Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Archaeology and Reconciliation in the Williams Treaties Territory
This thesis examines the history of Indigenous inclusion in the discipline of archaeology and how archaeologists can provide reconciliation when working with Indigenous peoples in their territory. This thesis focuses on the territory of the Williams Treaties with a particular focus on the location of Nogojiwanong (Peterborough). My data consists of in-depth interviews from ten informants and studying three case studies that happened in the area. I take my informants’ suggestions and apply them to my case studies, to show practical examples of how we can provide reconciliation in the field of archaeology. Author Keywords: Decolonization , Heritage Management , Indigenous, Reconciliation
Forging Masks Through Perceptions of the Maskless in Benjamin Britten’s 'Peter Grimes'
This thesis proposes that Benjamin Britten’s 'Peter Grimes' leads its audience toward actively constructing an attitude toward its maskless protagonist. Grimes’s tragedy results from the social construction of his character from ambiguous and unseen actions. Utilizing the theories of Hannah Arendt and Carl Jung, this thesis proposes that Grimes may have resisted tragedy by constructing a public persona for himself. This thesis analyses the opera’s music and narrative according to the difference between Grimes’s lack of a public persona and the Borough- members’ construction of a mask for him. A central contention of the thesis is that as another element of Britten’s persona, Peter Grimes permitted the composer’s entrance into the public sphere, despite his private inclinations and illegal sexuality. Like the opera’s drama, the opera’s “Sea Interludes” reveals the tragedy resulting from the failure to construct an attitude toward the public world. These “Sea Interludes” work alongside the opera’s drama to induce the audience into a common perception of the opera’s whole. Through ironic relation to the opera’s musical and narrative parts, Benjamin Britten induces his audience’s construction of personae, thereby bringing himself and them into a shared public realm. Author Keywords: Benjamin Britten, E. M. Forster, English Opera, Montagu Slater, Peter Grimes, W. H. Auden
Finding Community
This thesis explores the history of the Indigenous child welfare system in Manitoba and the effects of the Millennium Scoop on children in care. My research question is: what was the experience of children in care in Manitoba from 1990 to 2015? A related question is: how do survivors find healing? The thesis begins with a discussion of the history of acts, policies, and practices that began with the Indigenous child welfare system during the running of Residential schools. Then the acts, reviews, and policies that have shaped the child welfare system in Manitoba are discussed more thoroughly. The focus of the thesis is on the stories of Phoenix Sinclair, Tina Fontaine, and Natasha Reimer. I share their stories and provide an analysis of how the child welfare system has affected their lives. The negative effects of being a child in care are numerous. Being a child in care leaves behind grief, loss of identity, and loss of security. The systemic issues of the child welfare system include inadequate funding, overloaded case workers, staff burnout, and a lack of transparency. These overarching failures translate into the failure of children in care: details are overlooked, wrong decisions are made, and children are left to fend for themselves. Or they fall into the cracks and do not receive adequate care. This then translates into the deaths of children in care, or they are left to navigate life on their own and forced to create their circle of supports. Despite all the complications and negative impacts, some children can succeed while in care. Natasha’s story is a perfect example of such resilience. Author Keywords: child welfare, indigenous studies, millennium scoop, sixties scoop
An assessment of the determinants of, or barriers to, successful municipal food waste management systems
Food waste (FW) disposal has negative implications for the social, economic, and environmental sustainability of communities. While some municipalities in Canada have made improvements to their FW management, others have not been successful. Considering the complexity of the issues integrated into municipal FW management (MFWM), a mixed methodological approach was used to understand the determinants of, or barriers to, successful MFWM systems. Methods included analysis of primary data from a household survey with a fixed response and open-ended questions, along with analysis of the secondary literature. A comparative analysis of the results was undertaken to determine similarities and differences between successful and less successful cases (Guelph and London, Ontario, respectively) and the broader empirical literature. The results suggest the success of MFWM is determined by the commitment of political decision-makers to implement FW policies backed by adequate regulations, high levels of perceived behavioural control over barriers to participating in MFWM programs, and the ability to finance user-friendly MFWM infrastructure. Recommendations are made to guide policies and programming on food waste management. Author Keywords: Components of Waste management System , Composting, Determinants of Success, Food Waste Reduction, Households Food Waste Behaviour, Municipal Food Waste Management System
Desire to be Zine
This thesis explores access to feminist zine culture and community, specifically if, and how, access has been altered in the age of digital technologies and increased access to digital spaces. Results from a questionnaire completed by 8 young feminist zine-makers and readers of marginalized genders indicated that though the modern boundaries of what a zine is has been expanded to include e-zines, there remains a preference toward print zines in zine-making and reading practices. Results also revealed that while there is a preference toward accessing feminist zine culture and community in-person in theory, participants were more likely to access feminist zine culture and community online in reality. This project found that digital technologies and the Internet have affected feminist zine culture in multiple ways, ranging from the Internet creating a new access points to community, to the Internet making it easier to find, purchase, and distribute zines. Author Keywords: Digital Media, Feminism, Feminist Zine Culture, Feminist Zines, Materiality, Print Media
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:
Wetland Offsetting
Wetland loss in southern Ontario, escalated by development, is putting pressure on planners as they struggle to meet development needs while maintaining a balance with regional natural heritage. Wetland offsetting, coupled with strategic environmental assessment and sustainable community planning, offers a potential solution. A combined approach of literature review, interviews, focus group, and case study with Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority (CLOCA) allowed me to present experiences and perspectives on wetland offsetting, site selection methods, and ecosystem service priorities. The focus group looked at organizational interactions and decision-making processes during wetland offsetting. Research resulted in creation of the Strategic Wetland Offset Site Selection Score Card (SWOSSS Card). Five of CLOCA’s past offsetting projects were reviewed to see what worked and what did not. Findings determined that use of strategic wetland offset site selection tools have the potential to provide an efficient means to quantify offsetting risk ahead of restoration efforts. Author Keywords: compensation, landuse planning, offsetting, prioritization, restoration, wetlands
Using the Same Language, but Meaning Different Things
Two dominant narratives emerging throughout the war were the national narrative––that is, the narrative of the war as articulated by the British nation via texts such as political speeches, recruitment posters, and popular music–– and the poetic narrative––that is, the narrative of the war emerging from poets, specifically battlefront poets for the sake of this thesis. One hundred years since World War One, these two narratives are often conceptualized as mutually exclusive, even antithetical to one another. This thesis brings these diverse narratives into conversation with one another by investigating how they both draw on the same rhetorics and yet use these rhetorics to differing ends. Interestingly, the rhetorics employed by both narratives throughout the war endure in contemporary remembrance practices in Britain today. By investigating how each narrative draws on and employs the same rhetorics, this thesis both contextualizes and complexifies contemporary interpretations of contemporary remembrance practices. Author Keywords: Battlefront Poetry , Britain, Narrative, Remembrance, Rhetoric, World War One
Food insecurity among racialized international students
The notion that food insecurity only occurs in the absence of food is prevalent in society. This perception is too narrow and insufficient to capture the diverse manifestations and experiences of food insecurity. In this thesis, I adopt a more expansive approach to examine food (in)security through the lenses of adequacy, quality, and availability of culturally relevant food. I look specifically at the experiences of racialized international students from diverse backgrounds, to empirically ground this approach to understanding food (in)security. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data, this study explores the perceptions and real-life experiences of racialized international students who study at Trent University and University of Toronto. These two institutions were selected based on cultural diversity and variation, proximity to culturally appropriate food and the cost involved in accessing culturally appropriate food. Beyond that, I examine structural and policy elements that may be exacerbating the challenge of food security among this category of students. Clearly, issues related to food insecurity and hunger within all spatial configurations are urgent, however, there is a scarcity of literature that zeroes in on the experiences of racialized international students specifically. In the wake of the dramatic internationalization of post-secondary Canadian schools, issues of foreign students’ welfare cannot be overlooked, hence, I narrowed my research lenses to study the character of racialized international students’ inadequate access to culturally appropriate food. Upon analyzing the survey data gathered from 107 racialized international students coupled with semi-structured in-depth interviews with 8 racialized students, I found evidence that culturally appropriate foodstuffs were not abundant in supply for racialized international students. Consequently, the low supply of this category of foodstuffs translates into higher levels of prices which deter racialized international students from making adequate purchases to meet their taste and preference. As part of the findings, the students mentioned that the high cost of tuition, as well as other school-related expenditures are structural policy barriers that leave them with meagre amounts of income to spend on culturally appropriate food items. Under such circumstances, racialized international students are left with the option of purchasing fewer quantities of culturally relevant foodstuffs that meet their daily nutritional requirements. The study further revealed that the challenge of food insecurity poses a threat to the academic achievement and psycho-social well-being of affected students. In addressing these challenges, I propose that the government as well as the school authorities should consider reducing the tuition fees to lessen the financial burden on students. Apart from that, stocking grocery stores and creating culturally appropriate food supply centers in and around school campuses may be helpful. Also, the international offices of universities should intensify welfare programs that entail periodic needs assessment of international students. This will offer the school authorities timely support services to students as and when it is needed. In conclusion, I wish to state that this study seeks to add to the recently growing strand of literature that examines the intersectionality between internationalization of post-secondary schools and food insecurity. The findings provide important and preliminary evidence underpinning the experiences of racialized international students with the phenomenon of food insecurity, thereby providing a point of departure for additional research on the broader nature of intersections between food insecurity and racialization. Author Keywords: Canada, Culture, Food insecurity, International Students, Race, Universities
Story is Medicine
This is a story within a story that spans over a hundred years and four generations. It takes the reader from war-torn Russia during a famine to the urban streets of Toronto and then to the Canadian North. The story is a memoirette, or a ‘not quite long enough, but almost a memoir’ of a mother’s journey navigating life after her son discloses his addiction to Fentanyl. The mother finds little if any support from family, friends or conventional support programs and instead turns to her oma’s harrowing stories of survival as a source of knowledge, strength and medicine. The analysis explores storytelling as a legitimate method of learning, pedagogy and research. It explores the concept of story as medicine through Etuaptmumk. A Two-Eyed Seeing framework created by Mi’kmaq elders in 2004 (Sylliboy, Latimer, Marshall & McLeod, 2009). The power of the narrative is discussed through ‘Western’ and ‘Indigenous’ lenses. Author Keywords: addiction, Etuaptmumk, Fentanyl, story as medicine, story as pedagogy, Two-Eyed Seeing
Racism in Argentina and the Blackness Problem. The Change in Perception of Afro-Descendants in Buenos Aires and the New Dimensions of Blackness in Argentina (1880-1930)
This thesis examines racism in Argentina between 1880 and 1930. The governing elite's efforts to whiten the Argentine population at the end of the nineteenth century led to the erasure and discrimination of anyone who did not have Caucasian features: Afro-descendants, mulattos, mestizos, and creoles. However, in the 1930s, whitening policies proved to have limited success. On the one hand, Afro-descendants were praised by the middle and lower classes of Buenos Aires; on the other hand, the Great Depression's effects made it clear that the Argentine population was made up of an ethnic mixture that had much darker skin tones than the whitening elite preferred. This work will show how the impact of the 1930s global crisis, as well as the enthusiasm for Afro-descendants, reinforced the racism that still existed, and will demonstrate that blackness became more than a racial but also a class connotation. Author Keywords: Afro-descendants press, Blackness in Argentina, Buenos Aires Press, Cultural Constructions, Popular Blackness, Racial Identity
How Did We Get Here? Exploring Socio-Political Influences in Canadian Penitentiaries
This thesis examines how political and social issues have molded and alteredCanada’s penal system since the nineteenth-century. From early Anglo-Canadian society to Joseph Archambault’s 1938 Report of the Royal Commission to Investigate the Penal System of Canada, the Canadian penal system waxed and waned against social and political tides. As rehabilitative justice took hold throughout the developed world in the early twentieth century, Canada attempted to shift its justice ideologies only to find that punitive justice had created strong footings. This made reform challenging to implement. Author Keywords: Archambault Report, Canadian penal system, Canadian prisons, prison press, prison systems, prison writing

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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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