Welcome

Studying politics focuses your attention on the pressing problems of our times and the potential for changing them.  We offer courses that develop the analytical skills and knowledge necessary to understand power, culture, law, policy and government in Canada.  We also offer programs that engage with issues of Global peace, war, environment, development, governance and media.  Our students have proceeded to prestigious graduate programs, schools of law and journalism and pursued subsequent degrees in public administration and education.  They have developed careers in federal, provincial and municipal government as well as global and local business, non-profit and activist organizations.  Political Science is where great ideas and urgent practice are united.

 Faculty 2011-2012

Faculty Photo (l-r)

Geoffrey Whitehall (Dept. Head), Andrew Biro, Valerie Vezina

Ian Stewart, Cynthia Alexander, Rachel Brickner

News!

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April 30th 2012 - Publication! Dr. Whitehall’s chapter “The International Aesthetic of the Yasukuni Jinja and Yûshûkan Museum” has been published in The New Violent Cartography. http://tinyurl.com/84g325w

April 19th 2012 - Event! Please join us for our last movie night of the Poli Sci Film Series! We will meet in BAC 204 at 7:00pm.  The film being featured is “Contagion”.  Hope to see you there! 

April 2012 - Congrats!  Congratulations to Hillary Barter (class of 2007), who will be pursuing her MA in Geography at the University of Toronto.

April 2012 - Congrats! - Congratulations to alumnus Jesse Zink on the publication of his book Grace at the Garbage Dump.

April 2012 - Publication! The Aesthetic Emergency of the Avian flu Affect in Bruce Magnusson and Zahi Zalloua. eds., Contagion. (Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with Whitman College, 2012). see http://www.amazon.com/Contagion-Health-Sovereignty-Global-Re-Visions/dp/0295991739

April 2012 - Event! - Dr. Whitehall presented "The global rural: re-ruralizing the urban" at San Diego ISA on panel with Shapiro, Walker, Bagleman, and Tedesco.

April 2012 - Congrats!  - Congratulations to Emma Cochrane and James Wong who have received Honours Summer Research Awards from the Office of Research and Graduate Studies.

March 29, 2012 - Film!  The Poli Sci Film Series will be showing "Drink 'Em Dry" a documentary movie by Acadia alumnus Jon Mann.  We hope you can make it!  BAC 204 at 7pm.

March 2012 - Congrats! - Congratulations to 3rd year POLS student Emma Cochrane and 4th year SOCI student Stephanie Chapman, recipients of the 2011-12 Canadian Federation of University Women Award for their "Enthusiastic Consent" campaign.

March 2012 - Event! Acadia's SPT MA student, Karen Asp, marvelously presents paper "Trash, Materiality and the Force of Things in Adorno and Bennett" at WPSA.

March 2012 - Event!  Dr. Whitehall to chair and discuss for the panel "The Coming Community" at Western Political Science Association.

March 2012 - Event! Dr. Whitehall to present paper "The Biopolitical Aesthetic: Kill and Be Killed" at Western Political Science Association.

March 22nd, 2012 - Congratulations!  Congrats to our new APSA executives for 2012/2013 academic year!  President -Chelsea Wadley, VP - Emma Cochrane, Secretary -Ashley Zarzecki, Treasurer - Christian McWilliams,VP Programming -Quasim Kareemi, VP Communications -Sarah Pullen.

March 2012 - Acknowledgement! The Politics Department would like to congratulate Dr. Rachel Brickner on her promotion and tenure!

March 2012 - Event!  Dr. Biro will present a paper "The Good Life in the Greenhouse" and discuss Timothy Luke's book Ecocritique at the roundtable on "Great Works in the Environmental Political Theory" at the meeting of Western Political Science Association in Portland, OR.

March 24, 2012 - Event! Dr. Brickner will give a keynote address to Mt. Allison University Int'l Relations Society called "The Political Economy & Ethics of Migration in the Americas".

March 2012 - Acknowledgement! Congrats to Dr. Brickner on her research grant for Public Sector Politics in the Climate of Economic Austerity.

March 2012- Acknowledgement! Congrats to Dr. Whitehall on his research grant for Mapping the Global Triage: A Discourse Analysis of the ProMed Alert Network.

March 21st, 2012 - Event!  Please remember to vote! APSA elections for 2012-2013 academic term will take place from 10-4pm in the BAC south foyer!

March 9th, 2012 - Event!  APSA is a great wat to get involved!  Nomination period runs until Mar 9th at 4pm. Email 095052t@acadiau.ca if interested.  Must be a poli sci major. 

March 2012 - Event! APSA Elections will run from Feb 28th to Mar 9th! This is a great way to get involved with your Poli Sci classmates. Email 095052t@acadiau.ca if interested in running.

March 2nd 2012 - Event! Join us for another fun filled APSA event!  Poli Sci Curling Night at the Wolfville Curling Club (7pm til 10pm).  There will be a $5 cover. All are welcome.

Reminder - March 1st & 2nd - Event! Join us for two public presentations by Jodi Dean "The Coming Communist Horizon" and "Communicative Capitalism: The Politics of Social Media".  Presentation on Mar 1st starts at 5pm in the KCIC auditorium. Second is Mar 2nd, 1:30-3:30pm KCIC. 

February 18th 2012 - Event!  Dr. Whitehall will be attending the Annual Meeting of Chairs for Departments of Political Science in Victoria, BC. 

February 16th 2012 - Event!  Please join us for our Poli Sci film series tonight at 7pm in BAC 204. We will be featuring "Battle in Seattle" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0850253/  All Welcome!

February 2012 - Event! Dr. Andrew Biro gives invited presentation on "Water Wars from Global to Local" at the New School University in New York City.

March 2012 - Event! Join us for two public presentations by Jodi Dean "The Coming Communist Horizon" and "Communicative Capitalism: The Politics of Social Media". First is on Mar 1st, 5-7:30pm KCIC auditorium.  Second is Mar 2nd, 1:30-3:30pm KCIC. 

February 2012 - Event!  Politics Dept presents public talk "Theorizing Violence" by Dr. Mark Ayyash on Feb 10th at noon in BAC 325.

January 2012 - Event!  Our Acadia Model UN Club attended and represented us well at the Model United Nations held in Montreal on Jan 26th!

Jan 20th 2012 - Event! Wine & Cheese.  Great way to kick off the semester with classmates and professors!  APSA members will meet at SUB info desk at 7:20pm.  Hope to see you there!

November 2011 -Event! Dr. Geoffrey Whitehall delivers a keynote address "The Importance of Aesthetics in World Politics" at the follow-up workshop for Pop Culture and World Politics conference hosted in the Pyhä-Luosto National Park, Finland http://www.ulapland.fi/InEnglish/About_us/News__Events/Events/PCWP4/Post-conference_workshop.iw3

November 2011 - Event! Dr. Geoffrey Whitehall is presenting the paper "The Biopolitical Aesthetic: Towards Kill and Be Killed" at the Pop Culture and World Politics conference in Romaneimi, Finland http://www.ulapland.fi/?deptid=20727  

November 2011 - Publication! Dr. Andrew Biro’s article on “Water Politics” appears in the November 2011 issue of The CCPA Monitor. An earlier version of the article also appears in the Winter 2011 issue of Australian Options.  

November 24th, 2011 - Event! The Poli-Sci Film Series will be showing another movie!  It runs EVERY last Thursday of the month in BAC 204 from 7-10pm.  We will be showing Lemon Tree, http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172963/

November 21st, 2011 - Guest! William Tayeebwa will lecture on the "Structural Impediments to Peace in Africa".  Please join us in BAC 138 at 7pm.  All Welcome.

November 3rd, 2011 - Event! Valérie Vézina will present a paper: "De sub-nationalisme à nationalisme: le nationalisme insulaire expliqué et appliqué au cas de Terre-Neuve"" at the Conference on "Territorialité, identité nationale et justice mondiale" at Université du Québec à Montréal, in Montréal, Québec.

October 28th, 2011 - Event! Valérie Vézina presented a paper entitled "Nationalism in Newfoundland: The first distinct society?" in a Workshop on Politics and Public Policy in Newfoundland and Labrador at MUN in St. John's, Newfoundland.

November 3rd, 2011 - Date Changed! - Event!  Please join us for our APSA Wine & Cheese, 7:30pm at 3C Westwood (corner of Main St.).  Cheese and Crackers provided!

October 27th, 2011 - Event! -Please join us for our Poli Sci Film Series, on Thursday, October 27th!  We will meet in BAC 204 at 7pm.  All are welcolme!

October 2011 - Acknowledgement!  Congrats to Dr. Geoffrey Whitehall for his chapter in the new book by Cedric Johnson, (ed) The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism, and The Remaking of New Orleans  (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2011).

October 27th - Event!  Please join us for our APSA Wine & Cheese, 7:30pm at 3C Westwood (corner of Main St.).  Cheese and Crackers provided!

October 13th - Event!  The ASU will be hosting MP Scott Brison for an open town-hall meeting at 7pm in the Michener Lounge (in the SUB).

October 2011 - Event!  Dr. Rachel Brickner presented the paper "Political Will and Public Engagement in the Era of Austerity: The Executive Assault on Collective Bargaining in Wisconsin and the Future of Contentious Politics" at the APPSA Annual 2011 Conference. 

October 2011 - Event!  Dr. Geoffrey Whitehall presented the paper "The Global Triage: Beyond the Biopolitical Subject" at the APPSA Annual 2011 Conference. 

October 2011 - Event! Dr. Whitehall, Dr. Brickner, Dr. Stewart and Dr. Biro attended the Atlantic Provinces Political Science Association (APPSA) Annual 2011 Conference hosted by Mount Allison University.

September 2011 -In the News! - In August 2011, Political Science Alumna Emma Pullman's work was published in the Huffington Post!  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/29/keystone-pipeline-infographic_n_941069.html?ir=Canada

September 15th - Event!  Acadia MUN club will meet in BAC 207 at 5pm!

September 2011 - FYI - Political Science Clothing For Sale! Maroon crewneck sweaters with the Acadia crest & Political Science embroidered in gold. ($30 upon pick-up) Send your size to emma.cochrane@acadiau.ca by Oct 3rd.

September 15th, 2011 - Event!  Please join us!  Acadia Political Science Association (APSA) Wine & Cheese 7:30 - 9:00pm.  APSA executives will meet you at the SUB. 

August 2011 - Congratulations! Dakin McDonald's paper titled "Theorizing Aesthetics and Ethics:  A Critical Politics in a Global Age" has won the Larry Collin's Prize.  The prize is awarded by the Altantic Provinces Political Science Association to the nominated student with the best undergraduate political science paper.  This is the third time in six years that a student from Acadia Political Science has won this award. 

August 2011 - Congratulations! Dr. Brickner won a SSHRC Small Institution Grant for the project, "A Battle of Wills: Understanding Teachers' Resistance to Anti-Public Sector Legislation in Michigan."

August 2011 - Congratulations!  Dr. Whitehall won a SSHRC Small Institution Grant for the Project entitled "Mapping the Global Triage: A discourse analysis of the Promed Alert Network. "

June 2011 - Congratulations!  The department would like to congratulate Dr. Malcolm Grieve and Dr. Greg Pyrcz on their retirement!  They will be missed. 

June 2011 -Publication! Congratulations to Dr. Andrew Biro for his edited collection "Critical Ecologies: The Frankfurt School and Contemporary Environmental Crises" University of Toronto Press May 2011. 

June 2011 - Publication! Congratulations to Dr. Greg Pyrcz for his book "The Study of Politics: A survey of core approaches" University of Toronto Press May 2011. 

May 2011 - Congratulations!  We would like to congratulate Dakin McDonald who was awarded the University Bronze Medal for Political Science at May Convocation.