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Brief Biography

Jana Walkowski is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, specializing in international relations and comparative politics. Her research interests lie at the intersection of migration studies, global political economy, and urban geography to understand issues of global displacement occurring at local and global scales. Her PhD dissertation critically interrogates and compares the multi-scalar governance of the so-called “refugee housing crisis” in Berlin, Germany and Toronto, Canada to highlight how corresponding tensions and power relations shapes access to adequate initial shelter accommodation for refugees upon arrival. Alongside her studies, Jana works as a teaching assistant and graduate research fellow, acts as the 2024-2025 Political Studies Graduate Student Association (PSGSA) co-chair, and volunteers with KEYS newcomer services. Jana holds a master’s degree in political science from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University. Outside her studies you can find her training for triathlons and local running events, walking by the waterfront or reading her favourite books in local coffee shops.

Selected Awards

• W.C. Good Memorial Fellowship, 2024-2025
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (OGS), 2021-2025
• Dean’s fieldwork Grant, 2023-2024
• Queen’s Graduate Research Fellowship (GRF), 2022-2024
• SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship- Master’s (CGS M), 2020-2021
• 2021 Jean Monnet Award for Excellence in European Studies (Jean Monnet Centre Montréal)

Teaching Assistantships

• POLS 242- Comparative Politics: Contemporary regimes (Winter 2024)
• POLS 384- Strategies of Political Research (Fall 2023, Fall 2022)
• POLS 262- International Political Economy (Winter 2023)
• DEVS 101-Introduction to International Development (Fall 2022)
• POLS 110- Introduction to Politics and Government (Fall 2021, Winter 2021)

Selected Conference Contributions

• Exploring the Performative Borderwork of the European Union’s Bordering Practices through the method of Critical Visual Discourse Analysis”, Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada (June 12-24. 2024)
• Speaker, “Understanding the Local Dimension of Global Displacements” presented at Queen’s Project in International Development (QPID) Youth Conference: Climate Justice is Social Justice: Exploring the Impacts of Climate Change on Displacement and Dispossession (March 27, 2024)
• Depoliticizing border externalization through development: An analysis of the EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa Instrument”, International Studies Association, Montreal (held March 2023)
• ‘Depoliticizing border externalization through development: An analysis of the EU’s mainstreaming of migration-development activities through the EU Trust Fund for Africa Instrument’ The Welcoming of refugees and grassroots solidarity: state of research and best practices in Europe and Canada, held by the University if Genoa and the Institut national de la recherche scientifique within the scope of the Refinteg project, Genoa, Italy (presented at the University of Genoa on October 27, 2022)
• “Contested Borders and Contested States: The Political and Human Rights Consequences resulting from the Regulation of Migrant Flows between Africa and Europe: An exploration of these impacts in Libya,” Public Issues and Public Reason: A Conference of Applied Ethics and Critical Social Sciences, Carleton University, Canada (October 20, 2020)

Brief Biography

Sean Tracy is a PhD candidate specializing in Political Theory and Comparative Politics. His primary research interests are in global justice, especially issues involving territorial rights (e.g., collective self-determination, secession, territorial autonomy...), resolving ethnic and sectarian conflict, and international law. His other research interests are wide-ranging and include Just War Theory, issues of liberal toleration and state justification and legitimacy, and the debate between cosmopolitanism and liberal nationalism.

Teaching

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• POLS 241: Comparative Politics - Transformations

• POLS 359: Issues in Political Theory

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• POLS 250: History of Political Thought 

Boğaziçi University (2014-2016)

• PHIL 101: Introduction to philosophy

• PHIL 105: Informal logic/Critical thinking

• PHIL 106: Philosophical texts (writing composition)

• PHIL 112: Intro to modern philosophy

Brief Biography

Mr. C. Alexander Olteanu is a PhD student at Queen’s University, Canada, where he also obtained his BA (with Distinction) in Political Studies and Spanish. He is currently working on the ‘New NATO Project’ investigating how NATO and the EU adapted to the post-Cold War environment during the critical 1989-1993 period and is completing the Public Leadership Credential at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He is also a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Political Studies and a Researcher with the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University.

 Previously, Alex completed a Masters (Research) with Distinction in Global Security Studies at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. Alex has been active for over three decades in the legal profession and has taught business management, law, and social science courses at post-secondary institutions in Canada and Iraq. He appears regularly on British Columbia’s Rompost TV show as a political commentator for the local Romanian community is a former 2. Lieutenant in the CAF Reserves and is fluent in five languages.

Research Interests

Alex is particularly interested in social entrepreneurship projects focusing on the theory and practice of public and private organizational design, adaptation and change, and the emergence of post-sovereign structures of governance and citizenship, beyond the boundaries of nation-states. He focuses in particular on the history of and current developments in Europe, North America, and the Middle East. 

Teaching Assistant at Queen’s (2020-2022):

• POLS 332: Politics of Post-Communism
• POLS 261: Introduction to International Relations
• POLS 244: Comparative Politics: Democracy and Democratization
• POLS 243: Comparative Politics: Governing Difference
• POLS 242: Comparative Politics: Political Regimes

Brief Biography

Lori Oliver is a SSHRC doctoral scholar in the Department of Political Studies, specializing in Gender and Politics and Comparative Politics. She is particularly interested in the relationship between multilevel governance and social policy development. Her doctoral research focuses on how the implementation of Canada’s National Housing Strategy is impacting lone mothers and their families. This research builds on Lori’s previous community-based research work with ACORN Canada and Adsum for Women & Children. Lori is the current chair of PSAC 901’s Affordable Housing Working Group and a member of several tenant advocacy organizations. She was the 2022 Co-Chair of the Political Studies Graduate Student Association.

Brief Biography

Kaitie Jourdeuil is a SSHRC doctoral scholar in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s specialising in Political Theory and Canadian Politics. Her research interests are shaped by two questions: (1) What does it mean to live well in community with one another? and (2) What shared values should guide relationships within our political community and with other communities? Her doctoral project focuses on what Ladner (2017) has called the “Canadian problem”: that Canada’s laws, policies, institutions, and norms support the ongoing colonization of Indigenous people, nations, knowledges, and lands. Specifically, her project explores how Canadians might change their shared values and political practices in dialogue with Indigenous political thought and how Canadian political theorists can respond to calls from their Indigenous colleagues to decolonize political theory and Canadian politics.

Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Kaitie joined the Department of Political Studies in 2019 as a Master’s student in Political and Legal Thought. She received her Bachelor of Humanities with High Distinction from Carleton University’s College of the Humanities, during which she completed a year of study at Cardiff University in Wales.

Selected Awards

• Stanley Drabek Graduate Award (2024)
• SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Doctoral (2021-2024)
• Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2020-2021)
• SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (2019-2020)
• Queen’s University Tri-Agency Recipient Recognition Award (2019-2020)

Teaching Fellowships

Winter 2025     POLS 320: Indigenous Politics

Winter 2024     POLS 451: Topics in Political Theory – Settler Colonialism in Canada           

2023-present    POLS 590: Honours Thesis in Political Studies

Research Interests

Globalization, global development regimes, and political economy. Current research focuses on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the broader Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Teaching:

POLS 464 Issues in Contemporary Security

POLS 484 Politics of Globalization

POLS 498 Topics in Political Studies

For detailed information about political studies courses and instructors, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate pages.