Rachel McLay is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University. As a research associate with the Rural Futures Research Centre, she has conducted and analyzed several surveys on political, socio-cultural, and environmental change in Atlantic Canada. She has also studied the experiences of childhood immigrants and refugees for the Child and Youth Refugee Research Coalition. An advocate for public sociology, she does research and writing that engages with public audiences and aims to influence policymakers. Her SSHRC-funded doctoral research is focused on political culture and change in Atlantic Canada.