Marie Gagné

Marie Gagné holds a Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by the Fonds de recherche du Québec-Société et culture (FRQSC) in the Department of Political Science at Concordia University. Her research interests include questions of land access, forest conservation, agricultural development, natural resource management, and food security. More broadly, her work seeks to understand how global economic and political pressures are negotiated and experienced in often unexpected ways in rural Africa. She has published several policy reports, book chapters, and peer-reviewed articles in journals such as the Canadian Journal of African Studies. She recently co-guest-edited a Forum on land deals in limbo in Africa in the African Studies Review. Over the years, Marie has won numerous awards, including the Fraser Taylor Prize and excellence scholarships from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the American Political Science Association (APSA), among others. Marie has accumulated extensive professional experience as an independent expert researching rural development policies. Since September 2021, she is a Country Research and Engagement Consultant at the Land Portal, a leading organization that generates and disseminates information on land governance. Entitled Protests against Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, Electoral Democracy, and the Emergence of Rural Citizenship in Senegal, her current postdoctoral research project examines the significance of opposition to land deals for electoral democracy and citizenship in Senegal. In particular, the study investigates how protests against land projects entail a renegotiation of power relations between rulers and subjects. Marie is working under the supervision of Professor Amy Poteete.

Contact Marie at marie.gagneATmail.concordia.ca