Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Rights, Resources, and Resistance
The development of pan-Indigenous political organizations in northeastern Alberta in the context of oil and gas development during the 1970s created disparate effects on Indigenous communities in the region. Resistance to assimilation policies led the Indian Association of Alberta to transform itself into a unified voice that represented Aboriginal and treaty rights in the late 1960s; however, the organization lost legitimacy following the divergence of goals between influential Indigenous leaders, Harold Cardinal and Joseph Dion. Tripartite agreements began to unfold between the federal and provincial governments, the oil and gas industry, and individual local leadership; environmental degradation spread throughout the landscape. Some communities benefitted financially whereas other communities, like Lubicon Lake Nation, received little compensation and felt the full force of industrial contamination of their traditional territories. Without the support of pan-Indigenous political organizations, Lubicon Lake developed an individual response that was successful in gaining international attention to their conditions. Author Keywords: 1970s, Indigenous politics, Lubicon Lake Nation, northern Alberta, political economy, tar sands
Rewiring the State
ABSTRACT Rewiring the State: The Privatization of Information Technology in the Ontario Public Service (1972-2003) David Rapaport Senior managers in the Ontario Public Service (OPS) and neo-liberal public policy advocates rationalize the privatization of Information Technology (IT) as an organizational quest for new efficiencies, specifically efficiencies imported from market economies. The findings of the research for this study indicate that IT privatization frequently results in inefficiencies, dependencies and a loss of core skills. The explanation for widespread IT privatization must be sought elsewhere. This study researches and depicts two related IT developments. The first development is the evolution of IT privatization from the earlier practice of body-shopping, i.e. the hiring on contract of IT consultants to the more complex public private partnership. This evolution is a reflection of the maturation of privatization. Body-shopping informs the alienation of IT skills from the public sector, the shaping of a labour hierarchy based on skills distribution, and the foundation for the public-private partnership. The second development, the evolution of OPS management attitudes towards IT privatization, is a reflection of growing neo-liberal hegemony. Archival research indicates middle management disdain towards excessive IT privatization in the early 1980's; particularly its high costs, loss of skills and growing dependency on external private sources. By the ii late 1990's, parliamentary committee transcripts indicate IT management acceptance of more excessive IT privatization. As neo-liberal practice became more accepted and as governments and central ministries pressured line ministries through budgetary and organizational controls, IT managers accepted their new roles as authors of RFP's and tenders of public sector work. The IT service providing industry gladly bid on contracts and acquired the new skills required for future IT projects, exacerbating the provision/dependency cycle. Furthermore, the new technologies provided an ideological smokescreen of technological necessity to conceal the market forces that promoted and benefitted from IT privatization. "Why do managers in the Ontario Public Service privatize the production of Information Technology systems?" The dissertation has two tasks when answering this central question. First, it must refute the efficiency arguments. Second, it must formulate an answer within the context of neo-liberal state transformation, new investment strategies of IT service providing corporations and a restructured IT labour hierarchy. Author Keywords: neo-liberalism, New Public Management, Ontario, privatization, public private partnership, public sector
Return to "The Child"
Despite - or perhaps because of - her popularity as a best-selling poet, the work of Mary Oliver has been minimized and marginalized within the academy. Nevertheless, Oliver's readership is an expansive and devout one made up of a wired yet insular North American public in search of reconnecting with the natural world. I propose that through Oliver's poetry readers access the affective, sensory responses to nature first encountered during childhood. This return to "the child" is deliberately used by various publics to share communal goals. Drawing from such frameworks as ecocritical and trauma theory, I explore environmental memory, ecstatic places, and the sensuousness of nature and language to consider ways in which diverse publics claim and use Oliver's work. I provide a close reading of selections of Oliver's poems to argue that her work's appeal speaks to a revived perception of the necessity of nature to the human spirit Author Keywords: Attentiveness, Childhood, Language, Mary Oliver, Nature Poetry, Senses
Retrograde Amnesia of Fear Memories Following Pentylenetetrazol Kindling
Memories pertaining to fearful events are some of the most salient and long-lasting memories, as they are critical to the survival of an organism. Seizures induce aberrant changes within temporal lobe and limbic brain structures that are critical for supporting fear memories. Seizures can occur at any time; therefore, it is imperative that research address how seizures impact previously learned information. The present series of experiments demonstrate that pentylenetetrazol-kindling induces retention deficits of previously acquired context fear memories in male rats. Kindling induced subsequent fear learning deficits but did not impact spatial learning. Additionally, following kindling, volumetric increase was observed within the hippocampal subfield CA3, as well as increased neural activation within the hippocampal subfield CA1. The results of this work suggests that chronic seizures can alter the function of neural networks important for supporting and retrieving previously acquired memories. Author Keywords: amygdala, anterograde amnesia, context fear conditioning, hippocampus, retrograde amnesia, seizures
Rethinking Subjectivity
The following thesis problematizes different theories of subject formation in relation to morality, accountability, and consciousness raising. Focusing on the conditions subjects emerge in, I argue that socially transformative subjectivities emerge in movement through spaces. The theoretical discussion departs from the premise that morally accountable subjectivities drive social change. The politics of positionality that anchor the subject in a particular social location conceptualize morality as the result of critical consciousness raising. The causal nature of the relationship between the subject’s ability to reflect back on itself and its moral capacity is problematic for it leaves the reflective subject in a position of epistemic and moral authority. Rather, a subject who does not fully know itself nor the conditions of its being has the ability to engage in moral inquiry. Grounding subject formation in epistemic uncertainty construes the subject as inherently accountable to other unknowing subjects. Transformative subjectivities emerge out of epistemic resistance and uncertainty. The particular understanding of morality that underlies the rethinking of my moral subject emanates from its relational constitution. A morality of care prioritizes the responsibilities a subject has to others. In the context of Covid-19, relational subjects act in accordance with a morality of care that leads them to intervene in the lives of others who are threatened by the virus and left unprotected by institutional structures. The desire to interfere is cultivated when subjects emerge in ontological fields generated through epistemic intervention. One way to create such interventions is through counter-hegemonic cultural production such as works of art. Author Keywords:
Responses of Primary Producers and Grazers to Silver Nanoparticle Exposure
The increasing production and use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) raise concerns on environmental exposure and impact. A large scale in situ enclosure study was conducted at the Experimental Lakes Area to determine the effect of AgNPs on natural phytoplankton and zooplankton communities. This study investigated AgNPs of varying concentrations (4, 16 and 64 μg/L), dosing regimens (chronic vs. pulse), and capping agents (poly-vinyl pyrrolidone vs. citrate). Phytoplankton communities were influenced only by the natural limnological properties of the system signifying tolerance to AgNPs. Zooplankton community structure significantly changed with AgNP concentration and dosing regimen indicating AgNP sensitivity. A microcosm study investigating the effect of AgNPs and phosphorus-dosed periphyton before and after grazing by two benthic invertebrate species (snails and caddisfly larvae) showed reduced periphyton stoichiometry with AgNP exposure. Grazers foraged less on silver dosed periphyton indicating a preferential choice in food quality. Phosphorus reduced the detrimental effects of AgNPs across all conditions. These studies verify the need for in situ experimental designs to fully investigate the effects of AgNPs and their interaction with environmental factors, multiple species assemblages, and across trophic levels. Author Keywords: benthic invertebrate, Experimental Lakes Area, periphyton, phytoplankton, silver nanoparticles, zooplankton
Resistance Revisited
This study examines how student activism around the closure of Peterborough Collegiate and Vocational School (PCVS), an inner-city school in a medium–sized Ontario town has influenced youths’ life experiences, views on power, political engagement, and personal agency. Following a critical narrative methodology, this qualitative study, conducted four to five years after the school closure, focuses on interviews with fourteen participants who were part of the high-school group Raiders in Action and explores both what they learned from their protest and its influence on their lives over the ensuing years. The study identifies the researcher’s subjective position as a teacher and an adult in solidarity with the group’s work. Critical pedagogy, critical youth studies, and feminist approaches inform the researcher’s perspective. This project is inspired by an image of young people as citizens who actively challenge and change educational institutions to create a more participatory democracy in our city, country, continent, planet. Author Keywords: critical pedagogy, critical youth resistance, neoliberalism, school closure, student activism, youth organizing
Research and development of synthetic materials for presumptive testing in bloodstain pattern analysis
Chemical presumptive tests are used as the primary detection method for latent bloodstain evidence. This work focuses on developing a forensic blood substitute which mimics whole blood reactivity to a luminol solution commonly used in presumptive testing. Designing safe and accessible materials that mimic relevant properties of blood is a recognized research need in forensic science. Understanding the whole blood dynamics related to reactivity with presumptive testing chemicals is important for developing accurate analogues. Provided in this thesis is a quantitative and qualitative characterization of photoemission from the reaction of a luminol solution to ovine blood. Luminol reactivity of a horseradish peroxidase encapsulated sol-gel polymer was validated against this ovine blood standard. This material, the luminol-reactive forensic blood substitute, is a key deliverable of this research. An optimized protocol for implementing this technology as a reagent control test, and as a secondary school chemistry experiment are presented. This thesis outlines the research and development of a forensic blood substitute as it relates to presumptive testing in bloodstain pattern analysis. Author Keywords: bloodstain pattern analysis, forensic science, luminol, presumptive testing, secondary school education, sol-gel chemistry
Reproductive Fitness of Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) Under Heterogeneous Environmental Conditions
Identifying the biotic and abiotic factors that influence individual reproductive fitness under natural conditions is essential for understanding important aspects of a species’ evolutionary biology and ecology, population dynamics, and life-history evolution. Using next generation sequencing technology, I developed five microsatellite multiplex reactions suitable for conducting large scale parentage analysis of smallmouth bass, Micropterus dolomieu, and used molecular pedigree reconstruction techniques to characterize the genetic mating system and mate selection in adult smallmouth bass nesting in Lake Opeongo, Ontario, Canada. I used multivariate spatial autocorrelation analysis to indirectly infer the occurrence and extent of natal philopatry among spawning adults, to assess the strength and direction of sex-bias in natal dispersal patterns, and to evaluate the degree of nest site fidelity and breeding dispersal of spawning adults. I also evaluated how differences in littoral zone water temperature caused by wind-induced seiche events influence the relative reproductive success of spawning adults. Lastly, I provide a synopsis of potential future research aimed at further exploring factors that influence the reproductive fitness of smallmouth bass in Lake Opeongo. This information will contribute to our understanding of the factors regulating smallmouth bass populations, and provide insight into the factors controlling the variance in individual reproductive success and thus recruitment dynamics in this species. Author Keywords: Dispersal, Fitness, Mate selection, Mating systems, Philopatry
Representations of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Canadian Art
This thesis focuses specifically on artistic projects that address violence against indigenous women and uses an interdisciplinary approach to examine their meaning and reception. I argue that the mainstream media has negatively stereotyped missing and murdered indigenous women and that art projects have the ability to reframe their lives to the viewing public. I focus on five case studies of works, including Vigil (2002) by Rebecca Belmore, REDress (2011) by Jamie Black, The Forgotten (2011) by Pamela Masik, Walking With Our Sisters (2013) by Christi Belcourt and Shades of Our Sisters (2017), created by Ryerson University students and produced by Maggie Cywink, Alex Cywink and Joyce Carpenter. Art has the capacity to encourage activism, raise awareness and promote reconciliation between indigenous and non-indigenous people. Comparisons can be drawn between how the case studies of these art works have framed the lives of missing and murdered women and the dominant media images that have prevailed in Canadian society. Author Keywords: activism, art, Canada, indigenous, missing and murdered indigenous women, symbolism
Representations of Aboriginal Health in the Media
The goal of the present study was to explore the overall discourse within media articles regarding Aboriginal health issues. The present research aimed to answer the following questions: What Aboriginal health issues are being discussed in the media? How are Aboriginal health issues being discussed in the media? And, does the media propagate power imbalances between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians? A thematic analysis was conducted, coopting aspects of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to assess media content. Four CDA devices were used: overlexicalisation, structural oppositions, nominalizations and functional nominations, and concessions and hedging. Results suggest that while there are disparities in health outcomes between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians, it is not widely reported in the media. The thematic analysis of 208 articles revealed patterns of stereotypical ideologies and negative framing appearing in media articles, the creation of an us versus them narrative, and themes of out of sight, out of mind, criminalizing Aboriginal Canadians, politicizing health, and access to health services. Author Keywords: Aboriginal Health, Communication, Health, Media, Psychology, Thematic Analysis
Representation Learning with Restorative Autoencoders for Transfer Learning
Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) have reached human-level performance in numerous tasks in the domain of computer vision. DNNs are efficient for both classification and the more complex task of image segmentation. These networks are typically trained on thousands of images, which are often hand-labelled by domain experts. This bottleneck creates a promising research area: training accurate segmentation networks with fewer labelled samples. This thesis explores effective methods for learning deep representations from unlabelled images. We train a Restorative Autoencoder Network (RAN) to denoise synthetically corrupted images. The weights of the RAN are then fine-tuned on a labelled dataset from the same domain for image segmentation. We use three different segmentation datasets to evaluate our methods. In our experiments, we demonstrate that through our methods, only a fraction of data is required to achieve the same accuracy as a network trained with a large labelled dataset. Author Keywords: deep learning, image segmentation, representation learning, transfer learning

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Graduate student theses produced at Trent University. You may also browse theses and dissertations by year, program, or author.

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