Vandna Bhatia
Comparative public policy; Health policy; Social policy; Canadian public policy and politics
| Degrees: | BSc, MHSc (Toronto) PhD (McMaster) |
| Phone: | 613-520-2600 x 3514 |
| Email: | vandna.bhatia@carleton.ca |
| Office: | Office of the Dean of Public Affairs, D391 Loeb Building |
Assistant Professor
Professor Bhatia holds a PhD in Public Policy (2005) from McMaster University, a Master of Health Science in Health Administration (1993) and a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (1989), both from the University of Toronto.
Professor Bhatia’s research is in the fields of comparative public policy and Canadian politics. She has a particular interest in the role of ideas and discourse in the politics of health care reform, and how political discourses shape the construction of policy problems, and the strategies and solutions proposed to address them. Her current research focuses on understanding and explaining policy termination, and the ways in which populist discourses (re)shape the policymaking process and decisions.
Her teaching draws on her research interests: she teaches courses in comparative public policy, and theories of public policy at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. She also teaches courses in research methods.
Professor Bhatia is currently Associate Dean (Academic) in the Faculty of Public and Global Affairs.
Selected Publications
Bhatia, V. (2025). How do populist discourses influence policy termination?. Policy & Politics (published online ahead of print 2025). https://doi.org/10.1332/03055736Y2025D000000071
Bhatia, V. and M. Haussman (2015). Internal Variations in Health-Care Federalism in Canada and the US. Revue Fédéralisme Régionalisme, 14: Étudier les systèmes fédéraux à travers le prisme du genre.
Bhatia, V., and Orsini, M. (2013) Narrating Sustainability in Canadian Health Care Reform Discourse. Social Policy & Administration, 50: 297–315. doi: 10.1111/spol.12103.
Bhatia, V. (2010). Social rights, civil rights, and health reform in Canada. Governance, 23(1), 37-58. https://doi-org.proxy.library.carleton.ca/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2009.01466.x
Bhatia V., Coleman W. (2003). Ideas and Discourse: Reform and Resistance in the Canadian and German Health Systems. Canadian Journal of Political Science 36(4):715-739. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0008423903778822