Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Illusory Inclusion: The Underlying Racial Barriers In Civil Defense 1950 - 1965, Hayley R. Dick

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Between the years of 1950 and 1965, evacuations and sheltering were used to ensure the protection of American civilians from a nuclear threat. However, not all Americans were able to employ these safety measures to prominent racial hierarchy within civil defense policy. This thesis explores the distribution, attainability, and utilization of civil defense to and by Black Americans. It examines the demographic, societal, and financial discrepancies between white and Black Americans employing census information, federal documents, and newspaper distribution. Owing to deep-rooted disparities in income between white and Black Americans, demographics, and racial ideals, this thesis argues that Black Americans …

The Moral And Political Status Of Microaggressions, Heather Stewart

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation offers a robust philosophical examination of a phenomenon that is morally, socially, and politically significant – microaggressions. Microaggressions are understood to be brief and routine verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities that, whether intentional or unintentional, convey hostility toward or bias against members of marginalized groups. Microaggressions are rooted in stereotypes and/or bias (whether implicit or explicit) and are connected to broader systems of oppression.

Microaggressions are philosophically interesting, since they involve significant ambiguity, questions about speech and communication, and the ability for our speech to encode and transmit bits of meaning. Microaggressions prompt reflection about the nature of …

Rooted In History: Representations Of Ethiopian Identities In Canada, Nassisse Solomon

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In his exploration of overlapping territories and intertwined histories, Edward Said declares “appeals to the past, are among the commonest of strategies in interpretations of the present.” Ethiopians and other interrelated Horn-of-African groups living in the Diaspora embody the tenets of Said’s argument. This observation led to a search for modalities to interpret the meanings of how and why this was the case. In response to this phenomenon, this research sought to ascertain the nexus between personal, cultural and national histories when reading contemporary expressions of Ethiopian identities. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this dissertation examines the historical roots of …

Colonial Education As A Mode Of Governance In The Philippines Under U.S. Rule, 1900-1916, David C.S. Buglass

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Concentrating on colonial education policy in the Philippines during the period of U.S. rule, this thesis explores the dynamics of knowledge circulation – namely the transfer and continuities of racial preconceptions and administrative techniques – within the American imperial enterprise. Mapping the emergence of the U.S. colonial administration in the islands with the establishment of the Taft Commission in 1900 to the move Filipino self-rule with the passage of the Philippine Autonomy Act in 1916, this thesis assesses elite commentaries and discourses concerning the management of non-white subject populations and the contingent manner in which these policies corresponded to or …

Narratives Of De/Retransition: Disrupting The Boundaries Of Gender And Time, Vanessa Slothouber

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation research draws on the lived experience of people who choose to de/retransition in order to complicate simplistic understandings of de/retransition as ‘sex change’ (or postoperative) regret. Specifically, I interpret narratives of de/retransition beyond the dominant framing of ‘sex change’ regret to analyze the ways in which these narratives produce ruptures in normative discourses that constrain trans genders and temporalities of gender transition. My research opens up space for interpreting processes of de/retransition as more complex, nuanced, and productive than they are commonly understood. The dissertation is organized in such a way that each chapter deals with narratives that …

Being A Child Bride In Nigeria: A Feminist Narrative Inquiry, Olubukola Foluke Sonibare

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis draws on narratives of northern Hausa-Fulani Nigerian women married as child brides. The aim was to gain an in-depth understanding of Child Early Forced Marriage (CEFM) as experienced by these former child brides and identify the conditions that influence their decision-making autonomy on health care services utilization. A narrative inquiry approach within an intersectional feminist lens was used to analyze the structural, social, cultural, and religious realities that shape the experiences of former child brides in Nigeria. Fifteen former child brides from rural northern Nigeria who now reside in a southern urban setting of the country completed semi-structural …

Music For Self-Attention, Jeffrey A T Lupker

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Creating an artificial intelligence aid for music composers requires a practical and modular approach that allows the composer to manipulate the technology as needed in the search for new sounds and ideas. Many existing approaches fail to capture the interest of composers as they are limited beyond their demonstrative purposes or allow minimal interaction with the composer. Score-Transformer (ST) demonstrates a practical integration of artificial intelligence to aid in the creation of new music by working seamlessly alongside any popular notation software. Furthermore, ST can be trained by the user with additional works (including their own compositions), fine-tuning it and …

Marvelous Monsters, Thomas Bourque

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Thesis Dossier, together with the MFA Thesis Exhibition Marvelous Monsters (2021), presents: a Comprehensive Artist Statement; Practice Documentation; a Case Study on Canadian artist David Altmejd; a Bibliography; and my curriculum vitae. The Practice Documentation section of this dossier highlights key pieces of my creative explorations over my time in the Visual Arts Department at Western University as well as photographic documentation of Marvelous Monsters. Taken as a whole, this MFA Thesis Dossier explores and situates immersive digital installation studio practice with research into beauty, abjection, monstrosity, hybridity, Surrealism, and speculative worlding as guided …

Una Visión Holística De La Memoria Digital Sobre El Conflicto Armado En Las Narrativas Digitales Del Centro Nacional De Memoria Histórica De Colombia, Talia Mendez

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The connective turn marks the contemporary memory boom. The omnipresence of digital media is a provocation that makes us wonder about the relationships and connections of memory with the past, present and future in the digital world (Hoskins 9).

Using a conceptual analysis based on the idea of the connective turn, this thesis shows how the National Center of Historical Memory of Colombia has been addressing the message of memory of the armed conflict through the case study of the digital narratives of the "Digital Specials", and how the message is transmitted in their Instagram profile.

The study reflects the …

Écrire À Partir (Des Traces) Du Passé. Annie Ernaux, Anny Duperey, Camille Laurens, Jia Bao Huang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Cette thèse examine la façon dont Annie Ernaux, Anny Duperey et Camille Laurens exploitent des papiers privés, des documents publics ou des rapports officiels pour écrire à partir de leur vécu de femme ou de fille. Le postulat qui se trouve au cœur de notre étude est le suivant. Les écrits de femmes qui nous préoccupent ici — et notamment les trois récits qui forment notre corpus principal (parce qu’ils se font dans l’absence de souvenirs ou ont comme point de départ une insuffisance d’informations) — croisent nécessairement la littérature et d’autres disciplines. Ce sont des écrits nés, du point …

Fleet: Nuances Of Time And Ephemera, Rebecca Sutherland

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The following MFA thesis is an investigation into tendencies emphasizing permanency in both art, and to a lesser extent, daily living. By exploring ideas surrounding temporality, the ephemeral, and permanency in the studio and the gallery by working creatively with organic material and allowing it to decay naturally, I foreground ideas surrounding “life and death,” and the way they play out in art practices.

The thesis has been separated into three main chapters, the first one being an Extended Artist Statement where I elaborate on the research interests, artistic influences and material dedication that informed my project. Practice documentation is …

Écologie Poétique-Critique De L'Économie De La Connaissance Ou Comment Inventer Une Ethnographie Littéraire Contre-Éducative, David Burty

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Ce travail cherche à circonscrire le problème de la force que pose un acte d’écriture qui se saisirait sous la forme d’un geste. Le biais spécifique des études littéraires est de désincorporer la relation entre une œuvre et sa situation. Ce biais a la fâcheuse tendance de désamorcer le contexte d’action et, par voie de conséquence de le rendre insaisissable. Pour examiner la formation du geste verbal, des échantillons tirés des oeuvres de Jean-Marie Gleize et de Charles Olson, les pictographes Ojibwe et les travaux en contre-éducation des sociologues Stein et Miller nous aideront à reconstituer les conditions de possibilité …

Are Near-Death Experiences Veridical? A Philosophical Inquiry, Monika J. Mandoki

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project is a philosophical investigation into near-death experiences (NDEs). It attempts to answer the central question: Are near-death experiences veridical? The aim of my work is to defend the veridicality of near-death experiences within the framework of idealism. However, this aim is not achieved simply by adopting an idealist standpoint. Instead, I present arguments for the reason this idealist standpoint is necessary. First, I argue that the traditional way of assessing near-death experiences is often oversimplified and carries an unnecessary bias in favour of a materialist interpretation, which eventually sets it up for a failure to demonstrate that an …

Perspectives Religieuses Et Séculaires De La Nature Dans Les Pensées Philosophiques De Denis Diderot, Aleksandra Gieralt

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Diderot écrit sa première œuvre, les Pensées philosophiques, pour déclencher une conversation à propos de la manière dont Dieu – ou l’idée de Dieu – peut servir aux êtres humains. À cause de la déclaration avec laquelle il commence ce texte – « J’écris de Dieu » – et à cause de la forme dialogique qui présente un discours entre un déiste, un athée et un sceptique, plusieurs chercheurs se demandent quel est l’avis de Diderot à propos de l’existence (ou la non-existence) de Dieu. Cependant, nous proposons que Dieu n’est qu’un point de départ pour commencer une conversation …

Artificial Frontiers, Simulated Indigeneity: Western Big-Budget Open World Games And The Settler Colonial Imaginary, Adam Bowes

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation studies Western big-budget video games of a genre often referred to as “open world.” By tracking the concept of the “frontier” as a settler colonial (and later neoliberal) signal for space that invites access, I argue these games are both expressive of and cater to settler and neoliberal cultural anxieties regarding extermination and desires for accumulative dominance. Furthermore, these games exhibit their settler colonial and neoliberal ideologies through their narratives, gameplay mechanics, and productive contexts. That exhibition of ideology comes in several formulas of settler and neoliberal cultural production identified by various fields of scholarship. This dissertation, drawing …

Capital Distress: Productive Citizenship And Mental Health In Adolescent Literature, Jeremy Tl Johnston

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation explores the complexities of adolescent mental health under neoliberal capitalism in twentieth- and twenty-first-century U.S. fiction about and for adolescents. Drawn on research that defines youth citizenship as responsibilities-based in nature, this project outlines the ways contemporary young adult (YA) novels of mental distress reveal an inextricable link between adolescent mental health and the conditions of what I term productive citizenship. Constituting my theorization of productive citizenship are three distinct tenets adolescents must adhere to: (1) displaying the motivation to achieve specific goals; (2) showing a propensity for self-reliance and individuality; and (3) accepting the translation of …

Participatory Knowledge Of Motion: Ezhianishinaabebimaadiziyaang Mii Sa Ezhianishinaabeaadisokeyaang. The Way In Which We Live, That Is The Way We Write Stories., Erin E. Huner

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This is a dissertation based upon the Customary Ways Dataset, which is comprised of 50 interviews given by Elders from Walpole Island First Nation, in 2010. The over-arching, community-designed research question that guided this dissertation was: How do the Elders of Walpole Island describe their relationship to the land? To answer this question, I co-designed a mixed-methods analysis that included traditional methods from the Social Sciences, including Grounded Theory, to establish emergent themes, and some simple statistical analysis using Chi-square and crosstab analysis. I also utilized methods closely related to the Humanities, deploying Story Mapping, Close Reading and a …

“The Seal Set On Our Nationhood”: Canadian Literary Responses To The South African War (1899-1902), Alicia C. Robinet

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation seeks to modify the widely held view that the Great War (1914-18) was the defining military event in Canadian identity by turning to Canadian literary responses to the nation’s participation in early post-Confederation overseas combats: Garibaldi’s expedition against Rome, to which a regiment of French-Canadian Papal Zouaves went in support of Pope Pius IX (1868-70); the Nile Expedition (1884-85); and the Boer or South African War (1899-1902). In exploring these literary responses, the dissertation demonstrates that the construction of a national identity was articulated through overseas military engagement long before Canada’s collective reflections on Vimy, Passchendaele, and the …

Music Sounds Better With You, M Gillian Carrabre

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Electronic Dance Music (EDM) is a catalyst for creative expression, from the solo dance form known as shuffling, to “Flow Arts” activities (forms of self-expression inducing a flow state) like poi, hula hooping, orbiting, and gloving. Gloving is a subcultural practice and artform that couples LED lights with dexterous finger movements. It is a method of expression for dance music enthusiasts (also known as ravers) and has become an important component of the EDM scene, particularly over the past decade. Glovers engage in “secondary” performances to live music (DJs) using complex techniques such as symbolism, word painting, and what the …

Personhood, Particularity, And Perichoresis: The Doctrine Of The Trinity In Identity And Faith Formation, Tabitha Petrova Edgar

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis argues for the importance of doctrine in faith formation and retention among emerging adults in contemporary Canadian Christianity. Advocating a holistic approach to faith which blends mindful doctrinal engagement with the practical and emotional aspects of faith, the thesis maintains that the relevance of doctrine has largely been underestimated by the churches. Recent cross-denominational research commissioned by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, in Hemorrhaging Faith (2012) and Renegotiating Faith (2018), is used to argue this case, alongside recent treatments of the doctrine of the Trinity. The latter is used as a case study, drawing on the work of …

“Fashionable To Be Ethnic”: Malka Marom, Yorkville Reimagined, And The Cbc’S A World Of Music, Maureen Chow

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In 1999, looking back at her 1960s career as a folk performer, Malka Marom commented that she and her former singing partner, Joso Spralja, had reached mainstream success in Canada when it was considered “fashionable to be ethnic.” Here, Malka is referring to the mid-1960s, when she was classified as an ethnic folk singer in Toronto’s Yorkville Village folk scene. She performed alongside Canadian folk “greats” such as Joni Mitchell, Gordon Lightfoot, and Ian and Sylvia. Malka and Joso released four studio albums through Capitol Records of Canada and were later chosen to host their own CBC television show, A …

Peitho, Dolos, And Bia In Three Late Euripidean Tragedies, Christian Bot

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The themes of peitho (persuasion), dolos (trickery), and bia (violence or physical force) are central to the action of the three late Euripidean tragedies that I explore: Iphigenia in Tauris, Iphigenia in Aulis, and the Bacchae. I examine how these themes influence characters' interpersonal relations, drive plot development, and determine the "mood" of each play in terms of a spectrum from optimism to pessimism.

Improving Reader Motivation With Machine Learning, Tanner A. Bohn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis focuses on the problem of increasing reading motivation with machine learning (ML). The act of reading is central to modern human life, and there is much to be gained by improving the reading experience. For example, the internal reading motivation of students, especially their interest and enjoyment in reading, are important factors in their academic success.

There are many topics in natural language processing (NLP) which can be applied to improving the reading experience in terms of readability, comprehension, reading speed, motivation, etc. Such topics include personalized recommendation, headline optimization, text simplification, and many others. However, to the …

Theories: Reconsidering Ramsey In The Philosophy Of Science, John D. Lehmann

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This work is an analysis of F. P. Ramsey's philosophy of science. Twentieth-century philosophy of science was marked by attempts to consider the relation between scientific theories and our knowledge of the empirical world through considerations of abstract mathematical structure. Such considerations led Bertrand Russell to an account of the relation between our theoretical picture of the world and its real nature as a relation of structural similarity. Subsequently, Max Newman gave what has become a well-known logico-mathematical objection to this account. William Demopoulos recently showed that Newman's problem applied not only to Russell's realist account, but also to a …

On Ground, Matthew Brown

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In supplement to my Masters of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, this dossier includes an extended artist statement, a transcribed interview with Nanaimo based abstract painter, Jonathan Forrest, and documentation of artwork produced during my studio research. The extended artist statement engages with loss, transition and incidence as these themes pertain to my art making process and its intersection with a personal tragedy that occurred part-way through my graduate studies. The statement is written in a retrospective style that acknowledges my own struggle towards an acceptance of loss and examines the evolution of my paintings during this period.

Re-Imagining Brazilian Portuguese Ipa: A Practical Guide Utilizing Paulo Maron’S New Opera Lampião, Jorge Luiz Alves Trabanco Filho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

How often have North American singers considered singing art songs or opera arias in Brazilian Portuguese? How many Brazilian Opera composers do voice students and faculty outside of Brazil know? The lack of language familiarity of Brazilian Portuguese is a barrier to Brazilian vocal music’s accessibility and performance. And the challenging learning curve may contribute to the lack of interest non-native speakers may have toward Brazilian classical music. To help address this problem, the author decided to promote the accessibility of the Brazilian Portuguese repertoire of vocal music by re-imagining/simplifying sections of the Brazilian Portuguese IPA table. This simplified table …

Waves Of Lament, Kennedy Kimber-Johnson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Waves of Lament is a five movement cycle for solo organ with a duration of 23 minutes. This cycle is a reflection of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through its five movements, this work aims to depict the different chapters of life during a global pandemic. Waves of Lament, utilizes the sounds of the organ to explore various extra-musical themes from the pandemic. The first movement explores panic and anxiety, the second looks at isolation, and the third movement explores themes of rest and reflection. The fourth movements deals with the massive amount of loss we have all experienced throughout the …

Coloquio Entre Dos Perros, Comic Chamber Opera In Nine Scenes, Sandra Rocio Fuya-Duenas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Coloquio entre dos Perros (Dialogue between two Dogs) is a comic chamber opera for four solo voices (one mezzo-soprano, one tenor and two baritones) and mixed ensemble (oboe, viola, guitar and percussion). The libretto, written in modern American Spanish, is based on the novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra entitled Coloquio que pasó entre Cipión y Berganza, perros del Hospital de la Resurrección, que está en la ciudad de Valladolid fuera de la puerta del campo, a quien comúnmente llaman los perros de Mahudes. The opera is divided into nine scenes, which relate the stories from the life of …

Shifting Discourses Of Roman Otium In Cicero, Catullus, And Sallust, Keegan Bruce

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines the transitions that the Roman discourses of otium experience between the years 60–40 bce. I examine the instances of otium in Cicero, Catullus, and Sallust to reconstruct the discourses that influenced their usages of the term, and to shed light on how elite Roman men were adjusting to their shrinking access to the political sphere as a small number of men gained power. To perform this analysis, I rely on discourse theory and leisure studies. I have identified six main usages of otium in their writings: otium as free time; otium as peace, or time without disturbance; …

Heavy Metal Fundraisers: Entrepreneurial Recording Artists In Platform Capitalism, Jason Netherton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Abstract

How do cultural producers square customary understandings of what it means to be authentic and autonomous creators in new contexts characterized by digital-era entrepreneurial pressures and online platform-mediated financial opportunities? This study examines how heavy metal recording artists experience these pressures; how some of them engage in platform-based crowdfunding, argue over its legitimacy, and rationalize varying degrees of acceptance and dependence. First, my analysis centers on a case study which follows the experiences of a progressive metal band as they navigate a new financial relation in conjunction first with the fundraising platform Pozible and then the patronage-based crowdfunding platform …