Fiona Barker

Lecturer

BA Hons, MA (VUW), PhD Harvard

Profile

Fiona is a recent graduate of Harvard University. She joined the Programme in July as a Lecturer in Comparative Politics. Prior to this she was a Jean Monnet Postdoctoral Fellow at the European University Institute. She will be offering, amongst other things, a new course on the topic 'Governing Divided Societies'.

Current Research Projects

Fiona’s research interests centre on the politics of immigration, integration and nationalism, on the political management of ethnic and linguistic diversity and on institutional change in divided societies. Her research spans cases in Europe and North America. Her dissertation studied the politics of sub-state nationalism and immigrant integration in multi-national societies, with particular focus on the politics of immigration in Flanders and Quebec.

Other research interests address the ethnic dimensions of electoral and partisan politics in Europe. The so-called “ethnic vote” and recruitment of migrant-origin candidates to political office has become an increasingly important component of in electoral politics across Europe. How do political parties integrate this development into their electoral and organizational strategies, and what explains significant cross-national variation in rates of formal political participation and election to office of migrant-origin citizens?

During 2007-2008 Fiona is also a member of the trans-Atlantic Summer Institutes for Advanced Studies on “Citizenship and Migration”, organized by the Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin and the National Humanities Center in the US.

Recent Publications

Barker, F. (2006) “Challenging the sub-state nation: Brussels and the development of Flemish migrant incorporation policies”, in Riedl, R., S. Aksartova, and K. Mitchell (eds.) Bridging Disciplines, Spanning the World: Approaches to Inequality, Identity, and Institutions. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies, 155-181.

Barker, F., J. Boston, S. Levine, E. McLeay & N. S. Roberts (2001) “An Initial Assessment of the Consequences of MMP in New Zealand”, in Shugart, M. & M. Wattenberg (eds.) Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: The Best of Both Worlds? New York: Oxford University Press, 297-322.

Barker, F. & E. McLeay (2000) “How much change? An analysis of the initial impact of proportional representation on the New Zealand parliamentary party system”, Party Politics 6: 2, 131-154.

Barker, F. & S. Levine (1999) “The Individual Parliamentary Member and Institutional Change: the Changing Role of the New Zealand Member of Parliament”, Journal of Legislative Studies 5: 3-4, 105-130.

Barker, F. (1997) “Negotiating with New Zealand First: A Study of its Coalition Agreements with National and Labour”, in Boston, J., S. Levine, E. McLeay & N. S. Roberts (eds.) (1997) From Campaign to Coalition: The 1996 MMP Election. Palmerston North: Dunmore Press, 247-273.

Current Teaching

INTP/POLS 211 Special Topic: Governing Divided Societies

INTP/POLS 365 Special Topic: Challenges to the Nation-State