Bodies Of Silence And Space: Victimhood, Complicity, And Resistance In Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, Sana H. Mufti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the complexity of resistance and the conditions of power for women in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Using feminist theory, theories of neoliberalism, and Dominionism, this thesis works to understand the ways in which victimhood and complicity influence resistance in totalitarian regimes. I argue that neoliberal ideologies skew understandings of freedom, agency, and power in a way that ensures individuals, specifically women, remain trapped in the system. Focusing on reproduction, I examine how Gilead controls women’s bodies and reproductive abilities to ensure a future for itself. The Eve-Complex is one way that the state integrates itself …

Exploring Musical Knowledge Within One Canadian School Of Music: Ideology, Pedagogy, And Identity, Kyle Zavitz

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The purpose of this study was to understand how the distribution and transmission of musical knowledges impacted the identities and consciousness of agents within one Canadian school of music which was given the pseudonym Eastern Urban School of Music (EUSM). The project was framed using Basil Bernstein’s (2000) theory of the Pedagogic Device, offering a language of description to examine how forms of regulation differentially distributed various identities and forms of consciousness. Specifically, this study explored how varying modalities of classification and framing revealed competing values about what counts as legitimate and ‘excellent’ music education and who is seen as …

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 …

Voice Image: Developing A New Construct For Vocal Identity, Bethany R. Turpin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study sought to understand the nature of a singer’s relationship with their voice, a construct I call voice image. Voice image is defined as: a complex, multidimensional construct that includes self-perceptions and attitudes (i.e. thoughts, feelings, and behaviours) with regard to the voice. This definition is modified from Avalos et al’s (2005) definition of body image. The relationship a singer has with their voice is complicated. Vocal pedagogy texts may acknowledge that this relationship exists, but they do not offer teachers guidance or information. Music education and music psychology research address singer or non-singer identity, stereotypes and personalities …

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 …

Clothed In History: Costume And Medievalism In Fantasy Film And Television, Avery Lafortune

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines representations of the medieval in popular fantasy film and television. Emphasizing costume design, this paper explores themes of identity, nation, past and present. Analysis is organized through three case studies, Andrew Adamson’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ Game of Thrones (2011-2019). Each work demonstrates different strategies for constructing the past and referencing history to authenticate fantastic worldbuilding. They exist within broader traditions of medievalism and exploring present concerns through the veil …

Rui(N)Ation: Narratives Of Art And Urban Revitalization In Detroit, Jessica Ks Cappuccitti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation considers the City of Detroit as a case study for analyzing the complex role that artists and art institutions are playing in the potential re-growth and revitalization of the city. I specifically look at artists and arts organizations who are working against the popular narrative of Detroit as “ruin city.” Their efforts create counter narratives that emphasize stories of survival and showcase vibrant communities. By focussing on artist-led and institutional initiatives, I emphasize the importance of art in both community and narrative-building.

This research has taken the form of a written dissertation and two adapted projects, and positions …

Rethinking Individuality In Quantum Mechanics, Nathan Moore

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

One recent debate in philosophy of physics has centered whether quantum particles are individuals or not. The received view is that particles are not individuals and the standard methodology is to approach the question via the structure of quantum theory. I challenge both the received view and the standard methodology. I contend not only that the structure of quantum theory is not the right place to look for conditions of individuality that quantum particles may or may not satisfy, but also that there is an important role for traditional metaphysics to play. Consequently, my work brings together the philosophy of …

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 …

"I Have A Seat In The Abandoned Theater": Post-Foundational Subjects, Inoperative Teleologies, And The Aesthetics Of Dispossession, Averil L. Novak

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

What is the nature of political ‘reality,’ and in what ways are we capable of affecting it? Who (or what? and where?) is the subject of democratic politics? Of revolutionary politics? Are they opposed to one another? The grand narratives that ‘ground’ this project and the resistances that unground them form the basis for a post-foundational analytic of the subject of politics, of identity, and of community, which constitutes a mobilization of democratic resistance as a commitment to persistent (and in some cases, relentless) contestation, interruption, and disruption. These questions are explored through the argument that modern politics is …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Neither Here Nor There: Northern Ireland, Myth, And The People In Between, Amanda L. Judge

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Northern Ireland is often portrayed in political, journalistic, and academic literature as having two main communities – Catholic/Irish/nationalist/republicans and Protestant/British/unionist/loyalists. This study argues that there is a Third Community in Northern Ireland that consists of political moderates, those who resist categorization into these two communities, and those who consistently defy traditional communal boundaries. Through an examination of primary and secondary sources, including political party literature, the press, web sites, poetry, short stories, music, and important academic studies, this community is depicted in great detail. It has a history and a mythology in addition to its own political ideals, symbolism, and …

'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 …

Book Review: Mitchell, R., Tracy-Ventura, N., & Mcmanus, K. (Eds.). (2015). Social Interaction, Identity And Language Learning During Residence Abroad., Roswita Dressler

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

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. …

"I" Am Not "I" Anymore: Negation, Doubling And Identity In Roman Polanski's The Tenant And Max Frisch's Stiller, Parastoo Alaeddini

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis is a comparative study of Roman Polanski 1976 pyschological thriller The Tenant and Max Frisch’s 1954 novel Stiller. It explores the multi-layered and multivalent nature of the director’s film and the author’s novel by analyzing them through various theoretical lenses. While focusing on the (re)construction and destruction of the protagonists’ identities, it unfolds the multiple levels of meaning pertinent to various literary and cinematic motifs, including the double, suicide, projection, and fiction making. The first chapter explores the dynamics of the conflict between the societal and personal identities of the protagonists. The second chapter highlights the defense mechanisms- …

Language Contact And Identity In Roman Britain, Robert Jackson Woodcock

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Language is one of the most significant aspects of cultural identity. This thesis examines the evidence of languages in contact in Roman Britain in order to determine the role that language played in defining the identities of the inhabitants of this Roman province.

All forms of documentary evidence from monumental stone epigraphy to ownership marks scratched onto pottery are analyzed for indications of bilingualism and language contact in Roman Britain. The language and subject matter of the Vindolanda writing tablets from a Roman army fort on the northern frontier are analyzed for indications of bilingual interactions between Roman soldiers and …

In The Thick Of National Consciousness: Difference And The Critique Of Identity In Elias Khoury’S Little Mountain And Salman Rushdie’S Midnight’S Children, Karim Abuawad

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How should the relationship between literary texts and nationalism be explained? What is the difference between texts that resist nationalism’s logic aesthetically and those that do so discursively? The answers to these questions form the core of this study whose central inquiry focuses on how the internal operations of fictional narrative handle the persistent depositories of national culture represented by a visceral bond between individual and nation. Most crucially, the potential of unraveling this resilient bond is located in the narrative’s aesthetic operations, not in its discursive pronouncements, irrespective of how critical such pronouncements may be.

Rather than promoting …

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 …

Constructing ‘Farmer’ And ‘State’ Identities In Moral Discourses About Semi-Subsistence Agriculture In North-East Brazil, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

Anthropological analysis elucidates how discourses about agriculture in one North-east Brazilian community reflect relational roles of citizens and the state, the position of farmers in society, and the relationship of individuals to their work. In these discourses, farmers are positioned as moral, hard-working, autonomous citizens, justifying their participation in low-paying activities. The declining numbers of agricultural workers is explained as a result of individual laziness or government irresponsibility. In using these discourses to take stances publicly on agricultural issues, speakers assign responsibilities and moral status to agents. In constructing rural identities, such moral discourses emphasise the symbolic value of subsistence …

Casta Painting And The Characterization Of Colonial Mexican Identities, Natalia Caldas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis will examine the emergence of the casta painting genre in eighteenth century New Spain and elements of identity formation in the characterization of colonial subjects. Through the use of a database and close reading of paintings, a corpus of 370 paintings were studied and analyzed. A total of 1471 casta characters were extracted from said paintings and the relationship between actions performed, objects, and to each other was analyzed. In using this methodology results point to the significant historical division between the social communities and colonial society. By focusing on the study of particular characters fractures in imposed …

Turning To See Otherwise, Jennifer L. Martin

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis dossier, in combination with an exhibition at the McIntosh Gallery, considers whether an archival collection can generate an alternative narrative other than that which may already exist in the original film and photographic documents. Rather than represent a singular truth, I seek to articulate the transformative realities of collective memory by re-orienting the material for broader viewer identification. I have mined photographic and filmic materials from a personal family archive to focus fragments that specifically record the gesture of the turning face—the turning towards the observer. This “turn” then includes both the turn towards the initial film-maker embedded …

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 …

Interacciones Narrativas Árabe, Cristiana Y Judía: Convivencia Literaria En El Medievo Peninsular, David Navarro

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation develops a critical study based on identity theory, intergroup relations, and social discourse of the cultural symbiosis forged between the three religious communities of the Medieval Iberian Peninsula - Christians, Jews and Muslims - as reflected in four books written during this period, from the eleventh to the fourteenth century. In the case of Medieval Iberian literature, Semitic culture and traditions were absorbed along with Christian traditions in the development of a future Spanish identity that was reflected in the literary framework. Through this analysis and this theoretical framework it was possible to determine how intergroup contact affected …

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 …