The Common Ground team consists of researchers from across the University of Alberta. We work in various departments on campuses across the province.
Jared Wesley is the lead researcher for Common Ground. Born and raised in a small-town in Manitoba, Jared Wesley has lived much of his adult life in Edmonton and Calgary. He is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Alberta. He has led a number of large research teams involving over two dozen interdisciplinary collaborators from across Canada. Jared is a pracademic -- a practicing political scientist and former public servant -- whose career path to the University of Alberta Department of Political Science has included senior management positions in the Alberta Public Service (APS). He has returned to academia to study and teach the politics of Western Canada.
Feo Snagovsky’s research focuses on the comparative analysis of elections and political behaviour, and particularly in the role that political elites play in shaping identity and public opinion. His recent work examined how the descriptive representation of ethnic minorities in Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom influences the political attitudes of members of those groups – in particular, how they feel about the responsiveness of government.
Michelle Maroto’s research broadly focuses on inequality, economic insecurity, and social policy. She has experience with a variety of research methods, including online and resume-based audit studies as part of her SSHRC-funded project, Employment Discrimination in Hiring People with Disabilities.
Gillian Harvey’s research and practice include evidence-based information design principles and practices which include benchmarking, prototyping, user testing, and evaluation. Her recent work has revealed how descriptive analysis of message content facilitates understanding for underrepresented populations and for social good.
Founding Members
Mark Nuttall is a social anthropologist with extensive experience of ethnographic methods. His research focuses on locality, identity and memory, climate change, extractive industries, conservation, environmental politics, and geopolitics in North America, Europe and the Circumpolar North. He has carried out fieldwork in Greenland, Canada, Alaska, Finland, Scotland and Wales.
Frédéric Boily’s involvement in this project complements his SSHRC study (« Droitisation et comparison des droites intellectuelles au Canada: 2006-2016 », 2018-2021). Boily has published extensively on this topic, notably La droite en Alberta, D’Ernest Manning à Stephen Harper (PUL, 2013). He also works extensively on populism in Alberta and Quebec.
Lars Hallstrom is the Director of the Alberta Centre for Sustainable Rural Communities (ACSRC) since 2009. He has overseen over 50 projects related to rural and community resilience in a range of sectors, including economic development, natural resource management, and environmental sustainability. He has published/co-published two books on rural issues in Canada since 2016.
David Rast III’s research broadly focuses on leadership within and between groups. More specifically, he studies how leaders can bridge intergroup divisions to build a unified identity and achieve a joint goal. He regularly publishes on topics related political group leadership, political attitudes, and party affiliation, including improving relations between conservatives and liberals.
Kyle Murray has a long standing interest in understanding human judgement and decision making in the context of online and new media environments. Studying how people interact with their political environment is a natural extension of his prior work.
Spring/Summer 2024 Research Assistants
Evan Walker, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Evan Walker is an incoming PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Having completed his Master's studies at the U of A, Evan’s research interests centre around populism, political behaviour, and occasionally political economy. Evan aims to mesh his background in Political Science, Economics, and Geography to help better understand public opinion.
Roberto Mendoza, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science
Roberto Mendoza is a former political operative turned academic and entrepreneur. After years navigating the murky waters of political campaigns, Roberto became disillusioned by the corrupting influence of money in politics. Driven by a desire for deeper understanding, he returned to academia and is now pursuing a PhD in Political Science, focusing on the intricate dynamics of financial influence in political systems. Outside the classroom, Roberto is the proud co-owner of La Puerca Pecadora, one of Mexico’s most celebrated taco establishments, where he blends his passion for food with his love for the culinary arts. A jazz aficionado, Roberto spends his free time exploring the rich rhythms of jazz music and enjoying life’s finer pleasures.
Alexandra Ballos, Research Assistant, Political Science & Women and Gender Studies (North Campus)
Alexandra Ballos is a graduate student in the Political Science department at the University of Calgary, with research interests spanning extremism, right-wing ideologies, eco-politics, and gender dynamics, particularly within the context of Canadian politics and political culture. Having completed her Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies in 2024, her future research will examine the influence of extractive populism on right-wing politics in Canada.
Maobi Obikwelu, BYSI Research Assistant, Psychology and Economics, with Applied Social Science Research Certification (North Campus)
Maobi is a recent graduate from the University of Alberta. Maobi’s research focuses on analysing the sociopolitical behaviour of Albertans over the past five years using the Viewpoint surveys. She is working to discover the various facets that the Viewpoint survey data can lend itself to in analysing trends and uncovering the true nature of Albertans.
Julian Faid, Graduate Research Assistant, School of Business
Julian Faid is a facilitator, host, and performer with over twenty-two years of professional improvisational theatre experience. He has performed at festivals worldwide and has taught improv skills to C-suite executives, non-profit organizations, and high-performance teams. Julian is also a qualitative researcher, writer, and project manager. He holds a BA in Sociology, a Graduate Diploma in Marketing and Communications, and an MSc in Environmental Sociology. His work includes publication in the Canadian Journal of Urban Research and reports for organizations and governments across Canada. Julian is a Doctoral Student at the University of Alberta, Alberta School of Business.
Rachel Hwang, Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Psychology & Sociology & Philosophy (University of Kentucky)
Rachel is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Kentucky (USA). Her research interests include systemic discrimination (specifically regarding race and gender) and people’s reactions to social change. In Common Ground, she works on JoeTV and Connections projects.
Bashir Bello, BYSI Research Assistant, Biology and Computing Science (North Campus)
Bashir is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Alberta. Bashir's research focuses on an interdisciplinary approach to social change for marginalized groups in both the Global North and South. He is particularly interested in understanding how groups fall into clannishness and factionalism, and how these dynamics impact the structural functioning of society and its institutions.
Student Associates
Robert Bilak, 2019-2020 Student Associate, Political Science/Economics (North Campus)
When he joined the Common Ground Research Project, Robert was a fourth-year Political Science and Economics double major student and a second-year scholar at the Peter Lougheed Leadership College. After completing his undergraduate degree, he received a Law Degree and a Master of Public Policy from the University of Calgary in 2023. He proceeded to clerk at the Court of Appeal of Alberta from 2023-2024 under the Honourable Justice William T. de Wit and is currently finishing his articles at Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP in Calgary.
Kiera Fischer, Student Associate, Political Science (North Campus)
Kiera is a third-year undergraduate student in honours Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research examines differences in the Alberta government’s response to various protests via social media. She is specifically interested in uncovering the extent to which the government contributes to perceived status threat among white, middle-aged, blue-collar Albertans.
Jason Timmons, Past Student Associate,
Political Science (North Campus)
Now working for the City of Edmonton as a Public Engagement Advisor after completing the Master of Arts in Policy Studies (MAPS) program, Jason was an undergraduate student researcher in the Department of Political Science. His Master’s research focused on emergency management, and his undergraduate research focused on rural healthcare delivery in Alberta.
Hannah Diner, Student Associate, Political Science (North Campus)
Hannah Diner is a fourth year Political Science honours student at the University of Alberta. Her research examines political polarization in the context of Alberta, specifically focused on the discrepancy between actual and perceived polarization and the impacts of this discrepancy on the broader political climate.
Timothy Van den Brink, 2019-2020 Student Associate
Timothy van den Brink is a Ph.D. candidate at Simon Fraser University studying ideology and discourse in Canadian politics. His recent work analyzes ideology and nation building in official language governance. He worked with the Alberta Political Culture Project primarily on their French language focus groups.
Harnoor Kochar, Student Associate,
Political Science (North Campus)
Harnoor is a third-year undergraduate student at the University of Alberta in the Department of Political Science. She was awarded a Tomorrow’s Ideas, Now Undergraduate Research Mini-grant by the Undergraduate Research Initiative and the Kule Institute for Advanced Study (KIAS) to conduct a research project along the APCP team. Her research focuses on how young Albertans negotiate their identities within the province’s perceived petro-nationalist political culture.
Rian Hoyle, Student Associate, Political Science & History (North Campus)
Rian is a third-year undergraduate student studying Political Science and History at the University of Alberta. Her research looks at the connections between Canadian identity and hockey in our country. Her project evaluates social issues within hockey through wealth, gender, and race inequality, and how those issues are left unresolved yet the sport remains a symbol of Canadianna.
Thomas Brown, Student Associate, Political Science & History (North Campus)
Tom is a fourth-year undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, working towards a combined honours degree in Political Science and History. His research explores the key features of polarized political dialogue, specifically looking at discourse across the progressive-conservative divide in Alberta.
Mitchell Pawluk, 2020 Student Associate, Political Science
Mitchell Pawluk (he/him) is a writer, scholar, and settler living on Treaty Six territory. He received his Bachelor of Arts (Honors) and Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Alberta. During his studies, Mitchell worked as a student journalist at The Gateway, UAlberta’s student-run news source. While a member of the Common Ground initiative, Mitchell researched discourses of normalization and marginalization in Alberta’s political culture from the premiership of Ralph Klein to Jason Kenney.
Michael Griffiths, 2022-2023 Student Associate, Political Science (North Campus)
Michael was a former honours Political Science student who worked jointly on his thesis and as a URI research associate on the Common Ground team, under the supervision of Dr. Wesley. His thesis and URI project performed a content analysis of Jason Kenney's Twitter (now known as X), looking at the frequency and tone with which Kenney discussed energy and the environment, as well as how Kenney leveraged Agenda-Setting tactics to influence the Alberta Public's perception of the energy sector and the climate crisis.
Trista Peterson, Student Associate,
Political Science (North Campus)
During her time at the University of Alberta, Trista worked with the Common Ground Initiative as a student research associate funded by the Roger S Smith undergraduate research award. This project produced original research on the presence of neoliberalism and red-toryism as distinct ideologies under the umbrella of federal Conservative political parties. She graduated in 2021 with a double major in Political Science and Psychology
Past Research Assistants
Sophia Drimmel, UARE Research Assistant, Political Sciences (Technical University of Munich)
Sophia Drimmel is a Political Sciences undergraduate at the Technical University of Munich (Germany). Her research area particularly focuses on the topic of NeuroPolitics.
Garin Alfaro, Undergraduate Research Associate, Political Science (North Campus)
Garin is a fourth-year Political Science student at the University of Alberta. His research with the Common Ground team focuses on political polarization in Albertan society, specifically regarding the distance separating Albertans’ political values and ideological positions and the ways that they relate to each other across the political aisle.
Taofiki Okunola, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Taofiki Okunola is a PhD student in Political Science at the University of Alberta. He received his Bachelor’s in Political Science (Frist Class Honours) from the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and a Master’s Degree in International Relations at the University of Westminter (UK). His research is focused on the role of international organizations in addressing statelessness.
Joely Bragg, Graduate Research Assistant (North Campus), 2020-2021
Joely completed her MA at the University of Alberta studying Policy Studies in 2022. Her final capstone project analyzed and compared the Senate of Canada’s Parliamentary “reform” since 2015. Joely has been working with the Government of Alberta since 2021.
Matthieu Petit, Post-Bacc Research Assistant, Philosophy & Political Science (North Campus)
Matthieu holds a first-class double honors degree in Philosophy and Political Science. His concentrations are early modern philosophy, German idealism, and existentialism. He plans to continue his graduate studies in philosophy.
Clare Buckley, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Clare received her Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Alberta in 2020. Her research focused on policy priorities in Canadian provincial party platforms.
Stella Gomes, UARE Research Assistant, International Relations (University of São Paulo)
Stella Gomes is an undergraduate in International Relations at the University of São Paulo (Brazil). Her research interests focus on Brazilian and Latin American Politics. She currently assists Dr. Jared Wesley in the Becoming Albertan Project, a study of youth political socialization in Alberta.
Timothy Tsz-Him Chan, Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Politics & Public Administration, University of Hong Kong
Timothy is a final year undergraduate student from the University of Hong Kong. His research interest lies in the sources of populism, elitism and nationalism in public opinion and their implications. He is currently assisting in a project on white identity and its effect on people’s attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors in Canada.
Amy Vachon-Chabot, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Amy received her Master of Arts in Political Science from the University of Alberta. Her thesis research focused on the impact of political memes on potential voters by conducting an online experiment.
Enni Leponiemi, Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Politics & International Relations (University of Aberdeen)
Enni is third-year Politics and International Relations student at the University of Aberdeen (UK). Her academic interests include the contemporary challenges in the European Union and the EU’s evolving global role. Her research is focused on changes in European Security, the politicization of European integration, and the concepts of Fortress Europe, Migration and Eurosceptism.
Abel Zeleke, 2022-2023 High School Research Assistant
Abel Zeleke is a recent high school graduate who was formerly employed at the University of Alberta as a Political Science research assistant. Abel’s main endeavors & interests fall into themes of Canadian history, coding and public opinion.
Nikita Sleptcov, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Nikita is a PhD student in Political Science. Nikita’s main interests lie in the methodology of automated textual analysis and other quantitative methods as well as public opinion & political behavior research. His research is focused on the attitudes towards climate change and energy transition.
Sam Clark, Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Geography (Durham University)
Sam is a second-year undergraduate student in Geography at Durham University (UK). His research explores politics and performativity of young adults’ identity in relation to normative life course expectations, particularly the nexus between familial expectations and cultural norms in determining the political allegiances, voting behaviour and employment ambitions of young people.
Alicia Bednarski, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Alicia is a Master of Arts student in Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research interests include the politics of gender, race, immigration, and citizenship in settler colonial contexts.
Marta Dvuliat, 2023 Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Political Science (Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and University of Alberta)
Marta Dvuliat worked on a Becoming Alberta project during March-August 2023 and was a co-author of a Research Brief. She graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science and an Economics Minor in June 2024. In 2023, she received a Bachelor's degree in International Relations at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv (Ukraine). Her academic interests include international relations, international organizations, energy policies and policy advising.
Rissa Reist, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Rissa is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her research focuses on the relationship between political humour and settler-colonial violence. She holds a master's degree in Political Science from the University of Alberta and a master's degree in Political Communication from the University of Leeds.
Aarushi Dhaka, Mitacs GRI Research Assistant, Engineering (Vellore Institute of Technology)
Aarushi is an Engineering Junior in Electronics and Communication from Vellore Institute of Technology (India). She has a significant interest in data analytics. She will be learning and trying some concepts by analyzing sentiments of people during election times, and how it affects one’s thought process.
Savannah Ribeiro, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Savannah Ribeiro (she/her) is a first-year PhD student in the Political Science department. Her main fields of study are comparative politics and political theory, focusing on nationalism, white nationalism, and how necropolitics/politics of the dead figures into these ideologies.
Fajr Ahmad, 2023 Mitacs GRI Research Assistant
Fajr Ahmad is a Master’s student at Columbia University (USA) studying Politics and Education. She is focused on improving K-12 curricula on a national scale. She graduated from Arizona State University (USA) in 2023 with a Bachelor’s degree in Communications.
Victoria Matajka, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Victoria is a Policy Studies Master’s student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Victoria received their undergraduate degree in Political Science and Sociology in 2021. They are working with Dr. Jared Wesley on the Public Servants’ Role Project, and occasionally with the Viewpoint Alberta team, doing research and data analysis.
Lauren Hill, Graduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Lauren is a second-year Master of Arts student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. Prior to attending the University of Alberta, Lauren received her Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History at McGill University. Lauren’s graduate research focuses on the influence of the Saskatchewan Party on contemporary Saskatchewan political culture.
Olivia Labelle, 2023-2024 Undergraduate Research Assistant, Political Science (North Campus)
Olivia is a fourth-year honours student majoring in Political Science at the University of Alberta. Her academic work is driven by a profound concern for Alberta's response to the climate crisis. After completing her honours thesis, she hopes to continue pursuing research at the intersection of climate politics and science, technology, and society (STS) studies.