Aiken, Megan

Assistant Professor

Political Science Department

Phone
(403) 329-2577
Email
megan.aiken@uleth.ca

Biography

Megan Aiken is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Lethbridge. She is originally from New Brunswick, where she also completed her first two degrees. Over the course of her education in New Brunswick and Alberta, Megan worked in several roles as a civil servant provincially and federally. 

Megan is currently working on her thesis-to-book manuscript, “Proclaiming the Crisis: The History of Opioid Problem-Making in the Canadian House of Commons,” which will be published with University of Toronto Press. She is also beginning new research on the turn away from harm reduction and the rise in favourability of compulsory treatment for people who use drugs. 


Degrees

B.A. Political Science and International Relations (Double Major), St. Thomas University (Fredericton, NB)

M.A. Political Science, University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, NB)

Ph.D. Political Science, University of Alberta (Edmonton, AB)

Research Interests

Megan is broadly interested in how problems (political, social, etc.) are discursively constructed and represented by policy documents, law, political representatives, and the media. Her current research is concerned with representations of problems related to the toxic drug crisis in Canada.

She is also interested in critical approaches to studying public policy as well as the use of critical theory in studying public policy and political institutions.

Research Areas

The History of Drug Control in Canada

Healthcare in Canada (History of; Public Administration; Federalism; Rights & Freedoms; Privatization Creep; Contemporary Issues)

Discourse Analysis

Expertise

Canadian Government and Politics (e.g. Federalism, Parties & Elections, Political Institutions, the Constitution, Political Economy)

Health & Social Policy

Discourse Analysis, Post-Structural Discourse Theory, Critical Theory

Policy Studies (e.g., Critical Approaches, Theories of the Policy Process)

Social Structure and Power in Canada