Rachel McNally
PhD candidate
| Degrees: | MA Political Science Carleton (2020), BA Hons Politics Acadia University (2018) |
| Email: | rachelmcnally@cmail.carleton.ca |
| LinkedIn: | Connect |
| Twitter: | Follow |
Rachel’s PhD research under the supervision of Professor James Milner considers the role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the resettlement of refugees with disabilities, 1951 to present. Rachel completed her comprehensive exams in International Relations and Public Policy.
Beyond her own research, in Fall 2024, she was a Contract Instructor in the department teaching a First-Year Seminar on the Global Politics of Refugees. Rachel was the Project Editor-in-Chief for the Local Engagement Refugee Research Network (LERRN), where she worked on the working papers series and projects about the history of solutions for refugees, the impacts of resettlement for refugees living in Kenyan refugee camps, and the representation of authors based in different regions in academic journals. She also served as Student Director at the Canadian Association for Refugee and Forced Migration Studies from 2022 to 2025.
In the past, Rachel has published work about Canada’s refugee sponsorship programs and refugee sponsorship in small and rural communities across Canada. She worked as one of the lead researchers with the project “From Anecdotes to Evidence: Research-Based Recommendations for Supporting Rural and Remote Sponsorship” funded by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada and hosted at the Prentice Institute for Global Population and Economy at the University of Lethbridge.
Recent publications
McNally, Rachel, Pascal Zigashane, Mark Okello, Arte Dagane, Abdikadir Abikar and Ochan Leomoi. 2025. ‘The ‘Not Yet’ and ‘Never’ Resettled: Individual and Communal Waiting Strategies among Refugees in Kenyan Camps’. Ethnic and Racial Studies. Special issue ‘Resettlement as an Institution’.
McNally, Rachel. 2024. “(Dis)Ability and Medical Conditions in Canadian Refugee Resettlement.” In Forced Migration in/to Canada: From Colonization to Refugee Resettlement, edited by Christina R. Clark-Kazak, 192–203. McGill-Queen’s Refugee and Forced Migration Studies Series. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
Labman, Shauna, and Rachel McNally. 2024. “Old Tensions and New Questions: The Expansion of Refugee Sponsorship.” In Research Handbook on Asylum and Refugee Policy, edited by Jane Freedman, 95–111. Elgar Handbooks in Migration. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Haugen, Stacey, Rachel McNally, and Lars K. Hallström. 2024. “Settling beyond Big Cities: A Scoping Review of the Canadian Literature on Immigration to Rural and Smaller Communities.” Canadian Geographies / Géographies Canadiennes 68 (4): 456–67.
McNally, Rachel. 2023. ‘Equally Public and Private Refugee Resettlement: The Historical Development of Canada’s Joint Assistance Sponsorship Program’. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 39 (1): 1–17.