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POLS faculty and graduate students are invited to join Dr. Alasdair Roberts for an informal roundtable conversation on his current research projects on centralization in large polities and Goldwin Smith and Canada-US relations. Dr. Roberts will also discuss the ways he utilizes AI in his research.

This conversation will follow his J.A. Corry Lecture, Why Great States Fail.

Alasdair Roberts is a professor of public policy at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He writes extensively on problems of governance and public policy. His most recent book, The Adaptable Country: How Canada Can Survive the Twenty-First Century, was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2024. It was a finalist for the 2025 Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. His preceding book, Superstates: Empires of the Twenty-First Century, was published by Polity in 2023. Eight earlier books have received five book awards. 

Professor Roberts grew up in Pembroke, Ontario, Canada. He received his BA from Queen's University, his JD from the University of Toronto, and his MPP and PhD in Public Policy from Harvard University. 

Before University of Massachusetts Amherst, Professor Roberts held tenured faculty appointments at Queen's University, Syracuse University, Suffolk University Law School, and the University of Missouri. In 2007, he became the first non-US citizen to be elected as a Fellow of the US National Academy of Public Administration. In 2014 he received the Grace-Pépin Access to Information Award for his research on open government. In 2022, he received the ASPA Riggs Award for Lifetime Achievement in International and Comparative Public Administration. 

From 2009 to 2017, Professor Roberts was co-editor of the journal Governance. He was Inaugural Director of the School of Public Policy at University of Massachusetts Amherst from 2017 to 2022. In 2022, he served as co-chair of the ASPA Presidential Committee on International Scholarly Engagement. In 2022-23, he was the Jocelyne Bourgon Visiting Scholar at the Canada School of Public Service.

Celebrating a career of teaching and mentorship, the Department of Political Studies is proud to announce Professor Wayne Cox's final lecture:

Reflections on Over Thirty Years of Teaching & the Future of the Study of International Relations

Wayne Cox started his academic career as a Professor at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in 1992. He remained at RMC through most of the 1990s, and also taught courses at ���ϳԹ���Դ at the same time. In 2001, he came to ���ϳԹ���Դ permanently, and since that time, Professor Cox has taught the large introductory course to both International Relations and International Political Economy almost every year since. He has introduced the study of world politics to thousands of ���ϳԹ���Դ undergraduate students. He has also taught the core Ph.D./MA field course on International Relations most years since 2001, seeing hundreds of MA and Ph.D. students through their course work and field exams. He has supervised many graduate students who have gone on to careers as university professors, government officials, researchers, international lawyers, among many others. 

Professor Cox is known widely as a critical theorist and his research and publications span a broad range of topics including critical and post-positivist international relations and political economy, international relations theory, Kurdish ethnonationalism, Middle Eastern politics, American hegemony and global order, Canadian foreign and defence policy, violence and war, human rights, and the teaching of world politics. Outside of university life, Professor Cox is an avid guitar player and songwriter.

This lecture is open to all students, faculty, staff, and members of the public.

Following the lecture, colleagues, students, and friends are invited to join Wayne at the Grad Club (162 Barrie St.) at 4:00 pm to celebrate his retirement and wish him all the best in this next chapter. 

EVENT POSTPONED. Rescheduled date coming soon. 

“Democracy Bootcamp" is a special conversation with political philosopher and public intellectual Dr. Jason Stanley, focused on the mechanisms through which democracies erode – and how they can be defended. Open to graduate students in Political Studies, History and Art History.

The conversation with be facilitated by Dr. Oded Haklai, Political Studies Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity. 

Coffee and light refreshments will be provided.

This conversation follows Dr. Stanley’s Dunning Trust Lecture “Fascist Erasures” on Thursday, January 15 in Grant Hall ().

Participants must read Chapter 4 of Stanley’s in advance of the discussion. A PDF copy of the chapter will be provided to registered students in advance.

Please RSVP to Bronwyn Jaques (Hub-1 Academic Programs Coordinator) by email: fas-hub1-apc@queensu.ca to receive your copy.