Positions held

2025-2026 to today

Student(s), Ethics and politics

Biography

Joseph Gubbels is a PhD student in Political Theory and Canadian Politics at McGill University. He is supervised by Arash Abizadeh (McGill University). He completed a Master’s in Political Science and a Bachelor’s in Political Science and Public Administration, both at the University of Ottawa.

His main research interests are democratic theory (participatory, deliberative, populist) and new democratic practice (e-democracy, participatory policymaking, etc.). His other interests include republicanism, (post)liberalism, feminist theory, obligation and legitimacy, political parties, behavioural public policy, and cognitive science.

Joseph’s thesis critiques the liberal consent-based model of agency and political participation and aims to develop a more democratically-oriented alternative. His goal is to develop a theory that can help analyze new and emerging forms of democratic practice (especially e-democracy) and that helps inform practitioners working to develop and implement these methods.

Personal webpage

joseph.gubbels@mail.mcgill.ca