Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Islam In Higher Education: Exploring The Intra Religious Interactions Between Shia & Sunni Students, Ghaith Khadour

Sociology Major Research Papers

No abstract provided.

The Biopolitical Critique Of The Notion Of Being Human And An Affirmation Of Lives, Ramanpreet Bahra

Sociology Major Research Papers

This major research paper (MRP) interrogates the discourse of ableism and disableism and its impact on disabled and fat bodies. The general theme of this MRP is the division of life through the dichotomy of human and non-human, and nondisabled and disabled. Humanism, overall is the benchmark from which other life forms, the animate and non-animate, are disaffirmed and looked at as being a deficit. With the use of DisCrit and Fat studies, in particular, an autoethnographic methodology will be used to situate how the writer embodies racism, ableism and sizeism and the ways theory is carried through the body. …

Taking One Step At A Time: Understanding Pulmonary Hypertension Through The Voices Of The Patients, Renae J. Mohammed

Sociology Major Research Papers

This paper presents and discusses the findings of a qualitative thematic analysis of interviews with eight Pulmonary Hypertension patients who discussed their illness experiences. This is an important topic to research, as Pulmonary Hypertension is a rare, invisible and potentially terminal illness about which little substantive research in both the medical and social scientific fields has been done. The diagnosis experience, day-today life, and resilience and coping are the three dominant themes found in these interviews. The analysis of these themes indicates that the participants in this study who are living with Pulmonary Hypertension have been able to maintain a …

Exploring Diverse Perspectives On The Mental Health And Community Support Systems For Immigrant And Refugee Children, Taylor Marlow

Sociology Major Research Papers

Despite an extensive history with immigration, structural barriers and health inequities for immigrant and refugee populations continue to be widely documented within Canada. As a result, attention to particularly vulnerable subgroups such as newcomer children has become increasingly paramount. However, large gaps concerning newcomer children’s wellbeing persist within previous literature. In response, this study examines newcomer children’s issues, the roles of family and community support systems, and the impact of sociopolitical factors from the perspective of key stakeholders. A total of 15 newcomer parents and community professionals were interviewed in order to illuminate the current context of support for immigrant …

On Peter Winch And Qualitative Social Research, Miad Ranjbar

Sociology Major Research Papers

The aim of this paper is to discuss the tenets of the philosophy of Peter Winch, a Wittgensteinian philosopher, and the relevance of his work to conducting qualitative social research. In this paper, Peter Winch’s philosophy which is elaborately presented in his book The Idea of Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy is first extrapolated and examined. I then discuss how his philosophical reasoning can substitute for the philosophical underpinnings of constructivism, critical realism, and pragmatism as qualitative social research paradigms. In this paper, it is argued that the history of empirical social studies has been prone to important …

‘Stranger Danger’: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Immigration And Refugee Protection Act, Matt Jantzi

Sociology Major Research Papers

This paper examines a major federal migrant policy within Canada, the

Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA), as a discursive mechanism that I argue perpetuates racializing identities of immigrants and refugees. By performing a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the IRPA, a number of themes are identified that construct immigrants and refugees in both racializing and securitizing terms. General themes from the Charter of Rights and Freedoms are then used to interrogate these identified themes within the IRPA. I conclude by suggesting that implementing and emphasizing humanitarian discourse within the IRPA can dislodge controversial security measures from operating within a …

Talking About Public Health: An Analysis Of A Municipal Public Health Twitter Feed, Olivia E. Kozela

Sociology Major Research Papers

Social media has become an increasingly popular tool used by experts and laypeople alike to obtain, share, and create health information. Public health authorities have also begun to use web 2.0 platforms to share information and foster engagement with the public. Existing public health research about Twitter has explored its uses as a tool of health promotion, however communication on the Twitter platform has not yet been explored from a critical public health perspective. The purpose of this study is to analyze how talk about public health occurs online via Twitter. Using both content and discourse analysis of communication on …

The Social Construction Of Sexuality In Primary School Classrooms, Anna Spengen

Sociology Major Research Papers

Through qualitative interviews with primary school teachers, this research sought to uncover how heterosexual privilege is maintained in talk about sexuality. More specifically, this research sought to identify the strategies used by teachers in talking to their students about sexuality. These strategies took shape in the following: a reliance on scientific explanations, deferring to others, a reliance on faith and religion, and the presumption that children are innocent and asexual. This research determined that these strategies were used to produce, reproduce, and maintain heterosexism and heteronormativity. The implications of this research are that schools are missing an important opportunity to …

The Biomedical And Holistic Practices Of The Continuum Of Healthism, Donya Mosleh

Sociology Major Research Papers

This MRP critically interrogates the concepts of biomedical healthim and holistic healthism. The existing literature posits that holistic healthism is conceived as the positive solution to the restraints of biomedical healthism. Grounded in an analysis of obesity, the main assertion of the MRP concerns the way in which both forms of healthism are not oppositional, but rather, create a continuum. As such, the MRP argues that both forms of healthism are differing processes which work to foster the same end goal of achieving optimum health. Consequently, the MRP will also argue that healthism is a metaphysical ideal/ethos in which biomedical …

Understanding Difference In The Internationalization Of Higher Education: A Comparative Study, Leanne Macdonald

Sociology Major Research Papers

International education is becoming increasingly important in higher education, but does this mean that internationalization looks the same at every university? A comparative case study examines how, why, and to what extent internationalization is implemented or decoupled at different universities. A total of fifteen qualitative interviews were carried out with those who make, manage, and implement policies and practices related to internationalization at two institutions of higher education: Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario, Canada, and Georgia Southern University in Georgia, USA.

The interviews reveal that the degree of decoupling is higher at GSU than at Laurier. While macro forces, such …