Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Leisure In Older Adults Moving Homes, Kristin Prentice

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Moving homes is a common experience for older adults in later life. Concomitant with moving is the transition process of adapting to the new home and developing a sense of place. When older adults change residences they experience disruption in place and risk losing identities. Leisure engagement has been known to help older adults adapt to new transitions in their life, such as death of a spouse, health decline and retirement. Leisure engagement has been linked to the development of sense of home and maintaining identity when moving to residential care settings and congregate living, however, these processes are not …

Instagram Influencers And Their Youngest Female Followers, Amanda Jenkins

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this research is to gain a better understanding of the content teenage girls are surrounded by on Instagram, specifically focusing on influencer self-presentation and the impacts it can have on Instagram’s youngest female users. To do so, this research identifies and analyzes the top ten most popular influencers followed by a concentrated sample of 13–16-year-old girls. Theoretically informed qualitative analysis is used to analyze the influencers’ profiles by applying Erving Goffman’s dramaturgical approach (1956). With reference to Angela McRobbie’s (2008) work on “girl culture” and Alice Marwick’s (2015) work on “insta-fame”, the ways in which influencers code …

Quebec’S Uninhabitable Community: Identity And Community Among Anglo-Quebecer Out-Migrants, Evan A. Mardell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How do Anglo-Quebecers who have migrated to Ontario in the past 45 years perceive and negotiate their identity in relation to Quebec? Since 1971, 600 000 anglophones have left Quebec for other parts of Canada. This out-migration coincided with political tensions that influenced a complete economic and linguistic shift in power from English to French. The symbolic and literal reclamation of Quebec as a French province set the conditions for the partial erasure of the Quebec anglophone (Anglo-Quebecer) community and sense of identity. From a series of semi-structured interviews with anglophones who left Quebec within the past 45 years, I …

A Mixed-Methods Examination Of Modern Feminist Identity, Jaclyn Siegel

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Gender inequality remains a pressing social issue around the world. Due to recent social movements, feminism has become a part of the cultural zeitgeist, and an increasing number of people have begun identifying as feminists in recent years. However, many modern feminists maintain a sense of ambivalence about the movement and their place within it. This ambivalence is difficult to study because the tools designed to evaluate feminist attitudes and identity do not capture this or other important and common aspects of modern feminist identity, such as fear of stigma, solidarity with other feminists, and competence to engage in feminist …

Performing Identities, Performing Possibilities: A Music-Centered And Relational Perspective On Performance In Community Music Therapy And Music Education, Elizabeth Mitchell

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

All humans are born with musical capacity, yet many individuals have minimal access to active music-making and its affordances. This integrated-article dissertation explores the impact of participation in musical performance as it pertains to self-identity and relationship for participants who face barriers in accessing artistic engagement. Drawing upon music-centered theory from music therapy, this research celebrates the fundamentally performed and relational nature of musicking and the self and explores implications for music therapy and music education.

The first two articles explore the “Coffee House”, a community music therapy event at an adolescent mental health facility, through the voices of youth …

The Uphill Battle Of Environmental Technologies: Analysis Of Local Discourses On The Acceptance And Resistance Of Green Bin Programs, Carrie Warring

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many Canadian municipalities have been looking for alternative sustainable waste management solutions since landfill capacity has been decreasing and siting new facilities often results in vehement local opposition. In Ontario, there is no provincial mandate for organic waste diversion targets, where most large-sized municipalities have implemented a Green Bin program while other jurisdictions of varying size still have not. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore predominant and counter discourses that have resulted in Guelph sustaining a Green Bin program, while London has not implemented a Green Bin. Manuscript one explores the interaction of provincial and local municipal discourses in …

SahuhlúKhane’ UkwehuwenéHa They Learned To Speak It Again: An Investigation Into The Regeneration Of The Oneida Language, Rebecca Doxtator

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study investigated the significance of the Oneida language to two groups of Oneida speakers and learners in the Onʌyota’á:ka’ Oneida Nation of the Thames community. This study’s research questions included: (1) What is the significance of Oneida language to Oneida adult language learners who are seeking to acquire the language and what are they doing to regenerate the language? (2) What is the significance of Oneida language to Oneida adults who are conversationally fluent in Oneida language and what are they doing to regenerate the language? (3) What does an investigation into my personal relationship with Oneida language reveal? …

The Effects Of Infertility On Female Vocalist Identity, Laura Curtis

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This phenomenological research study explores the impact on female singers’ musical and gender identities when confronted with the socially stigmatized issue of infertility. Participants include women actively involved in singing (N=2), who have experienced the phenomenon of infertility. Participants were recruited primarily through the social media platform of Facebook and participated in three one-hour personal, semi-structured interviews over the course of six weeks. Interview transcripts were analyzed to isolate recurring themes within the narratives. While each participant’s experience with infertility was unique, analysis revealed a common tendency for life course alteration due to their experiences with infertility. These …

'We Are The Big Six:’ Maasai Perceptions And Organization Of Cultural Tourism In Kenya, Kara D. Kelliher

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Kenya’s wildlife has long been considered an international treasure. Travelling to the renowned Masai Mara National Reserve (MMNR) to capture the ‘big five,’ those five large wild animals considered to be Africa’s greatest, with their camera lenses, visitors will also see or even meet local Maasai living and/or working in the area. Employing ethnographic methods this research examines three sites: the Enkang Oloirien Village Homestay, Olapa village and the main entrance to the MMNR where Maasai women sell souvenirs to explore Maasai perceptions and organization of cultural tourism. Responding to literature which considers benefits from tourism to accrue when hosts …

Tanks And Tinsel: The American Celebration Of Christmas During World War Ii, Samantha Desroches

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

“Tanks and Tinsel: The American Celebration of Christmas during World War II” is an examination of the American celebration of Christmas during World War II. As the first comprehensive investigation into the most well-known holiday in Western culture and its role in shaping Americans’ experience and understanding of the war, it contributes to historical scholarship in three ways. First, it continues the trend of blending analyses of society into military-focused narratives of the war, and it expands the scope of this by fusing the literature of War and Society with that of Holiday History. Second, it challenges traditional views of …

Social Transformation And Investment In Spanish Language Learning Through International Service Learning: A Case Study, Jennifer Kozak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In the current era of globalization, universities strive to internationalize their curriculum. One popular method, is the addition of an international service learning (ISL) component to the curriculum. ISL programs focused on language learning often aspire to encourage social transformation as well as language competence. While this option is gaining popularity and has been the object of some research, the role of language in universities’ internationalization process remains under-researched, as does the role of ISL as a tool for language learning. This dissertation examines a week long ISL program involving a Canadian-Cuban university partnership. It is guided by the following …

Navigating Occupation And Identity In Parkinson's Disease: A Qualitative Exploration Of Lived Experience, Sara G. Lutz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Evidence-based practice requires that health care providers interpret the best research evidence in the context of their clinical experience, while at the same time considering client knowledge and experiences. Although health care providers are becoming increasingly skilled at the evaluation of research evidence, client values and self-identified health issues are often neglected within the evidence-based practice process. Ignoring these key aspects of person-centered practice may lead to interventions that fail to target implications of a client’s disease that are important to occupational participation and quality of life. A focus on person-centeredness is particularly important in progressive neurodegenerative disorders such as …

Hunting For (Dis)Connections In Northern Ontario: "Nature," Wild Meat, And Community In Hearst, Daphné Gagnon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis follows a group of hunters in the town of Hearst in Northern Ontario, as they move through space—from the town, to the hunting ground, and back to the home. The analysis presented draws on research that took place over a six-month period during the summer and fall of 2016 and involved a combination of library research, participant observation, 28 interviews, and numerous informal conversations. The analysis presented explores how hunting in Hearst is linked to 1) a sense of place and community membership, 2) local knowledge of, and attachment to, the surrounding “natural” environment and the regional fauna, …

Leadership Strategies For Adapting To Changes In Ontario Colleges: Tensions, Dilemmas, And Opportunities For Continuing Education Deans/Administrative Leaders, Susan C. Cluett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This exploratory case study explores unique leadership challenges facing Ontario college Continuing Education leaders as they navigate institutional responses to contemporary changes in the higher education landscape. Nine Ontario college deans/administrative leaders participated in semi-structured interviews that were analyzed using a modified version of constant comparative analysis. Adopting the theoretical perspectives of sensemaking and identity from an Interpretive stance, the analysis leads to the presentation of a conceptual model that represents the interpretation of these leaders’ experiences.

The conceptual model that emerged from this study adopts the position that sensemaking resolves identity ambiguities and is triggered by leadership challenges. These …

Skin Portraiture: Embodied Representations In Contemporary Art, Heidi Kellett

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In recent years, human skin has been explored as a medium, metaphor, and milieu. Images of and objects made from skin flesh out the critical role it plays in experiences of embodiment such as reflexivity, empathy, and relationality, expanding conceptions of difference. This project problematizes the correlation between the appearance of the epidermis and a person’s identity. By depicting the subject as magnified, fragmented, anatomized patches of skin, “skin portraiture”—a sub-genre of portraiture I have coined—questions what a portrait is and what it can achieve in contemporary art. By circumnavigating and obfuscating the subject’s face, skin portraiture perforates the boundaries …

'Gifts From Amin': The Resettlement, Integration, And Identities Of Ugandan Asian Refugees In Canada, Shezan Muhammedi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Given the current climate of the global refugee crisis it is vital to investigate why and how Canada has admitted refugees in the past. Prior to the creation of formal refugee policy, several notable resettlement initiatives occurred within the country in the postwar period including the arrival of Hungarian and Czechoslovakian refugees. This is the first academic study on the resettlement, integration, and identities of Ugandan Asian refugees who arrived in Canada between 1972 and 1974. They were the largest group of non-European and predominately Muslim refugees to arrive in Canada before the official creation of formal refugee policy in …

Irruption: Placing Theology At The Centre Of The Discourse On Church Amalgamation, John Mackenzie

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

When church attendance declines, congregational amalgamation is often looked to as a solution. To that end, institutional church bodies responsible for ecclesiastical governance offer guidance literature as a means of shepherding congregations through this complex process. As it currently exists, however, such guidance literature on how to proceed with amalgamation focuses on practical matters, and neglects a theological dimension. The aim of this paper is to highlight this paucity of theological foundation in matters of church amalgamation, and posits that this engenders sub-optimal conditions for successful congregational amalgamation outcomes. It looks primarily to Friedrich Schleiermacher for theological insights that may …

Beyond The Look Of Representation: Defamiliarization, Décor, And The Latin Feel, Juanita Lee Garcia

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This intergraded article thesis has three distinct chapters. Chapter one is an extended artist’s statement that begins with a brief overview of my artistic interests. I present the theories and frameworks that have informed my thinking in the development of my MFA project. I explain how I have undertaken a material exploration of a vinyl product, and a conceptual exploration of its use as décor to emphasize what I refer to as the ‘Latin Feel.’ The following questions are extrapolated: What is the Latin American relationship with this material? And further, what meaning does this object generate in …

The Phenomenology Of Masters Alpine Ski Racers: Experiencing Ski Racing In Old Age, Carly Litchfield

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is a study of the lived experience of ten older adult alpine ski racers in their continued participation in ski racing. The aim of this study was to gain an understanding of the experiences of these older adults as they continued to compete in ski racing. Masters skiers between the ages of 69 and 82 participated in individual interviews lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. Data analysis was completed using van Manen’s phenomenological methods and the visual technique of mind mapping. The major theme that emerged was the importance of being a ski racer to participants’ identities. The …

Thin Skin, Jason Stovall

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis contains two distinct chapters as well as a section of photographs of my paintings. The first chapter is a comprehensive artist statement that outlines my approach to image making using Heewon Chang’s autoethnographic method. This approach emphasizes cultural analysis and interpretation of the researcher’s behaviours, thoughts, and experiences in relation to others in society. Chapter two is a case study on the artist, John Brown. In addition to being a significant influence on my practice, Brown and I are both deeply concerned with representations of the body in contemporary painting as well as the formal capabilities of paint. …

Tangled Hair: Uncertain Fluid Identity, Niloufar Salimi

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dossier consists of three chapters. Chapter one is an extended artist statement within which I discuss a very particular notion of identity that acknowledges its fluidity and ever-shifting qualities. Further in this chapter, I address my studio practice processes and its overall development, as well as making a detailed comparison with Roni Horn’s drawings and also Mona Hatoum’s artwork. Chapter two is a documentation of selected works that I have made in the studio during my two-year candidacy at Western University. Each work is accompanied by a brief description. Chapter three is a case study on Shirin Neshat’s photography …

Embattled Communities: Voluntary Action And Identity In Australia, Canada, And New Zealand, 1914-1918, Steve Marti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines voluntary mobilization during the First World War to understand why communities on the social and geographical periphery of the British Empire mobilized themselves so enthusiastically to support a distant war, fought for adistant empire. Lacking a strong state apparatus or a military-industrial complex, the governments of Australia, Canada, and New Zealand relied on voluntary contributions to sustain their war efforts. Community-based voluntary societies knitted socks, raised funds to purchase military equipment, and formed contingents of soldiers. By examining the selective mobilization of voluntary participation, this study will understand how different communities negotiated social and spatial boundaries as …

Voces, Silencios, Ambigüedades Y Fantasmagorías En El Espacio Transafricano De La Narrativa De Viajes Del Siglo Xix, Dorismel Diaz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

It has been discussed that the manipulation of the image of the afrodiasporic communities in Nineteenth Century travel narratives accounts for the implementation of certain ideological practices when they were intended to be narrated. This thesis argues that the depiction of the afrodiasporic experience functions as a dual and ambiguous mechanism in which the textual incorporation of the population entails at the same time their exclusion. However, it not only reflects on the representation of black people; it also seeks to explore this ambivalence within the contact zones as well as the discursive patterns used to depict them during the …

An Examination Of Psychological Variables Influencing Perceptions Of The Self Among A Sample Of Female Exercise Initiates, Lisa Cooke

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The general purpose of this dissertation was to explore the relationship among and within cognitive variables associated with exercise initiation and maintenance in a sample of female exercise initiates.

Manuscript 1 was structured to explore the changes to exercise identity among a population of female exercise initiates (N = 78) grouped into an imagery or control condition. Previous research has found that a strong exercise identity is associated with more frequent exercise (Strachan et al., 2009) and increases over time as a person continues to exercise (Cardinal & Cardinal, 1997). Participants were assessed multiple times (weeks 0, 5, 9, …

Athletes In Song And Stone: Victory And Identity In Epinician And Epigram, Peter Miller

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ethnicity, gender, and class define the ancient Olympic athlete, but the importance of difference and identity to the body of literature associated with the ancient Olympics – especially the epinicians of Pindar and the corpus of athletic epigrams found at Olympia – has not been adequately recognized. Moreover, a holistic approach to athletic verse, in which epinician and epigram are conceptually united, is still lacking, despite the clear generic affinities of these different modes of poetry and their shared conceptual space. In order to fill this gap, my dissertation argues for a comprehensive approach to athletic verse, which is founded …

Because I Am Not Here, Selected Second Life-Based Art Case Studies. Subjectivity, Autoempathy And Virtual World Aesthetics, Francisco Gerardo Toledo Ramírez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Second Life is a virtual world accessible through the Internet in which users create objects and spaces, and interact socially through 3D avatars. Certain artists use the platform as a medium for art creation, using the aesthetic, spatial, temporal and technological features of SL as raw material. Code and scripts applied to animate and manipulate objects, avatars and spaces are important in this sense. These artists, their avatars and artwork in SL are at the centre of my research questions: what does virtual existence mean and what is its purpose when stemming from aesthetic exchange in SL?

Through a qualitative …

Nursing Identity And The Computer: The Impact Of Care Realities On Information Systems Use, Hannah S. Rasmussen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Driven by developments in technology and communication, and by social, political and economic issues, the introduction of different information systems in nursing has risen significantly in recent years. However, little is known about the understanding of these systems by the nurses who are intended to use them.

Informed by a Symbolic Interactionist approach, this research explored the experience of nurses interacting with information systems. Using grounded theory methods, the main sources of data were interviews, textual analysis and observation with nurses in three Canadian cities.

The key findings of this research are fourfold. First, the core category developed in this …

"Ça Devient Une Question D’Être Maîtres Chez Nous”: The Canadiens, Nordiques, And The Politics Of Québécois Nationalism, 1979-1984, Terry Gitersos

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation analyzes the discourses produced by the selected newspaper coverage of the Montréal Canadiens and Québec Nordiques, two professional hockey clubs based in the province of Québec, from 1979 to 1984. Sport has long provided a medium for national identification, and constitutes one the most effective institutions through which the nation is imagined. This is especially true of Canada, where ice hockey has been celebrated as the country’s national game and a window into the Canadian soul. However, sport is a malleable institution; in Québec, hockey has long served as a symbol, speaking to French Canadian national identity, imbued …

Learning From The Enemy: Identity, Conflict, And Inter-Organizational Learning, Patricia Anne Macdonald

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Conflict provides an opportunity to learn. However, conflict also activates identity and dysfunctional learning processes that protect identity. Neither the learning nor the identity literatures provide an explanation for how some organizations overcome that challenge; and relatively little research has considered the connection between identity, conflict and organizational learning.

This thesis attempts to fill this gap through a qualitative research study that examines the relationships between identity, conflict, and organizational learning, using a comprehensive practice based model of inter-organizational learning.

The specific research questions guiding this study are: What is the role of identity in organizational learning between organizations in …

The Burdens Of Body's Beauty: Pre-Raphaelite Representations Of The Body In William Morris's The Defence Of Guenevere And Other Poems (1858) And Algernon Swinburne's Poems, Thomas A. Steffler

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation studies representations of the body in the first two published volumes of Pre-Raphaelite poetry, William Morris’s The Defence of Guenevere, and Other Poems (1858) and Algernon Charles Swinburne’s Poems and Ballads, First Series (1866). These two volumes (along with Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s 1870 Poems) were disparaged as the work of the “Fleshly School of Poetry” by the critic Robert Buchanan in 1871, and this dissertation seeks to understand through close reading how the depiction of the body in the poetry of Morris and Swinburne so perturbed their contemporaries and why it continues to elude modern readers. Particularly, this …