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Office Hours

Semester 2: Thursdays 9-11 (Weeks 0-9)

Qualifications

• BA (Hons) Politics and Modern History (University of Manchester)
• PhD Politics (University of Edinburgh)
  

Recent posts

Fiona Mackay was appointed Director of the Graduate School of Social and Political Science in August 2009 and will serve for three years. She is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations and is an Associate Director of the Institute of Governance, also at the University of Edinburgh. She served as Deputy Director of the Graduate School (2003-07), and Politics Postgraduate Adviser (2007-8). She was a member of the ESRC Virtual Research College (2003-2008) and the ESRC Case Studentship Panel (2005-07). In 2002, she was a Visiting Fellow at Auckland University.

Research Interests

Fiona Mackay's research interests focus on women and comparative politics, political representation, feminist politics, constitutional change in the UK, gender and public policy, and  feminist institutionalism. She has held research grants and consultancies with bodies including the Economic and Social Research Council, British Academy, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Communities Scotland, and the Scottish Executive.

Current and recent research focuses upon gender and constitutional change in the UK and gender and institutional theory. Fiona directed the Gender and Constitutional Change Project from 2001-2003, funded under the ESRC Devolution and Constitutional Change Programme. She currently is an advisor to the ESRC-funded project Gender and Political Processes in the Context of Devolution (Universities of Warwick and Swansea, 2005-2008) and a Research Associate for the Leverhulme-funded Gendered Ceremony and Ritual in Parliament project (Universities of Warwick, Birkbeck, Bristol and Sheffield, 2007-11).

With Mona Lena Krook (Washington University in St Louis), Georgina Waylen (Sheffield University) and Louise Chappell (University of Sydney), Fiona directs the Feminism and Institutionalism International Network (FIIN) [www.femfiin.com] This is a new international collaborative theory-building project exploring the potential synthesis of feminist gender analysis and new institutional theory. A successful  workshop on feminist institutionalism was held as part of the 2008 ECPR Joint Sessions in Rennes (April 11-16). Outputs include a Critical Perspectives on Feminist Institutionalism in the APSA journal Politics & Gender (5 (2) 2009), and an edited collection (Palgrave, in progress).

Recently, Fiona, Louise Chappell and Georgina Waylen have been awarded a British Academy-Academy of Social Sciences in Australia International Collaboration grant to organise an international workshop on gender and new institutional theory in Sydney in March 2010.

Recent Publications

Fiona's latest book, Women, Politics and Constitutional Change: the first years of the National Assembly for Wales, is co-authored with Paul Chaney and Laura McAllister (University of Wales Press, 2007). Her first book. Love and Politics: Women Politicians and the Ethics of Care (Continuum, 2001), was an American Libraries Association CHOICE outstanding title in 2002. She has also co-edited The Changing Politics of Gender Equality in Britain (Palgrave, 2002) and Women and Contemporary Scottish Politics (Polygon, 2001).

Recent articles and book chapters include:

(2009) 'Gender', in M.Flinders, A. Gamble, C. Hay and M. Kenny eds, The Oxford Handbook of British Politics, Oxford University Press, 646-662.

with M. Kenny (2009) 'Already doin' it for ourselves? Skeptical notes on feminism and institutionalism', Politics & Gender, 5 (2), 271-280.

(2008) '"Thick" conceptions of substantive representation: women, gender and political institutions', Representation 44 (2) July, 125-139.

(2008) 'The state of womens movement/s in Britain: ambiguity, complexity and challenges from the periphery', in S. J. Grey and M. Sawer eds, Women's movements worldwide: Flourishing or in abeyance? Routledge, 17-32.

with M. Kenny (2007) 'Women's Representation in the 2007 Scottish Parliament: Temporary Setback or Return to the Norm?', Scottish Affairs , 60 (Summer), 25-38. 

(2006) 'Descriptive and Substantive Representation in new parliamentary spaces: the case of Scotland', in M. Sawer, M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds) Representing Women in Parliament: A Comparative Study, Routledge, 171-187. 

(2004) 'Gender and Political Representation in the UK: the state of the 'discipline'' in British Journal of Politics and International Relations , 6 (1), 101-122.

(2003) Women and the 2003 elections: keeping up the momentum, Scottish Affairs 44 (Summer), 74-90.

with F. Myers and A. Brown (2003) 'Towards a new politics? Women and the Constitutional Change in Scotland' in A. Dobrowolsky and V. Hart (eds) Women Making Constitutions: New Politics and Comparative Perspectives . Basingstoke: Palgrave, 84-98.

with E. Meehan, T. Donaghy and A. Brown (2002) 'Women and Constitutional Change in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland' in Australasian Parliamentary Review , 17 (2), 35-54.

with M. Russell and L. McAllister (2002) 'Women's representation in the Scottish Parliament and National Assembly for Wales: party dynamics for achieving critical mass', Journal of Legislative Studies, 8 (2), 49-76.

with A. Brown, T. Donaghy and E. Meehan (2002) 'Women and Constitutional Change in Scotland and Nothern Ireland' in Parliamentary Affairs , 55 (2), 71-84.

Current Teaching and Research

Fiona teaches in the broad areas of feminist politics, Scottish and British politics, comparative politics and approaches to the study of politics. In 2009-10 she co-convenes the new undergraduate honours course Global Politics of Sex and Gender. Until recently, she convened the School-wide undergraduate honours course Contemporary Feminist Thought, whose students won the UK PSA Women and Politics undergraduate essay competition in  2006, 2007 and 2008.

Fiona convenes the University of Edinburgh Gender Politics Research Group, which organised the PSA Women and Politics Annual Conference 2006 - its first international conference. She is also a member of the Territorial Politics and Public Policy research clusters, which form part of the Institute of Governance.

PhD Supervision

Fiona is an enthusiastic and experienced supervisor. She is able to offer PhD supervision in most areas relating to gender and politics and gender and public policy. Current and recent doctoral students under her supervision have undertaken research in the areas of gender and political recruitment, gender quotas, gender mainstreaming at local, national, regional and international levels, gender budgeting initiatives in the UK and Spain, women's anti-violence movements in the UK and Sweden, democratic innovation and participation, military masculinities, feminist ethics, feminist institutionalism, and devolution politics in Scotland. 

A recently graduated doctoral student Meryl Kenny has just been awarded a UK Political Studies Association prize for her thesis entitled Gendering Institutions: The Political Recruitment of Women in Post-Devolution Scotland.The Arthur McDougall Fund Prize is awarded annually for the best PhD dissertation on elections, electoral systems or representation.  

Fiona particularly welcomes prospective students with interests in feminist and institutionalist approaches to the study of gender and politics, gender and multi-level governance, and in aspects of post-devolution gender politics in UK 

 

 

Links to publications