Abstracts
Panel 1-A
Abbie Leblanc
St. Thomas University
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Political Science, Human Rights, and Great Books
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Welcome to Unceded Territory
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How can Thomas Hobbes’ social contract theory be used to understand the tensions between Canadian indigenous people and the government of Canada? This presentation, based on an interdisciplinary honours thesis from St. Thomas University, seeks to assess this question in two steps: first, outlining how Hobbes’ social contract theory works, and how his theory accounts for the act of conquest; second, considering how this philosophical rhetoric colours Canada’s history of colonization by looking at the Royal Proclamation of 1763 and jurisprudence from the Supreme Court of Canada.
Colonialism is not only a part of Canada’s history, it continues to actively influence the country’s society and politics today. Campaigns surrounding missing and murdered indigenous women, the national celebration of confederation, and the efforts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have demonstrated that the effects of colonialism will not be glossed over as time wears on. Understanding this problem through the lens of Hobbes’ social contract can yield insight as to why this is the case, given the ubiquitous acceptance of social contract theory as a cornerstone of constitutional democracies. While many scholars have written about social contract theory, Hobbes’ Leviathan is both a critical foundational text, as well as one that is uniquely focused on the issue of sovereignty, making it particularly relevant to the question of indigenous/settler relations.
If the Canadian government acts in accordance with Hobbes’ social contract theory, yet has failed to provide indigenous peoples with the opportunity to consent to their government, has denied them the possibility of informed consent, or if indigenous peoples never wanted to consent at all, then it is possible that addressing the on-going legacy of colonialism in Canada faces a much more fundamental obstacle than simply attempting to apologize for past wrongdoings.
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Ellie Lamothe
Mount Saint Vincent University
Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Sociology
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Exploring Debt as a Social Justice Issue: Re-imagining Relations of Solidarity with Indigenous Peoples and Resistance to Colonialism
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In this paper, I explore debt as a social justice issue and discuss various issues that need to be addressed by Settler-Canadians to nurture reconciliation and participate in decolonization. These issues include emphasizing Indigenous political sovereignty and self-determination; challenging colonial gender violence; addressing the criminalization of Indigenous peoples; creating space for the recovery and revitalization of Indigenous knowledge, cultural practices, and language in education; challenging the dominant narrative of multiculturalism; and addressing our obligations as Treaty people.
Abram Lutes
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Philosophy in Leadership Studies, minor in Anthropology
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Bonaparte, Bolivar, and Beyond: Structuring Latin America
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The conquest of commodities by colonization is the key to the construction of Latin America, both in terms of the extremely lucrative nature of these commodities, but also their significance to the development of the capitalist world-system. Post-contact Latin American history has been defined by the so-called “curse of wealth”; the rapacious struggle to control gold, oil, sugar, soybean, and palm oil has pitted the Indio against the colonizer, the local against the global, and the peasant against the capitalist in a centuries-long unravelling and reconstituting of social relations. Key to this struggle has been the conflict of ideas about Latin America: what is Latin America? Who does it belong to? What is its future? This paper explores is how Latin America came to be composed of its modern assemblage, particularly the role of political economy, and how this assemblage is articulated by various manifestations of nationalism and national identity within a variety of political tendencies. The work will focus especially on post-Gran Colombia states’ movement from the imperialist European conception of Latinidad (“Latinaity”) to explicitly anti-imperialist and anti-colonial iterations of Latin American integration such as Bolivarianismo.
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Ty Giffin
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Media Arts and Cultures (Film Production)
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Short film presentation: Sister’s Dirge
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For my Honours creative project I have created a short film based upon my research on Indigenous studies, North American history, and the Western film genre. The film is a Neo-Western that reverses the generic stereotypes of the Classical Western to examine sexist and racist violence. The plot follows the sister of a kidnapped Indigenous woman, as she hunts the kidnappers, and eventually takes unmerciful revenge. This film is inspired by Revisionist and Neo-Westerns (such as ‘Wind River’ and ‘The Wild Bunch’), and will reconsider and resist Classical Westerns (such as ‘The Searchers’ and ‘Stagecoach’). The protagonist is in the vein of Clint Eastwood’s nameless vessels of vengeance from countless Westerns, but as a Wolastoqiyik woman she transcends the Western’s stereotypes and sheds new light on the masculinized avenging hero of Revisionist Westerns. In the writing process, I contacted sensitivity readers to ensure I could paint the most accurate and respectful picture I could. Overall, this project looks to shed light on the racist tradition of Hollywood’s most revered genre, as well as the history of violence and colonialism that still haunts Canada.
Panel 1-B
Tristan Nkoghe
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts
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Who is "You"? Identity Formation in the Digital Age
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"I don’t know about you, but it seems the more time goes by, the less I seem to have a grasp of who the people I know are. Or even myself for that matter. Have you ever been asked the question “Who are you?”? And if so, you most likely answered by your first name. But, that does not really answer the question, does it? Or, have you ever been asked to describe yourself in one word? If you have, there is a good chance you were puzzled to find an answer, and probably came up with a generic answer like “nice”, “funny” or even “smiling”. But that does not even come close to the person you are, does it? So, with all of that, I thought to myself, if given the chance, how would we describe ourselves. And the more I thought about it, the more it blew my mind. Because I realized that most of us are not one person.”
Let me expand on that. There is a sociological theory developed by Charles Horton Cooley called: The Looking-glass self. This theory argues that we describe ourselves, we characterize ourselves, through other people. Cooley argues there are three major questions we ask ourselves to create our personal identity. The first question is “How do I appear to others”. The second question we ask ourselves is “What must others think of me?” In the third and final question, we ask “How do we think about ourselves?”
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Fernando Aguilar
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts
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How to get a cosmopolitan mind: International students are here not just to learn but to teach
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Every year, international students come from all over the world to Canada to study. They have to learn not just their academic work, but also new cultures and new ways of life completely different from their own countries. While all of us try hard to adapt to a new way of thinking, most of the people, including us, forget that we (foreigners) also have much to offer and teach locals about our traditions, opinions and our different ways of living. For my presentation, I will discuss my personal experiences of cultural exchange as an international student, specifically through the lens of sharing El Día de Los Muertos practices.
During my time in Canada, I have learned that my culture has valuable teachings for people from other countries. One example is the Mexican festivity of the Day of the Death. El Día de Los Muertos is not about representing suffering or death. It is about commemorating the life, ours and that of the people who are now gone. This ancient tradition that originated with the Aztecs and then combined with the Catholic ideas of the conquistadores, teaches people from other cultures that death is not the end. People we love and have lost do not vanish. They are preserved in our memories.
As a Mexican international student, I learn about Canadian culture. At the same time, locals and foreigners learn from my cultural traditions that, in Mexican culture, we don’t die unless people forget us. In an era where memes, tragedies, news, and scandals travel as fast as internet allows us, it is our responsibility as university students to share, learn and respect the traditions and cultures from the people around us and our own. This is the only way in which we are able to develop solidarity and integration in our societies.
Julien Bernstein
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Media Arts and Cultures
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#Filtered Snapshots: Expressing Memory Through Instagram Filters
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How do the analogue aesthetics of Instagram filters embed and express memory within an image? With our lives becoming increasingly less private, we must defend our memories as quality, rather than mundane, experiences. Instagram filters allow users to capture the essence of the moment and expose that reality to the public.
The internet-based Instagram was released as a smartphone photo-sharing application and service that allows users to post photos to public, or private audiences through pre-approved requests. The ability to augment images in a way that suits your personality or mood is a curious communication technique. Each visual aspect of an image has meaning, so when a user of Instagram feels the need to use a filter over top of their already high-quality image it must also mean something.
With such a broad topic like Instagram, my research has been narrowed down to images with hashtags and geo-tags related to events and areas of interest in and around Fredericton, such as concerts and look-out points, as this will allow me to truly uncover how filters are able to embed an image with memory. In addition to the select corpus of images, my research will be conducted through rhythm analysis, a unique methodology used for analyzing complex rhythms in urban spaces, including social spaces such as Instagram.
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Cleo Harper
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in English
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Turning Back The Hands of Time: The Disruption of Linear Time and Chronological Storytelling in Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and Ali Smith’s How to be both
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The concept of time is difficult to define, yet easy to disrupt. Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life and Ali Smith’s How to be both are both told using a non-traditional, non-linear timeline and I argue that both Smith and Atkinson challenge the traditional form of telling a story in chronological order and in a linear fashion. Through the disruption of time in the novels, the reader is able to better understand the individual protagonists and delve deeper into the personal relationships that define Ursula Todd (Life After Life) and George (How to be both). Because the novels are set around influential events in history (the World Wars in Life After Life and the life of Francesco del Cossa in How to be both), these texts bring the reader’s attention not only how a story is told, but how one perceives the story.
I begin by examining each author’s concept of storytelling, and how they have altered the concept of time to fit each novel. Secondly, I elaborate on the approach in each novel, drawing out important details that may have been overlooked if events had unfolded chronologically and in a linear manner. To bring the essay to a close, I consider how stories in general, and Atkinson and Smith’s in particular, are created through layers, and I show what is revealed when the reader sees there is another way to approach a story. I draw on historical resources, as well as personal testimony from the authors to support my argument that a linear and chronological timeline is not always most effective in telling a story.
Panel 2-A
Tara MacKey
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Sociology and Environmental Studies
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Postsecondary Institutional Responses to Climate Change: An analysis of UNB
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Solutions to anthropogenic climate change requires collective mitigation and adaptation strategies. Postsecondary educational (PSE) institutions play a significant role in finding solutions. How they constitute their infrastructure, research, curriculum, and outreach priorities shape the material and social dynamics within their local communities and on a global scale. PSE are in a position to facilitate effective climate communication and engagement. PSE institutional responses can be categorized according to three discourse groups that have unique motives for understanding and undressing climate change: ecological activists, smart growth reformers and ecological modernists. Canadian PSE climate policies focus on changes in five institutional domains: campus operations, governance, education, research and community-outreach. The intellectual communities frame the character and limits of public discourse about climate. UNB is in the process of developing its Climate Change Action Plan. UNB’s annual Green Review, and their engagement for the development of the CCAP, indicate an ecological modernists approach. The implications and limitations of UNB’s approach are discussed in relation to the five institutional domains and requirements for effective climate engagement.
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Nicole Morrison
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in French and Political Science
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Security Memo to the Prime Minister on the Rapid Decline of Global Bee
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The threat which I choose to write about is the rapid decline of bee populations worldwide. As part of the background briefing, I highlight the reasons for the decline which include global warming/climate change and the human-based activities which disrupt ecosystems, including deforestation, increased use of pesticides, and other modern farming techniques that lead to a decrease in biodiversity of the surrounding areas. In the discussion section I outline why the declining bee population is a threat to the global community and to the Canadian state. I discuss the environmental impacts, such as the decline in biodiversity which contributes to climate change, and the social and political effects that could result. For example, I discuss how a decrease in pollination could produce food insecurity which, in turn, could lead to an unstable state. I conclude the memo by making my recommendations for the Canadian state, which include increased funding for beekeeping and organic farming practices, further testing and regulation of pesticides, and restrictions of the use of exterminators for beehives found on both private and public properties.
Hannah MacDougall
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Sociology
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“Working from Wisdom, Not From Pain”:
Exploring the Boundaries Between Theatre and Everyday Life
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For my sociology honours research project, I have conducted a qualitative study that explores the concept of using theatre as a tool for understanding social inequalities. This study focuses on a Halifax-based theatre company that aims to give voice to women’s stories and seeks to showcase a diverse group of female theatre artists. Through semi-structured interviews with the cast and crew of a play that raised issues of “slut-shaming” and rape culture, this research explores the manner in which actors perform situations of gender inequality and how they are personally impacted by these performances. These concerns are addressed by asking: How do actors come to understand and communicate experiences of gender inequality?
This research presents an opportunity to understand how actors can be impacted by the theatrical projects they work on, and the beliefs, values and practices that go into theatre productions focused on social issues that may deeply impact audiences. Actors come to understand and communicate issues of social inequality through maintaining an overlapping and intersecting boundary between theatre and everyday life. Theatre has a social impact because it is never fully separate from everyday life. Through their involvement in this production, actors came to better understand issues that are real to them and others around them, thus communicating these issues powerfully. Theatre forces an encounter with specific issues, and allows for the creation of discussion, which could change attitudes and behaviors, impacting wider social interactions between individuals.
Samantha Logan
Mount Saint Vincent University
Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Sociology
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122 Days of Resistance: Remembering the Forgotten History of the 1996 Occupation of the Canada Employment Centre in Halifax
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Located on Gottingen Street in Halifax, NS, the Canada Employment Centre (CEC) was a resource for employment and the workspace of community groups such as the Black Working Group and the Black United Front. When Human Resources Development Canada decided to relocate the centre in 1996, employees, activists, community groups, and local residents came together to occupy the government-leased space for 122 consecutive days. In an effort to resist the 'social organization of forgetting', I draw on the Lynn Jones African-Canadian and Disapora Heritage Collection, biographies of local activists, and interviews to piece together the story of the 1996 occupation of the CEC. I then situate the resistance within a social and political context by detailing unemployment rates, neoliberal policies, and the efforts of Employment Equity.
Panel 2-B
Carmel Mikol
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in English
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The Hypothetical Nature of Reality: Confronting nationalism and the process of othering through a political reading of Marilynne Robinson’s Housekeeping
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“I have a theory about this moment in American history,” Marilynne Robinson writes. “We have all forgotten what ought to be the hypothetical character of our thinking” (“On Beauty’”). Robinson is very concerned with how to think about, represent, and interpret reality. My paper presents a re-reading of Robinson’s 1989 Pulitzer-prize-nominated novel, Housekeeping, highlighting its focus on the hypothetical nature of reality. I argue that Robinson’s ideas are relevant to both American democracy and global culture in the current political moment.
In Housekeeping, the small, rural town of Fingerbone is confronted by an influx of transients, including Sylvie, who returns home to care for her young nieces in an unconventional way. Sylvie and her charge, Ruth, become symbols of the “other,” and force Fingerbone (and the reader) to reconsider normalized notions of home, family, and belonging. More importantly, Robinson’s striking narrative reveals the fluid nature of experience, consciousness, and reality itself, questioning the boundaries that are drawn around and between people and things.
In her 2017 article for The Nation, Robinson writes that “the idea of the organic society, united by blood, faith, language, and culture…actually tears societies apart, since some intolerable difference can always be found.” Robinson warns against nationalism and populism (both right and left wing) and imagines the potential for inclusion and equality if broader understandings of reality were applied to social consciousness and politics. Her ideas about the intrinsically hypothetical nature of narrative powerfully refute Trump-era rhetoric and exclusionary definitions of community. Housekeeping is a beacon of insight with compelling relevance to the current political climate.
Seshu Iyengar
UNB Fredericton
BA/BSc concurrent degree, Philosophy and Biophysics
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Philosophy’s Eternal Apologia: Can the nation cure nationalism?
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Two thousand years apart, two defenses of the academic project and Philosophy as a discipline were mounted. The first was the infamous Apology of Socrates: a recounting of a speech that was more a defense of the very desire to learn than it was his defence. The second was Edmund Husserl’s infamous 1935 ‘Vienna Lecture’ titled Philosophy and the Crisis of Humanity, which would go on to become the foundation of Husserl’s Crisis of the European Sciences: a foundational text in the phenomenological tradition. While the pre-phenomenological nature of Socratic philosophy has been seen in the past, there has been no direct comparison between these two speeches. This connection is fruitful; their speeches display the eternal recurrence of forms of theorist and chaos, and the struggle between them. Socrates’ execution and the end of Husserl’s academic career and life both were occurring as nationalism’s devastating effects were being felt, and both identify fervent nationalism as a destructive force to intellectual life. Yet, ironically both identify the cure for this nationalism as the nation itself, reimagined as a trans-political spiritual unity bound by philosophical inquiry. Both philosophers are arguing that the instability of the psycho-physical world around them cannot hope to damage the stability of theoretical knowledge, even as the physical carriers of this theory are killed. This defense culminates in what Husserl calls transcendental phenomenology, and what Socrates calls advice. This talk will explain in depth how these two defenses of man and philosophy demonstrate the role of nation and academic philosophy in stopping the destruction caused by nationalism.
Rose Fitzpatrick
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Russian Studies
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An Analysis of Early Soviet Korenizatsiya Policies
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Lenin’s nationality policy was characterized principally by korenizatsiya (the Russian term for indigenization, literally meaning “putting down roots”). The theoretical underpinnings of this method were complex, in some ways borrowing from and in some ways breaking with Marxist principles of nationalism. Therefore these policies were extremely controversial within Lenin’s party, despite their popularity with many Soviet citizens.
Despite Party members’ fears of its potential political effects, in practice, korenizatsiya took a mainly linguistic form, especially in the field of education. This linguistic form of indigenization even extended to projects of creating (usually Latin) alphabets for minority languages that did not yet have a written form. The use of a Latin alphabet meant that the policies were in dialogue with late Imperial Cyrillization practices as well as earlier Russian “Westernizer vs. Slavophile” debates.
Aside from theory, the realities of Soviet demographics also complicated the implementation of these policies. For instance, many Soviet regions, such as the North Caucasus, were so ethnically diverse that the choice of one “titular ethnicity” to be favoured by korenizatsiya policies actually served to exacerbate rather than to eradicate inequalities.
Though not because of the above flaw, but rather Stalin’s preference for Russification, Lenin’s nationality policies were soon overturned. And yet despite the actual policies’ short-lived nature, the effects of Leninist indigenizing approaches to national minorities were long-lasting, with national self-determination activists calling for a “return to Lenin’s way” as late as the 1990s. Lenin’s approach to nationalities came to be seen by many Soviet citizens as the “correct” Marxist approach this problem. Stalin’s was therefore understood as a deviation from Marxism, even though Marx’s own views on nationalism in reality diverged significantly from Lenin’s. Hence, korenizatsiya, in both a short- and a long-term context, provides an example of the complexity of both ethnicity and truth itself within the USSR.
Rowan Miller
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Political Science and History
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Hegel and the Privatization of the National Spirit in the Collapse of the Roman Republic
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My honours thesis looks at the collapse of the Roman Republic through the lens of Hegelian idealism. The paper will look at the forms of government that characterized the Republic and to the extent possible, were recognized by their constituent citizens as a legitimate articulation of government. These forms and their essence as conceived by their contemporaries will be compared to Hegel’s dissection of the articulation of government as the means of substantiating freedom. The paper will go on to demonstrate how those forms were manipulated by late republican demagogues most notably Octavian-Augustus, who took advantage of economic chaos to manipulate those perceptions of legitimate government into a disarticulated and ultimately arbitrary national spirit centred upon himself and limited by law only in its specific manifest but not universal abstract forms.
Panel 3-A
Elena Cochrane
UNB Fredericton
Majoring in Psychology
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How Gender Influences Attitudes Toward Sexual Behaviour and the Prevalence of the Sexual Double Standard
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The beliefs we hold about our gender role are learned from the society we live in. We organize the beliefs we have into schemas (little units of knowledge on a specific topic). Gender scheme is all the knowledge we have on our own gender and the opposite gender. These beliefs influence the attitudes we have on the sexual double standard where women are discouraged and shamed for having sex and men are praised and encouraged to engage in sex. The goal of this study was to see how prevalent the sexual double standard is today in western culture. Primarily, in university aged people, by looking at the beliefs men and women have about gender and whether or not those beliefs played a role in their attitudes toward sexual behaviour. Sixteen participants, eight males and eight females, were asked to complete a questionnaire for this study. Results showed that both male and female participants agreed that women and men should be able to engage in casual sex without being shamed and did not view women negatively if they engaged in casual sex. However, both genders also agreed that there is still a sexual double standard.
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Genevieve Crowell
UNB Saint John
Honours in English Literature
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A Kaleidoscope of Words: Exploring the Relationship Between Women and Language in Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale and Lawrence's The Diviners
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Throughout Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners, both female leading characters struggle with their place in society, and often relate to written and spoken words to achieve a form of self-actualization and individual identity. By examining the use of modern writing techniques and how words relate to the characters emotional state, more can be understood about the female experience through the importance of words, and how they are used by the female author. While Atwood’s Offred uses the spoken word as a tool for manipulation to ensure her own safety, Laurence’s Morag uses it carefully to ensure she is taken seriously. This relates to the issues that women face in the modern world, as they attempt to emerge as writers and individuals in a society that doubts and restricts them. This will allow more to be understood about the modern female character in relation to her society through the use of language. The experience of the female author takes an important role in the writing of these characters, as their voice comes from a place of understanding: what is written is permanent, and what is said effects the outcome of events. Offred and Morag’s relation to their authors and the modern world express an identical issue through their attachment to language, and the manipulation of words in order to be taken seriously. The similarities between Atwood and Laurence’s characters show a common theme: words, when used properly, have the ability to create an individual within a collective and modern world.
Emma Litschko
University of King’s College
Combined Honours in Gender Studies and Canadian Studies with a minor in Indigenous Studies
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Indigenous Women in Canada: The Effects of Colonialism and the Indian Act, 1876
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Through gender discrimination, colonialism and the Indian Act, 1876 affected Indigenous women morally, socially, economically, and legally rather than benefiting them. Before colonists came, many Indigenous societies were built on the concept of equality and were mostly matriarchal. Indigenous women were originally highly valued but the colonialist view that came into play completely changed this forever as Indigenous women became subordinate to men.
The devaluing of Indigenous women was a long and complex process that eventually disenfranchised them. Indigenous women were degraded, marginalized, and exploited in many violent ways as a result of colonialism and the Indian Act. Colonists used Indigenous women sexually, economically, commercially, and as ways to get closer to the First Nations. These acts of merging have not created benefits in the Indigenous perspective but rather problems through gender discrimination and dislocation which is the commonality between a lot of missing and murdered Indigenous women. The descendants of Indigenous women continue to suffer the intergenerational-trauma that was brought with colonization and the Indian Act, 1876 though the laws of “marrying out” which caused many women and their descendants to lose status. Colonialism also brought along the concept of the “Squaw”; a faceless woman who is lustful, immoral, and dirty.
This marginalization based on gender, forced Indigenous women from their culture and now they must battle with patriarchy on and off the reserve, which has transformed the matriarchal system of many traditional Indigenous communities. Even though the laws in Canada regarding Indigenous women have been revised (Bill C-31 and Bill C-3), the laws continue to subordinate Indigenous women and leave them without the “historical privileges” of their male counterparts. Thus, these problems still continue.
Colonists used and abused Indigenous women for self-benefit, making false statements that were never fulfilled. Colonialism and the Indian Act have only created many years of oppression and disenfranchisement for Indigenous women and their descendants who remain bound by these outdated, colonialist laws.
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Morgan Richard
UNB Fredericton
BA/BSc in Biology and Psychology
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Rape Myth Acceptance and Its Impact on Bystander Attitudes and Sexual Assault
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Rates of sexual assault are highest among young people between the ages of 15-24 (Statistics Canada, 2014). Sexual coercion is a major health crisis on university campuses, with one-fifth of university women experiencing sexual assault by their fourth year in university (McMahon, 2010). Many assaults also take place before arriving on campus, but university services typically must help address the special needs and increased vulnerability to subsequent assaults that these produce. The Sex Climate Survey was conducted at the University of New Brunswick to capture university students’ past year and lifetime rates of sexual assault, related knowledge, and intervention efforts, attitudes and beliefs about services and protection provided by the university and police officials. It also assessed rape myth acceptance beliefs, bystander attitudes, experiences, disclosure, and intervention after sexual assault. The goals of this study were to investigate links between rape myth acceptance and reports of sexual assault, as well as links between rape myth acceptance and bystander attitudes and behaviours. Past research has found that endorsement of rape myths correlates to a higher acceptance of violence against women, but this research is dated. Additionally, experiencing sexual assault and its links to willingness to intervene on behalf of another have not been examined in detail. Preliminary results show that 72% of participants had some endorsement of rape myths, with majority of this group being male (88%). Witnessing a sexual assault, even when it was the assault of a friend, did not affect acceptance of rape myths by the bystander with 69% of participants who had witnessed a sexual assault still having some endorsement of rape myths. The outcome of this study could inform policy changes for the way that campuses approach sexual assault, making university a safer place for those who are at the highest risk.
Panel 3-B
Rachel Friars
UNB Saint John
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in English
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The Phantom Around the Corner: The 'Other' in Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone and Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist
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In the nineteenth century, Victorian’s lived in a world of binaries: male/female, rich/poor, and English/non-English. In the Victorian age, to validate what made someone ‘English’ there must have been an opposing figure that was distinctly ‘non-English.’ Of course, this binary was engrained using an English superiority and racism that permeated all aspects of English culture, including literature. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens write ‘Othered’ characters that simultaneously reflect and contribute to perceptions of the ‘Other’ in Victorian society. Collins’ three Indian men in The Moonstone and Dickens’ Fagin in Oliver Twist are examples of the stereotypical ‘Other,’ set apart from society because of their sinister, unnatural behaviour. Both are characterized as animalistic or demonic presences, and are “written about in terms of infection and infestation” (Haefele-Thomas 54). However, neither Collins nor Dickens allow the influence of the ‘Other’ on English culture to stand on its own; each novel presents male characters who combat the ‘Other’ through their English morality and strength, defeating or banishing the ‘Other’ and restoring English authority while allowing the characters who have fallen under the influence of the ‘Other’ to pay for their transgression. Oliver Twist and The Moonstone are reactive and provocative: they are written in response to England’s growing fear and disdain of immigrants while at the same time contributing to stereotypical perceptions of particular groups. By the end of each novel, Collins and Dickens have reasserted the superiority of the English gentleman and have undercut and demonized the Victorian ‘Other,’ contributing to, and drawing from, negative assumptions.
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Works Cited
Collins, Wilkie. The Moonstone. Knopf, 1992.
Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Oxford University Press, 1996.
Haefele-Thomas, Ardel. Queer Others in Victorian Gothic: Transgressing Monstrosity. University of Wales Press, 2012.
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Caroline Mercier
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Political Science and Gender & Women Studies
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To Kill, or To Be Killed.
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Discourse rules our lives and the experiences within them. Especially in cases of gendered violence, the presence of patriarchal discourse can change the public view of fault. In many cases, the media (intentionally or not) attribute positive qualities to the offender, most often male, which create the image of the actions being uncharacteristic of the individual. In the case of the victim, most often female, the qualities attributed create the image of an individual deserving of the treatment they got. Through the examination of news headlines regarding domestic violence and murder-suicides, we will see trends present in modern media that have a two-fold result: gendered acts of violence are seen as individual incidents and the perception of women is conditioned to be secondary to that of men.
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Hannah Bourret
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Sociology with a Minor in Contemporary Studies
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Canadian Mainstream Media’s Response to the Truth and Reconciliation requests: A Mixed Methods Approach
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Canadian mainstream media is an authoritative source of information that shapes how settlers understand Indigenous issues related to residential schools and the reconciliation process. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) issued its Calls to Action in 2015. The TRC indicates that the media plays a vital role in the reconciliation process because Canadian media misrepresents and subordinates Indigenous people. However, in Canada there is a lack of research on whether the mainstream media coverage of residential schools and the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations has changed after the release of the calls to action. My research will explore if Canadian mainstream media has responded to the 84th call to action; continuing to provide dedicated news coverage of the history and legacy of residential schools and the Reconciliation process. Drawing on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of over 300 articles, this study explores how CBC news represents the history of residential schools and the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations. In response to the TRC call to action CBC news did increase media coverage of residential schools and the Truth and Reconciliation recommendations. However, the content of media coverage downplayed Canada’s colonial history in order to protect the integrity of Canadian nationalism and identity. By analyzing the way that mainstream media has responded to the calls to action, it facilitates how the media prioritizes Canadian integrity through a nation building agenda that ignores the obligation to practice dedicated and decolonial news coverage on residential schools and the reconciliation process.
Panel 4-A
Keegan Manson-Curry
UNB Fredericton
Honours in Comparative Cultural Studies with a Minor in Music
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Korean Music and the 20th Century
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This research project, which I am completing as part of my music minor at UNB, examines changes to music in the Korean peninsula during the 20th century and how these were shaped specifically by three eras of upheaval during this time. The 20th century saw a massive change in the music of Korea, shifting in less than a hundred years from music sung fully in Korean and played with indigenous Korean instruments to music that is often made with western electronic instruments and is sung at least partially in English.
The eras that will be examined are: the Japanese colonization of Korea (1910-1945), the Korean war, its buildup, and its aftermath (1945-1970), and the period of student uprising and governmental unrest that eventually led to South Korea’s democratization (1970-1987). By analyzing these events we can understand how they played specific roles in the development of Korean music over the 20th century, as well as how they have affected Korean culture more generally.
Importantly, this project will also look at how Korean music of the 20th century actually contributed to the larger cultural changes that surrounded it, rather than just how it was influenced by them. This is an important perspective that is generally ignored in studies of this kind, and it is vital to consider if we are to fully understand music’s role in society. Korean music, like music from anywhere else in the world, is directly connected to culture more generally, and by examining its role in the events listed above, a more complete understanding of the development of Korean music and culture will occur.
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Carlee Calver
UNB Fredericton
Honours in Media Arts and Cultures
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Understanding the Artifice in Reality TV
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Often cited as “trash tv” or simply as crude spectacle by both fans and critics alike, reality tv walks the fine line between reality and fiction, showcasing the over the top nature of the genre by casting real people seemingly playing themselves, matched with highly scripted scenes and scenarios created by the show’s writers, editors, and producers.
The three shows analysed are RuPaul’s Drag Race, Dance Moms, and Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. All can be categorized into different sub genres of reality TV, (competition and docudrama), but their main similarity is that they all focus on specific cultural groups by either race, class, sex, sexuality, or any combination of these, whom are mostly underrepresented in mainstream media. For my analysis of these shows, I will dissect and analyse how the use of “real people”, culturally-engrained stereotypes, and reality TV aesthetics create the illusion of a more seemingly real or ‘truer to life’ representation of its characters than narrative television.
Ultimately, my hypothesis is that reality television is its own unique television form that blurs the lines of what is morally right and wrong though constructions of “Realness” in RuPaul’s Drag Race, “Ethnic-ness” in Dance Moms, and “Rednecked-ness” (a subset of whiteness) in Here Comes Honey Boo Boo. As a form Reality TV is its own special brand of mediated masterpiece relishing in its crass spectacle while offering an undercurrent of “realness” which I believe offers audiences more than one might assume.
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Norah Emerson
UNB Saint John
Honours in English
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Monstrous Bodies: The Fin-de-Siècle Gothic in H. G. Wells’ The Island of Dr. Moreau and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
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The Victorian era was a period of exponential change on various fronts: political, economic, social, and scientific. Approaching the end of the century, society was in a transitional, transformative phase, which gave rise to considerable anxiety about the future. What society might become, and even what humanity might become, were subjects of considerable debate. As scientific progress destabilized and contradicted what had previously been indisputable beliefs surrounding what it meant to be human, the anxiety that surrounded the nature of humanity also turned toward scientific progress. To express this anxiety, and to investigate the source of its fears, society turned to literature – with a specific taste for the fin-de-siècle Gothic. The fin-de-siècle Gothic borrows from the original Gothic to “explore phenomena at the borders of human identity and culture” (Hurley 6), and then “supernaturalizes both the specific content of scientific theories and scientific activity in general” (Hurley 6). H. G. Wells’ The Island of Doctor Moreau and Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde delve into the unstable notion of humanity in their novels, employing the fin-de-siècle Gothic as their genre of choice. Both authors center their work on the human body, using the fin-de-siècle Gothic to narrow their focus to several images: uncertainty and dissolution, fear of internal corruption resulting in the abhuman, and fear of science and the scientist. In all cases, the subjects of Wells’ and Stevenson’s novels react with disgust and fear to the figures of dissolution, internal corruption and the abhuman, and the scientist in an attempt to delineate themselves from these figures of degeneracy. Through the fin-de-siècle Gothic, Wells and Stevenson make manifest the late Victorian fears and anxieties provoked by the transitory nature of the period, exploring the boundaries and nature of humanity.
Works Cited
Hurley, Kelly. The Gothic Body: Sexuality, Materialism, and Degeneration at the Fin De Siècle. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Stevenson, Robert Louis. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Wells, H.G. The Island of Doctor Moreau. Oxford University Press, 2017
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Mathieu Gallant
Mount Allison University
Bachelor of Arts in English
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Excerpts & artwork from poetry collection Kill Lit.
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About the works: “Fabulous Aspirations” is a glosa series that borrows from music I like.
Panel 4-B
Benjamin MacPherson
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Science, Psychology
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Spinning Structures: Revisiting Sex Differences in Curve Tracing and Global Judgement with an Added Mental Rotation Task
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It is believed that men tend to use a global approach and women tend to use a piecemeal (local) strategy during visual processing tasks. Three tasks were used to examine these sex differences in visual processing strategy. Participants completed curve tracing, Navon, and mental rotation tasks. Each of these tasks represent situations where global and local processing are pitted one against the other. A male advantage in speed and accuracy is found in many global vs. local visual processing tasks. However, results from a previous experiment found an advantage in speed for women on a curve tracing task. It is possible that use of a piecemeal strategy was better suited for the task, though, in a second experiment, men answered both faster and more accurately on a curve tracing task. The experiment was used to determine which curve tracing findings replicate, with the goal ultimately being to determine whether there exist correlations between the three tests as a way to examine more closely the strategy explanation of sex differences.
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Emilie Gaudet
Mount Allison University
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Psychology
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The Relationship Between Values, Self-Efficacy, and Job Satisfaction in Nursing Home Staff Who Provide Oral Care
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For the past several decades, oral care in nursing homes everywhere has been shown to be lacking, and seniors’ oral health has significantly suffered. New Brunswick’s nursing homes are no exception. The current exploratory study is the first section of a two-phase project that aimed to improve oral health in seniors living in nursing homes. This pilot study focused on interviewing nursing home care aides from francophone and anglophone nursing homes of varying sizes located around the province. Fourteen participants were asked about their work experiences, their experiences relating specifically to oral care, and their opinions on what would work best as an in-service training program to improve oral care. Data provided during the interviews has been analyzed qualitatively to identify recurring themes and ideas shared by care aides. The goal of the analyses was to get a better understanding of what barriers exist for care aides who struggle to provide oral care to seniors in long-term care, and to identify what they believe would work best as an in-service training program on oral care.
Perry Dykens
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology (Neuroscience)
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Epilepsy as a Sleep Disorder: Can this Conceptualization Explain Disruptions of Episodic Memory before and after an Epileptogenic Seizure?
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The purpose of this literature review was to explore the possible links between epilepsy and episodic memory. Many individuals who experience epileptogenic seizures experience loss of episodic memory surrounding the seizure as well as episodic memory loss in their every day life. Initially, neurochemical dimensions were considered. After research however, it was determined that a neurochemical solution did not adequately explain the connection between the epilepsy and episodic memory. When epilepsy was considered from an electrophysiological perspective, connections began to emerge. The EEG activity during an epileptogenic seizure is very similar to that observed during short wave sleep (SWS) or deep sleep, and rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Theta band of EEG frequency was of primary importance as it has been suggested that Theta activity is critical during REM for memory consolidation, and if interrupted, memory consolidation is lost. Research suggests that epileptogenic seizures disrupt Theta activity, which is a possible explanation for why epileptogenic seizures cause loss of, or deficits in, episodic memory. The literature review closes by suggesting further research that needs to be conducted on the topic.
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Samantha Landry
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Psychology
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Competitiveness in Facebook Peer Support Groups for Fibromyalgia
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Introduction/Aim: Many people with fibromyalgia (FM) participate in online support groups (OSG). They are accessible from home, facilitate information sharing, and ideally provide a safe space to seek/offer support. Peer-to-peer Fibromyalgia OSGs have become prolific, but existing research suggests they may be harmful. Further examination of the content is therefore warranted.
Methods: This project is part of a longitudinal study examining Facebook OSGs for FM. Posts from three separate Fibromyalgia Facebook groups were collected for one week per month for three consecutive months and analyzed according to the six steps of thematic analysis.
Results: Preliminary analyses identified competitiveness as a key response to support-seeking posts. It had two main components: (1) “I’m sicker than you” where participants describe experiencing more symptoms than previous posters which they equate with greater suffering; and (2) “I’m the Expert” where participants used the length of time they had experienced symptoms to invalidate differing opinions. A secondary theme, responder usurping, where participants attempted to redirect the groups’ focus from the original support-seeking post to themselves, was noted in our latent analysis of competitive excerpts.
Discussion/Conclusions: The results of this analysis suggest patients, in trying to prove the severity of their own suffering, further isolate themselves and potentially miss opportunities to experience emotional support, a sense of belonging, and to offer support for others. These results also suggest that even in a safe space, participants continue struggling to legitimize their suffering.
Panel 5-A
Jennifer O’Keefe
Mount Saint Vincent University
Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy Studies
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Rights are Non-Negotiable: Indigenous Rights, Self-Determination, and Canada
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It is apparent that the relationship between the Canadian federal government and Indigenous people continues to be strained. Legal issues pertaining to Indigenous human rights such as the right to self-determination remain contentious topics. In 2014, the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples for the United Nations, James Anaya, asserted that by all accounts, strengthening Indigenous peoples’ self-government is essential to improving their social and economic situation. The article explores the logistical struggle of developing a real and functioning framework of Indigenous self-determination and self-government in Canada in so far that it must be conducted outside the context of colonial rule of law. Utilizing current scholarship and developed frameworks in the realm of international law and Indigenous rights, I argue that, despite a new commitment made by the Canadian federal government to recognize the inherent right of Indigenous peoples to their own self-government, the very act of negotiation and arbitration of self-government undermines this right.
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Michael Fong
Mount Saint Vincent University
Bachelor of Arts in Political Studies
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Indigenous Resistance and the Left: The Deprioritization of Decolonization
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This presentation explores the manner in which Canadian social movements, especially those associated with anti-capitalism and climate change activism, risk inadvertently reproducing asymmetrical colonial narratives through their appropriation and reframing of Indigenous nations’ resistance to the Canadian state. While there were attempts to form stronger relations of solidarity between the Left and Indigenous nations in the era of Idle No More and Occupy Wall Street, contemporary social movements are still heavily shaped by Eurocentric assumptions regarding nationalism, racial prejudice, and paternalism. Drawing on contemporary Indigenous scholarship, I argue there is a tendency in the Left to bypass any serious commitment to Indigenous sovereignty by claiming that the realization of the broader goal of class struggle will ultimately benefit Indigenous peoples. Despite the fact that the recent mobilizations of Indigenous land-based struggles have arguably been more effective than the Left’s ability to actively opposing corporate power and pressure the Canadian state to produce more accountable climate change policies, I argue there is still an unwillingness on the Left to confront the consequences of Indigenous liberation and decolonization.
Hailie Tattrie
Mount Allison University
Honours in Sociology with a Minor in Political Science
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CBC Canada; The Story of Us Versus Them: How Neo-Colonial Forms of Domination Impact Settler and Indigenous Relationships
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My honours thesis in sociology focuses on Indigenous and Settler relations and how they are impacted by neo-colonial forms of domination, such as the media. More specifically, I will be analyzing CBC’s video series Canada: The Story of Us and how this piece of media can be utilized as a nation building project that creates both apathetic and racist attitudes and ideologies within settlers, thus impacting Indigenous and Settler relations. I have used the works of Fanon and Freire to unpack what it means to truly decolonize. This closely relates to indigenization as well. I am also exploring the idea of othering, and the “us versus them” mentality that exists within Canadian institutions and society.
My research has involved pulling out several key themes present in the Canada: The Story of Us series, such as capitalism, stereotyping Indigenous peoples, harmful imagery, and multiculturalism. I believe multiculturalism in particular connects to the idea of nationalistic pride, which is something frequently seen throughout the series. I will explore the theme of nation building and how it is related to themes of inclusion, specifically surrounding the histories and stories of peoples residing in Canada.
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Morgan Richard
UNB Fredericton
BA/BSC in Biology and Psychology
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Learning Becomes a Transaction: Collaborative Learning with Aboriginal Themes for Non-Aboriginal Students
Morgan Richard and Elizabeth Gerhardt, University of New Brunswick;
Catherine Ann Cameron, University of British Columbia, University of New Brunswick
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This study investigates the nature of collaborative transactions, the quality of knowledge acquisition, the role of reciprocal learning, and how families share their own funds of knowledge.
Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model of development (1979) identified several overlapping systemic levels of human organization that contribute to human learning and development. Sameroff (2010) further developed this innovative model to include the concept of transaction. Transactions move beyond an exchange of information to include the potential for developmental adaptation and reciprocal learning for all individuals involved. Transactions at Bronfenbrenner’s ‘miso-systemic’ level (between children and their immediate families) and his ‘exo-system’ level (between children and their schools) are critical for the expansion of one’s funds of knowledge (González, Moll & Amanti, 2005). Therefore, these transactions will be examined to learn about the nature, quality, and role of how children share and acquire knowledge.
Currently in its pilot stage in British Columbia (BC) and soon to be adapted for New Brunswick, this project documents the nature and quality of knowledge acquisition through reciprocal and dialogic transactions between older and younger paired elementary school students. Participants are from a non-Aboriginal, largely immigrant population. The students learn by engaging with Aboriginal themes and practices from trained, non-Aboriginal teachers. The program was originally developed for Aboriginal pre-school children. This is the first time that this resource has been used with older and non-Aboriginal learners. It follows the current BC curriculum with a focus on reading, writing, numeracy, and social responsibility. This program helps non-Aboriginal teachers to integrate the spirit of reconciliation into their classroom practices and trains them so they feel competent teaching Aboriginal-themed materials. Students and their families’ cultural diversity is an added component in the transactions when students take the program materials home to interact with members of their diverse family backgrounds in a culturally relevant manner.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
González, N., Moll, L., & Amanti, C. (2005). Funds of knowledge: Theorizing practices in households, communities, and classrooms. New Jersey: Erlbaum Publishers.
Sameroff, A. N. (2010). A unified theory of development: A dialectic integration of nature and nurture. Child Development, 81(1), 6-22. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8624. 2009. 01378.x
Panel 5-B
Maurgan LeBlanc
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Psychology
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Discriminating Palates: Undergraduate Student Attitudes Toward Alternative Diet and Drinking Behaviours
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Previous studies in the area of identity and social psychology have identified a gap in the research literature regarding stigma associated with alternative diet choice. This study will attempt to fill the gap by identifying undergraduate student attitudes toward eating and drinking habits; specifically, dietary and drinking habits deemed to be “deviant” or commonly stigmatized (including subscription to alternative diets such as veganism, food allergy diets, and binge-drinking behaviors).
A small body of research has examined dietary stigma from the perspective of the eater, however, few studies at this time have addressed what attitudes from non-dieters contribute to the perpetration of this negative judgment. The present study evaluates undergraduate university students on a variety of scales to determine the following:
1. What are the primary beliefs and attitudes that contribute to stigma around alternative diets and binge drinking?
2. Are these attitudes general, are they consistent, or are they specific to each behavior?
3. What, if any, demographics predict this stigmatised behavior?
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Gwenevere Pinch
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts
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Exploring the Existence of a Rape Culture with a Focus on High Profile Canadian Cases
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The purpose of this paper was to explore the existence of a rape culture in Canadian society. Specifically, this paper focused on high profile Canadian cases that gave evidence of rape culture. To support this notion three case studies were examined, all of which occurred in the past five years in Nova Scotia. The first incident examined was the Rehtaeh Parsons case that made national headlines in April of 2013. The second case considered was the Dalhousie Dentistry Scandal that occurred near the end of 2014, where a Facebook group was created by male students containing extremely degrading and offensive content directed at women. The final incident used to support the presence of rape culture took place at Saint Mary’s University in 2013. At Saint Mary’s University, a video was posted to social media platform Instagram that recorded a pro-rape chant being performed during the university’s FROSH festivities. This paper recognizes commonalities between the three case studies, including that they all took place in educational institutions and they all used a form of social media. In addition to the three case studies, a literature review was conducted to further investigate the phenomenon of rape culture. The existence of rape culture is a frighteningly present concern in university environments that should not be ignored or overlooked.
Natasha Williamson
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership Studies, Minor in Sociology
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Police Homophobia and Violence against the Canadian LGBTQ+ Community
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This paper explores how Canadian police shaped and participated in the oppression, victimization, and ostracization of the LGBTQ+ community. As reproducers of societal order, police inflicted violence and harassment on LGBTQ+ victims, exposed them to vilification and abuse from the public, and left lasting, negative impacts on the community that can still be felt today. There are countless examples of police participating in gay bashing without facing repercussions; this paper explores recent history’s most harmful instances, and how this narrative is further continued by police forces’ token allyship in current times and their conditional support of Pride parades.
As the regulators of disorder and a dominant social institution, police both inform the homophobic, heteronormative nature of society and remain influenced by it in turn. Their aims to discipline the deviance of the LGBTQ+ community and force their assimilation with mainstream society have heavily determined the public discourse and perception of LGBTQ+ people. However, despite the fact that police actions remain motivated by centuries of hatred, contempt, and oppression of the LGBTQ+ community, I describe why the assimilation of many LGBTQ+ individuals will never succeed. This paper demonstrates how the LGBTQ+ community is everything that heteronormative society is not, and the two cannot coincide if equality for all Canadians is to be achieved. I close by outlining what must occur for true LGBTQ+ equality to exist in Canada, and how Canadian police must hold themselves accountable for the history of injustice they have committed against the LGBTQ+ community.
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Julia Sanders
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Major in French with a Minor in Psychology
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A look into the beliefs supporting male circumcision: should the laws surrounding male circumcision be revised
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According to a study done by Morris, Brian J. et al., approximately 1,412,252,836 out of 3,654,384,123 males are circumcised. This indicates that the estimated global prevalence of male circumcision is 38.65%. Estimates also indicate that circumcision is based on religion in 136 countries. In 20 countries, circumcisions are based on culture. Given that 23.3% of the total population in the world is Muslim and 0.18% is Jewish, there is a large proportion of males circumcised for religious reasons.
The following questions will be discussed and examined: Why is a controversial debate regarding circumcision still prevalent if 1/3 of the male population is circumcised? How many diverse motivations arise in defense of male circumcision? Given that circumcision varies across cultures, religions, and regions, how safe is the procedure, at what age are most circumcisions performed, and why do some parents decide not to circumcise their baby?
This undergraduate paper explores the issue of male circumcision in North and South America, and predominantly Jewish and Muslim European and Asian countries. The goal of this presentation is to convey that male circumcision is a procedure that must be consented to and, therefore, should not be performed on individuals under the age of majority. It will reveal both religious and medical debates that affect the decision to circumcise babies. I hope to address the complications and complexities of circumcision and create awareness of the discrepancies between religious freedom and genital mutilation.
Panel 6-A
Tora Oliphant
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts, combined Honours in Sociology and Microbiology & Immunology
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Challenging the Cookie Cutter: Premedical Student Responses to Institutional Shaping
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Medicine was one of the first disciplines to use a regulated education process to secure institutional control over the practice of its profession. In the time since, much research has been done on the professionalization process undergone by medical students and how this shapes the physicians who serve our population. However, this research often neglects to consider the “raw materials” that medical schools choose to work with, overlooking the potential that some of the developments that we attribute to the medical school professionalization process are actually ingrained in students in their premedical years. These premedical students (or premeds) are not yet part of the medical education institution, yet their desire to enter the profession leads them to orient their lives in ways that fulfill the expectations of the kinds of people medical schools are looking to admit to their programs. We can see medical schools’ recognition of this fact in the way they are currently shifting their admissions requirements with the stated aim of selecting for more ethical and humanistic doctors – adding a social sciences section to the MCAT, eliminating science pre-requisite courses, and using more nuanced interview processes. This research project aims to gain a better understanding of how premeds experience and respond to this process. Six in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with premedical students at Dalhousie University. Analysis of the data showed interesting divergences in the way students conceptualize their activities in terms or “doing things that I love” versus “doing things to get into medical school.” This project will hopefully generate new knowledge around the experience of pre-professional education, and more specifically around how premedical students perceive and respond to the institutional shaping enacted by medical schools.
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Ashley Farrell
Dalhousie University
Honours in Social Anthropology with a Minor in Biology
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“The Nova Scotia Midwife Crisis:” Situating midwife identities and practices in the Nova Scotia Healthcare System
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This undergraduate thesis explores the formation of personal and professional identities, among midwives, by answering the questions: How do midwives understand their role in the Nova Scotia healthcare system? And, how does that role shape their practice and identity?
To collect data, four midwives who have worked or are working in Nova Scotia were interviewed. Qualitative interviews were semi-structured. Data analysis was conducted through the following theoretical concepts: knowledge as a form of power, the anthropology of childbirth, and power structures in health professions.
Four interconnected themes are explored, as per the literature: (1) the “midwifery lifestyle”, (2) power structures in health care, and (3) the types of care that midwives provide. As a result, an analysis of midwife identity formation is created. By understanding the midwifery profession, we can explore how different health professionals and their different forms of knowledge are situated around birth and pregnancy in the healthcare system.
This research concludes that midwives occupy an ambivalent role in the Nova Scotia healthcare system. And, as a result of this inconclusive role, their practices are limited and their identities are of marginalized workers in the realm of health professions.
Zoe Jackson
UNB Fredericton
Honours in History
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In this deplorable state I entered upon a course of your Cordial Balm of Gilead”: Samuel Solomon, Quackery, and Nervous Disorders in Montreal, 1770–1808.
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In early modern Britain, there existed a multifaceted and dynamic medical marketplace; one that gave agency to the patient through their medical narrative and in the selection of both the practitioner and the preferred medicine regimen to alleviate symptoms of their illness. University-trained physicians competed with irregular “quack” practitioners in a largely unregulated marketplace. Analogous to the British marketplace model, patients in Montreal could select whether to consult either a regular or irregular practitioner, and further decide what form of medical treatment would be most compatible to their individual humoral constitution. Despite the competitive nature of the medical marketplace in Britain, and the degree of emulation performed by quack doctors to bolster their authority in the medical field, irregular practitioners capitalized on the various economic, social, and medical pluralities that were seemingly closed, or rejected, by professional physicians during this time.
Medical treatments advocated by irregular practitioners posing as university-educated physicians also occurred, as with the case of the Liverpool quack Samuel Solomon (1768/9–1819). Solomon, born into a low socio-economic Jewish family in the 1760s, was originally a peddler before entering the medical marketplace with his cure-all Cordial Balm of Gilead and, later Solomon’s drops and Abstergent Lotion. Furthermore, Samuel Solomon’s medical treatise, Guide to Health—published in the last decade of the eighteenth century—relates the various remedies used to treat nervous disorders. The existence of nervous disorders in Montreal suggests that, from the mid-to late eighteenth century onwards, the establishment of a middling and upper social stratum was solidifying, as nervous disorders were only associated with the wealthy and affluent in Britain. Thus, medical advertisements marketed towards nervous disorders in the Montreal Gazette (researched and accessed on microform at the Harriet Irving Library) provide insight into the rising consumer behaviour of polite Montreal society by reflecting the solidification of a hierarchical, class-based society.
Panel 6-B
Bethany Langmaid
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in English
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Truth, Lies, and “False News”: The (De)construction of History in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale
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With discussions of “fake news” dominating contemporary media coverage, Margaret Atwood’s satirical and dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale is a frightening reflection of today’s political climate. My conference paper explores this phenomenon through an English literary lens. I argue that, through its use of the character of Offred’s first-person “her-story,” Atwood’s text not only critiques hegemonic historiography, but it also eerily predicts contemporary confusion surrounding truth and transparency in media coverage. I begin by examining how Atwood’s novel contributes to the Canadian tradition of questioning whose history is told and represented. Drawing on the work of Herb Wyile, I argue that Atwood’s novel participates in the tradition of speculative fiction through its critique of conventional modes of history and storytelling. I also focus on the particular unreliability of Offred’s first-person narrative, as the only information that Offred is privy to as a Handmaid is the rhetoric disseminated by the Republic of Gilead (because Handmaids are forbidden from reading and writing).
To expand on the prevalence of “false news” (Atwood 24) in Gilead, I incorporate Michel Foucault’s theory of the “panopticon” to demonstrate how Gilead strives to be an all-seeing state. I explore the effect of Gilead’s “panopticism” on the reliability of Offred’s narrative. Furthermore, I combine the works of Jacques Derrida and satire theorist Dustin Griffin to establish how Atwood deconstructs the binary of fiction/reality in order to undermine traditional historiographic practices. Offred’s narrative demonstrates that, despite the rhetoric of “truth” in Gilead, former histories haunt Gileadean society and serve as a constant reminder of what was lost.
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Caroline Mercier
UNB Fredericton
Bachelor of Arts, Honours in Political Science and Gender & Women Studies
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Similarly Different
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Far-right and populist parties across the world are becoming increasingly more present and supported. Though in some places they create a defined minority, the European Union has been home to many more pronounced parties that have managed to gain power within political systems that had been reworked after the Second World War to actively exclude any congregation that mobilized extremist ideologies. How does this happen, and what are methods that could be used to pinpoint the causes of these trends? By examining the comparative case study of Germany and Italy regarding their social, political, and economic divides, several conclusions can be drawn. The comparison offers reasons for the increase in support for far-right and populist parties rooted in the role of parties and political systems that create the fear and dissociation needed for racist and xenophobic ideologies to be rationalized by individuals who feel left behind by the systems meant to support them.
Kristen Becker
Dalhousie University
Bachelor of Arts, History
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World War II and the Holocaust
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The Holocaust was an event that not only affected Germany, and its surrounding countries, but all the countries in the world as a global genocide. This paper looks to divulge the origins of the Holocaust and how it reached its height by examining Germany’s, occupied countries’, and unoccupied countries’ involvement; with an extensive analysis of the Netherlands. By analyzing primary and secondary sources, the origins of the Holocaust were found to rise highly out of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and race science, combined with Germany’s economic standpoint after World War I, and its ideological beliefs. An analysis of both occupied and unoccupied countries found that the Nazis did not succeed on their own, but were assisted by multiple other countries. To a minimal extent, Britain and the United States participated by not allowing more Jewish refugees, and Pius XII of Italy, who was informed of the situation, did nothing to stop it. On a greater scale, France gathered Jewish peoples for deportation, Lithuania participated in mass killings of Jewish peoples, and Poland stripped Jewish peoples of their human rights. An extensive analysis of the Netherlands found that although most of the population was Jewish, they actively participated in the extermination of the Jewish peoples by rounding up and turning in ‘friends’, sterilizing Jewish women, and turning against their former allies. It would be wrong to say that the Germans were the only cause of this horrific historical event, since multiple countries, whether occupied or unoccupied, participated for reasons encompassing anti-Semitism and nationalism. However, it can be said that the Germans and Nazi’s might not have succeeded on such a wide scale if they did not have help.