Megan Aiken

I am a PhD Candidate at the University of Alberta, currently located in Toronto, Ontario. I plan to defend my dissertation September 2025. My doctoral research is a study of how policy issues are discursively constructed and made problematic to be solved by policymakers in Canada, specifically to better understand the current toxic drug crisis. For more information on my current research and dissertation, please visit the research page.

I’m broadly interested in ideational and discursive theories of critical policy studies, the way we determine what constitutes a problem in politics and society, comparative public policy, federalism, and intersectional approaches to studying health, politics, and social issues.

I’m passionate about teaching. My courses emphasize critical thought, transferable skill building, and accessibility. I take pride in fostering spaces for constructive dialogue and problem solving, and seek to demystify the world of Political Science.

Education

Ph.D. Political Science (2025)

University of Alberta
Dissertation: Locked-in Language: Discourse, Policy Legacies, and the Politics of Opioids in Canada

M.A. Political Science (2016)

University of New Brunswick
Research Project: Healing Democracy? A Discussion of the Transformative Power of Deliberative Democracy

B.A. Political Science and International Relations (2014)

St. Thomas University
Double Major in Political Science and International Relations