Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Experiential Learning In Language Revitalization, Anthony Tran

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

Language revitalization plays a crucial role in preserving cultural diversity and identity. It serves as a conduit to reconnect communities with their ancestral roots, promoting cultural continuity and helping create a sense of belonging. Furthermore, it offers a stand against the often destructive impacts of colonization and globalization, which frequently result in language loss. In this report, I narrate my enriching journey as a student researcher, working on language revitalization alongside Dr. Tania Granadillo during an my summer internship. This unique experience extensively involved language study, understanding colonialism, and significant personal growth in self-management skills, epitomized by a challenging yet …

Polisci 3210f: Feasibility Of A National Disability Insurance Plan (Ndip) In Canada, Twana Hassan, Aditi Priya, Dylan Poole, Samantha Rubin, Ethan Chen

Community Engaged Learning Final Projects

This research report presents an overview of the feasibility and reliability of a National Disability Insurance Plan (NDIP) in Canada. Several Global North countries are leading the way in disability legislation and disability funding in comparison to Canada's inaction on the matter. A National Disability Insurance Plan in Canada will have social and economic benefits for everyone in Canada. The report concluded that Canada is capable of implementing a NDIP and doing so is the right choice.

Stories Of Words, Numbers, And Communities: My Usri Research And Speak Fluent Marketing Internship Experiences, Choi Sze Leung

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

This report illustrates my experiential-learning opportunities, which took the form of two internships. In the summer of 2021, I worked as a marketing intern at Speak Fluent Speech Services, a speech clinic that provides speech and communication training for adults. Aside from designing posters for the clinic’s social-media campaigns, I also had the opportunity to write creative and professional copy and compile a campaign's key performance metrics into a marketing report. In my second internship, I was a research student in the Undergraduate Student Research Internship (USRI) program in the Anthropology department. In this internship, I conducted linguistics anthropology research …

Are Saviour Siblings A Special Case In Procreative Ethics?, Elizabeth Finneron-Burns, Caleb Althorpe

Political Science Publications

Children conceived in order to donate biological material to save the life of an already existing child are known as 'saviour siblings'. The primary reasons that have been offered against the practice are: (i) creating a saviour sibling has negative impacts on the created child and (ii) creating a saviour child represents a wrongful procreative motivation of the parents. In this paper we examine to what extent the creation of saviour siblings actually presents a special case in procreative ethics. Although we do not deny that there is a unique feature present in the saviour sibling case—namely, that the child …

Bureaucratic Sorceries In The Third Policeman: Anthropological Perspectives On Magic & Officialdom, Alexandra Irimia

Languages and Cultures Publications

This article discusses The Third Policeman through the lens of a dialectic of enchantment and disenchantment that is firmly anchored in the history of anthropological discourse on bureaucracy (Malinowski, Lévi-Strauss, Tambiah, Herzfeld, Graeber, Jones). From this angle, Flann O’Brien’s novel is examined as an aesthetic illustration of an essentially anthropological argument: although bureaucracy has been described as an eminently rational form of social systematisation, regulation, and control (since Weber), it also functions, paradoxically, as a symbolic site for irrationality and supernatural occurrences, haunted by madness, mystery, and delusion. The novel is intriguing partly due to its nonchalant, humorous entwining of …

My Experience As A Phonetics Research Assistant, Damaris Holmes

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

When my exchange was shortened due to COVID-19, I had the opportunity to undertake a part-time research assistant position with Dr. Jeff Tennant in the French and Linguistics departments at Western. Our project studied the rhythm and intonation of the speech of Franco-Ontarians. This paper serves as a description and reflection of this experiential learning opportunity. Specifically, it explores the challenges of operating within a multi-year project timeline as well as dealing with imposter syndrome as a student new to true research.

This project examined the spoken language of bilingual Ontarians to determine if the classically distinct rhythm patterns of …

What Moves You?: Georges Didi-Huberman’S Arts Of Passage And Pittsburgh Stories Of Migration, Alexandra Irimia

Languages and Cultures Publications

Contemporary art historian, critic, and theorist Georges Didi-Huberman thinks of images not as static objects, but as movements, passages, and gestures of memory and/or desire. For the French “historian of passing images,” as he has been called, “all images are migrants. Images are migrations. They are never simply local” (D2017). His book, Passer, quoi qu'il en coûte ("To Pass at Any Price"), co-written with the Greek poet and director Niki Giannari, takes on precisely the visual dynamics of passages, passengers, and passageways in the context of contemporary migration flows. In April 2018, only several months after the launching of the …

Terrorism And Its Legal Aftermath: The Limits On Freedom Of Expression In Canada’S Anti-Terrorism Act & National Security Act, Percy Sherwood

FIMS Publications

This analysis aims to demonstrate how s. 83.221 in Bill C-51 is likely to violate freedom of expression guaranteed under the Charter. The first section employs the two-step Irwin Toy analysis to show that the speech offense infringes upon s. 2(b) of the Charter. The second section uses the Oakes test to determine whether the breach of freedom of expression is a reasonable limit. On whether the speech offense can be justified under s. 1 of the Charter as a reasonable limit, the legislation fails at the third and fourth step of the Oakes test. Section three of this paper …

Interdisciplinary Lens On Indigenous Health Iniquities: Planning, Nursing, Anthropology, Geography, Education, Chantal Francouer, Alana Kehoe, Ivy Tran, Steven Vanloffeld, Lillian Woroniuk, Jacob Renaud

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Indigenous peoples experience poorer health outcomes on almost every measure of health and wellbeing, when compared to the rest of Canada. For decades researchers have been working independently on addressing health inequalities, yet little progress has been made on closing the gap. This Discipline-specific way of thinking is too narrow and neglects indigenous ideologies of holistic approaches to health. An interdisciplinary approach to indigenous health research provides a more collaborative and integrated opportunity to address the multidimensional aspects of health. This paper has the goals to contribute to the limited research on interdisciplinary indigenous health research.

Sfns Household Economic Leakage Project, Elissa Noah

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Southern First Nation Secretariat (SFNS) is an organization appointed to seven local member First Nation communities that commits to bridge programs and services for enriched communities while respecting the diversity of culture, values, and traditions. First Nations people make up 4.9% of Canada’s population with 634 communities. First Nation economy circumstances are widely diverse and often uncertain. The relationship is mostly unknown. Therefore, the purpose of the economic leakage project is to help determine how much SFNS member First Nations' governments spend outside of their communities, and how it can be recaptured to enhance their economies and well-being.

Real Life Sociology: A Canadian Approach, Kristin Longdo, Anabel Quan-Haase

Head and Heart Posters 2019

Together, the authors have edited Anabel Quan-Haase’s previously written textbook Real Life Sociology: A Canadian Approach, a textbook used in the first year course Introduction to Sociology, to implement more Indigenous content into each chapter. Our motive with modifying the content in this textbook is to give first-year or new students a chance to learn about Canada’s history. Ideally, implementing such content into this textbook will make future students not only aware of what their fellow brothers and sisters have endured, but how they continue to suffer. We can not change the past, but we can shape the future. Young …

Language Imperialism In Post-Colonial Ghana: Linguistic Recovery And Change, Rikki Bergen

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In this paper, Bergen explores the affects of colonialism on language rights in Ghana. With approximately eighty languages spoken, Ghana is a linguistically rich and diverse country with a colonially-imposed language as the only state-sponsored language. By examining the linguistic, political, economic, educational, and cultural context of what was once the Gold Coast the paper discusses the factors that keep a system of linguistic imperialism in place. Secondary research is used to provide an introduction to the genealogical language families present in post-colonial Ghana and the customs and laws that govern their usage. By identifying the nuances that keep this …

Web.Isod.Es Cel, Aman Kular

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Presentations

For her CEL, Aman interned at WEB.ISOD.ES in London, Ontario, working on producing a documentary discussing the recent implementation of Basic Income by the Conservative Provincial government. Aman learned valuable research skills and communications skills while working on this project and was excited to work in politics.

Woodland Cemetery Cel, Mickey Juranka

SASAH 4th Year Capstone and Other Projects: Publications

In this Final Report of his CEL Experience, Mickey gives an overview of the work he completed for the Woodland Cemetery, reflects on how the skills he's honed through SASAH affected his work, further reflects on the experience of creating and delivering the final presentation, and discusses the impact the work may have on his career prospectives after graduation this spring.

Using Gis And Mapping Tools To Access And Visualize Archival Records: Case Studies And Survey Results Of North American Archivists And Historians, Tom Belton

Western Libraries Publications

Online map interfaces and GIS software are means of accessing and visualizing archival holdings associated strongly with places. This article investigates the possibility of an interest among at least some archivists and historians in finding records based on place names and maps. A review of recent tools and case studies on map-based methods of seeking and visualizing information in archives and special collections provides a current overview. A 2015 survey gathered additional information from archivists as to whether they place a high priority on, and are comfortable with, map-based methods, as well as to what extent their patron groups might …

Building And Maintaining Lgbtq+ Picture Book Collections, Alissa Droog, Danielle Bettridge, Alyssa R. Martin, Ashleigh Yates-Mackay

FIMS Publications

The LGBTQ+ community has had to continuously fight for their rights, including their right to be represented in the library. This toolkit provides instruction on how to develop and manage a library collection of LGBTQ+ children’s picture books. It is split into four sections that include a guide to evaluating materials, recommended picture books, a guide to fighting censorship, and a list of recommended resources.

Hannah And Her Sisters: Theorizing Gender And Leadership Through The Lens Of Feminist Phenomenology, Rita A. Gardiner Ph.D

Education Publications

This article explores how feminist phenomenology can add conceptual richness to gender and leadership theorizing. Although some leadership scholars engage with phenomenological and existential inquiry, feminist phenomenology receives far less attention. By addressing this critical gap in the scholarship, this article illustrates how feminist phenomenology can enrich gender and leadership scholarship. Specifically, by engaging with the work of four women existential phenomenologists - Hannah Arendt, Simone de Beauvoir, Iris Marion Young, and Sara Ahmed, the rich diversity of phenomenological inquiry is explored. First, Arendt shows the benefits of conceptualizing leadership as collective action, rather than as concentrated in one person, …

Reflection/Commentary On A Past Article: “A Practical Iterative Framework For Qualitative Data Analysis”, Prachi Srivastava, Nick Hopwood

Education Publications

This submission is a reflection by Srivastava and Hopwood on their earlier article, A Practical Iterative Framework for Qualitative Data Analysis, originally published in International Journal of Qualitative Methods in 2009, and selected for the journal’s special anniversary issue, “Top 20 in 20.” They discuss how they have applied the framework in their various studies since then, Srivastava, primarily in field-based international research in education and global development, and Hopwood, in education and health. Based on a brief analysis of the paper’s citations, they identify its impact to have been: in a wide variety of fields crossing disciplinary boundaries, studies …

The Protection Of Indigenous Intellectual Property Rights, Melissa Seelye

FIMS Presentations

Librarians and archivists have played prominent roles in initiatives aimed at preserving indigenous cultural heritage in recent decades. Such initiatives have evolved in response to the relative lack of legal protections for indigenous cultural heritage of an intangible nature, especially compared to title laws intended to regulate the use of indigenous lands, burial sites, and plants. Even non-legally binding resolutions that take a holistic approach to indigenous property have proven contentious, with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) having only been ratified in 2007, despite being drafted in 1993. Grounded in a critical understanding of …

Adult Statistical Word Segmentation Across Two Speakers, Hosung Kang

2017 Undergraduate Awards

A finding reliably demonstrated in past research is that statistical learning mechanism facilitates the process of learning language. What remain poorly understood are the effects of multiple speakers in infants and adults learning a statistical artificial language. This study sought to examine the effects of two different speakers in adults because previous literature has suggested that infants lack the ability to segment words when the speech stream consists of two different speakers. Therefore, our experiment sought to understand if 1) adults could successfully segment words across two different speakers and 2) if they can generalize segmentation to a novel voice. …

Adoptability And Acceptability Of Peace Journalism Among Afghan Photojournalists: Lessons For Peace Journalism Training In Conflict-Affected Countries, Saumava Mitra

Media Studies Publications

In this article, I seek to inform Peace Journalism (PJ) edu­cation and training in conflict-affected countries in par­ticular. Based on a case study of the professional expe­riences of Afghan photojournalists, I offer insights into the acceptability and adoptability of PJ practice by jour­nalists from conflict-affected countries. I present six key findings of a larger study on Afghan photojournalists in this article and discuss the lessons they hold for PJ train­ing in conflict-affected countries. In sections 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, I provide some important theoretical, contextual and methodological background. In section 6, I discuss three professional adversities faced by …

Speech Equality: A Gendered Analysis Of Children’S Television Shows, Rikki N. Bergen

Anthropology Presentations

Childhood is an exciting time and kids are just learning who they are and who they are expected to be. The role television plays in their understanding of gender, racial, cultural, economic and social identity cannot be denied and it is therefore important for scholars to examine the types of ideas that are being presented. The gendered attitudes portrayed both explicitly and implicitly in children’s television shows can have a negative effect on childhood development and a child’s perceptions of self and the world around them.

Dh And The Digital Archive, Cal Murgu

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.

‘Innocence Is As Innocence Does’: Anglo-Irish Politics, Masculinity And The De Cobain Gross Indecency Scandal, 1891-3, Cal Murgu

FIMS Publications

This article reconstructs the circumstances of the little-known Edward S. W. De Cobain gross indecency scandal in the early 1890s. I examine its significance to Victorian notions of class, Anglo-Irish politics and gender performativity through an analysis of newspaper reporting, personal correspondence and court documents. Edward De Cobain, Member of Parliament for East Belfast, became the focus of attention after serious allegations of attempted buggery were launched against him. De Cobain absconded from Britain upon word of the charges, but he continued to maintain his innocence while abroad until his eventual incarceration in 1893. In this article I revisit this …

The Model Minority Myth: (Benevolent) Racism Against (Asian) Americans, Angel Leung

2016 Undergraduate Awards

Asians and Asian Americans are considered the most well-to-do racialized groups in twenty-first century U.S. Their identity and ontology are incontrovertibly influenced by the model minority myth, a stereotype that envelops them as successful and as overcoming racial discrimination. This paper argues that the model minority myth exemplifies how putatively benevolent racial tropes are nonetheless racist against all communities of colour. Thus, Asian Americans are positioned as the ‘model minority’, as opposed to certain ‘problem minorities’, in order to further subjugate Black and Brown bodies. The myth is also problematic for Asian Americans themselves, demonstrating that to exist as an …

Moving To The Beat: Examining Excitability Of The Motor System During Beat Perception With Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Celina Everling

2016 Undergraduate Awards

Moving along to the beat of music is a universal human trait. It is a behaviour that displays the interaction between auditory and motor systems during beat perception. While several studies demonstrate that motor structures are involved in beat perception, the time course of motor system excitability during beat perception is not well understood. To examine the time course of motor system excitability in beat perception, we stimulated the motor cortex with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and measured the amplitude of the corresponding motor evoked potentials from the first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle while participants listened to rhythms that induced …

A Revised Feminist Analysis Of Disordered Eating And Weight Preoccupation, Angel Leung

2016 Undergraduate Awards

Eating disorders (EDs) are often emblematized by the upper-class young white woman anorexic or bulimic, an archetype that constructs disordered eating as pathological and depicts it in a singular and comprehensible manner. Personal narratives of body dissatisfaction (rooted in both literature and qualitative research), as well as my own subjectivity as a poor East Asian-Canadian woman, will equip me with the theoretical frameworks and insights by which I problematize the homogenization of problematic eating. Subscribing to the tradition of interjecting first-person perspectives into research that is so characteristic to feminist theory, I demonstrate how a subject as visceral and commanding …

Digital Refuse: Canadian Garbage, Commercial Content Moderation And The Global Circulation Of Social Media’S Waste, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

The story of a rogue Canadian garbage barge attempting to offload illegal garbage in the Philippines opens this article on techno-trash, in order to underline both the relationships between countries of the Global North with countries of the Global South in matters of waste, as well as to reframe discussions of techno-trash as one fundamentally tied to material things. The definition of techno-trash is then expanded, to cover digital detritus created through an entirely digital set of practices I term “Commercial Content Moderation.” The attempt to offload mounds of e-waste and the similar ways in which a great deal of …

Commercial Content Moderation: Digital Laborers' Dirty Work, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

In this chapter from the forthcoming Intersectional Internet: Race, Sex, Class and Culture Online (Noble and Tynes, Eds., 2016), I introduce both the concept of commercial content moderation (CCM) work and workers, as well as the ways in which this unseen work affects how users experience the Internet of social media and user-generated content (UGC). I tie it to issues of race and gender by describing specific cases of viral videos that transgressed norms and by providing examples from my interviews with CCM workers. The interventions of CCM workers on behalf of the platforms for which they labor directly contradict …

Through Google-Colored Glass(Es): Design, Emotion, Class, And Wearables As Commodity And Control, Safiya Umoja Noble, Sarah T. Roberts

Media Studies Publications

This chapter discusses the implications of wearable technologies like Google Glass that function as a tool for occupying, commodifying, and profiting from the bio- logical, psychological, and emotional data of its wearers and those who fall within its gaze. We argue that Google Glass privileges an imaginary of unbridled exploration and intrusion into the physical and emotional space of others. Glass’s recognizable esthetic and outward-facing camera has elicited intense emotional response, partic- ularly when “exploration” has taken place in areas of San Francisco occupied by residents who were finding themselves priced out or evicted from their homes to make way …