Graduate Theses & Dissertations

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Remembering the "Home" through YouTube Cooking Videos
This thesis examines how food, culture and identity are linked to the idea of "home." Through a reading of oral narratives produced on the YouTube channel "ShowMetheCurry," I investigate how presenters Anuja and Hetal "write back" from a diasporic space in Texas, to the YouTube global public, and how food and cuisine, even in the age of globalization can be problematic in terms of representation of identities, work and space. I explore how the YouTube videos operate as a heterotopia, as what is presented to the audience in this medium is an embedding of spaces. The space that is projected through "ShowMetheCurry," that of Anuja and Hetal's own home kitchen, is then projected and viewed within the audiences' own spaces, in various locations around the world. What connects these spaces is an interest in cooking, and a longing to satiate culinary nostalgia. Author Keywords: Affect, Culinary nostalgia, Discourse analysis, Food culture, South Asian Diaspora, YouTube
Spatial Dynamics of Wind Pollination in Broadleaf Cattail (Typha latifolia)
Natural populations of flowering plants rarely have perfectly uniform distributions, so trends in pollen dispersal should affect the size of the pollination neighbourhood and influence mating opportunities. Here I used spatial analysis to determine the size of the pollination neighbourhood in a stand of the herbaceous, wind-pollinated plant (Typha latifolia; broad-leaved cattail) by evaluating patterns of pollen production and seed set by individual cattail shoots. I found a positive correlation between pollen production and seed set among near-neighbour shoots (i.e., within 4 m2 patches of the stand; Pearson's r = 0.235, p < 0.05, df = 77) that was not driven by a correlation between these variables within inflorescences (Pearson's r = 0.052, p > 0.45, df = 203). I also detected significant spatial autocorrelations in seed set over short distances (up to ~ 5 m) and a significant cross-correlation between pollen production and seed set over distances of < 1 m indicating that the majority of pollination events involve short distances. Patterns of pollen availability were simulated to explore the shape of the pollen dispersal curve. Simulated pollen availability fit actual patterns of seed set only under assumptions of highly restricted pollen dispersal. Together, these findings indicate that even though Typha latifolia produces copious amounts of pollen, the vast majority of pollen dispersal was highly localized to distances of ~ 1 m. Moreover, although Typha latifolia is self-compatible and has been described as largely selfing, my results are more consistent with the importance of pollen transfer between nearby inflorescences. Therefore, realized selfing rates of Typha latifolia should largely depend on the clonal structure of populations. Author Keywords: clonal structure, correlogram, dispersal curves, pollination, spatial analysis, Typha latifolia
Exploring Least Cost Path Analysis
Least cost path analysis is considered by many scholars as being a good proxy for studying movement and interactions between sites in the landscape. Although it is widely used, there are many limitations and challenges yet to be overcome concerning the reliability of the results. The examples used from the Göksu Valley during the late Roman Imperial rule emphasize the need to clearly understand how the tool works in generating least cost paths and how these can be interpreted and related to human movement. The resolution and accuracy of the elevation data used also play an important role in least cost path analysis and these depend on the topographical area being studied. New venues are constantly being sought and the success of any analysis depends on how the results are compared and tested in concert with data obtained from various sources and through more visually advanced mapping software. Author Keywords: GIS, Göksu Valley, Turkey, Late Roman period, Least cost path, Roads, Routes, Communication, Spatial analysis

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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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