My name is Jean-Nicolas Bordeleau (he/him) — everyone calls me Nick — and I am PhD student in political science at the University of Ottawa. I work under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Stockemer, chair holder of the Konrad Adenauer Research Chair in Empirical Democracy Studies.
In 2021, I completed a Bachelor’s of Arts (Honours) in political science and psychology at the Royal Military College of Canada under the supervision of Dr. Holly Ann Garnett (political science) and Dr. Adelheid Nicol (psychology). I obtained my Master’s of Arts in political science in 2022 from the Université de Montréal under the supervision of Professors André Blais and Patrick Fournier. Throughout my master’s degree, I was affiliated with the Canada Research Chair in Electoral Democracy and the Centre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship (CSDC).
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Research Interests
My research interests are manifold, but all connect back to democracy in one way or another. I am interested in understanding how humans behave within democratic societies, especially when it comes to facing threats to democracy. This includes understanding why citizens vote and what can affect their vote, making sense of political misinformation and conspiracy beliefs, etc. The goal of my research is therefore to understand how individual citizens can be both the bulwark against the erosion of democratic principles as well as perpetrators of democratic backsliding.
Within this broader umbrella of research focus, I have worked on varied topics. Some of my recent projects examine the role of perceptions of electoral integrity on voter participation and attitudes towards democracy. A pre-print version of my manuscript “Do Unfounded Allegations of Election Fraud Influence the Likelihood of Voting?” can be found here. I also have a co-authored piece forthcoming in the Election Law Journal on the experience of voters during Canadian provincial elections held during the Covid-19 pandemic. Alongside my supervisor, I am working on a project examining conspiracy beliefs in a global comparative perspective. My review article on conspiracy theory research has been published in a new series titled “Trends in Research” in International Political Science Abstracts.
Recently, I have developed a passion for quantitative research methods and statistics. As a result, I have been engaging significantly with the methodological and statistical literatures. Some of my current projects therefore include more technical contributions, such as a forthcoming textbook introducing social science students to quantitative research methods with examples in R.
Nick Bordeleau 