Daniel Dickson PhD, MA, BA

Daniel Dickson is an Assistant Professor in Social Policy at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Saskatchewan campus. He has a PhD in Political Science from Concordia University and was a SSHRC postdoctoral fellow in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa.

Drawing from his past experiences as a care worker and advocate for people labelled with intellectual and developmental disabilities, Dr. Dickson’s research focuses on the potential of social policy to disrupt patterns of discrimination and barriers to inclusion. To this end, his work explores how social policies are interpreted, negotiated, and implemented by policy actors at multiple levels of governance within health and social services structures in Canada.

Designations

• PhD, Political Science, Concordia University
• MA, Public Policy and Public Administration, Concordia University
• BA, Political Science and English, University of Toronto

Please note that the supervisory capacity for Fall 2026 will be updated in Summer 2025.

Daniel Dickson's research areas: disability policy/politics, care policy/politics, policy implementation, supported housing policy, and social policy framing and design.

Recent Grants

• SHRF Establishment Grant 2026-2028
• SSHRC Insight Development Grant 2026-2027
• SHRF Align Grant 2025-2026

Recent Awards and Honors

• Concordia University Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Prize in Fine Arts, Humanities or Social Sciences: 2024
• SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship 2023-4
• Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Société et Culture Postdoctoral Award: 2023-5
• SSHRC Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship: 2017-20
• Herbert F. Quinn Medal for Political Science: 2017

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• Dickson, Daniel (2026). Framing Social Inclusion in Canadian Intellectual Disability Policy. Journal of Public Policy. 1-26. DOI: 10.1017/S0143814X26101111
• Whittingham, Lisa, Przednowek, Anna, & Dickson, Daniel. (2026). Inclusion and Engagement in Photovoice/Photo Elicitation Research with Persons Labelled with Intellectual/Developmental Disabilities: A Scoping Review. Disability and Society. 1-14. DOI: 10.1080/09687599.2026.2713210
• Dickson, Daniel & Linton, Megan. (2025) “A Haunting Legacy: Systemic Ableism in Canadian Housing Policy for People Labelled with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities”. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 58(3): 565-590. DOI: 10.1017/S0008423925000253
• Dickson, Daniel; Marier, Patrik, & Dubé, Anne-Sophie. (2022) “Do Assessment Tools Shape Policy Preferences? Analysing Policy Framing Effects on Older Adults’ Conceptualisation of Autonomy”, Journal of Social Policy, 51(1): 114-131. DOI: 10.1017/S0047279420000720
• Dickson, Daniel. (2022). Multilevel Governance and the Implementation of Inclusion Policy for Older Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in Canada. Journal of Policy and Practice in Intellectual Disabilities, 19(2): 183-192. DOI: 10.1111/jppi.12397
• Dickson, Daniel & Brotman, Shari. (2022) “Enacting Power at the Decision-Making Table: Foregrounding the Voices of People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities in the Policy Process through Engagement with Families in Relational Self-Advocacy”, Journal on Developmental Disabilities, 27(2) DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7433552
• Lee, Kyuho; Revelli, Marina; Dickson, Daniel, & Marier, Patrik. (2022). “Who Cares? Preferences for Formal and Informal Care Among Older Adults in Québec”, Journal of Applied Gerontology, 41(1): 227-234. DOI: 10.1177/0733464820976436
• Cox, Robert Henry; Dickson, Daniel, & Marier, Patrik. (2021) “Resistance, Innovation, and Improvisation: Comparing the Responses of Nursing Home Workers to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Canada and the United States”, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 23(1): 41-50. DOI: 10.1080/13876988.2020.1846994

Chapters in Edited Volumes

• Dickson, Daniel. 2026. “Public Policy”. In: Stockemer, D., Sawyer, S., Gagnon, A. (eds) IPSA Companion to Political Science. Springer, Cham. DOI:10.1007/978-3-032-06918-4_38-1
• Dickson, Daniel. 2020. “Aging with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities: The Myth of the Eternal Child”, in V. Billette, P. Marier, & A. M. Séguin (Eds.) Getting Wise about Getting Old: Debunking Myths about Aging. Vancouver: Purich Books. 109-116
• Marier, Patrik; Dickson, Daniel, & Dubé, Anne Sophie. 2020. “Using Focus Groups in Comparative Public Policy” in B. Guy Peters and Guillaume Fontaine (Eds.) Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Comparative Policy Analysis. Northampton: Edward Elgar Publishing. 297-311