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 …

Mapping Gothicism In Hiv/Aids Art, And The Importance Of Art In Understanding Queer Cultural Trauma: Canadian Perspectives, Riley Buist

2023 Undergraduate Awards

The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Canada continues to be a defining moment in queer trauma and cultural production. Since the 1990s, queer academics and theorists have become increasingly interested in how queer people navigate and negotiate trauma. With the establishment of Queer Studies and Gothic Studies, the two fields have been considered complementary both historically and contemporarily. Queer academics and theorists have discovered that queer cultural production continuously evokes gothic themes, tropes, and atmospheres to understand cultural trauma. Previous research primarily focuses on literature, and my research seeks to expand the field into visual mediums. My research is interested in understanding …

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 …

Improving Networking Supports For Women In The Workplace, Karen E. Pennesi, Javier Alvarez Vandeputte, Zsofia Agoston, Rawand Amsdr

Anthropology Publications

This report describes findings from research on networking activities and strategies among women in executive and leadership positions in Canadian organizations. The project was carried out by graduate student researchers in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. Networking is defined as the creation and maintenance of a community of diverse interests, through in-person and online engagements, that can be mobilized for the benefit of oneself or other members of one’s network. We found that the shift to primarily online networking activities due to COVID-19 removed some existing barriers related to age, gender and location, while introducing others related to family …

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 …

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 …

What Trees Taught Me About Covid-19: On Relational Accounting And Other Magic, Diane-Laure Arjalies

Business Publications

While the world was on lock down, human beings started craving for green spaces. As they walked amidst the trees, trees began to talk to them. The surprising truth then emerged: There were actually secrets to be shared by the forest. This essay reflects on the teachings offered by nature(s) during the pandemic. Based on a personal encounter with a river, it caresses the relationships that have connected humans to non-humans over time and that have led to make this confinement both a unique and universal experience. It suggests embracing relational accounting, the expression of our relationships with each other …

Understanding Global Change: From Documentation And Collaboration To Social Transformation, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

The conclusion to the book situates the chapters within four programs of anthropological research on climate change: (1) documentation of local impacts of and adaptations to climate change, (2) connections to socioeconomic and political contexts, (3) collaborations with nonanthropologists, and (4) activism and social transformation. The final section notes the persistent challenges to creating positive change and meaningful research outcomes. It highlights some examples of success and outlines future directions for politically engaged anthropological work around climate change.

Improving Supports For Diverse Women Entering Executive Roles, Karen E. Pennesi, Ibtesum Afrin, Fattimah Hamam, Badarinarayan Maharaj, Raisa Masud, Luis Meléndez, Natalia Parra, Ashley Piskor

Anthropology Publications

We report on research identifying supports and barriers for women of diverse backgrounds entering executive roles in Canadian organizations. Intersectionality explains how different social categories such as gender, age and ethnoracial identity are interrelated and affect the professional lives of women. Family supports and networking are key to women's success. The COVID-19 pandemic presents both problems and opportunities for working women. This research was conducted as a graduate student project in collaboration with the Women's Executive Network. We offer recommendations for how organizations can better support women entering leadership roles.

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.

Tensions Between Children’S And Adults’ Practices And Understandings Of Consent In The Home And School, Mackenzie Mountford

2019 Undergraduate Awards

Sexual violence is disturbingly common, especially for young people. Accordingly, it is important to explore children’s understandings of consent to determine how to properly inform young people and respond meaningfully to their trauma. Existing literature on this topic reveals a tension between young people’s ability to comprehend consent and communicate permission through spatial practices, and adults’ failure to teach and practice this agreement due to dominant romantic, socialization, and developmental conceptions of childhood, and concern with risk. Children display a capacity to communicate consent through their negotiation of place. In the home, most parents ignore children’s expressed limits. Conversely, teachers …

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.

‘Black Lives Bladder,’ Other Dumb Things Eric Andre Said At The Rnc, And Why They Bladder, I Mean Matter, Alex Prong

2018 Undergraduate Awards

When comedian Eric Andre went to the Republican National Convention (RNC), he attended Alex Jones’ speech. He stuck his microphone on the end of a long stick, and pushed through the crowd, until finally, Alex Jones said, “Let’s bring the Daily Show guy up here.”

“They keep attacking me and I just wanna sign up for the open mike,” said Eric. “I know, the democrats are never violent, like the Black Lives Matter movement and attacking the Trump people,” Alex replied.

To which Eric said, “I’m not a democrat either, I’m a nihilist” (“Eric at the RNC”).

This interaction, and …

Mind Over Matter: Accounts Of Selfhood In An Age Of Theoretical Gender, Levi C. R. Hord

2018 Undergraduate Awards

This paper is a reflection on the rapidly shifting social understandings of gender identity. Using a theoretical framework composed of existentialist thought, cultural critique, empirical research, and post-structuralism, I argue that our understandings of gender identity have shifted towards a model which (following decades of theory) takes lived gender to be malleable and constructed. This has caused a movement away from the centrality of the sexed body in determining gender identity – including transgender identities – which in turn has created unresolved tension regarding what constitutes and validates gender identity as “real” in our narratives of selfhood. This movement away …

An Unknowable Wildness: An Analysis Of Cryptids As Queer Cultural Iconography, Levi C. R. Hord

2018 Undergraduate Awards

This essay examines the rise in cryptids – animals whose existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, or creatures who exist on the margins of biological understanding to the point of being mythical – being claimed by younger queer people as symbols of their outsider status and transgression. Beginning with an analysis of the political resistance that the reclamation of monstrosity makes possible for queer subjects, I argue that “cryptid culture” is a refusal of a politics of assimilation that has lately characterized LGBTQ+ communities. I then argue that this attachment to “cryptid culture” is also indicative of shifts in personal queer …

Humanitarianism As A Moral Alibi At The U.S.-Mexico Border, Layne Clarke

2018 Undergraduate Awards

In recent years, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) have cast themselves into a humanitarian role, presenting themselves as an organization that is ultimately concerned with the wellbeing and safety of undocumented migrants who undertake the dangerous journey of crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. However, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are of the opinion that this humanitarianism is hollow given that CBP ultimately enforces prevention through deterrence, a prevention strategy that deters migrants to the dangerous terrain of the Sonoran Desert and is believed to have caused in numerous migrant deaths. In this essay, I explore the contradictions inherent in CBP’s supposed mandate …

Linguistic Imperialism In Post-Colonial Ghana: Access To Written News Media In The Local Languages, Rikki N. Bergen

Anthropology Presentations

No abstract provided.

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 …

Alt-Right, Alt-Facts, Alt-America: An Investigation Into Public Amnesia And Political Exploitation In Trump's America, Rebecca Meharchand

2017 Undergraduate Awards

The concept of the ‘truth’ is always something of a contested phenomenon, however, recently it appears as if the current American Presidential Administration shows more disregard for the idea of ‘truth’ in comparison to other democratic, Western countries. Examining specifically the way in which the Canadian mosque shooting that took place in January 2017 was taken up by American politicians and news media, this paper examines the way in which members of President Trump’s administration (such as Sean Spicer and Kellyanne Conway) take advantage of both collective trauma and public amnesia in order to further their own political goals. This …

Sexual Health Education: A Comparison Between Denmark And The United States, Rachel Goldstein

2017 Undergraduate Awards

There are vast differences in sexual health education internationally. This paper examines peer-reviewed articles, international reports, and government mandated sexual health curricula to compare the current sexual health education in two countries, Denmark and the United States. Sexual health education has been slowly incorporated into the education system since the early 1900s but at different levels of comprehension and thoroughness. Denmark currently has one of the most comprehensive sexual health educations in the world, which includes information on safe sex, prevention against sexually transmitted infections, gender and sexuality, and diversity. Sexual health education in the United States differs significantly from …

Of Epidemic Proportions: Discovering The Historical Roots And Future Remedies Of Indigenous Suicide In Canada, Rebecca Meharchand

2017 Undergraduate Awards

In early 2016, two Canadian Indigenous communities, Attawapiskat and Cross Lake, reported a state of emergency as suicide rates skyrocketed. These occurrences, while tragic, have opened a nuanced conversation regarding Indigenous mental health and the insidious nature of intergenerational trauma – trauma that was inflicted on Indigenous communities by the Canadian settler colonial state through the residential school system. This paper examines both the historical roots of such trauma, while considering practices of resurgence that may help these communities begin to heal in a way that is in accordance with the culture and community that they are situated within. Ultimately, …

Girl Talk: Interactive-Educational Intervention Targeting The Health Of Preteens, Duha Abid Al Hadi

2017 Undergraduate Awards

Girl Talk is an initiative that targets preteen girls as a preventative method to reduce some of the stress and confusion that characterizes this developmental stage. It aims to provide young girls with a safe and friendly environment to express their concerns and discuss different aspects of development. It does so through integrating a variety of interactive tools to transfer knowledge and convey messages about healthy living to shape their learning experience and thus, gain a better understanding of the health topics discussed. This paper examines the importance of proper education on over-all health and body perceptions for preteens.

The Trouble With Choice: The Roles Of Construction, Authenticity, And Appropriation In Neoliberal Models Of Transgender Identity, Levi Hord

2017 Undergraduate Awards

This paper provides a meditative theorization of the recent proliferation of non-binary transgender identities. Drawing on seminal texts from queer theory, trans theory, and work on subjectivity and essentialism, this paper explores the nuanced networks that allow the doctrines of constructionism and essentialism to move throughout queer cultural spheres. It examines how discourses of essentialism and constructionism come to be attached to bodies and narratives, and what effect this has on how and what identities can be claimed publicly. The tensions that arise from this question are used to explore the concept of “choice” in identity formation, and what implications …

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 …

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.

The Drive Of Queer Exceptionalism: Transgender Authenticity As Queer Aesthetic, Levi Hord

2017 Undergraduate Awards

The recent proliferation of non-binary identities that do not include any physical, social, or presentational transition constitutes a majorly contested shift which has not yet been addressed in transgender scholarship. In this paper, I explore possible social and cultural factors that may contribute to a turn towards transgender from within existing queer communities. Drawing on both queer and transgender theoretical frameworks, I situate my claims in an analysis of neoliberal subjectivity and queer exceptionalism. Considering examples from digital platforms, I will argue that combining the assumption of transgender authenticity and the individualism of queer neoliberal exceptionalism works not only to …

Road(S) To Recovery: Restorative Justice And Discourses Of Reconciliation In Domestic Violence Cases, Alessia Mastrorillo

2017 Undergraduate Awards

Restorative justice is a criminal justice system that emphasizes offender rehabilitation and a repairing of the community as a whole, largely through victim-offender reconciliation. Restorative justice policies claim to both emphasize the victims role in the justice process and to hold offenders accountable for their actions. Despite its supposed benefits, feminist scholars struggle with the role of forgiveness in restorative justice practices and its impacts on the victim and often question the overall effectiveness of restorative justice policies as a whole. In this essay, I offer a critique of the restorative justice practices from a feminist perspective. I intend to …

Limiting The Impact Of Destructive Analytical Techniques Through Sequential Microspatial Sampling Of The Enamel From Single Teeth, Alexis E. Dolphin, Mathew A. Teeter, Christine D. White, Fred J. Longstaffe

Earth Sciences Publications

A fundamental research concern within contemporary bioarchaeology is the sensitive balance between the preservation of human remains and the use of destructive techniques to collect information. Here we describe one example of how multiple microspatial destructive/semi-destructive techniques may be carried out in sequence using only the enamel of a single tooth. With careful planning of both sample preparation strategies and sequencing of sampling methods, it is possible to produce multiple datasets, and yet to retain material for future analyses.

In this case, enamel from the teeth of 27 individuals who lived during the early medieval period (AD 1170-1198) in Bergen, …

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 …

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 …