Katelynn Kowalchuk is a Ph.D. student in Canadian Politics at the University of British Columbia and a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow. Her research interests include health and mental healthcare policy, intergovernmental relations, municipal politics, and Canadian political development.

Her dissertation, supervised by Carey Doberstein, explores the role of ideas in shaping mental healthcare policies across Canada and how they are challenged or reinforced by policy legacies and external actors. She is also working on an ongoing project exploring informal interconnectivity between municipal governments and their provincial/federal counterparts, and patterns of political mobility between these areas.

Publications:

Doberstein, C., Kowalchuk, K., and Kropp, K. 2025.
The Political Character of Agency and Board Appointments in Alberta. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 1-22.

Mathieu, F., Hart, A., Tremblay, A. and Kowalchuk, K. 2024. Multicultural Continuity in the Absence of Deep Diversity in the United Kingdom. In A. Tremblay and P. May (Eds.), Multiculturalism on the Mend? The Political Left and Ethnic Minorities in Liberal Democracies. London, U.K.: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kowalchuk, K., Samson, K., Berdahl, L., & Farney, J. 2021. Viewpoint Saskatchewan: Vote Intentions and Partisan Identifications in 2021. Edmonton, AB: Common Ground Politics.

Samson, K., Kowalchuk, K., Berdahl, L., & Farney, J. 2021. Views of Political Leadership in Saskatchewan. Edmonton, AB: Common Ground Politics.

McIntosh, T. & Kowalchuk, K. 2020. Health Care: A Key Issue that Didn’t Move the Needle. In Loleen Berdahl, Dale Eisler, Jim Farney, & Ken Rasmussen (eds.), The Saskatchewan Election: A 2020 Perspective. Regina, SK: Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, 33-34.

Conference Presentations (select):

Introducing the Mental Healthcare Policy Index: A Qualitative Measure for Mental Healthcare Policy Trajectory in Canada. CPSA Annual Conference, 2026. Ottawa, ON.

Comparing the political character of agencies and board appointments in British Columbia and Alberta. CPSA Annual Conference, 2026. Ottawa, ON

Narrative Construction of Heroes, Allies, Victims, and Morality in Canadian Provinces during the Early COVID-19 Pandemic. Conference on Policy Process Research, 2026. Bern, Switzerland.

Narrative Construction of Heroes, Allies, Victims, and Morality in Canadian Provinces during the Early COVID-19 Pandemic. APSA Annual Conference, 2025. Vancouver, BC.

Discourses of Risk and Responsibility in Canadian Provinces During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic. CPSA Annual Conference, June 2025.

The Political Character of Agency and Board Appointments in Alberta. Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship Colloquium, McGill University, 2025. Virtual.

Partisanship and Local Autonomy: Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Measuring Autonomy in Canadian Cities. CPSA Annual Conference, June 2023. York, ON.

SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2023-2027)

UBC Four-Year Fellowship (2022-2026)

President’s Academic Excellence Award (2022)

UBC Political Science Departmental Fellowship (2022)

R. Howard Webster Fellowship (2021)

SSHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master’s (2021)

University of Regina Undergraduate Research Fellowship (2019)

POLI 404B – Public Policy and Its Administration: Health and Mental Health Policy in Canada