ACADIA ALERT - Delayed Campus Opening (Weather)

Acadia University will delay opening campus on Monday, January 19, 2026 until 1:00pm. All classes starting at 1:00pm and later will continue as scheduled. Conditions on campus will be assessed throughout the morning and if there is a need to remain closed a follow up message will be sent.

Employees and students are not expected to come to campus until it opens. Residences will be accessible, and Wheelock Dining Hall will be open.

Updates will be posted on www.acadiau.ca and pre-recorded on Acadia’s Information Line: 902-585-4636 (585-INFO). If you need emergency-related information, please contact the Department of Safety and Security by calling 902-585-1103.

(Monday January 19, 2026 @ 5:51 am)

Liam Swiss

Liam Swiss Photo

Department Head, Professor

Office:  BAC 309
Phone: (902) 585-1273
Email:  liam.swiss@acadiau.ca

Office Hours (Fall 2025)
TBC

Education
BA Hon (Calgary), MA (Carleton), PhD (McGill)

Research/Teaching Interests

  • Sociology of Development
  • Gender
  • Globalization
  • Political Sociology
  • Canadian Foreign Policy
  • Research Methods

Teaching (2025-2026)

Winter 2026
SOCI 2013-WI01, Introduction to Social Data Analysis
SOCI 2013-WI02, Introduction to Social Data Analysis

WEBSITE:

www.liamswiss.com

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS 

Wei, Qian and Liam Swiss (2022). "Filling Empty Promises? Foreign Aid and Human Rights Decoupling, 1981-2011." The Sociological Quarterly. 63(1):134-153.

Swiss, Liam and Princess C. Ilonze (2021). "Taking Foreign Aid and Decoupling Seriously: A Framework for Research." Third World Quarterly. 42(7):1455-1474.

Henson, Spencer, John-Michael Davis and Liam Swiss (2021). "Understanding Public Support for Canadian Aid to Developing Countries and the Role of Information." Development Policy Review. 40: e12550.

Swiss, Liam (2021). "The Globalisation of Foreign Aid: Global Influences and the Diffusion of Aid Priorities." pp. 113-25 in The Palgrave Handbook of Development Cooperation for Achieving the 2030 Agenda: Contested Collaboration, edited by S. Chaturvedi, H. Janus, S. Klingebiel, X. Li, A. d. Mello e Souza, E. Sidiropoulos and D. Wehrmann. Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Morton, Sam E., Judyannet Muchiri and Liam Swiss (2020). "Which Feminism(S)? For Whom? Intersectionality in Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy." International Journal. 75(3):329-48.

Tiessen, Rebecca, Heather Smith and Liam Swiss (2020). "Canada’s Evolving Feminist Foreign Policy: Lessons Learned from 2017 to 2020." International Journal. 75(3):294-97.

Davis, John-Michael and Liam Swiss (2020). "Need, Merit, Self-Interest or Convenience? Exploring Aid Allocation Motives of Grassroots International NGOs." Journal of International Development. 32(8):1324-45.

Dawson, Andrew, and Liam Swiss (2020). "Foreign aid and the rule of law: Institutional diffusion versus legal reach" The British Journal of Sociology. 71(4): 761-784.

Davis, John-Michael, Spencer Henson and Liam Swiss (2020). "In INGOs We Trust? How Individual Determinants and the Framing of Ingos Influences Public Trust" Development in Practice. 30(6):809-24.

Banchani, Emmanuel, and Liam Swiss (2019). "The Impact of Foreign Aid on Maternal Mortality"  Politics & Governance. 7(2): 53-67.

Gulrajani, Nilima, and Liam Swiss (2019). "Donorship norms in a state of flux" In I. Olivié & A. Pérez (eds.), Aid Power and Politics (pp. 199-222). London: Routledge.

Gulrajani, Nilima, and Liam Swiss (2019).  "Donor proliferation to what ends? New donor countries and the search for legitimacy" Canadian Journal of Development Studies. 40(3): 348-368.

Swiss, Liam (2018). The Globalization of Foreign Aid: Developing Consensus. London: Routledge.

Fallon, Kathleen M., Alissa Mazar, and Liam Swiss (2017). "The Development Benefits of Maternity Leave" World Development. 96: 102-118.

Swiss, Liam (2017). "Foreign Aid Allocation from a Network Perspective: The Effect of Global Ties" Social Science Research. 63: 111-123.

Swiss, Liam (2016). "World Society and the Global Foreign Aid Network" Sociology of Development. 2(4): 342-374.

Swiss, Liam (2016). "A Sociology of Foreign Aid and the World Society" Sociology Compass. 10(1): 65-73.

Swiss, Liam., and Wesley Longhofer (2015). "Membership has its privileges: Shared international organizational affiliation and foreign aid flows, 1978-2010" Social Forces. 94(4): 1769-1793.

Swiss, Liam (2015). "Space for Gender Equality in the Security and Development Agenda? Insights from Three Donors" pp. 188-211 in S. Brown & J. Grävingholt eds. The Securitization of Foreign Aid. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Swiss, Liam and Stephen Brown (2015). "The Aid Orphan Myth" Third World Quarterly. 36(2): 240-256.

Swiss, Liam (2014). "Mimicry and Motives: Canadian Aid Allocation in Longitudinal Perspective” pp. 101-124 in David Black, Stephen Brown and Molly den Heyer eds. Rethinking Canadian Aid: Foundations, Contradictions and Possibilities. Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press.

Jones, Robert C., and Liam Swiss (2014). "Gendered Leadership: The Effects of Female Development Agency Leaders on Foreign Aid Spending" Sociological Forum. 29(3): 571-586.

Anderson, Miriam J., and Liam Swiss (2014). "Peace Accords and the Adoption of Electoral Quotas for Women in the Developing World, 1990-2006" Politics and Gender. 10(1): 33-61.

Brown, Stephen, and Liam Swiss (2013). “The Hollow Ring of Donor Commitment: Country Concentration and the Decoupling of Aid Effectiveness Norms from Donor Practice” Development Policy Review. 31(6): 737-755.

Swiss, Liam, Kathleen M. Fallon, and Giovani Burgos. (2012). “Does Critical Mass Matter? Women's Political Representation and Child Health in Developing Countries” Social Forces. 91(2): 531-558.

Fallon, Kathleen M., Liam Swiss, and Jocelyn Viterna. (2012). “Resolving the Democracy Paradox: Democratization and Women’s Legislative Representation in Developing Nations, 1975-2009” American Sociological Review. 77(3): 380-408.