identifier: Wang, Lin Ke  (2002) Theory and experimental investigation of tracking control of wheeled mobile robots.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: A variety of theoretical and tracking control problems have been studied for various classes of nonholonomic wheeled mobile robot (WMR). The relative difficulty of the tracking control problem depends not only on nature structural properties of the nonholonomic WMR system but also on the tracking control objective.  In this thesis several structural properties regarding controllability, stabilizability and nonholonomy of the kinematic state models of WMRs have been given, taking into account the restriction to robot mobility induced by the constraints. By using the concepts of degree of mobility and degree of steerability , this study provides a general and unifying presentation of the modeling issue of WMRs. For particular prototypes of WMRs, the posture kinematic models for WMRs are available in the literature. However, in this thesis, a more general viewpoint is adopted for the consideration of a general class of WMRs with an arbitrary number of wheels of different types. Three-wheel mobile robot-Nomad 200 used in the experiment is described in details.  The control objective in this investigation is to determine a control law so that the robot can track a desired trajectory. Two control algorithms are therefore presented. The first control algorithm is using a "virtual vehicle approach", which is shown to be robust with respect to error and disturbances; the second one is a time-varying adaptive control algorithm developed for a general class of nonholonomic mechanical system, which guarantees the global stability of the closed-loop system.  Simulation results with SIMULINK software and Nomad simulator confirmed the validity of the proposed algorithms, and the implementation of the both algorithms on a nonholonomic WMR, Nomad 200 platform, clearly, verify that proposed tracking control algorithms can achieve the control objective in a stable and robust way


identifier: Gao, Xiang  (2001) Modeling and control of antilock braking systems utilizing dynamic friction tire model.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

type: Thesis NonPeerReviewed

abstract: The development of high-performance antilock braking systems that provide reliability, steerability, and stability during braking in different road conditions, i.e., wet, icy or dry road surface, has attracted much attention in the automobile industry. This thesis addresses the controller designs for antilock braking systems (ABS) in vehicles. Simplified quarter vehicle models with special emphasis on the modeling of tire and dynamic tire-road interaction is utilized to develop and test the proposed controllers.  The novelty of the present research is in the utilization and formulation of a new dynamic friction tire model for the development and testing of designed controller. Due to complex mechanics of tires, the dynamic friction tire model is significantly more realistic than that of commonly used static friction tire model. A detailed comparison of dynamic friction tire model with that of well-known magic formula and experimental data is carried out to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed formulation. Using this dynamic tire model, two methods for control of ABS system are proposed in this thesis, i.e., proportional-plus-integral (PI) control and the sliding mode control. Utilizing the PI controller design, the difficulty associated with on-line search of the optimal longitudinal slip can be easily overcome with the help of the dynamic friction tire model, which solves a commonly existed problem in the PI controller design. To show the advantage of the new dynamic tire model, a robust sliding mode control algorithm is also developed for the quarter vehicle model. The global stability of this control scheme is established by using the stability theory. Extensive simulation studies have been conducted for the developed controllers to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control schemes. The investigation further demonstrates the effectiveness and convenience of utilizing dynamic friction tire model for the development of ABS controllers


identifier: Fan, Ziyu  (2002) Dynamic performance of control loops and their interactions in a VAV HVAC system.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Good HVAC control schemes in buildings help reduce energy use and maintain occupant comfort. During the last 10 years, VAV-HVAC systems are widely used in commercial buildings because they can reduce energy use significantly and provide good temperature control of the conditioned spaces compared to CV-HVAC systems. However, the controls for VAV systems are somewhat difficult and further research in this area still needs to be carried out.  This research will focus on local control loop interactions and operating strategies for VAV control systems. To reach this objective, experiments were conducted in a two-zone VAV test facility. The facility consists of six control loops (cooling valve, fan speed, two dampers, two electric heaters) activated by DDC PI controllers. Experiments were conducted in this facility and the results were processed, and analyzed in this thesis.  The steady state and dynamic characteristics of a VAV-HVAC control system has been studied. The interaction between control loops of a VAV system operating under (i) open-loop, (ii) closed-loop control modes were evaluated. Also six local loops were tuned and optimal range of controller gains for single-loop and multi-loop VAV system operation were determined. Experiments were conducted to compare the operating performance of Pressure Independent Control (PIC) and Pressure Dependent Control (PDC) strategies. The results show that PIC strategy is more stable than PDC. However, a finely tuned PDC strategy gives good room temperature control compared to PIC.  The results of this research will help building engineers identify operating problems and interactions between local loops in VAV systems. In addition, the optimal range of controller gains obtained in this research can offer guidelines in PID controller tuning. Moreover, the tests conducted provide experimental data to building engineers and researchers for model development and control design


identifier: Mancuso, Carmela  (2001) Energy transfer and waveguide studies of Eu3+ and Tb3+ doped 2 SiO2-TiO2 glass prepared via the sol-gel route.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In recent years, waveguide studies have played an active role in the telecommunication industry. High doping concentrations are essential in the manufacture of short and compact optical amplifiers, yet quenching can reduce the performance of the amplifier. Sol-gel chemistry, combined with the dip-coating method is a means to develop rare-earth doped planar waveguides for such integrated optics components.  The sol-gel process involves three main steps: first, a metal alkoxide (Si-alkoxide) in alcohol-based medium undergoes hydrolysis at a predetermined pH; the next step involves condensation, where Si-OH tetrahedra linkages occur and eventually result in an SiO 2 network. The third step involves solvent evaporation to eliminate residual organics and hydroxyl groups within the pores of the gel.  This thesis reports on the luminescence properties of Eu 3+ and Tb 3+ within the SiO 2 -TiO 2 host prepared via the sol-gel method with both H 2 O and D 2 O hydrolyzed systems.  Sol-gel synthesis and dip-coating methods were used to develop a planar waveguide for a 5 mol % europium sample in the aforementioned host.


identifier: D'Alesio, Tania  (2001) Optical properties and energy transfer between C3i and C2 sites of Eu3+ ions in Y2O3 nanocrystal and bulk systems.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The effect of two distinct crystallographic sites on the optical properties and energy transfer process between Eu 3+ ions in a Y 2 O 3 lattice has been a recent focus of research in our laboratory.  The luminescence and site selective emission resulting from the direct excitation of the 5 D 0 [arrow right] 7 F 0 level of C 2 and the 5 D 0 [arrow right] 7 F 1a level of C 3i sites at 580.0 and 582.2 nm respectively for Eu 3+ doped Y 2 O 3 nanocrystalline and bulk samples are reported in this thesis. It was observed for the 1mol% nanocrystalline and bulk samples that a two-way energy transfer process becomes possible over a 90cm -1 energy gap between the 5 D 0 levels of the distinct sites through thermal bridging at room temperature.  Furthermore, the investigation of the lifetime of the 5 D 0 [arrow right] 7 F 2 (C 2 ) level for the nanocrystalline and bulk samples confirmed the two-way energy transfer process between Eu 3+ (C 3i )[Lef-right arrow]Eu 3+ (C 2 ) ions since the lifetimes obtained for 5 D 0 [arrow right] 7 F 2 level lengthened upon C 3i excitation both at 298K and 77K.


identifier: Papp, Robert  (2002) Probing peptide binding to the second PDZ domain of hPTP1E using FT-IR and MS.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Three peptides were evaluated for binding to the second PDZ domain of human protein tyrosine phosphatase 1E using FT-IR and mass spectrometry. This PDZ is known to bind the C-terminal motif X-Ser/Thr-Val. MS demonstrated the formation of a 1:1 complex between PDZ and ENEQVSAV but not with peptides ENEQVCAV and KDDEVYYV due to substitution of Ser in -2 position with Cys or Tyr. Furthermore, the H/D exchange rate of the PDZ-ENEQVSAV, monitored by MS, was reduced compared to free PDZ, suggesting a stable protein-ligand complex had formed.  Thermal denaturation of free PDZ and in combinations with three peptides was investigated using FT-IR and CD spectroscopy. The T m of free PDZ in D 2 O was found to be 47 ± 1C̕ when monitoring the loss of Ý-sheets and the appearance of aggregation by FT-IR. Combinations of PDZ with KDDEVYYV, ENEQVCAV and ENEQVSAV revealed T m values of 48 ± 1, 49 ± 1 and 57 ± 1C̕, respectively. The increased T m observed with PDZ-ENEQVSAV was attributed to the formation of a stable complex. The thermal denaturation spectra were evaluated by 2D correlation analysis to determine the sequence of unfolding events. Ý-sheets and turns unfold prior to protein aggregation in free PDZ while in the PDZ-ENEQVSAV complex Ý-sheets unfold prior to aggregation but turns unfold last, indicating that residual turn-like structures persisted in the denatured state. Evidence from CD spectroscopy suggested that helical structures remained intact during heating to 75C̕ for PDZ and the PDZ-ENEQVSAV complex.


identifier: Tavera Mendoza, Luz Elisa  (2001) Influences of atrazine on gonadal differentiation in Xenopus laevis tadpoles during metamorphosis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Xenopus laevis tadpoles were exposed for 48, 96 and 144 h during sexual differentiation to 1.8, 19 and 48 og/L atrazine. Following the exposure, tadpoles were microdissected for histological examination of the gonadal-kidney complex. The experimental tadpoles showed no significant difference in body weight, body length and in their development among the treatments. However, quantitative histological analysis of the gonads revealed a significant reduction of testicular volume, primary spermatogonial cell nests, and nursing cells in males as atrazine concentration and length of exposure increased. Females showed significant declines in primary oogonia cells and a significantly higher frequency of atresia with increasing atrazine concentration and length of exposure. The presence of a Wilms-like tumour was reported for the first time in tadpoles following exposure to atrazine. Qualitative histological analysis of the kidney showed a significant increase in the incidence of Renal Embryonal Adenosarcoma in all atrazine treated tadpoles. Females showed a significantly higher risk from developing tumours and tumour incidence as compared to males. These results suggests that the present non observable effect level (NOEL) for aquatic ecosystem of 20og/L atrazine should be reconsidered.


identifier: Stubbs, Kristian A  (2002) The impact of Canadian direct-to-consumer prescription medicine advertising on prescription volume.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Canadian pharmaceutical companies are increasingly using direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription medications in an attempt to stimulate sales. While published literature on the impact of DTCA is limited, one study conducted in the United States by Basara (1996) suggested that DTCA has a positive impact on new prescription volume and thus sales. This study investigates the reliability of findings of Basara (1996) and extends them using a Canadian prescription medication that was advertised directly to consumers.  IMS Health Canada new prescription data was obtained for a prescription medication. The same promotional-response modeling technique known as intervention time-series analysis that Basara (1996) used, was used to investigate the potential for DTCA to impact new prescription volume for this medication. Results suggest that DTCA did not have an identifiable impact on new prescription volume for this product. Findings suggest that caution should be used when interpreting Basara's (1996) findings in the Canadian context. Specifically, the impact of DTCA appears to be dependent on product, market, and advertisement related factors. Research implications, limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.


identifier: Kollias, Christina  (2002) Effect of the new product development process on the performance of global new service programs in the business-to-business services sector.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The concern of this thesis is to understand how business-to-business service companies achieve success in their program of international new product development. Literature exists on the topics of new product development (NPD), services marketing, and international marketing. But, little research has combined these areas and focused on new service development (NSD) for international markets. Moreover, no study has looked at the firm's NPD process--i.e., the stages and activities undertaken to bring a new product from idea to market launch-and how this impacts NPD performance, internationally. This thesis focuses on the specific topic of the NPD process and its impact on success in developing and marketing new business-to-business services for international markets.  The research identifies and describes the dimensions that define the NSD process used for developing new services for international markets, and shows how these are linked to various measures of performance. Factor and reliability analyses yield a set of 11 descriptive NSD process dimensions; and correlation, multiple regression, and t-test analyses offer insights about what NSD process activities and approaches managers should focus on to achieve success.


identifier: Shao, Lian  (2002) A cross-cultural test of the "five-factor model of personality and transformational leadership".  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Transformational leadership has gained popularity during the past ten years because of its consistent effect on individual and organizational performance. The increasing globalization of business and the consequent emergence of a diversified workforce have prompted the importance of understanding the cultural context of transformational leadership theory. Judge and Bono (2000) demonstrated some support for the argument that the leaders' personality predicts their transformational leadership behavior and the positive association between transformational leadership and organizational outcomes such as: subordinate satisfaction with the leader, subordinate overall job satisfaction, subordinate organizational commitment, subordinate work motivation and leadership effectiveness. The purpose of the study is to conduct a conceptual replication to test the cross-cultural generalizability of this finding utilizing a Chinese sample.


identifier: Kelly, Jennifer  (2002) Team-based marketing organizations in the pharmaceutical industry : the performance advantage.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This research examines a whether a team-based marketing department impacts the positive performance of an organization. It examines whether organizations are better able understand its customers, competitors and its environment, and have the mechanisms in place to react quickly to changes in its environment. The market-orientation theory was used to examine this theory and was found to be mediate the team-performance relationship. This study was conducted in the Canadian pharmaceutical industry.  The results of this study support that product managers who perceive their marketing departments to be team oriented are also more market oriented and have better marketing department performance outcomes than product manager who do not perceive themselves to be team oriented. Our hypotheses predicted and showed team orientation is positive and significant for market orientation and marketing performance.  The research confirms that teams contribute to performance in knowledge based industries and in the product management area. It also confirms that teams are an essential component of a company striving to be more market oriented and customer-focused.


identifier: Calmet, Loïc  (2002) A qualitative study of the communication patterns of the beer brewing industry in Ontario and Québec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: "This study is an exploration of the communication patterns of the breweries in Ontario and Québec. The objective of this work is first to define how these brewers define themselves in their websites and the categorize these identity dimensions. Secondly, we wanted to prove the existence of certain relationships between the identity of an organization, its reputation, its image, and its behaviors - more particularly Corporate Citizenship Behaviors."--leaf iii.


identifier: Virelli, Giuseppina  (2001) Number of levels effect in adaptive and choice-based conjoint analysis.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Conjoint analysis is a widely used marketing research tool for analyzing consumer preferences for a set of product/service attributes and estimating part-worths for the levels of each attribute. Although numerous studies have confirmed the reliability and validity of part-worth estimates, several studies have reported what was called the Number of Levels (NOL) effect, especially in full-profile conjoint designs. The NOL effect occurs in conjoint analysis when the estimated relative importance weight of an attribute increases as a function of the number of levels by which it is defined. This study investigates the NOL effect for Adaptive and Choice-Based Conjoint Analysis (ACA and CBC), two increasingly popular data collection methods. Three experiments were conducted with 684 physicians in Canada to test the hypothesis that NOL effect will be observed for both ACA and CBC but the effect will be stronger for CBC than ACA. The findings suggest that while CBC suffers from the NOL effect, ACA does not. The results also suggest that a less important attribute may be more susceptible to the NOL effect. Given the findings, it is recommended that when CBC is used it is better to have equal number of levels across all attributes in the conjoint design whenever possible. Also, relative importance weights from two different studies where the number of levels differ should not be compared. ACA does not seem to have these limitations.


identifier: Xie, Yan  (2002) The role of investment banker reputation in initial public offerings : evidence from the NASDAQ bubble era.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The certification role of investment banks in the initial public offering (IPO) market has been well documented. Extant literature reports a negative relationship between the prestige of the investment banker and both the first-day price run-up (Carter and Manaster (1990) and long run performance of IPOs (Michaely and Shaw (1994)). However, the robustness of this relationship under different market conditions, particularly in times of greater uncertainty and increased market volatility, has not been tested. Using data on U.S. IPOs from 1996 to 2000, a "historical period" in the stock market, this paper addresses the following three research questions: (1) Do previous findings with respect to the relationship between investment banker prestige and performance of IPOs continue to hold in the "NASDAQ bubble" era? (2) Which issuer characteristics influence a prestigious investment banker's decision to underwrite an individual IPO in a hot issue market? (3) Does the choice of a reputable investment banker to underwrite the IPO help the issuing firm to reduce other costs, such as liquidity costs, associated with its IPO?


identifier: Engel, Jody  (2002) Social networks and the embeddedness of affective organizational commitment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Organizations spend millions of dollars every year selecting and recruiting high performing employees. While hiring good employees is an essential part in assuring performance goals and dollar figures, if the company is unable to retain these employees, then they are wasting their time. One of the ways organizations seek to retain their employees is to increase their levels of organizational commitment. If employees are involved in, attached to, and can identify with the organization, this increases their likelihood of remaining with the organization. The present study focused on the impact of the relationships between employees in the organization and their levels of organizational commitment. Using the concept of network analysis, the study examined two measures of commitment: similarity of commitment between individuals and the individuals' amount of commitment. Examining the relationship between network structures and commitment demonstrated three main findings: (a) individuals involved in friendship and work relationships have high levels of commitment; (b) individuals who are close to and can interact quickly with someone without having to go through other people have high levels of commitment; and (c) individuals in homogenous groups have higher levels of commitment than individuals in heterogeneous groups.


identifier: Renard, Xavier  (2002) The effects of price promotion on consumers' price beliefs.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Reference prices, which are extensively used in retail advertisements, have received considerable research attention over the last 25 years. The present research looks at the extent to which an advertised, or external, reference price included in a price promotion affects consumers' price beliefs. According to Helson's Adaptation-Level theory, consumers form an internal reference price, which they use as a basis for evaluating market prices. The process by which internal reference price can change according to an external reference price is, then, explained by a conjoint Adaptation-Level and Assimilation-Contrast theories. It is suggested that consumers may assimilate or contrast an external reference price and that only an assimilated price has the ability to affect the internal reference price. A first experiment was conducted to examine the extent to which consumers assimilate an external reference price. Findings from the present research suggested that, contrary to the predictions of the Assimilation-Contrast theory, the impact of an external reference price on consumers' internal price standards was monotonic. It was further suggested that this assimilation might be moderated by individual differences. A second experiment was conducted to examine the differential effects of two types of semantic cues. However, in the research, no differences were found between absolute and relative savings presentation formats. Findings as well as several issues about the measurement of internal reference price, the effects of an exaggerated external reference price and the effects of price familiarity are discussed.


identifier: Hassan, Guliz  (2001) An empirical assessment of the configural invariance of the brand personality scale : a comparison involving ethnic groups and brands in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Brand personality, as one of the major components of brand identity, is a significant determinant of brand equity. This study investigates the configural invariance of a 42-item brand personality scale that was suggested by Aaker (1997) by extending its use from her U.S. sample to Anglophone and Francophone ethnic groups and some popular brands in Canada.  Following a translation of the brand personality scale from English to French and two pilot studies for selecting 30 brands for the study, a stratified area sampling plan was executed to collect data from Anglophones and Francophones in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. 1959 questionnaires were distributed by field workers using area sampling within each selected census tract and 596 usable responses were received by mail. After classifying the respondents into Anglophones or Francophones in terms of their responses to a multi-item scale involving language use and self-identification of ethnicity, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the configural invariance of the brand personality scale. The results suggest that the factor structure for both ethnic groups are different than the structure suggested by Aaker (1997) for her U.S. study. Exploratory factor analysis of the data for each ethnic group suggests five factors as in Aaker's study. However, the composition of the factors in terms of the items of the scale is different from hers. The orthogonal rotation of the factor pattern matrices to congruence shows that the factor loadings for the two Canadian ethnic groups are very similar.


identifier: Bouchard, Isabelle  (2002) The volatility smile of Canadian index options : estimations and tests.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This paper investigates the volatility smile in the Canadian Context with the TSE-60 index and the options on this underlying asset for the period between November 5, 1999 and February 14, 2001. Evidence of the existence of a Canadian volatility smile is provided. A possible reason for the existence of the smile could be attributed to the nonconstant variance of the underlying asset, which violates one of the assumptions of the Black-Scholes model. Consequently, it would be incorrect to assume that the risk neutral probability distribution of the underlying asset is lognormal.  The observation of a volatility smile justifies the use of different models to recover the risk neutral probability distribution of the underlying asset. In fact, a probability distribution different than the lognormal, should be used to calculate the expected discounted option payoffs at maturity in order to get the value of the options. In this paper, the distributions are recovered from the option prices with two models that are based on a lattice approach, namely the Jackwerth-Rubinstein (1996) and the Masson-Perrakis (2000) models. Then, the derived distributions are used to price options out-of-sample. The pricing performance of the two lattice models are compared to the Black-Sholes benchmark model. Overall, the Black-Scholes appears to outperform the Jackwerth-Rubinstein (1996) and Masson-Perrakis (2000) models.  The absence of arbitrage opportunities in the sample is also verified. Only a few arbitrage opportunities, which are small in magnitude, are found in the series of options under investigation


identifier: Benguigui, Nathalie  (2002) Nuances of corruption and foreign direct investment.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this study, we expand our understanding of the determinants of foreign Direct Investment by developing more nuanced versions of corruption as well as conducting our research both at the individual and group source country level. We breakdown down corruption into four indices. First, corruption is defined as either predictable or unpredictable. Second, corrupt politicians can take a short or long-term approach to bribery. Third, corruption can be either organized or disorganized. Finally, we examine if a lower corruption rating of a host country, relative to neighboring potential recipients of foreign Direct Investment, influences foreign investors. Empirical results show support for some of our indices but not for others. Conclusions from this study point to the need for further research and public debate in order to better understand the relationship between corruption and foreign Direct Investment.


identifier: Worrall, Francesca  (2002) "The cockroach and the rooster" : a translation, with preface, of Tchicaya U Tam'si's Les cancrelats.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This is a translation, accompanied by a preface, of the first published novel by this Congolese writer. Although U Tam'Si's prose is classical, the novel's form is far from being linear, the narrative veers off and is subsequently woven into a complex narrative of stories, dreams, songs, proverbs, mores, imagery and symbols, some of which have their origins in African oral tradition and others that are part of U Tam'Si mythical universe. The translation is done in a literal, "foreignizing" manner according to approaches advocated by translation studies theorists such as Antoine Berman and Lawrence Venuti. This foreignizing approach rejects the prevalent requirement for fluency in translation, in order to give prominence to the alterity of the novel and the author's style. The preface describes the translator's quest for a translative position through her application of these approaches.


identifier: Mendelsohn, David  (2001) The Etruscan Aphrodite.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: The Etruscan Aphrodite

abstract: Most of the Etruscan heroes and deities depicted in Etruscan visual arts were borrowed from the Greek mythological corpus complete with divine attributes and iconography: Heracles wields his club, Athena, her aegis, and Perseus pursues Medusa. These are all standard images with few changes apparent in the myths and their representations. An exception, however, is Aphrodite (referred to as Turan by the Etruscans), who shows considerable Etruscanization in her donning of Etruscan clothing and adoption of Etruscan attributes. These indicate Etruscan mythological and artistic traditions and reflect Etruscan culture, especially the world of Etruscan women.  In Etruscan vase painting, images of Turan are found in scenes of the Judgement of Paris and Aphrodite and Adonis as well as in depictions with the greater Greek pantheon but represent only one segment of a diverse array of mythological themes. An examination of mythological depictions on objects belonging to women shows Turan appearing on a large number in a variety of contexts: specifically Etruscan, Greek mythological; and alone.  Various media are used to depict these Greek and Etruscan mythological themes, but the majority appear on vases, wall paintings and mirrors. Bronze mirrors represent the best examples of the mixture of Greek myths and Etruscan religious and ritual customs within the context of these female-owned objects. The appearance of Turan and/or her attendants on such female paraphernalia can be reconciled with the romantic cycle of a mature Etruscan woman: passion, love, marriage and childbirth.


identifier: Welch, T. C  (2002) Effects of privatization transaction strategy on performance : an examination of large-block shareholding and hybrid governance structures in developing economies.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Using a microanalytic perspective this dissertation extends the traditional agency theory approach to include a transaction cost framework in examining privatization performance. The basic proposition offered here is that the transaction-specific characteristics of privatization strategies differ in their ability to consolidate (concentrate) ownership and initiate corporate restructuring, and this variance has implications for performance. Hybrid governance is advanced as an organizational implication of trade sale privatization with relevance for subsequent corporate restructuring when transacting under conditions of asset specificity and uncertainty, and is expected to improve privatization performance. This novel hypothesis, along with others, was tested successfully on longitudinal data for a larger sample of developing and emerging economy fixed-line telecommunications operators privatized between 1981 and 1998. Change in telecommunications service provision pre- and post-privatization was used to assess performance in this analysis.  A central finding is that hybrid governance predicts privatization performance and these "firm effects" go beyond pure "ownership effects" in capturing additional variation hitherto unexplored in the literature. Specifically, performance benefits of privatization transaction strategy depend upon not only large foreign blockholdings but also the introduction by these owners of hybrid structures, such as joint ventures or complex consortia arrangements.  This study is the first to advance a multidimentional construct of privatization implementation, both as an incremental process and comprised of different strategies with unique characteristics, and examine it using a dynamic multilevel model to capture observed yet unexplained performance variance. Also, this research is one of the few statistical studies to examine privatization performance longitudinally, while the sample is one of the largest, to date, drawn from a developing and emerging economy context.


identifier: Burger, Sandra  (2001) The role of key visuals in improving listening comprehension for English as a second language students.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: With increasing globalization, more and more second language students are entering Canadian universities, be they international students completing their university studies in Canada before returning home or new Canadians furthering their studies in their new homeland. Tertiary institutions are facing the challenge of successfully integrating these students into programs as quickly as possible. They are expected to function well alongside their native language peers in spite of their linguistic limitations. In the university, the lecture is an important source of information for students. Understanding lectures may constitute a major problem for second language students because of linguistic deficiencies.  Research on comprehension suggests that background knowledge plays a role in understanding. This background knowledge may consist of knowledge of the topic, linguistic knowledge or familiarity with the form of the information being presented. Studies have shown that preparing students for what they are going to hear by activating or providing background knowledge can help them to understand and remember what they have heard.  The purpose of this study was to compare two preparation techniques to see which was more helpful for ESL students. Two groups of university students received training and practice with problem-solution lectures. One group received vocabulary instruction before each practice lecture and the other group worked with a key visual or graphic organizer designed to sensitize students to the problem-solution format of the lecture and help them to organize the ideas of the lecture. A third group, the control group, received no particular training with this type of lecture. All groups, on average, improved in their ability to understand the test lecture although it was impossible to say, based on the statistical evidence, whether either of the pre-training methods was more effective than the other or than the instruction received by the control group. The teacher's and the students' reaction to the graphic organizers was positive and the technique made them conscious of lecture comprehension and note-taking strategies and promoted active engagement in the process.  Thus, it may be concluded that language training courses for university-bound ESL students should incorporate many techniques to improve students' comprehension. Among them are vocabulary instruction and training in preparing and using graphic organizers for the information presented in lectures.


identifier: Bourgeois, Sylvie  (2001) Strategies of adaptation to age-related losses in everyday activities of independent seniors.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the applicability of the theory of selective optimization with compensation (P. B. Baltes & Baltes, 1990) to the adaptive management of resources in everyday life in old age. The general hypothesis that loss-based selection, optimization, and compensation (SOC) use mediated the relationship between personal resource availability and successful aging outcomes was tested by interviewing 101 women and 41 men aged between 66 and 88 years, who were functioning independently in the community. A range of personal resources was assessed and reduced to physical health, cognitive, emotional, and social support composites. A semi-structured interview on changes since mid-adulthood in the performance of 12 everyday activities was conducted in order to measure the use of behavioral strategies to deal with age-related losses in everyday life. Categories of adaptive strategies were qualitatively induced from interview transcriptions and then converted into indices of loss-based selection, optimization, and compensation. Outcome measures of successful aging included everyday functioning, operationalized as the mean frequency of activities, and subjective well-being. Results from path analysis indicated that personal resources were associated with the use of specific SOC processes. Richer physical health resources predicted more optimization, whereas poorer physical health predicted greater loss-based selection and compensation. Poorer social support was related to more loss-based selection, whereas richer social support was associated with greater compensation use. Overall, use of SOC processes played a mediating role in the relationship between resource availability and successful aging outcomes. More loss-based selection was predicted by poorer resource availability and led to lower levels of everyday functioning and subjective well-being. However, availability of resources, especially in the domains of physical health and social support, facilitated adaptive changes of everyday functioning related to optimization and compensation. Thus, invoking the SOC theory as a description of age adjustments of older adults was valuable in the search for a greater understanding of the relationship between resource availability and successful aging outcomes. Knowledge of how use of SOC processes in the context of everyday activities can promote successful aging has implications for individuals working with the elderly.


identifier: Daye, Russell  (2001) Baptizing the nation with tears : political forgiveness in South Africa.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This dissertation explores the dynamics of post-apartheid reconciliation in South Africa and offers a model of political forgiveness as a process. Drawing upon a series of interviews conducted in South Africa in 2000, as well as scholarly and journalistic publications on such topics as forgiveness theory, political reconciliation, truth-telling, apology, amnesty, restorative and retributive justice, transitional democracy, post-traumatic disorders, and reparations for injustice, a Drama of Political Forgiveness in Five Acts is offered as a model for a national forgiveness process. Particular attention is given to the history of race relations in South Africa and to the successes and failures of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It is argued that the goal of society-wide forgiveness is an appropriate one for those involved in the work of post-conflict reconstruction. The pursuit of this goal is compatible with, indeed depends upon, the pursuit of other goals such as individual and collective healing and the building of a transitional justice framework.


identifier: Langley, Sandra Wynne  (2001) The articulation of Sandinismo and of the 1980 national literacy campaign in Nicaragua.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The thesis maps aspects of the Sandinista nation-building project subsequent to the overthrow of the Somoza dictatorship in 1979. Part one charts the broad discursive and institutional terms of the articulation of this project, drawing on a large body of literature on Sandinismo, and integrating this analysis from secondary sources with discourse analysis and a consideration of the deployment of power/knowledge. Part Two uses like methods in considering aspects of the national literacy campaign mounted in 1980.  The critical positioning of the thesis is informed by an account of the experience of the most marginalized of campesino ("peasant") sectors in the context of the Sandinista development and agrarian reform projects. These projects prioritized modernized production, and not the redistribution of lands for small-unit production which was widely desired. For several reasons, campesino aspirations should have been accommodated to a much greater degree. The thesis considers why this failed to happen.  Part One of the thesis finds that, despite the heterogeneity of Sandinismo, it was articulated in significant part within corporativist structures of political representation and by way of modernist, Marxist-inflected knowledges and discourses positing a historical "logic of necessity" and a necessary order of change--including a certain knowledge of "development/historical unfolding" and a knowledge of subjectivity articulated in dichotomous and Manichean terms.  Part Two of the thesis finds that the tight articulation of the literacy campaign to the Sandinista development and social project proved problematic, that a predominant literacy campaign discourse constructed marginal rural inhabitants in terms of lack, that this articulates to the knowledge systems charted in Part One of the thesis, and that the specificities of a structured "dialogue" process by way of which rural recipients of literacy instruction were to participate in the articulation of Sandinismo constrained and shaped what might be spoken.  The thesis analysis is suggestive of factors contributing to a conjunctural shift in the terms of popular identification and social movement practice in the late twentieth century.


identifier: Harris, Lee Mark  (2001) Fugue states : music, dissociation, and ethical implications.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The relation between the phenomenology of the fugue and the field of ethical behaviour was of central concern to the creative career of Glenn Gould, explored using a terminology of ecstasy, morality, and technology. This thesis attempts to further pursue the issue by moderating a conversation between dissociation theory, drawn from the cognitive sciences, and a discourse on dialogic transaction, derived from various literary and philosophical sources. Investigation of the fugal experience requires specification of the ritual context deemed to facilitate it, as well the fugue's salient structural properties. Under a regime of intense attention, it is claimed that fugal logic precipitates a perceptual "crisis" calling for a change in cognitive strategy. Practice permits the discovery of one such alternative, proposed to be an unusual, dissociated form of processing in which response set has been suspended without a corresponding loss of vigilance, allowing consciousness of a greater amount of perceptual information. The resultant phenomenology is marked by a heightened sense of temporal immediacy, spatial presence, emotional dynamism, combined with a feeling of depersonalisation.  The ethical hypothesis deals with this experience, proposed to represent, in effect, a fragile, temporary annulment of the self: those higher-level memory constructs--including language--that mediate one's reactions to the world, and dominate processes of environmental monitoring and perception. The outcome is a novel level of interoception that seems to validate the etymology of ecstasy as a liberating experience of "standing outside the self". The specifically ethical thrust concerns the application of moral discipline, defined as an attentional focus and application of energy designed to transport the fugue state outside the confines of its ritual enactment. In this way, the subject begins to gain insight into the confining nature of habitual consciousness. Such a process, it is speculated, would be dependent upon a procedural ability to auto-cue the dissociative state in absence of the external perceptual framework that initiated it. Finally, the thesis offers an extended critique of the current cultural ethos with respect to the status of language, and in particular to the debilitating effect of dualistic thought.


identifier: Zheng, Mao  (2002) Automated test generation from formal specifications of real-time reactive systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Real-time reactive systems are among the most difficult systems to design and implement because of their size and complex functional and timing requirements. They are often used in safety-critical contexts. Consequently, the correction of such systems must be assured before they are deployed. This thesis addresses the quality assurance of real-time reactive systems through rigorous testing methods. The thesis gives methods to generate test cases from the formal specifications of real-time reactive systems developed in TROMLAB framework.  The scope of this thesis encompasses two major components. A Homomorphism Theorem is given that serves as a basis for automated test case generation from the grid automaton associated with the extended state machine formalism. A number of algorithms are also given for generating test cases for black-box testing of reactive class implementations, implementations of class refinements and system configurations. The testing methodologies are theoretically sound, yet being practical for automated test case generation.


identifier: Ormandjieva, Olga  (2002) Deriving new measurements for real-time reactive systems.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Real-time reactive systems are largely event-driven, interact intensively and continuously with the environment through stimulus-response behavior, and are regulated by strict timing constraints. Examples of such systems include alarm systems, air traffic control systems, nuclear reactor control systems and telecommunication systems; applications involving real-time reactive software play a mission-critical role in the defense industry.  Real-time reactive systems are inherently complex. The complexity pervades through the different phases of software development, deployment, and maintenance. Applying formal methods in the development process is an effective way for dealing with the complexity, and for quality assurance. One of the goals is to assess the quality of such systems starting from the earlier phases of their life cycle.  The integration of the quality measurement into the development framework provides feedback to the system developers in order to effectively control the development processes and to obtain high reliability of a final product. Thus, quality control is a must when safety-critical real-time reactive systems are developed. The quality assessment must be regarded as a support for controlling the process of software development in order to guarantee the final quality.  The aim of the thesis is to correctly apply the measurement theory to formal description of real-time software upon which we can base models of object-oriented software measurement. In order to create the framework for the present work, we are surveying the theoretical approaches to software measurement.  The novelties of the quality measurement methodology are in the theoretical basis and a practical automated measurement data generation process for real-time reactive systems. The proposed approach is applicable to real-time reactive systems modeled as timed labeled transition systems.


identifier: Cadieux, Elisabeth  (2002) Characterisation of phenol hydroxylase and its auxiliary proteins, DmpM and DmpK, from pseudomonas spl Strain CF600.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Phenol hydroxylase from Pseudomonas sp. strain CF600 is an enzyme comprising three components: DmpP, a reductase containing an FAD and a [2Fe-2S] cluster; DmpM, an activator protein required for efficient catalysis; and DmpLNO, an oxygenase containing a binuclear iron cluster. The oxygenase requires an accessory protein, DmpK, for diiron cluster assembly. This thesis describes the characterisation of DmpM, DmpK, and DmpLNO.  DmpM was found to exist in two forms. DmpM purified from the native strain was active in stimulating phenol hydroxylase activity, whereas an inactive dimeric form accumulated when DmpM was expressed in E. coli . Various treatments readily activated dimeric DmpM. Dissociation of the dimeric form of DmpM was shown to precede denaturation at low protein concentrations resulting in activation.  Assembly of the binuclear iron center in the oxygenase component of phenol hydroxylase was examined in the presence and absence of DmpK, a protein required for in vivo synthesis of active oxygenase. DmpK had an effect on reconstitution of apo-oxygenase only at lower ratios of Fe 2+ /apo-oxygenase and it accelerated reconstitution. DmpK did not stably bind Fe 2+ , and could not donate Fe 2+ in the presence of chelators, suggesting that its primary role is not to deliver Fe 2+ to the active site. When the binuclear iron site was occupied by Mn 2+ , DmpK and Fe 2+ were required for reconstitution. This suggests a role for DmpK in metal ion discrimination.  The oxygenase is made up of three copurifying polypeptides, DmpLNO. Single turnover experiments confirm that DmpLNO contains the active site, but requires DmpM for efficient turnover. Mössbauer, EPR and UV/vis spectroscopy data, demonstrated the presence of two types of binuclear iron centers in DmpLNO. Treatment of the oxygenase with hydrogen peroxide and/or DTT was investigated in order to understand why a significant proportion of the enzyme was inactive.  Site-directed and random mutagenesis were performed on DmpM to identify residues involved in its interaction with the oxygenase. Although mutation of six conserved residues activated phenol hydroxylase in steady-state assays, the double mutant M37T/V77A, resulting from random mutagenesis, did not activate phenol hydroxylase. These results suggest that multiple substitutions are necessary to affect DmpM's interaction with the oxygenase component.


identifier: Flores, Esteban  (2002) Robust regression methods for insurance risk classification.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Risk classification is an important actuarial process for insurance companies. It allows for the underwriting of the best risks, through an appropriate choice of classification variables, and helps set fair premiums in rate-making.  Currently, insurance companies mainly use ad-hoc methods for risk classification, more often based on the type of expenses covered than on the distribution of the corresponding losses. The selection of classification variables is also, in general, based on rate-making variables rather than on an optimal choice criteria based on statistical methods.  It is known that logistic regression is among the many sophisticated statistical methods used by the banking industry in order to select credit rating variables. Extending the method to insurance risks seems only natural.  Insurance risks are not usually classified in only two categories, good and bad, as can be the case in credit rating, but in a larger number of classes. Here we consider the generalization of the model to extend the use of logistic regression to insurance risk classification.  Since insurance data presents catastrophic losses and heavy tailed claim distributions, a robust estimation analysis is very important. It is carefully studied here.


identifier: He, Xin  (2002) Policy capturing and two level specifications of policies for human and software processing.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In recent few years, the use of "policies" in the management of the behavior of large-scale, dynamic or distributed systems is gaining importance. In the policy research area, how to capture policies is the first problem scientists need to solve. Policies can be specified in three ways: a Policy Definition Language (PDL), a formal logic-based policy representation language or an informal natural language. Generally, an editor and a policy management tool are used to input these specifications. Because both the PDLs and the formal logic-based policy representation languages are very complex and more suitable for machine communication instead of human communication, their usages are limited to a small group of professional people.  In this thesis, two levels of policy specifications are introduced. A Restricted Natural Language (RNL), as the high-level policy specification, is used for human-computer interactions. Compared to the PDLs and the formal logic-based policy representation languages, the RNL is both easy to use and easy to learn. It enables a wider group of end users, especially the novice users, to participate in stating the policies. A logic-based formal representation, as the low-level policy specification, is then used for further machine-oriented processing in policy-based systems.  A methodology of how to construct such a RNL is also presented and the methodology is applied to two different cases. In the implementation part of the thesis, a RNL user interface (RNLI) named the Virtual Thesis Office (VTO) System is also developed and presented


identifier: Mukherjee, Ritesh  (2002) RP relocation in protocol independent multicast-sparse mode.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode is the most widely used multicast routing architecture. It builds a shared distribution tree centered at a Rendezvous Point and then builds source-specific trees for those sources whose data traffic warrants it. Current implementations of the protocol decide on the locations of the Rendezvous Point administratively, which leads to congestion and delays. An attractive solution would be dynamic relocation of the Rendezvous Point depending on the members of the multicast group. In this thesis we present a Rendezvous Point calculation and relocation mechanism for Protocol Independent Multicast - Sparse Mode.


identifier: Papoulis, Debbie  (2001) The truckin' project : experimenting with genetic algorithms.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Darwin's theory of evolution says that the more suitable an individual is to his environment, the more likely that individual is to reproduce. Conversely, the less suited an individual is to his environment the less likely he is to reproduce. Consequently, by the laws of heredity, the fitness of the subsequent generation, as a whole, should be greater than the last.  The Truckin' project attempts to use these theories and laws to prove that a program can also evolve. Using evolutionary programming and object oriented techniques, Truckin' simulates a world in which trucks buy and sell commodities competing for the best deals. The most successful of these trucks are allowed to 'reproduce' and compete in the next generation. Over a period of time the truck population should converge to an overall fitter population.  In this thesis the basics of genetic algorithms are explained and then the Truckin' project is described in detail. Finally the results and current status of the project are outlined.


identifier: Tan, Yu  (2002) Recognition of ambiguous pairs of totally unconstrained handwritten numerals.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In order to improve the recognition rate of totally unconstrained handwritten numerals, a verification stage is added after classification to distinguish the ambiguous numerals between two or more classes. Two recognition methods, structural method and statistical method, are used to overcome the limitations of a single method and deliver a much more reliable recognition system. The recognition rate is 71.32% using structural method without verification. The verification stage improves the recognition rate from 71.32% to 87.50%. After combining the structural method with statistical method, the final recognition rate reached up to 95.59%


identifier: Mortazavi, Homeira  (2001) Effectiveness of copying as a teaching method for adult novice learners of drawing : a study of students' perceptions.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this research I have studied the effectiveness of copying when used as a tool to enhance visual learning and to teach various art concepts. In the context of art history, I have looked at how copying was used in the training of artists, and how it eventually helped the artists display originality in their own work. Finally, I have looked at the diverging views held by art educators regarding the issue of copying, and its relation to creativity, originality, self-expression and learning.  A teaching project for adults to learn representational drawing based on the concept of copying was developed and implemented. Students learned about elements of drawings, first by copying and investigating from two-dimensional sources, and then, applying those learned concepts in observational drawings. During interviews conducted with students following the classes, students mentioned benefits such as increased confidence, a sense of satisfaction and achievement, better eye/hand coordination, enhanced learning of new skills and techniques, and enhanced perceptual training (learning to 'see' better)


identifier: Tang, Jing Ping  (2002) How one art educator combines the strengths from two educational systems, Chinese and Canadian, to develop a teaching philosophy.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: In this studio-based thesis, "How One Art Educator Combines the Strengths from Two Educational Systems, Chinese and Canadian, To Develop A Teaching Philosophy," combines several aspects of the author's studio practices and with her learning experiences as a Chinese student in Canadian fine arts program. This thesis shows the process of how the author improved her art-making abilities and how she developed her teaching philosophy and methods by using the education that she received from ceramics courses at a Canadian university as a link to her education in painting and drawing in China. At the same time, through qualitative research, the author uses her art-making, personal living and learning experiences as a research case in order to explore and gather truly first-hand data. The author shares her own experiences in art education and art-making in China and Canada to help the readers easily understand her theoretical rationale, an approach which is consistent with her belief that theory can result from actual practice.


identifier: Fiorentino, Lisa  (2001) How children express their competence through narrative : an examination of environmental risk, competence, and narrative ability in a group of low-income preschool children.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The present study examined the issues of environment risk, competence, and narrative ability in a group of low-income preschool children. Current developmental research has examined the factors that promote resilience or competence in young children's lives and one way this has been explored is through the narrative ability of children. Twenty-five children from lower socio-economic backgrounds who attended day care participated in the study. The participants were assessed for their level of environmental risk and competence and were asked to complete stories based on everyday household events. Each story was coded for the amount of information units, level of chronology, and level of organization. It was found that children who had lower levels of competence generated narratives that lacked both chronology and organization. The level of environmental risk did not appear to be related to competence and narrative ability. The relationship between competence and narrative ability is discussed as an important issue in the day care and future school environment.


identifier: Bielec, Sylwia  (2002) Stories of professional growth : reflections on a multifaceted inquiry into the implementation and evaluation of a many-layered learning environment for in-service teacher education in Quebec.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Professional development can take on many faces. In this inquiry, a professional development infrastructure, which included web and video materials as well as the description of processes, was piloted at two schools in Quebec's anglophone sector (n = 14). The inquiry, using techniques of case study, action research and narrative inquiry, took place between the months of January and June, 1999 and focused on how teachers and teams of teachers use the process and materials provided to further their professional learning in the field of technology integration in largely self-driven ways and utilizing local resources. Issues arising out of the inquiry cluster around (a) the technology infrastructure of each school, (b) the concerns and challenges surrounding technology integration itself and (c) professional development as a locally-driven process in schools. The utility of the findings is primarily in terms of the redesign of the professional development infrastructure in question and also the future design of any other large-scale professional development initiatives which have as a secondary aim the fostering of autonomous decision-making at the school level and a creation of professional identity and community.


identifier: Illingworth, Jack  (2002) Panography.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Panography

abstract: Panography is a series of linked poems that develops a disjunctive narrative from a simple premise: it transplants the figure of Pan into the backwoods of contemporary northern Ontario, on the fringes of a rural community. This idea owes much to Knut Hamsun's novel Pan , which places a Pan-like protagonist on the outskirts of a Norwegian village. Unlike Hamsun's Pan, Panography overtly acknowledges Pan's multiplicity as a cultural figure by juxtaposing its own Pan-narrative with nods to (and appropriations of) his appearances in classical mythology and literary iconography, and his rare invocations in contemporary popular culture.  Panography is an examination of rural Canadian ideas of masculinity, an exploration of the backwoods story as social cement, a love poem to the details of the northern Ontario landscape, and a vaguely Jungian study of what happens when psychology embraces the natural world as its substrate (claiming that, despite cosmopolitan postmodernity, this is still possible).  Panography is neither transcendentalist nor environmentalist in its primary agenda. Pan, as a hybrid of the human and the bestial, and as an archetype that has been carried to the present exclusively through artistic and scholarly works, is an ideal nexus for a deconstruction (or even a synthesis) of the received binary of art and nature. Panography allows its readers to escape the filtered aesthetic of much literary nature writing, in which the process of artistic representation places nature itself in a subordinate position, fit merely for terror, sentimentality or pathetic fallacy.


identifier: Gillis, Susan  (2002) Intersection : poems and permutations.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Intersection : poems and permutations

abstract: Intersection examines the notion of home through a speaker whose gaze shifts between outward and inward aspects, and whose engagement with home is ultimately a quest for self-definition through relation: in the public, external world of community and place, and in the more private contexts of love and belonging. Poems ostensibly located in rooms or adjunct spaces of a house are venues for consideration of relationships through memory, association and observation. Permutations of the sonnets of Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey provide context for discussion of social and personal relationships and values; these themes recur as echoes, reconsiderations and replies, in poems examining relationships as they develop across time and space, playing with dislocation, disembodiment and misconstruction in contexts of friendship and intimacy, culminating in poems which inscribe the failure of intimacy to establish a stable home across a wide cultural gap.


identifier: Brocklehurst, Ann  (2002) After the wall : a Berlin adventure.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: After the wall : a Berlin adventure

abstract: This creative writing thesis is a mystery novella set in Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. As a "genre work," it relies heavily on setting and attempts to capture the Zeitgeist . The heroine, Rachel Hoffman, is a journalist who branches out into freelance detective work. In the grand tradition of fictional sleuths, she is a smart-talking, wise cracking type. She shares, however, the tendency of many a late 20 th century detective prone to confessing personal foibles and weaknesses. The plot revolves around the hit and run death of Dorothy, a Filipino woman in East Berlin. Like many current popular mysteries, the story deals with societal preoccupations and social issues, in this case anti-foreigner violence in Germany. Despite the sometimes-weighty subject matter, humour is an important ingredient in the story's telling. The goal was to create a compelling and entertaining mystery.


identifier: Avasilichioaei, Oana  (2002) Abandon.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Abandon

abstract: This work owes a great deal of its spirit to the experience of travelling and living in Romania, and is in part an exploration in poetry of that country's troubled, complicated story. Three voices attempt in three sections to disclose their culture, obsessions and personal tales. The first voice is that of a dictatorial figure, Dragon , who is devoted to power and control, and who burdens the landscape with his neurotic personality and manifestos. The second is that of a woman who tries to discover her own story and record it in journal-like fragments, long after her death. Loosely inspired by the illegitimate daughter of Romania's ruler Stephen the Great, this sixteenth century woman haunts the landscape of the other two voices. The final voice, an unnamed narrator, acts as visitor and observer of vignette-like scenes set in a small, industrial city in Romania, named Târgoviste. Here the people are alienated from their surroundings and yet persevere in surviving them, a perseverance that reaches mythic proportions in a woman named Tatiana. The narrator is at once drawn to and repelled by the landscape. The work as a whole, by varying tone, style, line length, and language, attempts to complicate the authenticity of any one voice and any one history.


identifier: Bellezza, M. Antonietta  (2002) Malcolm Ross : anti-semitism, hate and free speech in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis examines the affair surrounding the Moncton, New Brunswick schoolteacher and Holocaust denier, Malcolm Ross. After the Attorney General refused to charge Ross under Canada's anti-hate legislation, those who wanted action taken against Ross had to act creatively. First, the school board was left to handle the citizens' complaints. Its slow reaction and reluctance to reprimand a teacher for personal beliefs, led one parent to lodge a complaint against the school board with the New Brunswick Human Rights Commission. A Human Rights Tribunal then heard the case. A long legal battle ensued, which ultimately removed Ross from the classroom but maintained his right to continue publishing hate literature. The Supreme Court ruling in this case and that of Alberta Holocaust denier, James Keegstra, demonstrate that the courts are unwilling to curtail the freedom of expression through criminal legislation. Therefore cases such as these are increasingly handled by Human Rights legislation. If this continues, Human Rights legislation will need to be expanded to address hate speech directly.


identifier: D'Amboise, Paul  (2002) "Tinseltown as teacher" : a case study of historical feature films as interpretive sources of history within an educational context.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: There has been a burgeoning growth in the production and popularity of historical feature films, as well as in the academic literature devoted to the impact of such films, over the past decade. While a major concern of this literature has been the influence of feature films on historical perception and the need for visual literacy, the majority of the discussion has failed to offer concrete suggestions either for assessing the influence of such films or for developing visual literacy. This study, using a small-scale qualitative approach, examines the influence of historical feature films on their audiences' perception of history and offers a model for integrating feature films into the discipline of history. The specific audience examined in this study is a group of Grade Eleven students enrolled in a university level Advanced Placement European history class at St. George's High School--a private, English language, co-educational school in Montreal, Quebec. Some of the issues addressed in this thesis are: the suitability of film as an academic source of historical knowledge, the persuasiveness of filmed presentations of historical events, the need to develop visual literacy skills akin to those used for understanding traditional printed material, and practical approaches to teaching with feature films. The thesis concludes with sample units from a course designed to teach visual literacy skills within the framework of history and film.


identifier: Julien, Dany  (2002) Des Amazones parmi les pères de l'église : témoignage de la condition féminine durant la période de l'église primitive.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Syncretism in the religion of Christianity has been an important, if not the most crucial aspect of its survival. This is even more true about the Early Christianity period, its first six centuries. In this study, the story of the Amazons is scrutinized in order to see what the Fathers of the Church have said about these 'barbarian' women. Since the main concern for the time was to convert pagan citizen to Christianity and as the social context of this conversion was set in a most patriarcal society, syncretism created the Amazons as an example of the non-christian women, therefore an example of what to not do. As this can be said for the whole period, nuances are shown in the tone used which reflects the century, the region, the background and the purposes influencing each individual. Overall, this magnificent story of the Amazons, part of Greek mythology, carries within its lines the stigma imbeded by the pagans and propagated by Christians to uphold in their own beliefs.


identifier: Aronoff, Gordon  (2002) Holocaust and redemption : Jewish identity in the thought of Emil L. Fackenheim.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Many thinkers consider Emil L. Fackenheim's post-1967 thought marginal because it seeks to uncover religious meaning in the events of the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel. I find Fackenheim's later thought to be of compelling relevance for North American Jewry precisely because the Holocaust and the State of Israel are two major wellsprings of contemporary Jewish identity. I contend that a renewed encounter with Fackenheim can indeed be fruitful for North American Jews.  This study will present facets of Fackenheim's thinking in a way that points to their relevance to questions of Jewish identity today. I will show that Fackenheim's attempts to uncover religious and philosophical meaning in the Holocaust and the founding of the State of Israel--however incomplete and problematic his formulations may be--are important for contemporary North American Jews seeking to come to terms with these two monumental events of the twentieth century


identifier: Mewes, Frank  (2002) On the human park.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: On the human park

abstract: This paper is inspired by Peter Sloterdijk's book Regeln für den Menschenpark ('Regulations for the Human Park') which is available as appended, original translation. It seeks to elucidate Sloterdijk's work, assess the theses he posits therein, and sets forth an overview on crucial developments pertaining to human society, i.e., the human park. The developments focussed on are relevant to the humanistic concern addressed by Sloterdijk and comprise General Systems Theory, human genetic engineering, bio-information society, and humanism. The work is supplemented by extensive, personal commentaries as well as a sample of voices urging for prudence in matters of scientific-technological enterprising. The concern lies with the question how and which morality is still regulative of human behaviour in a time when literary humanism as a formative, moral force has been superseded by the permissive, electronic media and their uninhibiting forces. The question that arises is: 'If humanism is no longer a reliable agent of human domestication, what tames human beings?' Sloterdijk suggests a harking back to the wisdom of old in order to find clues to the resolution of this domestic predicament of today and implicitly asks whether human genetic engineering could become a domesticating force (an anthropo-technology) that is better captured by a regulative codex lest it might lead to political abuse. While it offers some critical and perhaps provocative reflections on the issues in question, the paper is chiefly suggestive and expository and marked by ambivalence.


identifier: Bellusci, David Christian  (2001) Interpreting Aristotle's God.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

title: Interpreting Aristotle's God

abstract: Interpreting Aristotle's theistic philosophy remains a source of controversy; arguments concerning Aristotle's deity range from myth to monotheism. My objective is two-fold: first, I show how Aristotle's works build up to God by examining Posterior Analytics, De Anima , the Physics , the Metaphysics and Nicomachean Ethics . The texts are studied in the light of contemporary Aristotelian scholarship representing the varying positions and their implications concerning Aristotle's theism. Second, on the basis of these five works, I argue that Aristotle's theology does not conflict with the Judeo-Christian understanding of God.


identifier: Mograss, Melodee A  (2001) Effects of N-Methyl-D-Aspartate receptor blockade on cross-sensitization between D-Tyr11 neurotensin and amphetamine.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Blockade of neurotensin (NT) receptors with SR-48692 prevents the development of sensitization to the locomotor activating effects of amphetamine (AMPH). In addition, repeated icv injections of NT or of its analog, D-Tyr 11 NT, sensitize animals to the locomotor activating effects of AMPH. Recent evidence indicates a role for glutamate (GLU) in the development of sensitization to psychostimulant drugs inasmuch as co-administration of GLU antagonists prevents induction of AMPH and cocaine sensitization. The present study was aimed at testing the hypothesis that endogenous glutamatergic systems also play a role in the induction of cross-sensitization between NT and AMPH. Experiments were performed on male rats implanted with a guide cannula above the left lateral ventricle. During the induction phase, locomotor activity was measured on four occasions every second day for two hours after an icv injection of 18nmol/10ol of D-Tyr 11 NT, or saline, preceded 30 min before by a systemic injection of CPP, [(+/-)-3-(2-carboxypiperazine-4-yl)-propanephosphonic] (4 mg/kg), a GLU antagonist, or its vehicle. One week after the induction phase, locomotor activity to a single injection of AMPH (0.75mg/kg) was measured in all rats (sensitization test). Results show that AMPH induced greater ambulatory activity in animals pretreated with D-Tyr 11 NT alone, a sensitization effect that was attenuated by CPP given during the induction phase. These results suggest that GLU may play a role in the development of cross-sensitization between D-Tyr 11 NT and AMPH.


identifier: Benibgui, Michael  (2002) Effects of cocaine on sexual behavior and sexual inhibition in the male rat.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: The effects of cocaine on male rat sexual behavior and sexual inhibition were studied. The first study addressed acute and long-term effects of cocaine (5, 10, 20, and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) on sexual responsiveness using a paradigm where cocaine was administered intermittently prior to sexual behavior and was followed by tests during withdrawal and drug challenge. The subsequent studies attempted to use the models of sexual inhibition described above to determine whether acute administration of cocaine could disrupt first-order and second-order conditioned inhibition of sexual behavior. Results indicated that cocaine administration lead to decreased ejaculation latencies compounded with fewer intromissions prior to ejaculation. The effects of cocaine (20 and 40 mg/kg, i.p.) on sexual inhibition were subsequently tested using first order and second order conditioned sexual inhibition paradigms. Cocaine did not release male copulatory behavior from inhibition, at any of the doses tested, on the inhibitory test with non-receptive females. In contrast, in an experiment in which males were conditioned to inhibit their sexual responses in the presence of a neutral odor (almond) paired with female non-receptivity, cocaine (20 mg/kg, i.p.) was shown to block the learned sexual inhibition against females bearing the odor in a copulatory preference test with two receptive females, as measured by the choice of first mount. Paradoxically, the same dose of cocaine (20 mg/kg, i.p.) also resulted in a preference to repeatedly mount the female bearing the odor associated with non-receptivity, as indicated by repeated attempts to mount. The present findings were interpreted in light of proposed links between cocaine use and sexual risk-taking reported in the human literature.


identifier: Leclerc, Nancy  (2001) Friends and strangers : experience and commonality in a James Bay town.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis, based on three months of fieldwork in 1998, is a study of inter-cultural friendships between Native and non-Native residents of Chisasibi, Quebec in which I examine the factors that hinder and/or enable friendships to form between individuals of different cultural backgrounds. I describe how, despite historical and political tensions that are a part of the larger context of Native/non-Native relations in Canada, individuals are able to establish friendships based on shared social networks and experiences, age and common interests; in particular, popular youth culture (beer, soccer, rock music and so forth).  I employ the concepts of cultural and social systems, as delineated by Gary Witherspoon (1975) and the notion of habitus as explained by Pierre Bourdieu (1990). The field methods used in gathering data followed Jean-Guy Goulet's (1998) experiential approach where personal interaction is considered as the primary means for obtaining knowledge. Data was derived both from discussions with Native and non-Native residents of Chisasibi and from my own experiences in relating to people in different social situations in the community.  The primary goal of the thesis is to help open channels of communication between Native and non-Native Canadians. The ethnographic portion of this work is therefore written in narrative form to explore a form of ethnography that is reflexive and humanistic and that promotes the ideals of autonomy and sharing that are valued by members of my host community.


identifier: Sanjari, Yasaman  (2002) Child poverty in Canada : some contributing factors and issues.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis presents some issues with regard to the problems in definition and measurement of poverty, both theoretically and empirically. Another objective is to identify some of the important factors related to child poverty in Canada. Poverty and inequality are examined from three theoretical perspectives: functionalist, conflict and feminist, in order to see which theory is better supported by the empirical evidence. Family type, residing in different provinces, age and number of children, age of the head of the family were found to be important factors in the literature. The three theories' central arguments were supported by the literature. In addition, regression analysis from the General Social Survey Cycle 10 was used to identify the most important factors with regard to child poverty, while other factors are controlled. The analysis indicated that age of the household head was the most important factor, followed by the number of children in the household, living in a lone-parent family, receiving income from work or government, education, and residing in Atlantic Canada. The results show that human capital factors such as age and education, considered important in the functionalist theory, were the most significant, followed by structural factors such as residing in different regions, emphasized in the conflict perspective. Gender, central to the feminist paradigm, was not significant, but could be important through other processes such as number of children and full or part-time work.


identifier: McLeod, Jennifer  (2002) The closet door, the gateway to the self? : fashion, identity, and self-expression.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study explores the relationship between the decisions we make surrounding fashion, our sense of 'self,' and our attempts at self-expression through fashion. This thesis is based on the premise that material items and first impressions or appearances are important in our culture. Referring to postmodern theories of identity and symbolic interactionist approaches to the self, I will argue that our sense of 'self' is continuously developed through social experiences, and that the decisions we make about fashion are shaped by this sense of 'self.' With fashion we choose to either express our sense of 'self,' and/or display a 'desired self.' This is done by working with cultural codes established in part by the mainstream fashion industry. Included in this relationship is a discussion of the dialectical process of choosing between distinction and conformity when dealing with pressures from the mainstream fashion industry. Participant observation and a series of interviews will both support and add to this theoretical argument, as well as outline the continuous shift between expressing our sense of 'self' and displaying our 'desired self.'


identifier: Malolepszy, Mary-Ellen  (2002) Thérèse of Lisieux : doctor of the church : a study of the cause, process and proclamation of October 19, 1997.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study is an exploration of the circumstances and events which preceded the declaration of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux as a doctor of the church in 1997. The emphasis is placed on the major Vatican documents outlining the details of the October 19, 1997 proclamation, especially the Apostolic letter issued by Pope John Paul II. The title "doctor of the church" is examined through both a history of the term and its meaning in the contemporary Roman Catholic Church. The implications of the proclamation of Thérèse of Lisieux as the only doctor of the church to be named by John Paul II, and the third woman to have received the title are highlighted.


identifier: Rogers, Linden  (2002) The church in the world : from the Malvern Conference in Britain to the Anglican Outlook and News Digest in Canada.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Early in 1941 a four-page document known as the Malvern Findings summarizing the main tenets of British social Christian thought at that time was issued to the world-wide Anglican communion. This document was well-received in Canada and resulted in the formation of three Anglican groups whose members were deeply committed to the Christian principles outlined in the Findings . One was a group in Toronto that published a newsletter called Canada and Christendom from 1942 to 1944; the second was the Anglican Fellowship for Social Action in Montreal and Nova Scotia that had its beginnings in 1943, and the third was the Ottawa editor and his board who founded the independent church paper, The Anglican Outlook and News Digest in November 1945. By October 1946, members of all these groups were actively involved in the paper's publication; the paper was published monthly for fifteen years on a voluntary basis. The focus of this study is on the paper's central concern, the role of the Church in contemporary Canadian society, and the editorial policies that served this concern in the period from November 1945 to February 1949.


identifier: Vrolyk, Toki  (2002) Paradise lost and Adam's lament in the writings of Origen and Sophrony.  Masters thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Separated by seventeen centuries, we find that Origen, a third century father, and Sophrony, a twentieth century Athonite monk, share a certain interest in the narrative of the fall (Genesis 2-4). Both authors express a profound sense of sorrow over the reality of paradise lost and are quick to remind us that we all share in the fate of Adam. Hoping to instill within us an awareness of this 'fate of Adam', Origen and Sophrony teach us that there is much to learn from our earliest ancestor and the reality of his life before the fall. We learn from both thinkers, that the Garden of Eden can, in some sense, be understood as a symbolic representation of the highest Christian calling: to live the reality of Eden is, in effect, to live a life focused on God.  It is of no surprise, given the dissimilarity of their lives and the span of time that separates their respective worlds, that Origen and Sophrony should have certain differences of opinion regarding the nature of Adam's life before the fall. What is remarkable is the fact that, after having considered these differences, we come to learn that what unites their thought is greater then what separates it. Having both lived as men of the Church, these two fathers give us a greater appreciation for the living tradition of faith.  Comparing the thoughts of Origen and Sophrony on the subject of the Garden of Eden, I will present the reader with a picture of Adam's loss and, ultimately, the reasons for his lament as it is presented in the works of these two writers.


identifier: Anderson, Janice  (2002) Creating room : Canadian women's mural painting and rereadings of the public and the private.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Feminist theorists have used the literal and symbolic meanings of public and private spaces as a framework for understanding the marginalization of women within social structures. Interpreting mural paintings by Canadian women as incursions into a space that is commonly seen and understood as having a limited availability allows for the explication of those works as confounding simplistic understandings of the relationships between women and space. Stringent definitions of the public necessarily cast women as victims of a system within which their experiences are, in fact, marginalized, but that also may be reread to acknowledge their contributions. Like women themselves, mural paintings hover uneasily on the boundaries of the mainstream--neither completely integrated into the art history canon, nor absolutely excluded. In addition, women have often chosen as their subjects the epic topics to which murals are customarily dedicated and which symbolize the social discourses wherein women's contributions are habitually disregarded. By choosing to participate in the construction of those discourses, women have insisted on the incorporation of their experiences. At the intersection of women/murals/public I will seek a more inclusive Canadian art history with the structure of exclusion dismantled, reexamined and reconstructed to acknowledge the contributions of women artists.


identifier: Margolese, Stephanie  (2002) Understanding the relation between attachment and depression in adolescence.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: Previous research has established a link between insecure attachment and depression in adolescence. However, little is known about the mechanisms that may mediate this relation or the contexts in which this association occurs. One objective of this study was to examine whether adolescents who were more anxious or avoidant in their attachment orientation were more sensitive to interpersonal versus achievement-related stress, made negative attributions and used a ruminative coping strategy in response to stress, and as such, reported more depressive symptoms. Given that the nature of close relationships changes during adolescence, the second objective was to investigate (1) the relative importance of working models of specific attachment figures (i.e., mother, father, best friend, and romantic partner) in the prediction of depression; and (2) the existence of target-specific pathways to depression following relational stress. It was expected that the paths to depression would differ depending on the type of stress and attachment figure under consideration.  A total of 134 adolescents ( n = 88 girls; M age = 16.95 years; SD = .74) completed attachment questionnaires, a depression inventory, and a computer task consisting of hypothetical interpersonal and achievement-related vignettes and questions.  Tests of the first objective revealed that adolescents' appraisals of the stressfulness of interpersonal and achievement-related situations varied as a function of attachment orientation. Adolescents high on anxiety interpreted all stresses in terms of interpersonal rejection. Adolescents high on avoidance interpreted achievement problems as a reflection of shortcomings of the self, but perceived interpersonal stresses similarly to their anxious counterparts.  Insecure attachment relationships with romantic partner and mother, for girls, were uniquely predictive of depression. Adolescents' tendency to make negative attributions in response to stresses fully explained the relation between attachment to these persons and depression. Adolescents were found to ruminate when confronted with stresses involving romantic partner, which was also associated with depression.  Results support cognitive models of depression and underscore the role of negative attributions in depression. Furthermore, the pathways to depression were found to be complex and to depend on the types of stress, who is involved in the stress, and the quality of the attachment relationship.


identifier: Centeno, Soraya  (2001) Appetitive and consummatory sexual behaviors in the male rat following castration and testosterone replacement : the role of the ventral tegmental area.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis investigated the role of gonadal steroids in the expression of appetitive and consummatory aspects of sexual behavior in the male rat, with particular attention to the involvement of the ventral tegmental area (VTA). Initial experiments established the time course of the loss and reinstatement of appetitive and consummatory behaviors following castration and subsequent testosterone (T) treatment, and further the excitatory role for sexual experience in "buffering" males against the inhibitory effects of castration. Additional experiments were conducted to examine the activation of different brain regions, including the VTA, following chemosensory, somatosensory, and hormonal stimulation in castrated, T-treated males, using Fos immunocytochemistry. Neural activation of the VTA was observed following multiple ejaculations, and subsequent studies revealed populations of dopamine and GABA neurons that had been activated differentially by copulatory stimulation. Lesions of the VTA disrupted both appetitive and consummatory sexual behaviors, but animals with more sexual experience prior to the lesions were less affected. Finally, intracranial implants of crystalline estradiol (E) into the VTA facilitated mounting in a majority of castrated males. T produced a smaller effect, whereas progesterone or cholesterol had no effect. These data indicate that the VTA plays a role in the hormonal stimulation of copulatory behavior. The effectiveness of E was particularly surprising, given the lack of neuronal aromatase and classical estrogen receptor in this region. However, the presence of glial aromatase and estrogen receptor Ý in this region could account for these effects, and suggest a novel mechanism by which dopamine and GABA neurons in this region might be regulated.


identifier: Hammond, Cynthia Imogen  (2002) Wings, gender and architecture : remembering Bath, England.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This thesis is a cultural study of the city of Bath, England. Bath's tourist industry currently uses Neo-classical architectural heritage to foster an incomplete vision of the past, void of working-class women's history. As a feminist analysis of Bath's architecture, this study takes examples of medieval and Georgian building and Gothic revival in Bath to reveal the gendered underpinnings of architectural discourse at large. At the symbolic core of this discourse in Bath is a mythical figure, the winged male architect, which suggests that architectural achievement is a form of transcendence unavailable to women, both historically and, by extension, in the present. The "feminine" equivalents of the winged male architect--the angel in the house and the fallen woman--are subject to critique here for the ways in which their construction denies historical women the capacity for both creativity and agency. This study therefore presents and analyses archival evidence of women's history in Bath in relation to Bath's architectural history. Based on the assumption that feminist scholarship is a heuristic activity, this doctoral project also documents performance art projects and collective, public art strategies involving the author and other women artists, in Bath and Montréal, Canada. These artistic interventions into the "public" sphere of the city are an attempt to bring the practice of feminist ethics to bear on history, architecture and public memory


identifier: Topoushian, Mayda  (2002) Interpreting the constructed realities of the 1991 Gulf War : a comparative textual analysis of the two Arab and two North American newspapers.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: This study examines and compares the realities of the Gulf War as constructed in two Arab, and two North American newspapers. The textual analysis of the New York Times ( NYT ), the Globe and Mail ( G&M ), Ad Dustour , and Al Ahram revealed the frames that were used in interpreting the complex and remote occurrences of the Gulf War. The convergences and divergences that were revealed through the discourse analysis were examined on two levels: the micro- and the macro-level analysis. At the micro-level, the discussion dealt with the layout, functions of headlines and leads, stylistics, sources, language characteristics of the headlines, editorials, opinion columns, and letters to the editors, all in relation to the newspapers' distinctive roles in articulating their local historical, cultural, and political interests and foreign policy in the coverage of the Gulf War. The contextual analysis, on the other hand, explored the ways in which these newspapers negotiated the constraints of war journalism, media management, transnational news flow, propaganda efforts, and image perceptions.


identifier: Provost, T. M. T  (2001) Profiles of the black Venus : tracing the black female body in western art and culture, from Baartman to Campbell.  PhD thesis, Concordia University.

abstract: During the Enlightenment, in the midst of the Trans-Atlantic slave era, the Hottentot Venus became an icon of racial, gender and ethnic difference, and continues to have a strong presence in contemporary western media. In 1810, Saartjie Baartman (1790-1815), a young Khoikhoi from South Africa, was one of the first named women to enliven this steatopygic allegory. Since Baartman, the subsequent transformations of the Black Venus circumscribe the Black female body in problematic ways. The thematic motifs of the bestial, sensual, savage and hypersexed persist in contextualising the body of the Black Venus in contemporary depictions. Why is the profile still so oft-reproduced in the west? What is the fascination with the unclothed Black female physique? What does the re-diffusion of the Black Venus as a prototype achieve in cultures that claim diversity as part of their national make-up? And what does this reproduction say about the changes of political structures regarding the representation and appropriation of the colonised?  Using postcolonial theory, Black feminist theory, and semiotics, this analysis investigates the politics of representation of the Black Venus. Various versions--historical and contemporary--are examined as systems of repetition and ambiguity that allow racist and derogatory stereotypes of Black women to be reproduced. Methodological perspectives that treat race, gender, corporeality and ethnicity are employed to scrutinise the different processes of the making of the Black Venus--from conceptualisation of the corporeal allegory to the its final production as part of material culture. The approach is interdisciplinary, considering visual and textual works from different timeframes.  Calling for a critical politicised study of the aesthetics of the Hottentot and Black Venus, this study also theorises the ways in which racist and sexist ideologies from the colonial era have become increasingly normalised. Especially examined are how fixity and transformation occur in imagery, and how the repetition and dissemination of the Black Venus impact on the social reality of Black women and the imaginary of the White mainstream.