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Jana Walkowski

Jana Walkowski

Doctoral Candidate

She/Her | MA, Political Science (McGill University); BAH, Global Development Studies (Queen's University)

Political Studies

Queen's University

jana.walkowski@queensu.ca

Mackintosh-Corry Hall, B302

Supervisor: Dr. Susanne Soederberg

Research Interests

Global Political Economy; Comparative Political Economy; Critical Security Studies; Migration Studies; Urban Geography; Refugees; Housing; Homelessness; Public Policy

Biography

Jana S. Walkowski is a doctoral candidate and CMHC-SSHRC Housing Research Scholar in the Department of Political Studies at Queen’s University, specializing in international relations (international political economy) and comparative politics. Her overarching research interests are driven by two central questions: 1) how are mobility rights, citizenship rights and critical material resources distributed in society? And (2) who benefits from existing modes of governing global displacement? She is particularly interested in the interconnections between urban, national, regional and global relations of power that shape dominant configurations of migration governance in the context of what many IPE scholars have labelled a poly-crisis. These interests are reflected in her dissertation research which interrogates the political economy of governing refugee shelter across two urban contexts: Toronto, Canada and Berlin, Germany. Jana holds a master’s degree in political science from McGill University and a bachelor’s degree in Global Development Studies from Queen’s University. Outside her research you can find her training for triathlons and local running events, walking by the waterfront or reading her favourite books in local coffee shops.

Awards

  • CMHC-SSHRC Housing Research Doctoral Scholarship Award (2026-2027)
  • SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship (2025-2026)
  • DAAD German Studies Grant (2025)
  • Sir Edward Peacock Research Award, (2025, 2026)
  • W.C. Good Memorial Fellowship (2024)
  • Dean’s Fieldwork Grant, (2024)
  • Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25).
  • SHRC Canada Graduate Scholarship – Master's (2020-2021)

Teaching Experience

Teaching Fellow

  • POLS 590 - Undergraduate Honours Thesis (Fall 2025, Winter 2026)

Teaching Assistant

  • POLS 242 - Comparative Politics: Contemporary regimes (Winter 2024)
  • POLS 384 - Strategies of Political Research (Fall 2023, Fall 2022)
  • POLS 262 - International Political Economy (Winter 2023)
  • DEVS 101 - Introduction to International Development (Fall 2022)
  • POLS 110 - Introduction to Politics and Government (Fall 2021, Winter 2021)

Selected Publications

'Social Reproduction and the Grassroots Refugee Sector: The Politics of Depletion in Berlin’, 38th Annual Conference, Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics (SASE) (Bordeaux, July 1-4, 2026)

‘Producing Refugee Shelter Insecurity Through Austerity Urbanism: Interrogating the Ad-Hoc Financing of Refugee Shelter in Toronto, Annual Conference, Canadian Political Science Association (Ottawa, June-2-4, 2026)

‘Disciplining Uneven Mobilities and Displacements: Interrogating the Migration Infrastructures that shape Toronto’s “Refugee Housing Crisis’, Annual Conference, International Studies Association (ISA) (Chicago, March 1-5, 2025)

Exploring the Performative Borderwork of the European Union’s Bordering Practices through the method of Critical Visual Discourse Analysis”, Annual Conference, Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) (Montreal, June 12-24, 2024)

Depoliticizing border externalization through development: An analysis of the EU’s Emergency Trust Fund for Africa Instrument”, Annual Convention, International Studies Association (ISA), (Montreal, March 15-18, 2023)

Walkowski, J. Precarious Initial Reception and Refugee Shelter Insecurity in Toronto. Forthcoming In A. Friendly & A. P. Pimentel Walker (Eds.), Routledge handbook on precarious housing. Routledge.