• University of Edinburgh
• School of Social and Political Studies

Institute of Governance

• Quick Links
• Login
• Search

Office Hours:

On research leave as of August, 2008.  All office hours by appointment.

 Qualifications

• Baccalauréat ès sciences sociales, science politique (Université d'Ottawa)
• MSc Social Research (Edinburgh)
• PhD  Politics (Edinburgh)

Current Teaching and Research Interests

Originally from Canada, Dr Ailsa Henderson joined the department in 2007 from the University of Toronto and currently holds a Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship (2008-2010) to conduct research on the constituent political cultures of Europe.  Dr Henderson conducts research on political culture(s) in federal and multi-national states.  Most of this work focuses on variations in political culture at the sub-state level and explores how national identity, federalism, devolution or institutional design can affect regional variations in political attitudes and behaviours.

Dr Henderson currently holds research grants on regional attitudes in Europe (Citizneship After the Nation State - ESF), predictors of turnout in sub-state elections (SSHRC), compulsory volunteering and civic engagement among young people (Imagine Canada/SSHRC), deliberative democracy and Scotland's National Conversation (DTRF - Edinburgh), and social attitudes in Nunavut (SSHRC). She has worked as a researcher for the Committee on Standards in Public Life, as a consultant for various departments in the Government of Nunavut and in 2007 served as working groups chair for the Ontario Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform. She is co-editor of Regional and Federal Studies.

Dr Henderson teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in quantitative methods, research methods and research design, and British politics.

Dr Henderson is convenor of the Elections, Public Opinion and Parties research group and a member of the Territorial Politics research group.

PhD Supervision

Dr Henderson is able to offer PhD supervision on comparative (advanced-industrial) as well as UK and Canadian topics covering 3 themes:
1. political culture, political attitudes and public opinion
2. electoral behaviour, electoral systems and electoral reform,
3. territorial politics and federalism, nationalism and devolution

Publications

Dr Henderson is the author of four books including two monographs: Hierarchies of Belonging: national identity and political culture in Scotland and Quebec (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007) and Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture (UBC Pres  2007).  She is the editor of Nunavut at Ten (special issue of the Journal of Canadian Studies 43(2) 2009 and co-editor (with Colin Coates) of Scotland-Quebec: An Evolving Comparison (special issue of British Journal of Canadian Studies 18 (1/2) 2007. She is currently editing Small Worlds: Regional and sub-state polities in comparative perspective, special issue of Regional and Federal Studies (2010).

She has published more than twenty five refereed articles or book chapters. Recent outlets include Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, Journal of European Public Policy, Journal of Legislative Studies, Canadian Journal of Political Science, Journal of Youth and Adolescence, National Identities, Canadian Public Policy, Journal of Canadian Studies and Bulletin d’histoire politique.

Recent Publications include:

2009

Ailsa Henderson, Nunavut at 10, Guest editor, Journal of Canadian Studies, 43(2) 2009

Ailsa Henderson "Lessons for Social Science in the Study of New Polities: Nunavut at 10" Journal of Canadian Studies 2009 43(2): 5-22

Ailsa Henderson "Institutional Boundaries and Regionalism: Social, Economic and Political Regions in the Canadian Arctic" Journal of Canadian Studies 2009 43(2): 109-36

2008

Ailsa Henderson "Satisfaction with democracy: evidence from Westminster systems" Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties 2008 18(1): 3-26

Ailsa Henderson "Self-government in Nunavut" in Yale Belanger (ed) Aboriginal Self-government in Canada (Saskatoon: Purich, 2008) 222-239

2007
Ailsa Henderson Hierarchies of Belonging and Political Inclusion: national identity and political culture in Scotland and Quebec. (Montreal-Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007)

Ailsa Henderson Nunavut: Rethinking Political Culture (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2007)

Colin Coates and Ailsa Henderson “Scotland-Quebec: An Evolving Comparison” Guest editors, British Journal of Canadian Studies 18(2) 2007

Ailsa Henderson, Steven D. Brown, Kimberly Ellis-Hale and S. Mark Pancer “The effect of mandatory volunteering in high school on civic engagement: the case of the ‘double cohort’ in Ontario, Canada” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 2007 36 (7): 849-60 

Ailsa Henderson “Identity measurement in Scotland and Quebec: the meaning and salience of identity markers” British Journal of Canadian Studies 2007 18(1/2): 269-91

Ailsa Henderson “Cultural renaissance or economic emancipation: predictors of support for devolution in Nunavut” Journal of Canadian Studies 2007 41(2): 1-23

Ailsa Henderson “A Porous and Pragmatic Settlement: Asymmetrical Devolution and Democratic Constraint in Scotland and Wales” in Andrew McDonald (ed) Reinventing Britain (London: Methuen, 2007) 151-69

Ailsa Henderson “Politics without parties: citizen engagement and interest articulation in consensus systems” in Alain G. Gagnon and Brian Tanguay (eds) Canadian  Parties in Transition, 3rd ed. (Peterborough: Broadview, 2007): 215-240.

2006
Ailsa Henderson, Steven D. Brown, David Docherty, Barry Kay and Kimberly Ellis-Hale “Voter Dealignment or Campaign Effects: Accounting for Political Preferences in Ontario” American Review of Canadian Studies 2006 36 (4): 612-26.

Steven D. Brown, David Docherty, Ailsa Henderson, Barry Kay and Kimberly Ellis-Hale “Exit polling in Canada: An Experiment” Canadian Journal of Political Science 2006 39(4): 919-33

Ailsa Henderson “Consequences of Electoral Reform: lessons for Canada” Canadian Public Policy 2006 32(1): 41-58