SFU Library Digital Publishing (Simon Fraser University, Vancouver)
Not a member yet
4841 research outputs found
Sort by
EMERGING NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS AND BUILDING STATE RESILIENCE
Get PDFOn November 22, 2022, the Honourable David McGuinty, Chairman of the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP), presented on Emerging National Security Concerns and Building State Resilience. The key points discussed were what is NSICOP, how NSICOP conducts reviews into Canada’s National Security and Intelligence community, and the future of NSICOP’s mandate. The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS Vancouver executives.
Received: 20223-01-02Revised: 2023-01-1
STRENGTHENING ANALYSIS AND CRITICAL THINKING IN TIMES OF GEOPOLITICAL UNCERTAINTY
Get PDFOn November 22, 2022, Randolph H. Pherson, Chief Executive Officer of Globalytica, presented on Strengthening Analysis and Critical Thinking in Times of Geopolitical Uncertainty. The key points discussed included emerging threats to intelligence and how to combat them with structured analytical techniques. The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer period with questions from the audience and CASIS Vancouver executives.
Received: 2023-01-03Revised: 2023-01-0
Talking Heads: Forecasting Russian Aggression in ‘Frozen’ Separatist Conflicts
Get PDFIn the last 14 years, Russia has militarily intervened in three ‘frozen’—where hostilities have ceased, but the resolution of a conflict has no end in sight— separatist conflicts in Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine. These conflicts have caused mass casualties, disrupted the lives of people living in these regions, and unsettled regional security. Further, the outbreak of a wider international conflict is a real possibility, as seen by the presence of NATO member Turkey’s involvement in the most recent conflict in Azerbaijan. If we could forecast when Russia will militarily intervene next, policy makers could take more decisive actions—to prevent a more serious international conflict. Through analyzing Russian elite rhetoric, this project hopes to show that future Russian military aggression in ‘frozen’ separatist conflicts can potentially be forecasted. This project will compare Russian elite’s quotes in news articles regarding the separatists regions in Georgia in Moldova, in three distinct time periods—1992-2002, 2003-2008, 2009-the present. Through computer-assisted text analysis methods, this project aims to clarify whether, between 2003-2008—during the Rose Revolution—in Georgia, Russian elite rhetoric could have forecasted Russia’s 2008 war with Georgia. Through the growing revolution of text analysis in political science research, this paper will be able to survey large amounts of text, in ways that were once inaccessible or required arduous efforts to understand the meaning of text. This paper hopes to provide a mechanism to forewarn of impending Russian military aggression, while applying text analyses methods in a new application
Strengthening our Resilience through Land Based Teaching and Learning Knowledge Transmission
Get PDFIndigenous Land Based Teaching and Learning is grounded in Indigenous Knowledge, pedagogy, and epistemology. Grizzlypaws’s research and experiential knowledge of oral traditions passed on to her from St'át'imc Elders the tmicw (land), úcwalmicw (people of the land), and ucwalmícwts (language spoken by the people of the land) are all interconnected; one cannot sustain itself with another. The land shapes the culture, language, and customs of Indigenous peoples; where one discovers the knowledge and survival are rooted through the knowledge of the land, water, animals, and plants. The phrase Tákem nsnekw’nukw’a7 – which translates to “All of my Relations is a significant value within Indigenous worldviews; this term honours the relationship of all things being related to one another. Land-based learning puts Indigenous teaching and learning into practice and allows for observational and personal reflection. Land Based teaching and learning strengthens:
Community connectedness;
Resilience - improving mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual wellness;
Support for the advancement of reconciliation by decolonizing educational institutions;
Improved understanding of land, territory, and language of Indigenous peoples;
Increased awareness and understanding for protecting and caring for the land - addressing kinship, land protection and responsibility;
Focused on intergenerational teaching and learning from Elders and mentors who pass their knowledge and skills onto students;
Re-engagement for Indigenous learners to learn through their own knowledge systems; &
Revitalization of Indigenous languages & practices which in turn reverses language loss
Erotic Praxis of Indigenous Urbanism in Surrey, BC
Get PDFThis presentation reflects on how Indigenous women call on and embody the erotic, as theorized by Black feminist writer Audre Lorde, to cultivate and sustain urban Indigeneity, in settler colonial cities like Surrey, BC. In “Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power,” Lorde situates the erotic as a political and spiritual worldmaking force, radiating from “the assertion of the lifeforce of women; of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, and our lives” (Lorde, 1973). I connect Lorde’s use of the erotic to Dorries (2023) call for Indigenous urbanism to “be understood as a heuristic for uncovering possibilities and modes of being that exceed the possibilities for Indigenous life that are typically prescribed by settler colonial urbanism” (110). This analytic considers how Indigeneity is mobilized to both contest and create ‘the urban’, situating the dialectic tensions between these terms as a generative place from which to reimagine local spatialities. Drawing on personal experiences as an Indigenous woman living and working in Surrey, this paper contributes to the emerging discourse about Indigenous urbanism as an analytic attending to the ways in which Indigenous urban spaces are being made and (re)made.
References:
Dorries, H. (2023). Indigenous Urbanism as an Analytic: Towards Indigenous Urban Theory. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 47(1). 110-118. DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.13129
Lorde, A. (1973) Sister Outside
Role of Urban Public Space in Sustaining Mental Well-being: Inferences from Pandemic Scenario
Get PDFPeople go to urban public spaces for their needs of social interaction. It has been established that social interactions in public places hosting various active and passive activities have multiple psychological health benefits. However, public spaces have ceased to be public during the pandemic. With the pandemic and the following lockdown, people have begun to acknowledge the significant role of the urban public spaces for their social needs. This paper attempts to understand this acknowledgement regarding the Indian context and relates to the stress level of citizens due to the restrictions in using outdoor spaces. The study tries to comprehend the difficulties of staying indoors and not being able to socially interact in the urban public spaces and infers to be negatively impacted the mental well-being. The study primarily attempted to analyze the connect between the use of urban public space, mental well-being and social interaction through a survey (n=277) referring to the stress level of the citizens during the first wave of Covid-19. This research infers a strong connect between the use of public spaces and the citizen's mental well-being with the further potential of using the inferences to formulate a healthy city urban public space design guideline
Expansion of Secondary Education Programs to Increase Awareness of the Health Risks of Vaping in BC
Get PDFThe rate of e-cigarette use among youth has accelerated dramatically in BC, which is particularly concerning given the devastating health consequences of e-cigarettes.
Lack of awareness of the health risks of vaping and misconceptions about vaping products contribute to the rise of e-cigarette use among youth. Hence, it is critical that efforts to increase awareness of the health risks of vaping are established.
Two interventions aimed at reducing vaping among BC youths are secondary school e-cigarette education programs through (1) the expansion of the physical and health education curriculum and (2) the addition of online learning modules.
Implementation of e-cigarette education programs through online learning modules is recommended as they can be established faster and are more cost-effective
Tinnitus and Sound
Get PDFSally woke up and looked at the clock on the nightstand. It read 3:05 am, far too early for her alarm to be going off. She heard something, but it wasn’t the sound of her alarm. It sounded like the teapot was whistling. Who could possibly be boiling water at this tim