identifier: Lieutenant-Duval, Verushka  (2016) Entre reconduction de la tradition et émancipation prétendument libératrice : la représentation des pratiques sexuelles véhiculée par le flot d’images diffusées en Occident durant la « Révolution sexuelle ».  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
By the 1960s, many scholars have questioned the belief that the “Sexual Revolution” that took place allegedly in the West from the second half of the 20th century, truly transformed the sexual attitudes and behaviour of Westerners, and it even so the conditions were met for sexuality to undergo a real process of liberation.
This thesis examines through an empirical study and an exemplary case the impact of the “Sexual Revolution” on the representation of sexual practices in a selection of artworks and movies released in the 1960s and 1970s in the West. Specifically, it paints a thematic portrait of the nature of the images illustrated in a sampling of books on Western erotic art and appearing in sexual scenes in selected mainstream fiction feature films made in the United States.
Using a content analysis by thematic grids, it scrutinizes book illustrations and film sexual scenes through a series of indicators containing several variables, including the types of sexual practice illustrated, the types of sexual desire and the forms of union between partners, the identity of the characters shown in these images as well as their social and sexual roles. Through an analysis by pivot tables, it isolates the recurrences, absences, and co-occurrences that characterize the sampled images. From the data obtained, a discourse analysis is conducted to discover the rules that govern those representations.
The installation La chambre nuptiale (1976), created by feminist artist Francine Larivée to raise public awareness about the possibility that the “Sexual Revolution” has not led to real changes in the private life of Quebecers and that tradition has continued to exercise great influence on them, is for its part an exemplary case study of the Quebec situation. The analysis of this artwork also forms a bridge between the American and European contexts of the corpora, while constituting a summary of the results obtained throughout the study.
The data obtained help demonstrate from an empirical basis that the pictures examined betray the preponderance of a vision that is mainly oriented towards white heterosexual male ideas and preferences of what sexual practices and eroticism should look like, and consequently validate the suspicions of the specialists. Thus, despite a genuine desire to glorify and demystify sexuality, and to produce a portrait where the new ideals of the “Sexual revolution” are visible, it appears that the writers and filmmakers who created the documents studied here did not overcome the traditional marital sexual morality and sexual taboo surrounding certain types of sexual practice, desire, identity, and forms of union between the characters. In addition, they continued to associate eroticism with what exceeds the normative model and the transgression of what is prohibited, and therefore contribute to perpetuating the idea that sexual intercourse in legitimate couples are boring and routine.


identifier: Gao, Shan  (2016) Overconvergent Eichler-Shimura Isomorphisms on Shimura Curves over a Totally Real Field.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract:
In this work we construct overconvergent Eichler-Shimura isomorphisms on Shimura curves
over a totally real field F. More precisely, for a prime p > 2 and a wide open disk U in the
weight space, we construct a Hecke-Galois-equivariant morphism from the space of families
of overconvergent modular symbols over U to the space of families of overconvergent modular
forms over U. In addition, for all but finitely many weights λ ∈ U, this morphism provides a
description of the finite slope part of the space of overconvergent modular symbols of weight
λ in terms of the finite slope part of the space of overconvergent modular forms of weight
λ + 2. Moreover, for classical weights these overconvergent isomorphisms are compatible
with the classical Eichler-Shimura isomorphisms.


identifier: Aalders, Lisa  (2016) “I wait to finally be considered”: Intersectionality and Visual Sovereignty as Resistance in the Work of Thirza Cuthand.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis takes a look at the work of video artist Thirza Cuthand to rethink how resistance is used and discussed in a film studies context. Cuthand’s work uses an intimate, honest and often humorous approach to explore her experiences as a Two-Spirited Butch Lesbian from Little Pine First Nation. Although the video work of Thirza Cuthand has been shown across the country and internationally in spaces such as the National Gallery of Canada and in festivals like Tribeca, MIX Brasil Festival of Sexual Diversity, and Inside Out, Toronto, this is the first in-depth exploration of her work that has taken place. It focuses on six of her short-length works: Working Baby Dyke Theory (1997), Anhedonia (2001), Untouchable (1998), Love & Numbers (2004), Colonization: the Second Coming (1996) and Boi Oh Boi (2012). This thesis uses Cuthand’s work with two primary goals in mind. First, it uses Cuthand’s videos to examine the usefulness of intersectionality as a framework worthy of greater consideration in a film studies context. Specifically, this thesis uses intersectionality to highlight the complicated ways in which power and resistance express themselves across different identity axes. Second, this thesis employs Michelle H. Raheja’s concept of visual sovereignty to suggest that resistance need not be considered merely a reactive gesture but a generative one as well. In doing so, this thesis seeks to use Cuthand’s videos to reorient discussions of resistance in order to challenge a self/Other binary.


identifier: Wells, Zachery  (2016) How does hybridization affect multiple metrics of fitness in fragmented populations of brook trout under moderate climate warming?  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: As a population’s genetic makeup is often attributed to the combined fitness of its individuals, the adoption of deliberate hybridization practices is an area of interest for many hatchery and conservation programs. Using a common garden experimental design involving eight wild populations of Salvelinus fontinalis (brook trout), we studied how effective population size (Ne), divergence (QST, km), and environmental dissimilarity (pH, temperature) may influence hybridization outcomes for fitness related traits under moderate climate warming. Additionally, we looked at the ability of six of these populations to tolerate acute thermal warming, and whether or not this tolerance could be altered by hybridizing populations. Critical thermal maximum (CTmax) assays were conducted on juveniles from each population to assess thermal tolerance, and agitation temperature (a behavioural metric quantifying temperature at the onset of refugia-seeking behaviour) was recorded for assessing behavioural changes to elevated temperatures. Gametes were collected from different-sized, isolated populations of brook trout, and crossed in the lab. Fitness-related traits were compared between pure and F1 hybrid crosses via common garden experimental design. We had the unique opportunity to jointly investigate how these factors influence multiple metrics of hybrid fitness in wild, isolated, and varyingly-sized populations of a vertebrate species inhabiting a relatively undisturbed environment. Although population size and environmental dissimilarity were found to significantly affect hybrid fitness, these relationships were biologically weak. Although significant differences in CTmax were found between populations, this difference was at most 0.68 °C (29.11-29.79 °C), and no effect of hybridization was seen despite varying thermal regimes between these populations’ wild streams. These results will provide guidance to small population and captive-breeding conservation programs, as the lack of a strong relationship between hybridization and fitness encourages population-specific approach to genetic rescue projects. Additionally, this study highlights the level to which thermal tolerance is conserved between isolated populations of a vertebrate species, in the face of climate warming.


identifier: Majdoub, Mourad  (2016) Promoting High School ESL Learners’ Motivation and Engagement Through the Use of Gamified Instructional Design.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Judging from what has been said about the lack of motivation or interest and the poor academic performance of ESL students, the need for new effective and efficient teaching methods has become a priority. This research study seeks to explore the impact of implementing a gamified instructional design on ESL students’ motivation and engagement. A convenience sample of 8 grade 10 ESL high school students participated in the study. An online gamified program called Classcraft was selected as the main study platform for its potential to allow the participants to experience gamification elements such as rewards, challenges, points and the sharing of their progress online. A mixed methods approach was used where quantitative and qualitative data were collected, analyzed separately and then merged in discussion and interpretation. The quantitative component of this study consisted of survey questionnaires administered before and after the gamified intervention. The qualitative component, which employed a constructivist grounded theory approach, included a focus group interview and field observations. Results showed that gamification elements design has a very positive impact on the participants leading to a potential increase of their motivation and engagement.


identifier: Parker, Angela Dawn  (2016) “Safe” Spaces? Vegan ideologies and farm animal sanctuaries.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Farm animal sanctuaries in North America are spaces that have been created by humans who want to provide refuge for farm animals who are not normally considered to be companion animals. Within these ostensibly safe spaces, humans and the rescued animals can develop a relationship similar to human-human friendship. These spaces may be free of violence, but humans still control the animals, thus limiting the choices of the non-humans and reinforcing hierarchical relations (Emel, et al., 2015). Are sanctuaries safe spaces?  What is a safe space for domesticated animals? Do safe spaces exist?

To answer these questions, this thesis is an exploratory study of two farm animal sanctuaries in Eastern Ontario. Because the concept of safe spaces for animals is novel in the academic literature, this thesis builds from existing definitions of safe spaces for humans: spaces that are free of control, protected from outside society and places where unspoken hierarchies can be challenged (Evans & Boyt, 1992; Gamson, 1996; Roestone Collective, 2014). The thesis also draws on a modified version of Rhoda Wilkie’s (2005) concept of “attached attachment”, linking this concept to vegan ideologies and placing impartialness towards sentient beings at one end of the spectrum and emotional concern at the other end. Wilkie’s farmer-animal associations are employed using a slightly different angle, questioning if animal sanctuaries can be considered safe spaces if volunteers do not exhibit an “attached attachment” with the animals.

Using theoretical insights developed in the field of sociology, geography, environmental studies and ethology, this research will contribute to animal geography as a grounded perspective on farm sanctuaries and safe spaces, two topics that have been largely overlooked. The findings of this research describe farm animal sanctuaries and the people who care for the animals within these spaces. The research finds that vegan ideologies tend to play a role in the foundations of sanctuaries; however, they do not shape all sanctuary spaces. The research also finds that farm sanctuaries may be free of violence, but the animals are still controlled by humans. The safeness is limited at sanctuaries due to the hierarchical divide. This thesis concludes that farm animal sanctuaries are indeed safe spaces for animals, but with limitations.


identifier: Trull, Andrew S.  (2016) Making & Belonging: The Philosophy and Poetics of Participation.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study consists of hosting conversations at the Hermit Lab, an emerging research centre for socially engaged imagination, as well as participating in conversations of everyday community life in a rural Ontario village. The study is grounded in the values and practices of participatory research, ecological learning, and relational epistemologies. The study was conducted in the context of living in the present turbulent world, characterized by rapid socio-ecological change and high uncertainty. The goal of the study was to explore participatory encounter: what happens when people experience themselves as co-participants in the world? The assumption behind this inquiry being that part of today’s challenge is to tell the stories of our lives so that we can understand what is happening around us and begin to organize ways forward. Through the conversations that arose out of this study, the experience of participatory encounter was documented through four overlapping themes: conversation, mutual aid, affection for place, and the poetics of space. Each of these themes, written from my perspective and those of Hermit Lab participants, explores the phenomena of participatory encounter through the experience of people making and belonging.


identifier: Gharaaty, Sepehr  (2016) Accuracy Enhancement of Industrial Robots by Dynamic Pose Correction.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The industrial robots are widely employed in various industries. Normally, the industrial robots are highly repeatable. However, their accuracy is relatively poor. If the robot’s end-effector is required to move to a pre-calculated pose (as in off-line programming), its position error may reach a couple of millimeters. To meet the growing demand for high absolute accuracy in robotic applications such as deburring, polishing, drilling, and fastening, a lot of research work has been carried out. Robot calibration is normally used to enhance the accuracy by using external pose measurement sensors such as laser tracker. However, the
calibration procedure is long and the cost is high. Also, the accuracy enhancement is limited and the best reported accuracy is around ±0.1mm. In addition, the changing operating environment and the wear and tear of the robot affect the accuracy.
This research aims at developing a novel and cost-effective dynamic pose correction (DPC) strategy to address the above-mentioned issues on the accuracy enhancement. This strategy uses the vision system, i.e. C-Track from Creaform Inc. to measure the pose and integrates with the robotic controller, also known as visual servoing. To realize this strategy, three main research activities have been conducted.
First, the pose of the robot is obtained from the binocular sensor. The triangulation method for estimating the pose of an object is elaborated and the C-Track as a binocular sensor is introduced. In order to remove the noise from the C-Track’s measurements, the
analysis on the measured data is carried out. A root mean square (RMS) method is used to achieve reliable pose estimation.
Next, the DPC strategy is designed and simulated for an industrial robot, Fanuc M20-iA. This strategy can correct the position and orientation of the robot end-effector by using position-based visual servoing. A proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is proposed to achieve the dynamic pose correction. The algorithm does not need the kinematic and dynamic model of the robot. The controller is fully tested in Matlab/Simulink with robotic toolbox where Fanuc M20-iA is simulated. The simulation results validated the effectiveness of the proposed DPC.
The final research work is dedicated to the experimental testing of the proposed DPC on Fanuc M20-iA. The pose estimated from the C-Track serves as the feedback and the output of the DPC is given to the robot controller through Fanuc dynamic path modification
(DPM) function. As a result, the robot is guided to the desired pose in real time. The experimental results demonstrate that the robot can achieve the position accuracy ±0.05mm and orientation accuracy ±0.05 degree.


identifier: MacCormack, Gillian  (2016) The Art of Nation-Building: Two Murals by Charles Fraser Comfort (1936-37).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In the late 1920s, Canada experienced a new wave of nation-building art as part of a major mural
movement sweeping Europe and North America. It reached its zenith in the 1930s, and provides
the context – artistically, socially, politically and economically – for the two murals
considered in this thesis. Such murals were modern in their focus on contemporary, usually
urban issues, industrial subject matter, the image of the blue collar worker and its links to the Art
Deco movement – “that vehicle of moderate nationalism” as architectural historian, Michael
Windover, put it. All these characteristics are reflected in two highly acclaimed works by the
leading and most prolific Canadian muralist of the 1930s and beyond: Scottish-born Charles
Fraser Comfort, A.R.C.A. (1900-1994). At a time of serious unemployment for most artists
following the market crash of 1929, Comfort achieved two significant accomplishments pertinent
to Canada’s twentieth century art narrative. As the sole muralist of the day to obtain important
commissions from the new “princes of patronage”, industry leaders, he painted The Romance of
Nickel (1936) for Inco for the Canadian Pavilion at the 1937 Exposition internationale des arts et
des techniques dans la vie moderne in Paris, as well as the series of eight interior panels (1937)
for the Art Deco-inspired, Toronto Stock Exchange (Design Exchange), and designed its exterior
stone frieze and steel medallions on the front door. Comfort’s second accomplishment was the
particular way this already well-established landscape artist, water colourist, portrait painter and
graphic designer also reflected contemporaneous preoccupations with the image of the bluecollar
worker, in Cubist-inspired Realism. In this way, his two murals of 1936-37 indicate much
about the distinctive approach of Canadian artistic developments of the decade with their
emphasis on design and “moderate” modernity.


identifier: Orr, Jacob  (2016) "Where our house was I found only trees": Colonial Development and Shared Memory in the Village of Itulike, Tanzania.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: When the Colonial Development Corporation (CDC) began development projects in rural Africa, it did so with a dual purpose. Projects were meant to both improve the social and economic welfare of colonial subjects in order to pre-empt calls for independence, and to create new economic opportunities for British business and government interests within the so-called Sterling Area. Thus began the story of TANWAT, a plantation style agro-forestry project in the Southern Highlands region of what was then Tanganyika, now the Republic of Tanzania. Through the alienation of land, the CDC and TANWAT moved thousands of rural villagers off of prime agricultural land in order to grow wattle, a tree native to Australia. This thesis explores the political debates which spawned the CDC and its style of development and the memories of TANWAT's arrival into the lives of elders from the village of Itulike, Tanzania, most of which were positive. Furthermore, this thesis will analyze these memories with thought given to how they may have been shaped more by rural experience through three successive shocks to Tanzanian society from the 1960's through the 2000's. The three shocks were Ujamaa socialism, Western imposed structural adjustment programs, and the HIV/AIDS crisis. Ultimately, TANWAT's presence in the lives of these elders and its capacity to provide support to the community mitigated the effects of these three shocks, contributing to a net positive memory of its arrival in the Southern Highlands.


identifier: Jafari Nodoushan, Nader  (2016) Robust Shelter Location/Allocation in Humanitarian Logistics Networks.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Every year, various natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes strike our planet that account for over hundred-thousand casualties and hundred-millions affected across the globe. While destroying buildings and bridges, such natural phenomena cause roads to be blocked and areas to be unreachable, electricity to be unavailable, to name a few consequences among others. Besides that, the affected population needs to be transferred to medical centers and/or sheltered, provided with food, water, electricity, and other primary needs. Such tremendous demand for housing and emergency supplies is usually more than available resources. Hence, effective pre- and post-disaster logistics activities are essential in order to reduce the number of casualties. Motivated by the importance of preparedness planning in improving emergency logistics, this thesis is focused on the problem of locating temporary shelters and allocation of affected population to those shelters in the context of earthquakes. The aforementioned problem is formulated as two-stage stochastic and robust optimization models so as to incorporate the uncertain frequency, epicenter and magnitude of earthquakes that directly impacts the housing demand as well as availability of shelters and the transportation network. Along with introducing various corrective actions to hedge the preparedness plan against different earthquake scenarios, we also consider Conditional-value-at-Risk as the risk measure in the two-stage stochastic formulation. The idea is to protect the plan against a certain percentage of worst-case scenarios. More specifically, the robust model would make sure that the number of affected population that cannot be transferred to shelters (and consequently, the number of casualties) is minimized under a given confidence level. A case study inspired by a real earthquake is also designed that provides the opportunity to validate shelter location/allocation models proposed in this thesis. Finally, we run a set of computational experiments in order to compare the performance of deterministic, stochastic, and robust optimization models.


identifier: Hughes, Joel  (2016) Film Exhibition at Indian Residential School, 1930-1969.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation examines the pedagogical imperatives informing film exhibition within the Indian Residential School System in Canada between the years 1930-1969, and argues the medium was specifically employed to facilitate the system’s culturally genocidal ideology and curriculum. Archival in methodology, I utilize a range of administrative documents from the Canadian government and varying religious organizations to write the history of film exhibition at residential schools. I situate this research in concert with postcolonial theory, suggesting the films exhibited intended to reimagine Indigenous identity in ways beneficial to the colonial powers dictating Canadian culture and privilege, and then to transfer this identity to the students through educational positioning of film.
     My introductory chapter outlines a brief history of the Indian Residential School System, and situates my study in conversation with scholarship on educational and colonial uses of cinema. Chapter One illustrates how film was incorporated into the residential schools, beginning in 1930 with the earliest reference to the medium’s use, and extending to the late 1960s, in which rental receipts from schools in Ontario and Quebec suggest film’s later prevalence throughout the system. Chapter Two examines the themes and patterns of the films exhibited, focusing on the frequency with which Hollywood Westerns, and films depicting indigeneity around the world, were screened. Chapter Three employs archival materials to demonstrate the interrelationship between the National Film Board of Canada and residential schools. I show that the Film Board’s “rural circuit” method of distribution had contact with the schools, and that its films were positioned to educate the students regarding the distinctly Canadian identity of the system intended they adopt. Chapter Four concludes this dissertation by aligning film with a public relations campaign undertaken by the residential school system, Churches, and Indian Affairs. This campaign was meant to mislead Canadians, and thereby maintain, public support for the culturally genocidal institutions in their midst. Film and moving images, as I demonstrate throughout the entirety of this work, engaged a complex and multifaceted interaction with the residential school system, its assimilative efforts, and culturally genocidal ideology.


identifier: Janbi, Jehan  (2016) Classifying Arabic Fonts Based on Design Characteristics: PANOSE-A.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In desktop publishing, fonts are essential components in each document design. With the development of font design software and tools, there are thousands of digital fonts. Increasing the number of available fonts makes selecting an appropriate font, which best serves the objective of a design, not an intuitive issue. Designers can search for a font like any other file types by using general information such as name and file format. But for document design purposes, the design features or visual characteristics of fonts are more meaningful for designers than font file information. Therefore, representing fonts’ design features by searchable and comparable data would facilitate searching and selecting a desirable font. One solution is to represent a font’s design features by a code composed of several digits. This solution has been implemented as a computerized system called PANOSE-1 for Latin script fonts. PANOSE-1 is a system for classifying and matching typefaces based on design features. It is composed of 10 digits, where each digit represents a specific design feature. It is used within several font management tools as an option for ordering and searching fonts based on their design features. It is also used in font replacement processes when an application or an operating system detects a missing font in an immigrant document or website. Currently, PANOSE-1 is only defined for fonts that have Latin characters. Therefore there is a need for providing a model that describes and classifies fonts with Arabic characters.
In this research, a new model PANOSE-A is defined to extend PANOSE-1 coverage to support Arabic characters. The model defines eight digits in addition to the first digit of PANOSE-1which indicates the font script and family type. Each digit describes a visual or a design feature and takes value between 0-15. The meaning of 0 and 1 values is similar to what is defined for PANOSE-1. Each of the remaining values indicates a specific variation of its represented feature. Weight and contrast are two essential features in any font design. Two digits of the models describe the common variations of the weight and contrast features for text fonts.  Another four digits describe the shape of some strokes that usually vary in their design between fonts. One digit describes the end shape of terminal strokes using three letters with different terminal strokes. Another digit describes the shape of the bowl stroke while the third digit describes the shape of curved stroke. The thresholds that used to define each shape class are taken from Naskh calligraphy guidelines. The fourth digit describes the shape of rounded strokes with enclosed counter. The shape classes of this digit are based on how the counter shape is similar to one of five geometric shapes. These basic geometric shapes are triangle, square, rectangular, oval and circle. The last two digits describe the characteristics of two important vertical references of the Arabic font design which are tooth and loop heights. The reliability of the model was evaluated by conducting two clustering processes on 30 fonts of Naskh style. The proposed PANOSE-A model was used to construct a similarity matrix for one the clustering processes while the other clustering process used a similarity matrix that was produced by using a font matching tool. The result clusters of the two clustering processes have been evaluated by silhouette coefficient. Silhouette is a method to measure data consistency validation within clusters. It indicates how objects are similar in their own cluster compared to other clusters. Clustering result based on the similarity matrix produced by font matching tool got 97.04 while using clustering result based on the similarity measured by PANOSE-A model got 98.24.The similarity between the results of the two clustering processes has been estimated, indicating that the model succeeded in classifying 85% of the fonts as a font matching tool.


identifier: Malekiha, Mehrnoosh  (2016) Cure rate estimation under case-1 interval censoring via smoothing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Estimating cure-rate is a popular research topic in the study of immunity of individuals against terminal diseases such as cancers and HIV. In the literature, mainly estimation based on parametric models have been studied so far, with a few exceptions. In this paper, we use the Poisson smoothing idea of Chaubey and Sen (1996) to propose two novel non-parametric estimators under Case-1 interval censoring, which improve upon previously proposed ones (Sen and Tan, 2008). We show that our estimators are consistent. In addition, their asymptotic normality is studied, and we apply our estimator to estimate cure-rate on data collected for lung tumor in mice (Finkelstein
and Wolfe, 1985). Finally, the smoothing parameter for optimum estimation has been determined by using Jackknife method.


identifier: Bakker, Michelle  (2016) Concerning Development: An Ethnography of Contingency and Ethics in a Cross-Cultural, Faith-based Aid Relationship.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This dissertation is an ethnographic case study of an international faith-based development aid relationship between two Protestant Christian non-governmental organizations: World Renew (which is North American and Christian Reformed) and Anglican Development Services (which is Kenyan and Anglican). This relationship, I argue, includes a number of influential bodies besides the NGOs themselves. Faith-based development aid praxis materializes in dialectic with the practical ethical demands of both supporters and beneficiaries. These demands illustrate and are contingent on the socio-economic structures of disparate cultural-religious lifeworlds.
The aim of this dissertation is to unravel ways that faith affects development praxis in a relational context of multiple, sometimes countervailing, priorities, desires, expectations, and demands – variously rooted in religion, history, economics, and culture. Employing fieldwork observations and interviews, primary texts, and secondary literature to gain a sense of these demands and their sources, I demonstrate how the religious worldviews of disparate communities inform the discourse, goals, and multi-directional responsiveness of development praxis. At the same time, the study shows that these development organizations in certain ways also influence the very expectations of supporters and beneficiaries to which they are subject. By examining this complex dialectic – or, rather, multilectic – of demands and accommodations thereof, I map routes by which faith comes to fruition in this NGO relationship.
The original scholarly contribution of this project is a new ethnographic study of the impact of religion on the work of development aid, a project that is unique for studies of religion and development, anthropology of religion, Christianity in Africa, and development aid in East Africa. The study also involved writing a history of World Renew, an organization for which no such cohesive historical narrative had yet existed. The project demonstrates the necessity of highly localized research for long-term, sustainable development; it reveals how religion can be a critical aspect of local socio-economies; and it shows the contingent, dynamic nature of religious faith and of the expression of faith in ethical demands.


identifier: Yuan, Sophie  (2016) A study of hybrid ventilation in an institutional building for predictive control.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents a study aimed at thermally massive high-rise buildings equipped with fan-assisted hybrid ventilation through corridors linking controlled motorized inlets on opposing façades and an atrium (solar chimney) consisting possibly of stacked atria. During the cooling season, hybrid ventilation is used when outdoor air conditions satisfy a set of criteria in order to reduce cooling energy consumption, especially at night when the outdoor air temperature drops. Additionally, this reduction can be greater when the system is controlled in a predictive manner by incorporating forecast weather in anticipation of a warm or cool day. Without compromising thermal comfort, the result from this study proposes 8 °C and-12 °C as the lower limit for allowing cool outdoor air during unoccupied and occupied hours respectively. Furthermore, replacing the existing criterion of relative humidity range of outdoor air by its humidity ratio is proposed. Using an institutional building in Montreal as the site for full-scale tests during the cooling season, the cooling potential of using the hybrid ventilation system and considerations for thermal comfort when admitting cool outdoor air are studied. To this effect, a calibrated transient thermal network model, based on the measurements from 4 hours of night ventilation and focusing on the first 10 m of the corridor at one of the motorized inlets, is developed to study the behaviour of the main building thermal mass - the 0.4 m thick concrete floor and how the temperature evolves with distance from the inlets and the resulting effect on thermal comfort. The effect of the outdoor temperature setpoint at which air is admitted into the building on potential energy savings is also studied.


identifier: Zhou, Qian Qian  (2016) Impact of early life adversity on DNA methylation of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR).  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Early life adversity (ELA) is a risk factor for the development of mental and physical disorders later in life (McEwen, 2003). Recent models propose DNA methylation as an underlying molecular mechanism responsible to dynamically translate and imprint these negative environmental experiences in different biological pathways (Szyf & Bick, 2013). This study focuses on the oxytocin receptor gene, OXTR, given the role of the oxytocinergic system in the modulation of social behavior, anxiety, and depression. The goal of this study is to examine the effect of ELA on CpG methylation frequency in distinct regions of the OXTR gene, and to test whether these changes in OXTR methylation are related to childhood anxiousness and disruptiveness trajectories rated from age 6 to 12. Drawing from a 27-year longitudinal cohort, we compared 46 adults with high or low early life adversity with regards to their OXTR DNA methylation frequency and their associations with teacher-rated childhood anxiousness and disruptiveness trajectories. The main findings are that in females, we observed significantly higher DNA methylation at Intron 1 CpG 4, Intron 1 CpG 5, Promoter CpG 3, Promoter CpG 7, and significantly lower DNA methylation at Enhancer 1 CpG 2 in the high ELA group, compared to the low ELA group. No significant ELA-related differences were found among males. In addition, teacher-rated childhood anxiousness trajectory was significantly associated with methylation frequency in Intron 1 CpG 5, Promoter CpG 3, Promoter CpG 7, and Enhancer 1 CpG 2 among females, but not among males. Furthermore, teacher-rated childhood anxiousness trajectory mediated the impact of ELA on Promoter CpG 7 methylation in females.
This study suggests that early social experiences impact methylation frequency of different regulatory regions within the OXTR gene among females and that these differential methylation patterns are related to phenotypic differences in anxiousness during childhood.


identifier: O'Flaherty, Rosemary  (2016) Damming the Remains: Traces of the Lost Seaway Communities.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
ABSTRACT

Damming the Remains: Traces of the Lost Seaway Communities

Rosemary O’Flaherty

Concordia University, 2016

Damming the Remains examines the lived experience of 11,000 people who lost their homes in the 1950s to the St. Lawrence Seaway and Power Project. Ten villages on the river front were lost altogether in Eastern Ontario and northern New York State, while another five were negatively impacted. On the Canadian-side, these have become known collectively as the "Lost" and "Survivor" Villages respectively.
The flooding for the Power Project drastically altered the landscape along the river creating unsightly mud flats encouraging the growth of pestilential weeds that trapped debris from the river. Some points of land that would not be flooded, particularly on the American shore, had sections carved out and placed elsewhere in the river where a build-up of soil served to reduce the river’s flow rate to one more suitable for the generation of electricity. As a result, along with dredging for a deeper shipping channel, both shallow and deep areas of the river were transformed affecting previous habitats for flora and fauna.
Based on extensive archival and newspaper research, this thesis includes oral history interviews with former residents and incorporates visual evidence with considerable participant observation as well as on-the-ground exploration of the physical remnants. This thesis builds upon the work of Daniel Macfarlane, Joy Parr, and others in exploring how the memories and perspectives of the dislocated residents have evolved over the past fifty-eight years. It was particularly useful to compare the oral interviews conducted by the Lost Villages Historical Society in the late 1970s with those I obtained between 2008 and 2016. Of particular interest is the study of how local people individually and collectively remember the inundation and the resulting losses. As a cross-national study, this thesis enhances the sparse scholarship in the United States on the rearrangement of the land and river that displaced 1,100 people in New York.


identifier: Tabry, Vanessa  (2016) Attentional modulation of thermal pain during a working memory task.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Evidence suggests that pain processing and cognitive task engagement compete for resources under a shared resource model of attention, and that their interaction may be influenced by sensitivity to threat and executive functions factors. We examined the dynamics of pain-related task interruption and task-related pain inhibition in 41 adults with no current pain with the aim of examining whether task-induced analgesia and pain-related task interruption were individually moderated by threat-related psychological traits and executive functions. Participants completed a task while receiving thermal stimuli, and reported significantly lower pain during a challenging task than during a control task, while on average painful stimuli did not significantly impact task performance more than warm stimuli. However, trial-by-trial analyses revealed that reported pain fully explained a trend toward an interruptive effect of pain stimulus on task performance, and conversely, task performance partly counteracted the analgesic effect of task difficulty. Interestingly, weaker divided attention predicted more analgesia while performing the more challenging task, and the mutually inhibitory effects of pain perception and task performance on each other were enhanced in those with high threat sensitivity traits and with low divided attention. Our analyses indicate that individual dynamics of attention allocation between pain and a concurrent task can be partly explained by certain traits. Our results are in support of a limited resource model, and hint that laboratory measures of individual dynamics in attentional pain modulation, along with certain psychological traits and executive functions, could predict clinical pain impairment.


identifier: Baniamerian, Amir  (2016) Geometric Fault Detection and Isolation of Infinite Dimensional Systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
A broad class of dynamical systems from  chemical processes to flexible mechanical structures,  heat transfer and compression processes in gas turbine engines are represented by a set of partial differential equations (PDE). These systems are known as infinite dimensional (Inf-D) systems. Most of Inf-D systems, including  PDEs and time-delayed systems can be represented by a differential equation in an appropriate Hilbert space. These Hilbert spaces are essentially Inf-D vector spaces, and therefore, they are utilized to represent Inf-D dynamical systems. Inf-D systems have been investigated by invoking two schemes, namely approximate and exact methods. Both approaches extend the control theory of ordinary differential equation (ODE) systems to Inf-D systems, however by utilizing two different methodologies. In the former approach, one needs to first approximate the original Inf-D system by an ODE system (e.g. by using finite element or finite difference methods) and then apply the established control theory of ODEs to the approximated model. On the other hand, in the exact approach, one investigates the Inf-D system without using any approximation. In other words, one first represents the system as an Inf-D system and then investigates it in the corresponding Inf-D Hilbert space by extending and generalizing the available results of finite-dimensional (Fin-D) control theory.

It is well-known that one of the challenging issues in control theory is  development of algorithms such that the controlled system can maintain the required performance even in  presence of faults. In the literature, this property is known as fault tolerant control. The fault detection and isolation (FDI) analysis is the first step in order to achieve this goal. For Inf-D systems, the currently available results on the FDI problem are quite limited and restricted. This thesis is mainly concerned with the FDI problem of the linear Inf-D systems by using  both  approximate and  exact approaches based on the geometric control theory of Fin-D and Inf-D systems. This thesis addresses this problem by developing a geometric FDI framework for Inf-D systems. Moreover, we implement and demonstrate a methodology for applying our results to  mathematical models of a heat transfer  and a two-component reaction-diffusion processes.

In this thesis, we first investigate the development of an FDI scheme for discrete-time multi-dimensional (nD) systems that represent approximate models for Inf-D systems. The basic invariant subspaces including unobservable and unobservability subspaces of one-dimensional (1D) systems are extended to nD models. Sufficient conditions for solvability of the FDI problem are provided, where an LMI-based approach is also derived for the observer design. The capability of our proposed FDI methodology is demonstrated through numerical simulation results to an approximation of a hyperbolic partial differential equation  system of a heat exchanger that is represented as a two-dimensional (2D) system.

 In the second part, an FDI methodology for the Riesz spectral (RS) system is investigated. RS systems represent a large class of parabolic and hyperbolic PDE in Inf-D systems framework. This part is mainly concerned with the equivalence of different types of invariant subspaces as defined for  RS systems. Necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of the FDI problem are developed. Moreover, for a subclass of RS systems, we first provide algorithms (for computing the invariant subspaces) that converge in a finite and known number of steps and then derive the necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of the FDI problem.

  Finally, by generalizing the results that are developed for RS systems necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of the FDI problem in a general Inf-D system are derived. Particularly, we first address invariant subspaces of Fin-D systems from a new point of view by invoking resolvent operators. This approach enables one to extend the previous Fin-D results to Inf-D systems. Particularly, necessary and sufficient conditions for equivalence of various types of conditioned and controlled invariant subspaces of Inf-D systems are obtained.  Duality properties of  Inf-D systems are then investigated. By  introducing  unobservability subspaces for Inf-D systems the FDI problem is formally formulated, and necessary and sufficient conditions for solvability of the FDI problem are provided.


identifier: Lai, Laurence  (2016) Comparing the Transfer Effects of Simultaneous and Sequential Combined Modality Training in Older Adults.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Intervention research has shown that both cognitive training (Hertzog et al.,2009; Lustig et al., 2009) and aerobic exercise training (Colcombe et al., 2003; Bherer, Erickson, & Liu-Ambrose, 2013) are each capable of independently inducing significant improvement on cognitive performances in older adults.
Additionally, intervention studies utilizing combined multimodality (cognitive and aerobic) training, while few in number, have shown promise in producing significantly more training gains in older adults than either single modality of training (Eggenberger et al., 2015; Lustig et al., 2009; Oswald et al., 2006; Rahe et
al., 2015; Theill et al., 2013). To date, there is no study specifically comparing and contrasting the efficacy of Simultaneous and Sequential multimodal training protocols. To this end, forty-two older adult participants (M = 68.05, SD = 4.65) were recruited to participate in 12 sessions of multimodal training, and were
randomly assigned to either the Simultaneous or Sequential training group. Both groups showed significant improvement on measures of processing speed and verbal memory following training. Additionally, the Sequential group showed a
significant training group advantage on a measure of working memory. The moderating factors, motivation to engage in cognitive effort (NFC) and baseline aerobic fitness, were included in the analyses to explore their potential influence on the magnitude of training gains. NFC was found to be a significant moderator as those with lower NFC improved more on measures of processing speed and verbal memory. Those with higher aerobic fitness improved marginally more on an interference monitoring task. The findings from the current study have
implications for the aging intervention literature as they provide partial evidence for enhanced efficacy for Sequential multimodal training. Additionally, possible training gain-related moderators were identified, which might have implications for participant selection in future intervention studies.


identifier: Lee, Somi  (2016) Advantages and Limitations of Mentoring Students Online in Building their Art University Entrance Portfolios.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

This thesis explores the advantages and limitations of online mentorship with students who are developing their portfolios for university admission. The research included 10 participants aged 18 to 19 at the time the research began. As of July 24th, 2016, six students have been accepted to the school they applied, two students have not replied my query regarding their acceptance, and the rest of the two students are continuously developing and refining their portfolios for 2017/18 entries. This Design- Based Research went through four iterations. Each iteration included adjustments to workshop content and social media platforms. They were also adjusted to optimize teaching and learning efficacy. The results of the collected data revealed the affordances and limitations of the online mentorship activities. The affordances include the improvement of artistic abilities through constant practice, recurring feedback exchange, increased motivation through social recognition, and identity formation. At the other end of the spectrum, the limitations include lesson content delivery methods, students over-dependence on the teacher-researcher, and distractions that come with using mobile phones. This research concludes that this form of online mentorship in the field of art education is worthy of continued investigation and refinement, which can enhance the noted affordances and address the limitations that were noted in this study.


identifier: zhao, yunqian  (2016) a study about the role of benefits congruity between ethical attributes and brands in evaluation of ethical and sustainable products.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that drive consumer’s decisions for ethical and sustainable products. The present study compares consumer ethical and sustainable product evaluations associated with brands and ethical attributes benefits congruity with those associated without such benefit congruity. More specifically, the study reveals that consumer evaluations of ethical and sustainable branded products become more favorable when a utilitarian (symbolic) brand is presented with a utilitarian (symbolic) ethical attribute. Furthermore, we found that brand social responsibility severs as a mediator in the relationship between benefits congruity and consumer evaluation. Resource synergy beliefs as an individual difference were also tested in this study.


identifier: Wright, Leah  (2016) Naturalistic Stress Exposure and the Diurnal Cortisol Profile in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Stress during childhood has been found to impact health across the lifespan. Research has demonstrated that the development of the diurnal cortisol profile can be altered by early exposure to stress. However, the literature is heterogeneous, with evidence of stress exposure being associated with heightened cortisol, lowered cortisol, blunted cortisol, and with no association. This thesis parses this heterogeneity by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis of 33 studies that assessed the association between stress exposure during childhood using standardized measures of stress and cortisol. Participant characteristics, study methodology, and conceptual factors were examined as potential moderators of this association. We found that stress and cortisol had a small but significant association (Z’ = 0.029). The type of stress measure employed impacted the strength of the association: life-events measures were more strongly associated with cortisol secretion when intensity of the stress exposure was taken into account. Distal vs. proximal measures of stress exposure were differentially associated with cortisol and stress. Child report stress had a stronger association with cortisol than parent report stress. Possible cortisol blunting was found in populations “at risk” for stress exposure, mental health problems, and medical conditions. Possible cortisol blunting was found in populations as they age. Together, this thesis contributes to the extant literature on the association between naturalistic stress exposure and diurnal cortisol secretion in children.


identifier: Glenn, Clinton  (2016) “We Exist”: Queer Photographic Nationalism(s) in Canada and Denmark.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis looks at the history of photography to examine how criminal and medical science has depicted bodies deemed deviant, and the ways in which queer bodies have been variously categorised and marginalised. I take two contemporary case studies as a way to address this complex and contradictory history, focusing on two major themes: photography as an apparatus of power, and queerness as continuously in flux and unstable. Contemporary photographers Charlotte Haslund-Christensen and JJ Levine respond to this history by subverting the relationship between photographer and subject, creating alternative visualisations of queer identities. Haslund-Christensen’s WHO’S NEXT? features forty-two photographs mimicking the visual composition of criminal mug-shots.. Levine’s Queer Portraits, taken over nine years from 2006 to 2015, focuses on queer-identified individuals within the domestic sphere. Both series respond to the marginalisation of LGBTQ people in photographic history while staking out very different territory: WHO’S NEXT?, arguing against complacency in the face of potential state violence; and, Queer Portraits, depicting alternative queer existences and social spaces.

This thesis is divided into two parts, the first focusing on the history of photography and its use in categorising and documenting deviancy. In this, I argue that the camera as an apparatus of power produces the deviant bodies it claims to document. In searching for non-normative sexualities one must, as Dana Seitler notes, be attentive to both the absences in the visual record and archives that may not immediately be understood as queer. In part two, I focus on contemporary queer theory, in particular its political bent towards leftist, anti-capitalist politics. Here I question how the normalisation of LGBTQ individuals in western neoliberal states has been positioned as politically regressive versus queer activism, which advocates for alternative forms of social and political relationships framed outside of heteropatriarchy.


identifier: Sivakumar, Reajean  (2016) The Role of Conglomerate Crystallization in Spontaneous Resolution and Chiral Amplification.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
The mystery of the origin of homochirality in Nature has been thoroughly investigated due to the essential role it plays in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biology. For example, enantiopure compounds are often essential in the pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries. New aspects of chemistry and chirality can be explored by effectively utilizing the unique nature of conglomerate crystals. In some cases, conglomerate crystals can be easily resolved by carefully observing the features of the crystals. Resolution is possible through observation of hemihedrism, macromorphology, circular polarization or various surface features.
Cytosine and 1,2-bis(N-benzoyl-N-methylamino)benzene are two examples of compounds that form centrosymmetric monohydrate racemic crystals but non-centrosymmetric anhydrous conglomerate crystals. Herein, a novel approach to asymmetric amplification by coupling conglomerate crystal formation via dehydration, with subsequent Viedma ripening (i.e. attrition-enchanced deracemization) is being explored.  A systematic search of the Cambridge Crystallographic Database for other crystal systems which can undergo desolvation and subsequent chiral amplification is ongoing.
Enantiomer-specific oriented attachment, an essential process in Viedma ripening, was also investigated in guanidine carbonate crystals. Simply boiling or shaking powdered racemic guanidine carbonate in saturated solution leads to the formation of large crystalline clusters. These clusters, characterized by solid-state circular dichroism and X-ray powdered diffraction, were found to be nearly homochiral. Enantiomer-specific oriented attachment can be thought of as a mesoscale analogue of conglomerate crystallization.


identifier: O'Brien, Laura Josephine  (2016) “Artful Vandals”: Urban Interventions, Street Art and Spatial Feminisms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis provides an analysis of Montréal-based artist MissMe’s series of wheat-pastes, Vandals (2014 -) in relation to spatial theory, feminist theory, and feminist geography. I argue that through feminist imagery and spatial occupation of sites around Montréal’s Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End neighbourhoods, MissMe’s Vandals ephemerally transform inherently patriarchal built space and highlight how the gendered body influences one’s experience of the city. Through examples of site-specific urban interventions by feminist artists, the groupe Mauve, Suzanne Lacy and Valie Export, I establish continuity and explore the debt between contemporary feminist street art, and second-wave feminist art that takes place in the city.
Mauve, Lacy, Export instrumentalized the built environment to broadcast feminist messages. Further, they used their female bodies in the built environment to refute the supposed gender neutrality of the city. In this way, these second-wave feminist artists ephemerally transformed their strategically chosen places into feminist spaces.

Continuing the radical exploration established by second-wave feminist artists, MissMe’s Vandals materially occupy locations in Montréal. Through analyzing the visual tactics specific to the Vandal, and considering the socio-spatial specificity of these characters within the Plateau Mont-Royal and Mile End districts, I argue that the Vandal emerges as symbols of resistance within the built environment, temporarily transforming patriarchal place into feminist space.


identifier: Parchami, Mahdi  (2016) New Approaches for Speech Enhancement in the Short-Time Fourier Transform Domain.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Speech enhancement aims at the improvement of speech quality by using various algorithms. A speech enhancement technique can be implemented as either a time domain or a transform domain method. In the transform domain speech enhancement, the spectrum of clean speech signal is estimated through the modification of noisy speech spectrum and then it is used to obtain the enhanced speech signal in the time domain. Among the existing transform domain methods in the literature, the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) processing has particularly served as the basis to implement most of the frequency domain methods. In general, speech enhancement methods in the STFT domain can be categorized into the estimators of complex discrete Fourier transform (DFT) coefficients and the estimators of real-valued short-time spectral amplitude (STSA). Due to the computational efficiency of the STSA estimation method and also its superior performance in most cases, as compared to the estimators of complex DFT coefficients, we focus mostly on the estimation of speech STSA throughout this work and aim at developing algorithms for noise reduction and reverberation suppression.
First, we tackle the problem of additive noise reduction using the single-channel Bayesian STSA estimation method. In this respect, we present new schemes for the selection of Bayesian cost function parameters for a parametric STSA estimator, namely the W�-SA estimator, based on an initial estimate of the speech and also the properties of human auditory system. We further use the latter information to design an efficient flooring scheme for the gain function of the STSA estimator. Next, we apply the generalized Gaussian distribution (GGD) to theW�-SA estimator as the speech STSA prior and propose to choose its parameters according to noise spectral variance and a priori signal to noise ratio (SNR). The suggested STSA estimation schemes are able to
provide further noise reduction as well as less speech distortion, as compared to the previous methods. Quality and noise reduction performance evaluations indicated the superiority of the
proposed speech STSA estimation with respect to the previous estimators.
Regarding the multi-channel counterpart of the STSA estimation method, first we generalize the proposed single-channel W�-SA estimator to the multi-channel case for spatially uncorrelated
noise. It is shown that under the Bayesian framework, a straightforward extension from the single-channel to the multi-channel case can be performed by generalizing the STSA estimator parameters, i.e. � and �. Next, we develop Bayesian STSA estimators by taking advantage of speech spectral phase rather than only relying on the spectral amplitude of observations, in
contrast to conventional methods. This contribution is presented for the multi-channel scenario with single-channel as a special case.
Next, we aim at developing multi-channel STSA estimation
under spatially correlated noise and derive a generic structure for the extension of a single-channel estimator to its multi-channel counterpart. It is shown that the derived multi-channel extension
requires a proper estimate of the spatial correlation matrix of noise. Subsequently, we focus on the estimation of noise correlation matrix, that is not only important in the multi-channel STSA estimation scheme but also highly useful in different beamforming methods. Next, we aim at speech reverberation suppression in the STFT domain using the weighted prediction
error (WPE) method. The original WPE method requires an estimate of the desired speech spectral variance along with reverberation prediction weights, leading to a sub-optimal strategy
that alternatively estimates each of these two quantities. Also, similar to most other STFT based speech enhancement methods, the desired speech coefficients are assumed to be temporally independent, while this assumption is inaccurate. Taking these into account, first, we employ a suitable estimator for the speech spectral variance and integrate it into the estimation of the reverberation prediction weights. In addition to the performance advantage with respect to the previous versions of the WPE method, the presented approach provides a good reduction in implementation complexity. Next, we take into account the temporal correlation present in the STFT of the desired
speech, namely the inter-frame correlation (IFC), and consider an approximate model where only the frames within each segment of speech are considered as correlated. Furthermore, an efficient
method for the estimation of the underlying IFC matrix is developed based on the extension of the speech variance estimator proposed previously. The performance results reveal lower residual reverberation and higher overall quality provided by the proposed method.
Finally, we focus on the problem of late reverberation suppression using the classic speech spectral enhancement method originally developed for additive noise reduction. As our main contribution,
we propose a novel late reverberant spectral variance (LRSV) estimator which replaces the noise spectral variance in order to modify the gain function for reverberation suppression. The suggested approach employs a modified version of the WPE method in a model based smoothing scheme used for the estimation of the LRSV. According to the experiments, the proposed LRSV estimator outperforms the previous major methods considerably and scores the closest results to
the theoretically true LRSV estimator. Particularly, in case of changing room impulse responses (RIRs) where other methods cannot follow the true LRSV estimator accurately, the suggested
estimator is able to track true LRSV values and results in a smaller tracking error. We also target a few other aspects of the spectral enhancement method for reverberation suppression, which were
explored before only for the purpose of noise reduction. These contributions include the estimation of signal to reverberant ratio (SRR) and the development of new schemes for the speech presence probability (SPP) and spectral gain flooring in the context of late reverberation suppression.


identifier: Archibald, Kristoffer  (2016) Bodily Health, Contaminants, and the Environment: Recognizing the Dangers of Industrial Pollution in Deindustrializing Sydney, Nova Scotia.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Abstract

Throughout the twentieth century, the city of Sydney, Nova Scotia was home to a steel industry that polluted the air and contaminated the waterway of Muggah Creek, known in local parlance as the Tar Ponds. This dissertation examines public discourse surrounding the subject of industrial pollution in the deindustrializing city of Sydney, focusing between 1950 and 2014. It explores how diverse community interests—including those of steelworkers, local environmentalists, residents whose properties bordered the contaminated site, and members of the local business community—interpreted and responded to the pollution. The dissertation asks why industrial pollution became the object of heightened environmental and health anxieties in the late twentieth century, arguing that the corporeal impact of the pollution, within the context of the deindustrializing city, inspired an activist citizenry. For much of the twentieth century, Sydney’s industrial pollution was equated with the local steel industry and the affiliated economic stability that came with unionized work at the mill. This perspective was challenged in the 1980s when unemployed mill workers sought compensation for a host of cancers and respiratory diseases that they attributed to having worked in a polluted environment. At the same time, environmental studies revealed Muggah Creek’s troubling pollution levels. Issues of deindustrialization, environmental contamination, and health concerns intersected and sparked contentious local environmental debates. These reached their apex in the late 1990s, when a group of residents from Sydney’s Frederick Street campaigned to be relocated on the basis that contaminants in the surrounding landscape had made them ill. The dissertation examines how the various interest groups cited their environmental and bodily observations as evidence of the problems associated with exposure to industrial contaminants, expressed concern for the well-being of the local youth, argued for social justice, and noted the past’s shadow on the city’s future. “Bodily Health, Contaminants, and the Environment” concludes by examining the 2004-2014 remediation project that reconfigured the Tar Ponds into Open Hearth Park, isolated the contaminants through the use of stabilization and solidification, and sought, with mixed success, to recalibrate the public’s image of the landscape.


identifier: Collier Duquette, Hilary  (2016) Gender, work and retirement for the baby-boomer cohort in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Historically, women have had fewer opportunities than men to contribute to the labour force mainly due to their domestic labour, which place women at a disadvantage during their retirement years compared to men. The aim of this study is to evaluate gender differences while also taking other factors into account in planning for retirement, age at retirement, returning to work after retirement, and the current socio-economic situation of retirees. The 2009 Canadian Community Health Survey – Healthy Aging is the source of data used, and this confidential master file was accessed in a secure location, the Research Data Centre (the Quebec Interuniversity Center for Social Statistics, QICSS).
Results can be summarized along two main themes. First, they show that gender roles do intersect with the process and the decision-making process of retirement. Level of education and financial situation are intertwined with gender roles such that the socio-economic situation of retirees is largely determined by their marital status and level of education, and retired females are still at a financial disadvantage due to their more limited exposure to the labour force.  Moreover, the greater attachment to the labour force for men is apparent as they are more likely to retire later and return to work. Second, the study provides clear evidence that the process of retirement is complex, can vary according to many factors and can also follow a non-linear trend that must be better acknowledged in work about retirement issues. For example, some individuals have no plans to retire either because they cannot afford it or want to continue to work and, in other situations, retirement is not a single life event because some return to work.


identifier: Simard, Natascha  (2016) @necrofille.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: @necrofille

abstract: @necrofille is an experiment in Poe’s Law, an internet adage which states online satire is indistinguishable from earnest extremism. Poems from this project will be posted on various social media apps under the username necrofille in order to investigate whether readers interpret them as confessionalism or satire. Hyperbolic and hypocritical, necrofille exemplifies a certain feminist subjectivity known online as the social justice warrior. Employing an SJW speaker, these poems expose the hostile rhetoric and faulty logic of online social justice. @necrofille is archived on www.necrofille.com and encompasses various genres of poetry, including free verse, narrative, prose, procedural, erasure, collage, concrete, video, and interactive. Social media readers who click through to the @necrofille website encounter necrofille’s desk, littered with personal objects. The reader is encouraged to inhabit necrofille’s physical and mental space by unlocking the iphone and filtering its content through necro’s perspective.


identifier: Tesolin, Daniel  (2016) Methodology & Critical Reflection in Bioethics: Buttressing Principles of Biomedical Ethics (7th ed.) with the Thought of Bernard Lonergan.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Principles of Biomedical Ethics has for the past forty years been an attractive and popular approach to bioethical issues in the clinical, research, public policy and the academic settings. Despite its widespread acceptance, accessibility and lucrative endeavor, it has been an object of critical study and criticism for its aversion to foundational meta-ethical issues. Bernard Lonergan, a Canadian-Jesuit philosopher, and theologian spent the majority of his career devoted to the structure of human knowing, and its relation to the human good. The thesis seeks to provide an account that Lonergan’s thought can be a complementary asset for principlism. The first half of the thesis focuses on the text Principles of Biomedical Ethics. The second half introduces Lonergan’s role of the dynamic structure of conscious intentionality in coming to know proportionate being, its practical possibilities and concludes with presenting tools of ethical analysis.


identifier: Bagshaw, Jake  (2016) The Protocols of Truthmaking.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Protocols of Truthmaking

abstract: Increasingly, documentary films that reflexively interrogate their own medium are commonly labeled as works that “straddle the line between fiction and nonfiction.” Despite this frequently paraphrased concept, how can we responsibly ground nonfiction filmmaking's interest in truth claims? A method by which we may explain this phenomenon is with formal analysis. Often reserved for the explication of form in fiction film or “narrative cinema,” significantly less attention has been given to the study of film aesthetics in nonfiction works. This case study examines the style and structure of two nonfiction films that profile death row cases in the Texan justice system, namely Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line (1988), and Werner Herzog's Into The Abyss (2011). With comparative formal analysis, I aim to demonstrate how the use of style participates in the formation of particular conceptual notions of truthmaking. The term truthmaking, which I have appropriated from 20th century analytic philosophy, is used to describe the process whereby film style enables a cognizant medium for the discussion of how film form may be devised to pursue truth. I propose that David Bordwell's two-fold process of analytic and historical poetics may be recontextualized within the realm of documentary film studies, both expanding and inquiring the application of Formalist methodology. More broadly, this thesis argues that space ought to be given for qualitative formal analysis of the nonfiction film, which simultaneously assists in the historicization of documentary style while also revisiting and challenging familiar views about the films and filmmakers in question.


identifier: Ye, Wenjun  (2016) Inverse Compensation of Hysteresis using Modified Generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii Hysteresis Model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Smart material based actuators, due to their properties of high precision, fast response, high power density, and small sizes, have become ideal actuators in many industrial applications, i.e. micro positioning, atomic force microscopy, and so forth. However, these smart actuators exhibit hysteresis nonlinear effects, which may worsen tracking performances, lead oscillations or even instabilities. Therefore, the existence of the hysteresis nonlinearities limits the utilization of smart material based actuators, and became the bottleneck of the control strategies development for systems with the smart actuators.

In order to overcome the effects of the hysteresis, a number of hysteresis models have been proposed in the literatures. Among them, the Prandtl-Ishlinskii (PI) model, thanks to its significant analytical invertible property, has become one of the most popular hysteresis models. Nevertheless, the PI model can only describe a kind of symmetric, rate-independent, and non-saturated hysteresis, which restricts the use of PI model. Therefore, it requires to generalize the PI model, making it able to represent more complicated hysteresis phenomena, while keeping analytically  invertible property.

In this thesis, based on the PI model and the Generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii (GPI) model available in the literature, a modified Generalized Prandtl-Ishlinskii (mGPI) model is proposed, which aims to redefine the play operator in the GPI so as to describe a kind of asymmetric and saturated hysteresis nonlinearities.

According to the proposed mGPI model, an analytical inverse model is also derived, which can be used as an inverse compensator of the hysteresis nonlinearities. To validated the proposed inverse model, simulation results are provided confirming the proposed analytical inverse of the mGPI model.


identifier: Spencer, Caitlyn  (2016) Alms & Matter.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Alms & Matter

abstract:
Alms & Matter works against the predominance of the tragic mode in queer narratives by taking heteronormative romantic tropes and reapplying them to characters who normally would be offered suffering and strife instead. The novel aims for a queer optimism rooted in a reality that is not, and should not be, limited to tales of queer suffering. The novel’s division into four parts reflects the setting which binds the characters together: a door-to-door fundraising office in Calgary. The protagonists follow a script when soliciting donations, of which Waiting, Rapport, the Ask, and Concern-Handling are fundamental parts. While we follow the characters through their work, we see the main plots go through the same format. The story is set up in Part I, disrupted and developed in Part II, the stakes raised in Part III, and the plot and subplots resolved in Part IV.

Setting the novel in a fundraising office blends oppression with lightheartedness; though the stories the protagonists present are often dire, many of the interactions they have at the door are startling, bizarre, and surreal. Though many of the scenes take place in or around the workplace, and the protagonists talk about contemporary global issues, the plot revolves around the social aspects of their lives. Both of the novel’s primary romantic plots begin with standard tropes of queer suffering, and typically end in tragedy. In Alms & Matter, these tragic tropes are averted.


identifier: Samadi, Niyusha  (2016) Electrowetting-based Actuation of Model Biological Fluids.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Electrowetting-based Actuation of Model Biological Fluids
Niyusha Samadi, Ph.D.
Concordia University, 2016
In the past two decades, microfluidics-based lab-on-a-chip devices have received growing interest, and researchers have been developing chemical and biological analysis systems on very small scales. In Lab-on-a-chip systems, the goal is reducing chemical laboratory procedures and using miniaturized rapid, portable, inexpensive and reliable equipment which can be applied in medical diagnostics, and basic scientific research. The driving force behind the Lab-on-a-chip concept is “microfluidics” where contrary to bulk flows; surface tension is a dominant force for liquid handling and actuation. One method of actuation involves applying an external electric field which changes the surface tension between the solid-liquid interface reducing the meniscus contact angle and inducing motion of a droplet in a microchannel. This phenomenon is called “electrowetting”.
In this research, the effect of electrowetting on the behavior of biopolymer solutions such as DNA is experimentally investigated. To better assess the electrowetting phenomenon of such complex solutions, the physics of electrowetting of aqueous biopolymer solutions should be completely understood. Such a fundamental understanding currently does not exist. For this purpose, the effect of fluid composition (i.e. different concentrations of DNA solutions and the type of buffer solution) on the static response of the droplet to electric field variables such as applied voltage is identified.
In the transient response, the time and voltage dependency of the parameters such as droplet speed, total displacement, and elongation of the droplets of distilled water, Tris-HCl buffer and the DNA solutions is studied. Among these parameters, the droplet speed is a key factor which controls the rate of microfluidics-based lab-on-a-chip devices. It is found that the negatively charged oxygen ions on the DNA chain will affect the dynamic behaviour of DNA solutions significantly, and the electrophoretic velocity increases with voltage. Besides, it appears that the higher the DNA concentration is, the higher the DNA droplet velocity will be; as the ionic strength and the total effective charge increase with DNA concentration. Therefore, both electrowetting and electrophoretic forces contribute to the movement of the negatively charged droplets of DNA solutions.
Overall, the results of this study will help us to better understand, analyze, design and prototype the microfluidic-based systems for DNA solutions.


identifier: Sharma, Bharat Kumar  (2016) Development of Semiempirical Models for Metalloproteins.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
Theoretical models and computational techniques are useful for gaining insight into the interactions, movements, and functions of atoms and molecules, ranging from small chemical systems with few atoms to large biological molecules with many atoms. Due to the inability of force field methods to accurately describe different properties of metalloenzymes and the prohibitive computing cost of high-level quantum methods, computationally efficient models are needed.
This dissertation describes the development of new quantum semiempirical models for metalloproteins. The original AM1 (Austin Model 1) based on the neglect of diatomic differential overlap approximations was re-parameterized to describe the structural and energetic properties of biomolecules that mimic the active sites of metalloproteins. The biologically inspired genetic algorithm PIKAIA was used to optimize the parameters for each chemical element. Structures and energies of various clusters analogous to complexes found in metalloproteins were prepared as a training set using hybrid density functional theory. Models were trained to reproduce all of the properties included in the small training set. The optimized models were validated for large testing sets that incorporate bigger complexes and related reactions. Finally, the optimized models were used to study biologically-relevant processes in condensed phase using molecular dynamics simulations. All the gas- and liquid-phase results from the optimized models were compared with original semiempirical models as well as available high-level theoretical and experimental results.
Metal ions play crucial roles in biological systems. They actively participate in structural, catalytic, and co-catalytic activities of a large number of enzymes. The development of semiempirical models is divided into three parts. First, new AM1 parameters for hydrogen and oxygen were developed to describe gas-phase proton transfer reactions in water and static and dynamic properties of liquid water. Gas-phase results were compared with original AM1, RM1, and PM3 models, whereas liquid results were compared with original AM1, AM1-W, and AM1PG-W models, and with available experimental results. It is found that the optimized model reproduces experimental data better than other available semiempirical models. Second, using the previously optimized model for hydrogen and oxygen, the AM1 model is re-parameterized for zinc and sulfur to describe important physical and chemical properties of zinc, water, hydrogen sulfide complexes mimicking structural motifs found in zinc enzymes. Metal-induced pKa shifts are computed for water and hydrogen sulfide, and compared with available theoretical and experimental results. Third, using previously optimized parameters for hydrogen, oxygen, and zinc, AM1 parameters for carbon and nitrogen are optimized to study proton transfer, nucleophilic attacks, and peptide hydrolysis mechanisms in zinc metalloproteases.
Overall, the optimized models give promising results for the various properties of biomolecules in gas-phase clusters and in condensed phase. Particularly, the water model reproduces the proton transfer related properties in gas-phase and the structure, dielectric properties, and infrared spectra of liquid water. The zinc/sulfur model reproduces the hydration structure of zinc cation and zinc-bound hydrogen sulfide. Results for the coordination configurations of zinc solvated in water and in hydrogen sulfide confirm the versatility of the model. The optimized model for carbon and nitrogen improves the overall performance compared to AM1 and PM3. The optimized model for carbon and nitrogen reproduces structures and various energetic terms for zinc-ligands systems (representing the active sites of zinc enzymes) when compared to density functional theory results. The optimized model can be used to study metal-ligand reactivity in zinc enzymes.


identifier: Murray, Erin  (2016) Exploring Narrative Inquiry in an Introduction to Mathematical Thinking Course.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This thesis presents a study of the mathematical behaviour of students in a first year undergraduate course entitled Introduction to Mathematical Thinking. Previous data collected from a design experiment carried out in the same course (see Hardy et al. 2013) proved insufficient to discuss/characterize the mathematical behaviour that emerged in the classroom.  I suggest that a new generation of research in this area needs to address the lived experiences of students as they are learning to think mathematically. This thesis is motivated by two research goals: (1) to construct a rich characterization of mathematical behaviours, and (2) to explore a methodological approach that allows us to discuss and construct accounts of these behaviours as they emerge in institutional education settings (in this case an undergraduate classroom).
The educational philosophy of John Dewey, who claims that all education comes about through experience, is central to the theoretical perspective of this research. Drawing on previous characterizations, a model of mathematical behaviour is proposed and used as a tool for characterizing students’ mathematical behaviours. In order to foreground individual experience, I use Clandinin and Connolly’s (2000) methodological framework to conduct a narrative inquiry. This methodology allows me to construct meaningful narrative depictions of students’ mathematical behaviour, and to explore the significance of these experiences within the continuity and wholeness of their individual narratives.  The findings from this research provide rich characterizations of some elements of mathematical behaviour, and offer insight into my own experiences using narrative inquiry methodology. Implications for teaching and future research are discussed.


identifier: Tardif, Myriam  (2016) Devenir Lean au temps de l’amélioration continue : Récit de la transformation culturelle du système public de santé et de services sociaux au Québec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Depuis 2011, le réseau public de santé et de services sociaux au Québec est chamboulé par l’instauration d’un plan national visant à le réorganiser selon la philosophie de gestion du Lean Management.  Plusieurs ont vu dans le Lean une solution miracle qui permettrait de régler les problèmes du réseau, liés à une bureaucratie trop lourde et trop complexe, alors que d’autres dénoncent une méthode qui serait dangereuse pour la santé des travailleurs et travailleuses et qui, de par son obsession par l’optimisation, finirait par éliminer l’essentiel du travail de care propre à ce domaine. Cette recherche a voulu comprendre, par le biais d’un terrain ethnographique, ce qu’était le Lean Management, comment celui-ci était-il performé dans le réseau public de santé et de services sociaux et quels impacts entraînait-il sur les relations entre les différents acteurs et actrices du milieu. J’en suis venue à la conclusion que le Lean Management participait à créer une nouvelle infrastructure culturelle dont l’intention n’est plus de faire du Lean, mais de devenir Lean. Le Lean Management est aussi un produit culturel du capitalisme, en ce sens qu’il est créé et reproduit par des personnes croyant fortement à un monde régi par les lois du marché et par un mode d’accumulation néolibéral. Cependant, cet éthos de l’amélioration continue peut entraîner des conséquences individuelles et collectives tragiques, d’autant plus visibles lorsqu’il est confronté à différentes manifestations de la condition de finitude humaine.


identifier: Hill, Katherine  (2016) Building Bridges Online: Young Indigenous Women Using Social Media for Community Building and Identity Representation.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Mainstream media representations of Indigenous communities overwhelmingly follow a dual oversimplification: dichotomizing Indigenous peoples as “good” or “bad” according to normative settler-colonial constructs, or dismissing them altogether. With regards to Indigenous women, the tendency is toward the latter erasure. In many communities and social spaces, however, Indigenous women are visible and vocal leaders. In this thesis, I explore how young Indigenous women leaders take advantage of social media affordances to revitalize Indigenous communities and reconstruct Indigenous identity. Engaging the concept of Indigenous resurgence, I draw on interviews conducted with nine Indigenous women leaders from Yukon to elucidate what resurgent Indigenous leadership looks like in practice. I argue that the praxes of community building and identity representation that these nine women demonstrate on social media are everyday acts of Indigenous resistance and revitalization. By reclaiming and representing individual identities within the safe communities and contested spaces occupied through social media, I suggest that Indigenous women leaders empower their Indigenous social media audiences to reconstruct their own identities in turn. Moreover, I support the notion that everyday acts of representation have the cumulative power to subtly and slowly provoke profound discursive shifts. While these nine women’s social media interventions are primarily intended to empower other Indigenous peoples in determining personal identities, I conclude that they are also challenging mainstream media constructs and reshaping how non-Indigenous observers understand what it means to be Indigenous.


identifier: Laamerad, Pooya  (2016) Stiction Prevention in MEMS Structures After Wet Treatment by Optimized Drying Techniques.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The demand driven by applications of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems), calls for smaller devices, which are produced in various shapes and geometries. This imposes significant strain on the fabrication procedure, often resulting in elevated costs. As one of the main fabrication techniques, wet etching is an attractive alternative to dry etching because of its low cost. However, in this method, for etching and/or cleaning of wafers, we use liquid chemicals, which may result in stiction of suspended structures. Thus, the drying process is being an essential step in wet processing. If we do not have a proper technique to evaporate liquid inside structures, stiction would be unavoidable and may cause failure in fabricated devices. Low Consumption IPA (IsoPropyl Alcohol) dryer (LuCID) is an innovative and fully automated drying tool. LuCID is a Marangoni style dryer that uses IPA to vaporize water on wafer surface and in cavities of the fabricated microdevices, followed by drying with heated . With the assistance of Centre de Collaboration MiQro Innovation (C2MI) and Teledyne DALSA partnership, a set of test structures was fabricated in view of optimization of the drying procedure. These test wafers include ribbons and cantilevers with different sizes to test stiction under various conditions. Both surface and bulk micromachining methods were tested with most common structural materials, such as Low Stress Nitride (LSN) and In-Situ Doped Polysilicon (ISDP) layer. With changing LuCID parameters controlling amount and type of IPA injections drying cycle was optimized and the results of this study will be presented in this work. The influence of the liquid and solid surface tension on stiction has been investigated in this study. Moreover, by using LuCID after wet etching, we show that by adjusting the concentration of IPA injected during the drying process, it is possible to reduce stiction.


identifier: Kalantari, Nazli  (2016) A Space Vector Modulation Scheme for Reduction of Dead-Time Effects on Common Mode Voltage of an Open End Winding Induction Machine.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
In recent times, the demand for high voltage and high current rating motor drives for electric vehicles applications has increased. These conditions place a great deal of stress on the semiconductor switches, which are usually based on silicon. Multilevel converters provide an alternative that reduces the stress on the switch and also improves the quality of the voltage output. On the other hand, 2-level power converters have proven to be reliable over a number of years. Therefore, they have been used as building blocks to achieve higher voltage and/or currents, by creating a multilevel effect to improve the quality of the voltage waveforms supplied to the motor. In this project, a power configuration with dual 2-level inverters supplying an Open End Winding Machine (OEWM) was studied.
This thesis investigates the Space Vector Modulation (SVM) switching strategy for an open end winding machine, fed by dual 2-level inverters. One DC voltage source is employed to feed the both inverters. In addition, the problem of Common Mode Voltage (CMV) in this configuration was discussed in depth and the cause of this problem was explored.
The existing SVM strategy to eliminate the CMV due to switching states was discussed in depth and it was modified in order to eliminate the effect of dead-time on the common mode voltages. The existing modulation strategy was adjusted to re-align the switching states according to the phase current direction in order to obtain a proper sequence. The proposed scheme is also applicable for n-level inverters.
The performance of the system under the proposed strategy in terms of current and voltage quality was investigated and duly presented. The studies were conducted in MATLAB/Simulink software in the time-domain. Loss calculation using PLECS toolbox is also provided in this thesis.


identifier: Kwong, Diana  (2016) Using Art and Dialogue to Promote the Emotional Awareness of Kindergarteners.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This study investigated the effects of an intervention on the emotional awareness of 4- to 6-year-olds enrolled in kindergarten classes.  Sixteen children in one classroom formed an experimental group and fourteen children in a second classroom formed a control group.
	Children in the experimental group engaged in a 5-week intervention, focusing on emotional awareness, specifically naming various emotions and their causes, suggesting solutions to problems evoking anger or sadness, and identifying mixed emotions.  To support emotional awareness, children were engaged in drawing their own and others' emotions, discussing the causes of the emotions they had drawn, and proposing solutions to problems.  In the final session, children participated in a group discussion of emotions evoked by art (museum paintings).
	Pretest and posttest measures were children’s drawings and descriptions of (1) their own emotions, (2) a negative emotion expressed by a character in a photograph, and (3) mixed emotions of a character in a story.  Children's drawings were scored for facial features associated with the emotion.  Their descriptions were coded and scored for the identification of emotions and their causes, and when relevant, for resolution to problems.  ANCOVAs on posttest scores (summed across tasks) did not show a significant group difference on drawing, but the experimental group scored higher than the control group on description at posttest.  Qualitative analyses showed the causes of children’s happiness were often social and that children provided more elaborate causes from pretest to posttest.  Children's contributions to discussions about museum paintings revealed that children talk about emotions (i.e., their own, in artwork) when observing realistic and abstract paintings.


identifier: von Harringa, Charissa  (2016) 'Arke-Typical' : Dialogues in Art, Anthropology and the Writing of Self in the Work of Pia Arke.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract:
This research project approaches the topic of autoethnography in art through an analysis of the artistic practice of the late Greenlandic-Inuit and Danish artist and photographer, Pia Arke (1958-2007). Arke’s artistic-research practice is a personal and critical relationship to Greenland’s colonial history, Danish imperialism and Arctic Indigenous representation. Her critiques are foregrounded in biographical expressions and critical reflections that reframe colonial histories and narratives, bringing them into visible and tangible contact with Greenlandic Inuit oral and material histories. Pia Arke’s writing and performances challenge dominant discourses of the ‘ethnographic turn’ by art scholars concerned with issues such as, appropriation in art, ‘relational aesthetics’, social collaboration and site-specificity; themes that, although relevant, tend to obscure important decolonizing methods and postcolonial insights in the art historical literature. Pia Arke’s autoethnographic framings foreground notions of identity, ethnicity, hybridity, and self-representation as crucial postcolonial sites in formation. Arke’s artistic devices, mediums and narrative contents draw on the history of ethnographic histories as she explores critical colonial and postcolonial themes. This critical stance is an integral part of the project in which she seeks to interrogate and thus requalify the “ethnographic gaze,” imbuing it with new meaning. Arke’s performative gestures produced new visual configurations and representations that can be read and understood as plurally embodied autoethnographic articulations in reclaiming (self) identity. Her mixed “mongrel” autoethnographic orientations, especially as clarified in her practice, are largely informed by the multivalency of ethnoaesthetics, as a web of meanings and contestations deriving from ethnographic practices, issues of race and identity, postcoloniality, and the politics of indigeneity. Her theoretical outlook is thus meaningfully extended into different intellectual fields, especially as they are closely linked with praxis—this linkage is indispensable in constructing and narrating an essential autoethnographic project.

Keywords: Greenland, Arctic colonialism, decolonization, postcoloniality, critical theory, methodologies, ethnicity, identity, autoethnography, artistic-research, ethnographic turn, ethnoaesthetics