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Splendid Condition and Enormous \u27Grit\u27 : The Sporting Other and Canadian Identity
Full text linkCanadian identity is mutable, changing in response to outside influences. This phenomenon is especially apparent in sport. This paper focuses on the formation and maintenance of Canadian identity in sport. By connecting the 1867 Paris rowing crew, the 1972 Summit Series, and the 2019 NBA champion Toronto Raptors, this paper seeks to investigate how Canadian identity has been shaped through sport. Using newspaper articles, online editorials, and academic sources, this paper shows how integral the sporting “other” is to the Canadian identity
Content Validation of a Recreational and Sport Risk Taking Scale
Full text linke: The practice of sport and leisure has many physiological and psychological benefits. However, certain behaviours may contravene the physical integrity and well-being of participants, notably through sports injuries. Several endogenous (sensation seeking, risk perception, psychoaffective aspects, substance consumption, age) and exogenous (social influence, recreational and sporting factors, protective equipment, physical environment) dimensions make up risk-taking behaviours. Method: A qualitative study helped in developing an explanatory risk-taking model. A scale, based on the results of this work, could serve as a useful tool to better understand the determinants of leisure risk-taking among young people and, thus, propose more relevant prevention measures. The purpose of our research is to precisely design and attest to the content validity of a scale based on measuring recreational and sport risk-taking factors among young people between the ages of fourteen and twenty-four years through a Delphi survey with experts (n=7) and two focus groups (n=12). Results: Our findings show that, after these two data collections, the questionnaire displays satisfactory content validity. Continued analysis of psychometric qualities will ensure construct validity and fidelity
The ‘Happy City’ Panel – Kamloops and the Urban Ideals of Charles Montgomery
No full textFor a Local Government in Canada course, students are required to write three separate papers contrasting the ideals and analysis of Charles Montgomery’s Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design with their lived experience and observations on the City of Kamloops. The papers contrast Kamloops with the happy city ideals, examine the potential to adopt alternative design models, and compare the ‘happy city’ project with planning initiatives by the City of Kamloops. Panelists will present their assessments of Kamloops as a “happy city” with proposals for the best alternatives in advancing towards this ideal. As the moderator for the panel, I will quickly and briefly lay out the happy city ideals of Montgomery – and panel presentations by students will focus on their individual assessments and preferred alternatives for making the City of Kamloops a happy city
Analytical Study of Epicatechin Levels in Green Tea from Different Geographical Origins using Ultraviolet Spectrophotometry
No full textEpicatechin is a type of natural phenol and antioxidant, and it is a secondary metabolite found in green tea. Some research suggests it has a neuroprotective function because it is able to pass through the blood-brain barrier and activate the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) pathways. In this work, UV-Vis spectrophotometry was used to quantify the levels of epicatechin in the tea samples. The result obtained were used to compare the amounts of epicatechin in up to 20 different brands of green tea from different geographical origins. Various experimental conditions such as different water types for making the tea, temperature and time used for the tea and sugar additives were also investigated to determine their effect on the levels of epicatechin in the green teas. The precision, accuracy, and sensitivity were determined to validate the method. Principal component analysis (PCA) was employed to discriminate green teas in order to test the hypothesis that there is a difference of epicatechin level in green teas which grow in different geographical origins
A Deep Dive Into Paper Cuts
No full textPaper cuts are an everyday inconvenience; they are nothing special, nothing new. But have you ever stopped to consider the microscopic war your body wages every time the skin is broken? This creative non-fiction essay explores the immune response launched by the human body to protect itself when exposed to a world crawling with pathogenic predators. From that first sharp pain of a sheet of paper slicing through the skin, to the destruction of pathogens by white blood cell warriors, our immune systems must always be up to the task of protecting us
Reconciling Sovereignty and Humanitarian Intervention in Contemporary International Society
Full text linkThis article seeks to reconcile the notion of Humanitarian Intervention with that of sovereignty within international legal and political theory. The current global order is built upon a framework of international positive law that emerged following the 2nd World War and entrenched the right of states to sovereign equality and non-intervention. However, in the wake of state-perpetuated mass atrocities and instances of both intervention and non-intervention in the late-20th century, immense attention has been given to the seeming contradiction between the legal norm of sovereignty and the moral imperative to prevent mass atrocities and human suffering. By employing an English School of International Relations (ES) perspective, this article argues that sovereign states form an international society and frames humanitarian intervention within this normative orientation. By comparing the social contract theories of Thomas Hobbes, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Rawls in the context of international society, it becomes clear that sovereignty is a privilege of membership which requires some basic level of qualification. Thus, implying the notion that states are social constructions developed for the purpose of meeting some basic goal(s) of society. In turn, sovereignty becomes dependent upon the fulfillment of said basic goal(s), and should a state fail in this duty, it loses its right to sovereignty and, thus, humanitarian intervention becomes legal and legitimate
‘True Champions and Incredible Patriots’: The Transformation of the Ceremonial White House Visit under President Trump
Full text linkIn the United States, a championship-winning sports team’s ceremonial visit to the White House has become a familiar tradition. Beginning nearly a century ago when Calvin Coolidge invited the Washington Senators to celebrate their second American League Pennant in 1924, the White House visit has evolved into such a common occurrence that we tend to take it for granted as a public relations ploy for the political elites and sports darlings of the moment, ultimately bearing little consequence for either. Yet the rhetorical strategies involved in these events reveal shifting understandings of sports’ role in American culture along with interrelated anxieties about what defines the United States as a nation. Especially in the context of a turbulent and divisive social climate under President Trump, the ceremonial White House visit has become an unlikely stage for displaying overarching ideological tensions. The controversies surrounding Trump’s invitations and disinvitations, as well as players’ acceptances and rejections, illuminate the inherently political dimensions of sport as athletes conform to, negotiate, or in many cases subvert societal expectations. Mounting disruptions of an enduring White House ritual have initiated a dialogue about leadership, honor, and freedom, foundational tenets of the US and the office that represents it
Dictatorship and Sports in Colombia: Rojas Pinilla’s Military Regime and the Vuelta a Colombia, 1953-1957
Full text linkBlogging Through Failure: Public Accountability and Personal Growth
No full textIn the classroom, one of the most powerful things we can do as faculty is to model failure: to show how we cope with not knowing and model how knowledge acquisition works. And yet in our professional practice, there remains such stigma around disclosing failures that often the process by which success occurs is rendered murky and mystical. Much of what is anxiety-producing about the academy lies in the hidden curriculum and unexpressed expectations that seem to haunt each turn; in my experience, it is the scholars who are willing to share their vulnerabilities and failures who make the most effective mentors and guides, because they render human the superheroic feat that is survival – thrival – in the academy. In moments of great transition in my career – when starting graduate school, accepting my first faculty position, becoming disillusioned with my department and institution, and transitioning to a new discipline – I have turned to blogging, microblogging, and personal newsletters as a way to build community, particularly around career-related anxieties and failures. This presentation charts my own professional development from blogging pseudonymously, to blogging under my own identity, to placing my pursuit of tenure entirely in the open, in order to make a case for being more transparent about process and failure in academia. Acknowledging my own subject position and accommodating the needs of participants in the session, I will discuss frankly the risks and rewards (mostly rewards!) of an open embrace of failure in public spaces