I am a Professor of Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta. My research and teaching focus on systems change, systemic design, public involvement, power, and how these fit together in theory and practice. 

I'm dad to nine-year-old Solomon and spend much of my free time gardening in a permaculture food forest I'm creating in the river valley.

My past research has dealt with theories and practices of democratic dialogue and deliberation, with particular focus on understanding the impact (or lack of impact) of innovative citizen involvement processes given the complex systems in which they intervene. My publications in this vein include two edited volumes, Deliberative Democracy in Theory and Practice and Dispute Resolution in Aboriginal Contexts: Land Claims, Treaties, and Self-Government Agreements; and chapters and articles like “Climate change, social change, and systems change: Lessons from Alberta Climate Dialogue," "Norms and nature: deliberative democracy, systemic design, and participatory systems change," and "Designing more democratically, deliberating more systemically: A conversation between systemic design and democratic deliberation" (with Alex Ryan).

From 2010-2016 I was Principal Investigator and Project Director of Alberta Climate Dialogue (ABCD), a $1 million SSHRC-funded community-university research partnership that convened citizens in Alberta to deliberate on climate change policy, and learning from careful evaluation of these processes and their outcomes. 

I regularly teach undergraduate and graduate courses on systemic design, participatory systems change, political theory, and history of political theory. I weave participatory and deliberative methods into teaching/learning contexts, and have experimented with how meditation and contemplation can be used in the university classroom. I have won two national teaching awards (the 3M Teaching Fellowship and the Alan Blizzard Award for Collaborative Projects that Improve Student Learning) as well as the Rutherford Award for Undergraduate Teaching, the Award for Excellence in Graduate Supervision, the Teaching Unit Award, and the Faculty of Arts Undergraduate Teaching Award. My teaching publications include “Mindfulness and Presence in Teaching and Learning” and “Learning about Obligation, Compassion, and Global Justice: the Place of Contemplative Pedagogy.”