The Department of Political Science is happy to share that Political Science doctoral student Ryan Dorsman has been awarded a 2026 SSHRC Canada Graduate Research Scholarship recognizing his exceptional academic achievement and high research potential.
Ryan’s doctoral project, Holding Patterns: Exploring Adjudicative Barriers to Institutional Reform, focuses on the intersection of law, administrative tribunal decision making and institutional change. His work examines the potential difficulties underlying efforts at institutional reform and policy change in the presence entrenched understandings and perceptions of both roles and expected policy outcomes of existing delegated decision makers, particularly in the Immigration Policy sphere. He will investigate decisions by Immigration Review Board adjudicators in both pre and post-reform periods to determine the extent to which delegated decision making policy outcomes are amenable to government preferred outcomes and efforts at institutional change overall.
Congratulations Ryan on receiving this award!
Departmental News, PhD Defenses
Departmental News