Anthropology Commons^™

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 …

Discourses Of Tension In A Rainbow Nation: Transcultural Identity Formations Among Hakka Mauritians, Federica Guccini

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Identity formation happens at a crossroads of that which people believe they are and are not. Acknowledgment, reification, or subversion of identity frictions form powerful communicative patterns that I call ‘discourses of tension’. I argue in this dissertation that discourses of tension are foundational to the formation of transcultural identities—positionalities that emerge between or beyond perceived cultural boundaries—because they enable people to identify and express cultural complexities and expectations.

Based on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork and research in other relevant sites, this argument is supported by my analysis of how Hakka Chinese Mauritians express agency and identity within …

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 …

Indigenous Language Revitalization Efforts In Canada During Covid-19: Facilitating And Maintaining Connections Using Digital Technologies, Laura Gallant

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis explores how people involved in Indigenous language revitalization efforts in Canada have responded and adapted to the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to November 2020. Through virtual interviews, an online survey, an analysis of tweets about Indigenous language revitalization in Canada, and observations of webinars among people involved in language work, this research focuses on how people have adjusted and accelerated their Indigenous language activities during a prolonged period of social isolation. Genocidal policies and practices continue to reproduce inequities for Indigenous peoples and are affecting those involved in Indigenous language work during COVID. This thesis …

What Does A Pandemic Sound Like? The Emergence Of Covid Verbal Art, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

In times of social upheaval, people create and engage with verbal art for entertainment and a feeling of connection. While millions of people were forced to stay home to reduce the spread of COVID‑19 from March to July 2020, verbal artists posted recorded performances online and viewers had more time than usual to watch and share them. COVID verbal art refers to songs, poems, and comedy skits that mention social and physical distancing, quarantine and isolation, hygiene and cleaning practices, everyday experiences during the pandemic, as well as social and political critiques of policies and practices that explicitly mention COVID‑19 …

Dilemma And Knowledge - Book Review Of Re-Imagining Utopias: Theory And Method For Educational Research In Post-Socialist Contexts, Jessica Zychowicz

Comparative and International Education / Éducation Comparée et Internationale

No abstract provided.

International Englishes, Dialects And Glocalized Englishes: Translanguaging In South Korea, Cameron Bruce Lawrence

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

English has spread across the world as the language of business, education, science and travel. Americans, British and other native speakers living in Inner Circle countries speak English as a Native Language (ENL). Nigerians, Jamaicans, Singaporeans and others living in Outer Circle countries speak ‘World Englishes (WEs)’, but what do Koreans, Chinese, Japanese and others living in the Expanding Circle speak? Koreans learn English as a Second/Foreign Language (ESL/EFL) but they also speak Konglish, and they can see and hear English in Korean music, advertisements and products, indicating that English is not really a ‘foreign’ language. They often do better …

Differential Responses To Constraints On Naming Agency Among Indigenous Peoples And Immigrants In Canada, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

This article illuminates the social structures and relations that shape agency for members of two marginalized groups in Canada and examines how individuals respond differently to constraints on their power to name themselves and their children. Constraints on spelling, structure and choice of name are framed according to the particular positions of indigenous peoples and immigrants in relation to European settler society as either ‘original inhabitants’ or ‘recent arrivals’. These historically unequal power relations are manifest in intertwined ideologies of language, identity and nation, evident in ethnographic interviews, media reports and online commentary. Differential responses include resistance, endurance and assimilation.

A House Of Healing: The Importance Of Friendship Centres To Urban Aboriginal Populations, Emily Pitts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Friendship Centres seek to fill an important gap in service provision by providing Aboriginal-based and community-run programming. More than simply a social service provider, however, Friendship Centres offer individuals a safe, supportive environment in which to address issues of trauma and to explore their own identities. This leads individuals to develop a strong sense of place and positive-place identity. Research was conducted between May and August 2017 at the N’Amerind Friendship Centre in London, Ontario. Research methods included participant-observation, ethnographic interviewing, and the creation of a short ethnographic film. The thesis concludes that Friendship Centres are significant landscapes due to …

"Too Hard To Pronounce"- Examining Immigration Ideologies In The Treatment Of Newcomer Youths' Names, Nadja Schlote

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This thesis examines how the treatment of newcomer youths’ names within social interactions between immigrants and the Canadian host society reveals immigration ideologies indicating either an integrationalist or assimilationist attitude. The data was collected from semi-structured interviews with newcomer youths and staff members at the Cross Cultural Learner Centre in London, Ontario, from April to August 2017. One the one hand, I examine how the newcomer youths’ names are treated by members of the dominant society, often including forms of name-based microaggressions that reflect an immigration ideology that includes a preference towards cultural assimilation. On the other hand, I demonstrate …

Language As Function Or Fashion? Multilingual Identity Formation Through Korean Language Learning, Hannah C. Cho

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines identity in relation to the Korean language learning experiences of non-Korean and ethnic Korean learners. Based on participant observation and interviews done in Toronto and an international online survey, I use a language-ideological perspective to look at why and how people choose to learn (or not learn) a particular language. Specifically, I analyze how nationalist, functionalist and cosmopolitan language ideologies position learners in various ways and in turn, affect their sense of ethnic, cultural and other forms of identity. I show how these ideologies are interrelated and have different effects on how the identities of non-Koreans and …

Entangled Resurgence: Investigating 'Reconciliation' And The Politics Of Language Revitalization In The Oneida Nation Of The Thames, Hannah E. Mcgregor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2015 has initiated numerous conversations about Canada’s renewed relationship with Indigenous peoples, and elicited questions about what it means to ‘reconcile’. I use ethnographic methods to examine these issues in the context of language revitalization, at the nexus of government policy, university-community partnerships, and the experiences of individual language learners within the Oneida Nation of the Thames. This thesis re-evaluates the relationship between Indigenous language revitalization and the political process of reconciliation through the framework of Indigenous resurgence, an emerging theory and practice that seeks to regenerate Indigenous communities through self-recognition. …

Universal Design For Belonging: Living And Working With Diverse Personal Names, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

There is great diversity in the names and naming practices of Canada’s population due to the multiple languages and cultures from which names and name-givers originate. While this diversity means that everyone encounters unfamiliar names, institutional agents who work with the public are continually challenged when attempting to determine a name’s correct pronunciation, spelling, structure and gender. Drawing from over a hundred interviews in London (Ontario) and Montréal (Québec), as well as other published accounts, I outline strategies used by institutional agents to manage name diversity within the constraints of their work tasks. I explain how concern with saving face …

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 …

Perspectivas Culturais Na Comunicação Climática (Cultural Perspectives On Climate Communication), Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

Este artigo considera que a previsão climática deve ser interpretada dentro de contextos sociais, culturais e linguísticos. Dentro de uma perspectiva antropológica baseada em entrevistas, observações e um questionário, será investigado como mudanças no meio-ambiente são entendidas por diferentes indivíduos, e transformadas em previsões que são comunicadas a diversos públicos. A linguagem utilizada e a maneira como a previsão é comunicada depende da experiência e dos objetivos do previsor, enquanto que a interpretação e a avaliação da previsão por outros são influenciadas por seus diferentes objetivos, atitudes, conhecimento e práticas. Esta etnografia da comunicação enfatiza o processo da comunicação das …

In The House Of Transformation: Language Revitalization, State Regulation, And Indigenous Identity In Urban Amazonia, Sarah A. Shulist

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the practices surrounding advocacy for Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance in order to better understand the changing nature of of ethnolinguistic identity and the politics of culture in the Brazilian Amazon. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the city of São Gabriel da Cachoeira, Amazonas, it specifically considers the complex challenges created for language revitalization activism among urban and diasporic Indigenous populations. São Gabriel is a small, highly multilingual city, in which speakers of 21 languages from 5 language families live and come into contact with one another, and in which individuals commonly speak multiple Indigenous languages. Although …

The Call Of The Wild Geese: An Ethnography Of Diasporic Irish Language Revitalization In Southern And Eastern Ontario, Jonathan R. Giles

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This research examines the ideological and social dynamics that govern the use of the Irish language by a network of speakers and learners in Southern and Eastern Ontario. In what follows, I investigate the invocation of powerful historical discourses and symbolic references that has resulted in the creation of a vibrant network dedicated to reviving Irish in a diasporic setting through immersion. Using Irish at language immersion events is informed by diverse factors – levels of participant fluency, the prevalence of language-specific acquisition and socialization strategies, as well as by the need of attendees to talk about their stories and …