Matt Sanscartier is currently a second year MA student in the department, writing his thesis in the area 

 Matt Sanscartier is currently a second year MA student in the department, writing his thesis in the area of Canadian social policy and citizenship under Dr. Gregg Olsen. He is specifically interested in the transformations that have happened in Canadian citizenship over the past forty years, tracking changes economic rights and entitlements of Canadians. Whereas Canadians in the 1950s and 1960s at access to a comprehensive range of income supports, social services, and legal protections resulting in stable work arrangements, they no longer do so to the same extent. His investigation asks whether or not Canadians did, in fact, agree with these policy changes, and how citizenship as a source of socio‐political identity changed alongside such policies. He intends to expand this project in future doctoral research, using a comparative approach to contrast the nature of political identity of citizens in a range of Western countries. Matt is interested primarily in political sociology, and has published in the areas of political culture, political structures, and food sovereignty. He is currently performing an evaluation of policing initiatives in Winnipeg and beyond to observe the effectiveness of community engagement, working under Dr. Rick Linden. He can be reached at [email protected]. Expected graduation date: June 2015