Meet the Directors
Stephanie Paterson, PhD
Stephanie Paterson is a Professor in the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. She received her PhD in Public Policy at the School of Public Policy and Administration at Carleton University, where she specialized in Canadian public policy. Her work centres on the effects produced when states take up and deploy feminist knowledges and expertise, which has led to substantive expertise in feminist and critical policy studies; feminist governance, state feminism, and gender mainstreaming; and the politics of pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood.
Dr. Paterson is currently engaged in three research projects, two of which are SSHRC-funded. The first SSHRC-funded project concerns the various ways in which gender-based analysis plus (GBA+) is constituted and applied in federal and provincial governments, with particular attention to the degree to which GBA+ disrupts or reinforces technocratic discourse and practice. The second SSHRC-funded project is a transdisciplinary investigation of the transition to motherhood, with emphasis on the lived effects of policy interventions aimed at first-time birth parents. She is also working on a project that explores the potential of emotions, care, and empathy to transform how we analyze, design, and implement public policy. Dr. Paterson is interested in supervising students in any of these areas. She is also on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Policy & Politics and Critical Policy Studies.
Frencesca Scala, PhD
Dr. Francesca Scala’s research focuses on gender and public policy, with an emphasis on gender and public governance, reproductive politics, work-care reconciliation policy, and assisted reproduction. Her research also explores issues related to policy deliberations in the life sciences and the role of experts and citizens in policymaking.
She has authored and co-authored articles published in several journals and edited volumes, including the Canadian Journal of Political Science, Policy Sciences, Politics & Gender, Policy and Society, and Gender, Work and Organization. Her book, Delivering Policy: The Contested Politics of Assisted Reproductive Technologies in Canada (UBC Press) was published in February 2019.
In 2018, she received the Faculty of Arts and Science Dean's Award for Excellence in Academic Service. She is currently serving as Associate Dean of Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Science.
.jpg)
