Introduction
Dr. Olga Talal is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity at Queen's University. Dr. Talal is interested in nationalism and ethnicity, minority rights, public policy toward minorities and obtained a PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University, Canada in 2020, a M.A in Political Science and a B.A in Political Science and Communication from the University of Haifa, Israel.
Expert
I am a Postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democracy and Diversity at Queen's University. I obtained a PhD in Political Studies from Queen’s University, Canada in 2020, a M.A in Political Science and a B.A in Political Science and Communication from the University of Haifa, Israel.
I am interested in nationalism and ethnicity, minority rights, and public policy toward minorities. My research integrates comparative nationalism studies and public administration approaches focusing on institutions, parliamentary politics, bureaucratic politics, and policy-making. My research has been published in Comparative Political Studies, and I have a forthcoming article in Politics & Policy.
Currently, I am working with my colleagues from Queen's University on the Minority Wellbeing Index. We explore how ethnic minorities develop and sustain democratic agency under conditions of structural inequality in majoritarian states. The project focuses on minorities in several Eastern and Central European states: Russian speakers in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Poles in Lithuania, and Hungarians in Romania and Slovakia.
Fields of expertise: Education, Inclusive social development / inclusive societies / social inclusion, Policy design and delivery