Interdisciplinary Studies

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Open Access
A Creative Exploration of the Use of Intelligent Agents in Spatial Narrative Structures
(2015-01-26) Roth, Andrew Christian; Hosale, Mark-David; Marchessault, Janine; Allison, Robert
This thesis is an interdisciplinary study of authoring tools for creating spatial narrative structures– exposing the relationship between artists, the tools they use, and the experiences they create. It is a research-creation enterprise resulting in the creation of a new authoring tool. A prototype collaborative tool for authoring spatial narratives used at the Land|Slide: Possible Futures public art exhibit in Markham, Ontario 2013 is described. Using narrative analysis of biographical information a cultural context for authoring and experiencing spatial narrative structures is discussed. The biographical information of artists using digital technologies is posited as a context framing for usability design heuristics. The intersection of intelligent agents and spatial narrative structures provide a future scenario by which to assess the suitability of the approach outlined in this study.
Open Access
A Speech Analysis Comparison of People with Parkinson's Disease and Healthy Controls
(2025-04-10) Karimi, Ashkan; DeSouza, Joseph FX
This study explores the effects of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) and a dance intervention on vocal features—specifically fundamental frequency standard deviation (F0SD) and intensity standard deviation (IntSD)—in individuals with PD and healthy controls over five years. The findings suggest that while both groups exhibited changes in these vocal features over time, the differences between the PD and control groups were moderate and likely masked by individual variability. F0SD, in particular, showed distinct patterns of change over time between the two groups, aligning with known voice impairments in PD. However, changes in IntSD appeared to be more influenced by the normal aging process rather than PD itself. Despite the lack of significant post-dance improvements, the study highlights the potential value of speech features as biomarkers for PD, emphasizing the need for larger, more intensive studies to fully understand the effects of interventions like dance on vocal performance in PD.
Open Access
All of Us? Marginalizing Dissent in Toronto's Jewish Community
(2015-08-28) Katz, Amy Sarah; Taylor, Patrick D. M.
Mainstream Jewish institutions like the Canadian Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and B'nai Brith Canada largely communicate the impression of community-wide support for Israeli government policies and actions to the broader society. When Jewish individuals and groups in Toronto who do not uniformly support Israeli government policy and actions attempt to make their voices heard as Jews they can encounter discursive techniques used by institutions and more broadly to marginalize their points of view. These discursive techniques are not limited to Jewish institutions or to the Jewish community, but, rather, can be characteristic of some processes that serve to 'naturalize' specific ideas and marginalize others. I use elements of Critical Discourse Analysis to explore recent public communications reflecting responses to dissenting Toronto Jews and narratives to identify some of these discursive techniques. I also explore how aspects of selected mainstream Jewish Canadian histories can serve to marginalize present-day dissent.
Open Access
Amplifying the Voices of Kenyan Women in Canada: The Implicit Contradiction of the Federal Skilled Worker Program
(2022-08-08) Mutune, Catherine Nthambi; Jacobs, Merle A.
My own experiences and those of other women from East Africa as recently landed immigrants inspired this autoethnographic research paper regarding experiences under the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) in Canada and the challenges we have encountered socially, economically, and politically as we negotiate and adjust to a new culture. I wanted to make meaning of how African immigrant women negotiate race, gender, class, and ethnicity. This research responds to calls from scholars to examine why educated, racialized immigrants are experiencing downward mobility, economically and socially. It explores intersectional questions related to African women. I argue that advanced education and skill level for black African immigrant women decreases the need for targeted support and hence minimizes the need to access settlement programs and services, which can be a catalyst for falling into poverty. Key words: Skilled African Women, Federal Skilled Worker Program, Intersectionality, Settlement programs, Stories
Open Access
An Immigrant Experience on Indigenous Land: The Mennonites of Namaka Farm
(2024-11-07) Jansen, Elizabeth Ann; Podruchny, Carolyn
Beginning in 1925, thirty-six families, part of a mass migration of German-speaking Russian Mennonites (Russlaender), were settled on Namaka Farm, a large ranch in southern Alberta. With their arrival, the area became home to three disparate cultures and languages: Siksika Blackfoot, British colonial settlers, and Mennonite settlers. This thesis proposes that the experiences of these Mennonites prior to arriving in Canada influenced their adaptation. It shows how they were both marginalized and privileged within the existing colonial structure. Values they held tightly created unforeseen and inadvertent repercussions, including the perpetuation of systemic injustices and racism. Extensive oral interviews and primary document research illustrate how these immigrants formed relationships among themselves, with those in authority, and with their Siksika and “English” neighbours. The integration of Russlaender, Indigenous, and English voices has produced a coherent narrative conveying wisdom that can create thriving and sustainable intracultural, intercultural, and ecological relationships today.
Open Access
"Anchored in Our Culture, Focused on Our Future": Negotiating Spaces for Somali Women in Toronto through Gashanti UNITY
(2019-03-05) Ali, Muna; Dlamini, Nombuso; Davis, Andrea; Ford-Smith, Honor
This research presents and analyses the experiences of second-generation Somali women in Toronto, and argues that there is a significant gap in research about young Somali-Canadian women, and the way they utilize different strategies to manage their multiple and hyphenated identities in order to negotiate social and political spaces for themselves. Through organizations like Gashanti UNITY, with their Anchored in Our Culture, Focused on Our Future motto, young Somali women have taken ownership of their own narratives, through the sharing of their experiences and aspirations. This research seeks to examine and understand specifically the experiences of young self-identified Black, Muslim, Somali, Canadian women, drawing on an interdisciplinary theoretical framework, as well as Intersectionality and Black feminist theory. It highlights ways in which these young women resist and subvert multiple forms of oppression, including, racism, Islamophobia, xenophobia and sexism. This thesis concludes with suggestions for further research that considers the lives and contributions of young Somalis in Canadian society. Keywords: Somali, Women, African, Black, Canadian, Identity, Intersectionality, Black Feminist Thought, race, gender, Islam, islamophobia.
Open Access
Architectural Consumption in Los Angeles: Modernism, Power, and the Aesthetic of Plenty
(2015-08-28) Busgang, Alexandra; Foster, Jennifer J.
This paper examines the economy produced by modernism as the site for developing an aesthetic grounded in opulence and consumption. While early modern architects aimed to break with tradition and create a new language of architectural forms, the call for new architecture has exploded into sites of what Glen Hill calls “aesthetic waste” in his article, “Aesthetics of Architectural Consumption” (2011). In Los Angeles, this aesthetic obsolescence results in developments being demolished at an alarming rate. As the idea of beauty is valued by its proximity to cleanliness or novelty, massive homes are turned to “junk” in pursuit of the ‘new’.
Open Access
Art, Community & Belonging
(2018-08-27) Afshar, Niloufar Shahriar; Norquay, Naomi; Singer, Yvonne; Basu, Ranu
Communication with others and developing a sense of belonging are challenges that immigrants, including children, must face in a new society. These challenges become a major obstacle when paired with lack of knowledge of the language. This could negatively impact self-esteem and well-being. As an educator, artist, and immigrant, I have realized that collaborative artwork is an effective and important tool for immigrant children to bridge their lack of knowledge of the language and to communicate with others while learning the new language. In this study, I have used autoethnography as the research methodology in order to explore my personal experiences as an immigrant in order to better understand the challenges of immigrant children and to help them to overcome those challenges. Through this process, I demonstrate how effective collaborative artwork can be for immigrant children to develop a sense of being welcomed and belonging to their new society.
Open Access
"Ask the Colonial Ghosts": Intimate Histories, Harmful Complicities, and the Search for an Accountable Relationship with the Past
(2016-11-25) Lewis, Johanna Madeleine; Haig-Brown, E. Celia; Creet, Julia; Mongia, Radhika
I take episodes from my life and my familys past as sites through which to explore connections between individual lives and larger structures, between the ways we tell our stories and the ways that histories are constructed, between colonial pasts and colonial presents. By researching and contextualizing the lives of my ancestors who homesteaded in Saskatchewan and those who participated in the British Raj, I analyze the lived practice of particular colonial structures and racial logics, and the consequences of our relationships with these histories. I then explore my contemporary participation in settler colonial seizure and amnesia, and my connection and responsibility to the Indigenous peoples who have lived (and continue to live) in relation with this land we now call Toronto. Grounded in a decolonial analysis, I aim to challenge both the erasure of unpalatable histories and the denial that these histories have any bearing on our world today.
Open Access
Black Youth Educational Under-Achievement Problem: How Peer Influence, Social Attitudes, Education Policy, & Family Circumstance Unite to Maintain this Problem in the Ontario Public School System
(2018-11-21) McBean, Marcell Allison; Visano, Livy; Jacobs, Merle; Foster, Lorne
This research paper is concerned with the problem of black youths educational underachievement in Ontario public schools. The general aim of the thesis is to demonstrate that this problem is not one that education policy makers are interested in finding a fix for, even though it has been a mainstay on their debate agenda for three to four decades now. To be sure, black youths academic under-achievement in Ontarios public school system is an issue usually taken up very seriously by education stakeholders.. The general position taken in the paper is that the long history of anti-black sentiment, contemporary economic and social marginalization of black people, and discriminatory policies and practices in the Ontario public school system, are all factors that combine to produce the deviant black-youth-identity we talk so much about today.
Open Access
"Can Anybody See?": Masculinities in Musical Theatre and Post-Secondary Musical Theatre Training
(2021-11-15) White, Thomas Adam; Stuart, E. Ross; Gilbert, Jen; Callison, Darcey
Twenty first-century post-secondary students demonstrate a dissonance with the musical theatre canon and current training methods. My research invites post-secondary students to contribute as critical co-investigators, utilizing discussion group research to engage my suppositions. I employ Raewyn Connells theory of hegemonic masculinity and adapt her model of gender relations into a framework for the examination of masculinity in musical theatre. My examination of the vocal scores of Rodgers & Hammersteins Oklahoma! and Pasek & Pauls Dear Evan Hansen provide diachronic case studies, making visible the persistence of hegemonic ideals in musical theatre. This research demonstrates that hegemonic masculinity has been sustained in popular musicals across time and is maintained in current post-secondary musical theatre training. I suggest a revised pedagogical approach based on Lucy Greens model of dialectical musical experience to build toward an engaged musicology for musical theatre.
Open Access
Challenges of Humanitarian Aid International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) in Myanmar
(2019-11-22) Kyawt, Khin May; Jacobs, Merle; Visano, Brenda Spotton; Visano, Livy
In Myanmar, there are currently over 100 INGOs, and out of these, 43 are providing humanitarian aid and development activities in conjunction with eight UN organizations. However, whether humanitarian operations have positively or negatively impacted Myanmar is underreported. A backlash against INGOs arose in the wake of 2012, and suspicions about misappropriation of aid resources and mismanagement of funds seem to have become more controversial after the aid agencies jumped into the Rakhine crisis under the agenda of humanitarian violations. This research is based on a literature review, relevant case study analysis, and 10 semi-structured interviews with humanitarian activists of the Myanmar Diaspora in Canada. The primary objective of this research is to investigate how humanitarian aid INGOs contextualize their work in Myanmars post-democracy period and to see how said work links to the challenges associated with projects in the area of ethnic conflict. Based on the findings, a culturally appropriate framework is introduced for the efficacy of Myanmars humanitarian aid INGOs. In this study, I argue that humanitarian aid INGOs fail to apply outside-in thinking in the decision-making process when implementing aid projects in Myanmar, which is a developing country with multi-rooted conflicts.
Open Access
Chasing the Food, Chasing the Names: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Culinary Culture of Turkic Peoples of Eurasia
(2023-08-04) Yesil, Emrah; Embleton, Sheila
This thesis takes a critical stance on the conventional approaches to the nomadic societies based on the historical sources written by the agents of the sedentary entities and interrogates the dominant discourse regarding the nomads. It examines an essential part of the culinary heritage of the Turkic peoples in Eurasia by focusing on the primary Turkic lexical sources available. It attempts to discover the culinary and linguistic interaction among the ancestors of Turkic peoples, “the pastoral nomads” of inner Asia, and between them and their sedentary neighbors. It focuses on pastry food items consumed by these peoples since the misrepresentations of the historical accounts about the nomads tend to define and marginalize them with their alimentation. Thus, this thesis tries to challenge one of the most common arguments underpinning the traditional approach to the nomadic peoples and also means to test its validity by examining the essential lexical material available.
Open Access
Chasing Vapors within a Disappearing Mist: Conceptualizing Dementia Narratives
(2016-11-25) Francis, Keith John; Murtha, Susan; Keeping, Joseph; Scadding, David
The built environment within healthcare institutions is of critical importance to persons with dementia, as the characteristics of the interior environment, the lived experience within, and the reciprocal nature of that exchange can be directly related to their well being. Yet the role of the environmentand more importantly, the role of the patient as a primary author towards conceptions of what that physical environment should look and feel likerarely feature in routine dementia patient satisfaction assessments. This research sought to understand whether patients with dementia have the capacity to perceive the institutional space and place around them, and if so, how. Participants with mild to moderate dementia living in an institutional setting who could provide consent were asked a number of lived experience questions. The responses were videotaped and scored qualitatively. The results suggest that patients with dementia are aware of the institutional space around them, and can be active agents when contributing to thoughtfully designed environments that promote the health and well being of its residents. If persons with dementia are thought of as active participants within the design of the built environment, then this can lead to new reconceptualization of spatial domains and ultimately impact care.
Open Access
Choose Your Own Adventure? The Experiences of Occasional Teachers in the Reproduction or Transformation of Educational Systems
(2022-08-08) Ofori, Amma O.; Thumlert, Kurt
This research looks at the experience of occasional teachers (OTs) in the reproduction and/or transformation of teacher roles and forms of education in schools. I examine if, how, and to what extent the experience of OTs provides opportunities for professional learning, applying teaching innovation, and exerting creative agency or, alternatively, mechanisms for deskilling and the induction into institutionalized patterns and routines. This project looks at three elements that can cause deskilling or transformative change: (1) institutional experiences and social interaction with others in the OT role; (2) experiences with curriculum, day plans, and pedagogy; and (3) teacher evaluation and professional learning opportunities. In the introduction and literature review, the project uses a narrative inquiry approach to compare my OT/LTO experiences to the research and literature on OT experiences in schools. Then I take the experience of the occasional teacher from the research literature and put them in a digital gameplay simulation form for occasional teachers (research participants) to play. Participants are invited to identify or disidentify with the avatar (OT) experience during the gameplay experience and to tell their own stories concerning gameplay events and the research questions. In my findings, I analyse the participants' responses to the OT Simulator game and reflect on how they speak to research questions.
Open Access
Chronic Kidney Disease Unidentified (CKDu) in Sri Lanka: Towards an Integrated Solution
(2018-03-01) Ranasinghe, Sattamabiralalage Maxwell; Timmerman, Peter; Wood, Stepan; Hossein, Caroline
This study sought to understand how the problem of the Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu), which has affected the paddy farmers in the North Central Province (NCP) of Sri Lanka is being addressed by the Government of Sri Lanka. The disease was discovered in the NCP in the mid-1990s; and since its discovery, it has found in other neighboring farming areas. The Sri Lankan Government has taken various measures to address the CKDu crisis but the spread of the disease has not been contained. My thesis is that a coordinated and bottom-up approach is the most effective way of addressing the CKDu crisis. Major findings of this study are that there is no coordination of the interventions of the various government ministries involved in combating the CKDu crisis and the contribution of degradation of environment to the problem. Remedial measures are recommended to overcome the shortcomings found.
Open Access
Community Development Through Social Enterprise; A Case Study of a Vertical Farm Social Enterprise in Midland, Ontario for Women with a Lived Experience of Violence
(2023-12-08) MacDonald, Haily Elizabeth; Porter, Ann
Violence against women is prevalent across Canada. Governments and organizations, work to support women who have survived violence, but are these efforts effective? Are they addressing the root causes of violence? Often programs mandated to support women who have survived violence tend to focus on addressing immediate needs through emergency shelters, and supportive counselling. Despite the importance of such programming, they are reactive instead of preventative. Using a case study of a social enterprise (Operation Grow) in Midland Ontario that was designed to reduce poverty, food scarcity, and isolation for women who have survived sexual and/or intimate partner violence. This research takes an in-depth look at the unique needs of women who have experienced intimate partner violence and/or sexual violence, then uses these findings to articulate their unique needs, and examine how social enterprises can be designed to meet these needs. The research identified six key design elements critical for social enterprises to best support women with a lived experience of violence. These critical components include: a holistic design which supports each asset area of a woman’s life, an intersectional feminist lens and gender-based analysis, an active valuation of women’s unpaid labour, flexible programming, supports to access material resources, space for women to have and use their voices. Social enterprises must also be designed to challenge the current economic and social order and their systems that produce and uphold oppression. They ultimately must work to empower women, inclusive of their unique identities and experiences.
Open Access
Cross-Sectoral Policy Coalitions: A Case Study of Sustain Ontario: The Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming’s Efforts to Reform Policy. How a Policy Coalition's Choices Contributed to its Legitimacy and Influence
(2015-08-28) Lee Trillo, Sandra; Gainer, Brenda J.
This paper is a case study of the formation and early development of one civil society organization (CSO), Sustain Ontario, the Alliance for Healthy Food and Farming (Sustain, the Alliance, the Network). Sustain is an example of a non-governmental, cross-sectoral policy coalition . In an era of complex problems and constrained resources such policy coalitions or networks appear increasingly common in Canada, yet there has been limited research into their approaches. This paper investigates the choices Sustain made related to structures, strategies and processes; it presents integrative research on the relationships between Sustain’s choices, and the Alliance’s ability to cultivate legitimacy and influence policy in Ontario, Canada. Sustain’s network organizational structures and membership enabled Sustain to engage and leverage requisite skills and knowledge. The Alliance employed five core strategies that enabled it to facilitate widespread member engagement, develop and disseminate research and other materials, and establish constructive relationships with policy makers. While I appreciate the limitations of a single case study, I think Sustain’s experience and choices may be of interest to provincial food networks and cross-sectoral policy coalitions addressing similarly complex challenges.
Open Access
Dancing an Expanded Habitual: Attuning to the More-Than-Human World
(2023-12-08) Acorn, Amanda Kathleen; Cauthery, Bridget
This interdisciplinary thesis explores dance creation-as-research and phenomenological methods to articulate an embodied dialogue with the more-than-human world. Drawing on original phenomenological writing generated through embodied research, the work argues for dance practice as a salient tool for reimagining traditional forms of knowledge production and enacts the speculative possibilities of our communicative capacity between human and more-than-human bodies. The project imagines and articulates how we can bring relational, responsible thinking and sensing to our everyday movements while navigating the ruins of the so-called Anthropocene. Using research-creation as a frame, this project posits that dance-based systems of improvisation have the potential to interrupt and inhibit our habitual modes of attention, expanding our capacity for interspecies dialogue and collaboration. The work engages with the fields of dance studies, research-creation, phenomenology and posthuman feminist theory, to create definitional anchors in dialogue with original, phenomenological writing. The research expresses a process of discovery through the lived body and articulates a practice that enlivens bodies and builds worlds, where thinking, practice, and theory can come alive inside everyday living. The research moves off the page and into the body, in the form of a site-adaptive soundwalk, as an embodied call to action for fleshy, earthly survival.
Open Access
Decolonizing Technology through a Tipi: Creation of an Indigenous Mobile Application at York University
(2016-11-25) Banos, Alejandro Mayoral; Chen, Stephen Y.
This research explores the possibilities of how Information technologies can be designed and created by/for/with Indigenous peoples in order to be potentially decolonized. Indigenous members of the Centre for Aboriginal Student Services at York University participated in the design of a mobile application to address the needs of, and challenges faced by Indigenous students within a largely non-Indigenous university environment in Canada. The interdisciplinary design of said application integrated Indigenous knowledge of Tipis into a software development methodology in order to create a safe space and include some fundamental cultural elements. The analysis of current cases in the context of Indigeneity and technology around the world provided the principles to design this integrated software design methodology.