With Rebecca Wallace (StFX), I am working on a book project that explores media coverage of Canada’s gender-equal cabinets under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (2015 - present). We turn an eye towards typically masculinized or feminized policy portfolios, asking whether leaders’ competence and credibility becomes questioned in a gender quota context.

With Erica Rayment (UCalgary), I am engaged in a project that investigates the affected representatives of women (Celis and Childs, 2020) in Canada. We ask how women’s groups engage with the Canadian parliament and investigate their focus on senators following the 2014/2015 Senate reforms. This project builds on the Representation article linked above, as it aims to connect senators’ institutional environment with their responsiveness to women’s groups.

I’m working on research with Elizabeth Goodyear-Grant (Queen’s) about the gendered composition of committee witnesses in the Canadian House of Commons. We find that women are underrepresented as committee witnesses, particularly on committees that focus on stereotypically masculine issues. Although women’s lives are affected by portfolios such as Finance and National Defence, their voices are not often heard during policymaking discussions in those areas.

With Linda Mussell (University of Canterbury), I am working on a project about the occurrence of emotional affect in Senate committees. We are focusing on the Senate’s Indigenous Peoples Committee and their report on the government’s response to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Who expresses emotion, and how is it received? Are witnesses likely to have their emotions conveyed in reports produced by parliamentary committees? Why or why not?

I am collaborating on a paper with Tracey Raney (TMU) based on her SSHRC-funded project about the substantive representation of women (SRW) in the Canadian Senate. We are investigating the process of substantive representation in the Senate that produced parliament’s new workplace harassment policy for staff. Who were the key players? What procedural opportunities did senators use to advance women’s interests? How were the feminist amendments by the Senate received by Canada’s first self-proclaimed feminist government?

With Alex Marland (Acadia) and Maxime Boucher (UOttawa), I am investigating the role of staff in Canadian lobbying processes. We combine computational approaches with qualitative interview research to better understand the role that unelected staffers are playing in mediating lobbyist access to politicians.