on building a creative cluster that has involved the construction of facilities tied to art and cultural development. This cluster helps support the myriad of restaurants and coffee shops that populate the core. As part of a larger research project, Dr. Ripmeester, a professor in the Geography Department at Brock University, surveyed 300 downtown residents about their thoughts on the development. He outlined his findings in Policy Brief #25 for the Niagara Community Observatory. In this special joint Speaker Series event, we are very excited to announce that Dr. Ripmeester will present his research, followed by the insights of local government expert Dr. David Siegel and the Mayor of St. Catharines Walter Sendzik.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Politics and Film: In the Loop (2009, Oscar Nomination, Best Screenplay)

    Thursday, September 22, 2016 | By

    Thursday, September 22, 2016
    7 p.m.
    The Film House, 250 St. Paul St. West
    Admission: $9; Members: $7

    The Department of Political Science presents the inaugural film in its Politics and Film series. In the Loop, director Armando Ianucci’s (Veep, The Thick of It) darkly satiric film about the American and British rush to war in Iraq in 2003, is newly relevant thanks to this summer’s Chilcot Report’s condemnation of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair’s role in the invasion.

    The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the Department’s Paul Hamilton.

    For more information, please contact Blayne Haggart at bhaggart@brocku.ca.

    Categories: Events

  • Bojan Ratkovic: Republican Nationalism

    Thursday, September 15, 2016 | By

    September 15, 2016
    2:00-5:00 pm
    Plaza 600F

    This project deals with the ongoing importance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and with the complex and layered relationships between them. Despite the expanding phenomenon of globalization, which promises to open up borders and tear down the boundaries between peoples, nations remain the most important actors in international politics and nationalism continues to be a potent force throughout the world.

    This project explores the significance of nations and cultures for politics, with special emphasis on the importance of nationalism and nationalist theory in the twenty-first century. I argue that there are significant gaps in the literature on republican political theory and on nationalism, and I address these gaps by turning to the writings of Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Rousseau’s philosophy uniquely combines nationalism with republican citizenship and participatory democracy, and his perspective shares many commonalities with David Miller, a contemporary nationalist thinker who combines the principle of nationality with republican citizenship.

    I argue that the theories of Rousseau and Miller form the foundations of republican nationalism; a unique strand of nationalist theory that is distinct from other perspectives―and from liberal nationalism in particular―and should be treated as separate in the literature. I seek to develop republican nationalism as a theoretical framework that looks at the major questions in the literature from a novel perspective and provides new solutions to some of the discipline’s most persistent problems. By identifying republican nationalism as an approach that is firmly rooted in the wider traditions of republicanism and nationalism, and by demonstrating that this approach is distinct from liberal nationalism and other alternative perspectives, I hope to make valuable contributions to the literature and help move the debate within nationalist theory forward.

    I conclude by emphasizing the continuing relevance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and by stressing that nationalism is likely to remain a potent force in world affairs. For this reason, it is still as crucial as ever to treat nations and nationalism as serious subjects of academic study, and to keep the debates currently taking place within nationalist theory moving forward.

    Bojan Ratkovic is a recent graduate of the PhD program in Political Science at The University of Western Ontario, where he studied political theory. He received his MA and BA from the Department of Political Science at Brock University.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Christopher Alcantara — A Quiet Evolution: Exploring the Emergence of Indigenous-Local Intergovernmental Partnerships in Canada

    Tuesday, March 08, 2016 | By

    Tuesday, March 8, 2016
    2:30pm-4:00pm
    Paza 600F

    One of the most pressing and important issues in Canadian politics today is the relationship between Indigenous peoples and the Crown. While most commentators and academics have tended to focus on the federal and provincial levels, Indigenous and local governments have been quietly establishing a variety of productive and mutually beneficial relationships. Many of these relationships have in turn generated formal and informal partnerships that address communication protocols and safe spaces for intergovernmental dialogue, co-management bodies to administer green spaces and recreation facilities, and other mechanisms for coordination and collaboration. In this presentation, Christoper Alcantara provides an overview of some of the findings from a forthcoming book co-authored with Dr. Jen Nelles and which is to be published by University of Toronto Press in Fall 2016.

    Christopher Alcantara is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Western University in London, Ontario. Much of Dr. Alcantara’s research examines the roots of collective action and intergovernmental cooperation in Canada, especially between Indigenous communities and the other three levels government (e.g. federal, provincial/territorial and municipal). He is the author of “Negotiating the Deal: Comprehensive Land Claims Agreements in Canada” (Published by University of Toronto Press, 2013) and co-author of “Beyond the Indian Act: Restoring Aboriginal Property Rights” (Published by McGill-Queen’s University Press in 2010). His research has also appeared in a variety of scholarly journals, including the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Publius, Canadian Public Administration, Regional and Federal Studies, and Canadian Public Policy.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Media and the Coverage of Race in Canadian Politics

    Wednesday, February 24, 2016 | By

    Wednesday, February 24, 2016
    2:30-4:30 pm
    Plaza 600F
    Erin Tolley
    Department of Political Science
    University of Toronto

    Canada prides itself on its multiculturalism and acceptance of diversity, but Erin Tolley argues that race still matters in Canadian politics. In this presentation, she will present findings from her new book, Framed, which reveals the racialized assumptions and narratives underpinning electoral news coverage. Her analysis shows that visible minority politicians receive more negative and less prominent media coverage, and their portrayal pigeon-holes them as less politically serious than their white counterparts. In-depth interviews with journalists, former candidates, and elected officials pinpoint the connections between race, media and politics in Canada and provide insights into the institutional biases that influence visible minorities’ experiences in politics. The prognosis is grim and one that calls into question Canada’s commitment to a robust and inclusive democracy.

    Erin Tolley is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. Her research interests include: Canadian politics; public policy; media and politics; race and politics; gender and politics; and immigration, multiculturalism and citizenship. She is the co-editor of Diverse Nations, Diverse Responses: Approaches to Social Cohesion in Immigrant Societies (MQUP 2012), Immigration, Integration and Inclusion in Ontario Cities (MQUP 2012), Immigrant Settlement Policy in Canadian Municipalities(MQUP 2011), Integration and Inclusion of Newcomers and Minorities Across Canada (MQUP 2011), and Electing a Diverse Canada: The Representation of Immigrants, Minorities and Women (UBC Press 2008). Her article, “Do Women ‘Do Better’ in Municipal Politics? Representation Across Three Levels of Government” appeared in the Canadian Journal of Political Science and was short-listed for the John McMenemy Prize in 2012.

    For further information, please contact Zachary Spicer.

    Categories: Events

  • Michaele Ferguson: The Feminine Monster: A Critique of Gaga Feminism and the Consumption of Anticapitalism

    Thursday, February 11, 2016 | By

    Thursday, February 11, 3-5 pm
    Plaza 600F

    Categories: Events

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