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A restless triumphant music: Heritage and sound in 19th century Western Australia
Get PDFThe fundamental principles underpinning heritage conservation in Australia have long recognised that places may have sensory values that contribute to their significance. As such, acoustic values should be assessed as part of the evaluation process. But there is still no agreed methodology for identifying, describing, or assessing the way places sound as part of the heritage assessment process, and acoustic values are therefore rarely present in heritage citations. Even if sound is not determined to be a significant cultural heritage value, it can be an valuable tool in interpretation. This paper discusses the historic sounds of places valued by the Colonial community during the earliest period of settlement in the far south west forest region of Western Australia. It then examines the acoustic experiences of these places today and their management after two decades during which the concept of 'soundscape' has become more mainstream, and asks whether acoustic values are being recognised and appropriately protected
The Alphabet Pasta of Ancient Times
Get PDFA short story that borders on the lines of an essay excerpt. 
Many and Beautiful Things
Get PDFThis embroidery piece is an exploration of themes of queer identity, gender, and the experience of connecting to people from the distant past. It features text by the ancient Greek poet Sappho. Like many of her works, it survives in fragments, and the entire poem is incomplete. After embroidering the text, I "filled out" every gap with violets, which are a historical symbol of lesbian love. Much of Sappho's poetry describes feelings of affection for women, making her an extremely important and resonant figure for queer women across history, myself included.  
The Land of Compounding Marginalization: Family-Sponsored Immigrant Older Adults’ Access to Dementia Care in Canada
No full textFamily-sponsored immigrant older adults are an extremely vulnerable group that experience multiple, compounding forms of marginalization in Canadian society. Stigma and shame, language and cultural incongruence, as well as economic policy related to both immigration and long-term care delivery impede family-sponsored immigrant older adult’s access to dementia care. Additionally, flawed narratives framing dementia as a part of the normal ageing process, ill-informed criticisms of immigrant older adults failure to integrate into Canadian society, and the erroneous assumption that family-sponsored immigrant older adults do not contribute to the Canadian economy must be challenged. Overall, it is essential that we work to better understand the reasons why family-sponsored immigrant older adults struggle to access appropriate dementia care. Learning from the challenges faced by family-sponsored immigrant older adults can help us to reform our nation’s elder care system to best support the social, emotional, mental, and physical health of Canada’s aging and increasingly diverse population
Dehumanization, Hate Speech, and Violence in Right-Wing Extremist Environments
Get PDFOn November 24, 2021, Dr. Lisa Kaati, senior researcher at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, presented Dehumanization, Hate Speech, and Violence in Right-Wing Extremist Environments at the 2021 CASIS West Coast Security Conference. The presentation was followed by a group panel for questions and answers. Main discussion topics included extremists’ use of social media to justify and incite violence
Hidden Agendas: Unequal Media Coverage of the Overdose Crisis
No full textPresently, British Columbia is experiencing an overdose crisis. In recent years, researchers have begun discussing media portrayals of the overdose crisis within Canada and how they can influence public opinion and impact resources allocated to the crisis. However, within a British Columbian context, research in this area is scarce. This is particularly concerning, as Vancouver is the epicentre of the overdose crisis, and the city’s overdose rates continue to rise . The current study will address and examine British Columbia’s news media portrayal of the overdose crisis between the years 2016-2021, to help understand how we arrived at where we are currently with the lack of successful policy responses. Using an inductively coded thematic analysis of 65 news media articles, this research seeks to answer the following question “how are the issues, population, and responses of the overdose crisis framed within the media and how do these impact public opinion and policy resources?”. In answering this question, this study aims to determine how the framing of this crisis can help influence policy and public opinion about overdose as a public health issue, while reducing the stigma associated with it. Ultimately, analyzing news media can help provide insight into public opinion about these issues, affecting policy responses given to this crisis.
Faculty Supervisor:Dr. Alissa Greer, School of Criminology, Simon Fraser Universit
Biomarker Identification in Human Mesenchymal Stem and Stromal Cells.
No full textThe Braid lab studies human mesenchymal stem and stromal cells (MSCs). My research project in this field focuses on identifying MSC biomarkers that can distinguish this cell type from a similar type in the body, called fibroblasts. Fibroblasts commonly inhabit the same spaces as MSCs and appear identical. No single marker has been found to detect all types of MSCs. Therefore, the identification of a single biomarker is crucial, as it would allow these cells to be correctly recognized in the human body for further research. This research could determine the roles that MSCs play in human development as well as tissue repair and regeneration. The potential biomarkers I have been testing were identified in a previous study but require validation. This includes using colored antibodies that attach and visually label the biomarker proteins in MSCs and fibroblasts. After viewing these cells under a microscope, the difference in color between the cell types indicates the biomarker presence or expression. I will also test the abundance of these biomarkers at the gene level using qPCR. This technique allows us to measure how many copies of the biomarker are in the process of being produced by the cell. We can use this technique to determine if there are measurable differences in biomarker transcripts between MSCs and fibroblasts. Ultimately, identifying these MSC biomarkers is fundamental in recognizing these cells in animal models. Models that are critical in determining the true origins and functions of MSCs in human health, and development.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Lorena Braid, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser Universit
(Re)Creating the Soviet Family: Material Realities of a Utopian Family Law, 1918-1936
No full textI seek to understand the material impacts of the 1918 and 1926 Soviet Family Law Codes on the lives of young women, those who lived under the most experimental period of the Soviet Union and perhaps the most ambitious gendered reforms in Russian history. Historians largely agree that while certain tenets of the 1918 Code became entrenched in late Soviet and post Soviet culture, the underlying ideology of sexual liberation was a failure and the popular backlash predominantly driven by women. I believe that the only means to understand why is to look beyond the rhetoric of both opponents and proponents of the Code and at the lives of the women who adopted, rejected, or remained ambivalent to the sexual norms embodied by the Code.
I will begin with an introduction on the Bolshevik ideology of sexual liberation and its relationship with the 1918 and 1926 Family Law Codes. To testify to the resulting controversies and cultural transformation, I will present evidence in the form of media such as Bed and Sofa (1927) as well as publications by Bolsheviks opposing and supporting “free love.” I will then present my analysis on the material realities of sex and sexual (in)equality for sexually active women during the 1918-1936 period, and for those who came of age during this period. This will be done through a combination of data collected by Soviet social scientists in the 1920s and oral histories, memoirs, and other primary source accounts of Soviet women on their lives.
Faculty Supervisor: Dr. Ilya Vinkovetsky, Department of History, Simon Fraser Universit
