3132 research outputs found
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Chinese Female Gaze: The Evolution of Gender Cognition in China through Ancient Mythology and Contemporary Films
Get PDFThe Chinese woman has seen various decades of depiction. The empowerment of the Chinese woman can be traced through the ancient goddesses, who were seen as powerful, just and reverent. The same can be seen through female characters in contemporary films, who are seen as able and an equal figure to the masculine gender. However, due to centuries of patriarchal oppression in China, the power of women remains suppressed. This study was conducted to explore the connection between the empowerment of women represented by ancient goddesses like Nü Wa and Chang'e, and contemporary female characters depicted in today's cinema, particularly in the films, Raise the Red Lantern and Rouge. The juxtaposition of ancient goddesses with contemporary female characters in films fosters a compelling atmosphere and conclusion, underscoring the significance of Chinese women across different eras. The conclusion forms a rather strong case for the fact that the Chinese woman has been a very crucial part of the community; the inputs they have in the society are very critical in shaping how the entire world perceives the Chinese woman.
Keywords: Chinese Female Gaze, Ancient Goddesses, Nü Wa, Chang'e, Gender roles, Contemporary Chinese Cinema, Raise the Red Lantern, Roug
Agile Transformations, Culture, and the Canadian Financial Sector
Get PDFA review of different agile methods and frameworks provides the context to evaluate scaled agile transformations. The financial sector in Canada is highly regulated, protected and considered to be among the most highly developed in the world for regulatory frameworks and oversight. (Engert, Fung, Nott, & Selody) The decision to adopt agile ways of working and transform into a responsive innovative organization focused on business agility is underway in the Canadian banking sector. The question is “to what extent does the organizational culture impact the successful implementation of agile practices in large-scale enterprises”. The research focuses on a literary review of agile frameworks, scaled agile use cases in financial services and the relationship between organizational culture and the effectiveness of agile transformations.
The findings point out opportunities for future research to expand understanding of scaled agile standard blueprints for implementation and clear measurements for success
Implications of Artificial Intelligence on Leadership in Complex Organizations: An Exploration of the Near Future
Get PDFThis research paper explores the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI), leadership in complex organizations, and the potential implications of AI on top executive roles. Motivated by the rapid advancements in AI technology, the study aims to understand how AI may impact leadership functions within complex organizational structures.
The primary problem addressed in this research revolves around the transformative influence of AI on leadership roles, particularly Chief Executive Officers (CEOs). The paper delves into the complexities of redesigning or augmenting the role of a CEO with AI and examines implications of such a paradigm shift. Employing a comprehensive methodology that encompasses various approaches, including a literature review, horizon scanning, stakeholder analysis, industry informant interviews, causal layered analysis, and scenario narratives and worldbuilding. The research outputs include insights into the potential impact of AI on leadership in various futures scenarios, implications for organizational structures, and considerations for navigating this transformative landscape for various stakeholder groups.
In conclusion, this paper hopes to contribute to the ongoing discourse on the interplay between AI and leadership in complex organizational settings, emphasizing the importance of navigating the transformative landscape using a balanced approach, providing a foundation for future framework development and considerations in this dynamic field
The Rod and the Ring: Remember the Future and What it Could Bring
Get PDFThis thesis project aims to radically imagine a possible future for Iraq that’s unshackled from dystopian geopolitical narratives and Western notions of technological progress. I ground my research in the idea that history moves in cycles by referring to ancient Mesopotamia, a region that encompassed Iraq and parts of Turkey, Syria and Iran (7000BC – 500BC). Replete with literary and artistic artifacts set in clay and stone, the vast archeological record reveals a more dialectical worldview than our own. My thesis question asks: What seed of ancient wisdom, buried in deep time, could re-emerge in Iraq’s distant future?
My visual research of Mesopotamian art and aesthetics lead me to the mysterious recurring motif of the rod and ring. As potent signifiers for relationality, an overarching theme of investigation is that of gender relations in Mesopotamian society, and how it became increasingly patriarchal over the course of millennia - shaping the world we live in today. I also explore Mesopotamian oneiric epistemology, echoed in later regional traditions, to reframe our understanding of time and present dreaming as a speculative vehicle for time travel.
I approach my research through the theoretical lens of Luce Irigaray’s “Sexual Difference”, Riane Eisler’s social systems theory of “partnership” vs “dominator” models, and historians Zainab Bahrani and Gerda Lerner’s critical reading of ancient Near-Eastern scholarship. My research-creation work is also informed by psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung’s multicultural study the language of symbols in dreams.
This research-creation process is demonstrated in a multidisciplinary exhibit Remember the Future: Oneiric Artifacts from Mesopotamia - presented at OCAD University’s Grad Gallery in June of 2024 – which combines cinema and ceramics. My goals are to contribute to growing feminist scholarship in the arts that incorporates what Irigaray calls “female subjectivity” into male-dominated discourses, and to inspire Arab youth to dream defiantly
DIY: Zine-Making in LAMS, for LAMS
Get PDFZines are easy and affordable to make and distribute. While there has been scholarship on acquiring and preserving zines in Libraries, Archives, and Museums (LAMS), less has been studied about LAMS workers making zines in these contexts. With a return to campus after the COVID-19 pandemic, zines proved to be a fun way to engage and inform patrons about the library, promote services and resources, and build community. The authors are asking research questions, including: Why make zines? How are other information professionals in LAMS making zines to promote services and resources, and support research, teaching, and learning in these contexts? What are the benefits and challenges of zine-making in these contexts? The poster features two case studies of zine-making in art libraries, as well as suggestions for zine-making topics in LAMS. This poster also promotes a larger survey on zine-making in LAMS conducted by Emma Metcalfe Hurst. Survey respondents will be invited to share digital copies of their zines which will be made available on a public website to help LIS workers get started with zine-making, inspire ideas, and connect LIS zinesters. Viewers are invited to take the survey at ARLIS using a QR code on the poster
Discovering synergies between Design and Financial Literacy
Get PDFMoney. Key to most of our everyday requirements and desires. Something which drives our basic needs. Seeming almost innate in its very existence and yet superficial in its actual value, one cannot escape its existence. Despite all its forms, representations, utilities, and volatilities, money and finance are undeniably a key aspect to our lives in the 21st century.
So, what is money? Is it a piece of paper? Or a piece of metal? Does its physicality even matter? Isn’t it amusing to think that such core components of our lives almost go unnoticed, or are ideally ‘delegated’ to someone who knows it better? Thus, is there a gap that needs to be filled? Are we financially literate?
This paper looks to explore the different manifestations of the Canadian financial system, from the lens of the participants who might be the most vulnerable. Using inclusive design methodologies, the idea is to identify the range of pain-points associated with finance from co-designers who have first hand experience. These co-designers were mostly young newcomers to Canada who are trying to find their way within a new ecosystem, without any formal financial education.
The paper also aims to examine the vehicles that enable financial literacy and tries to understand the gaps associated with them. The main purpose is to find ways in which visual design can further solidify or simplify these concepts for the people in need. These visual design outputs are expressed in the form of infographics with minimal supporting text, aimed towards mitigating the implications of terminologies and jargon.
The ultimate goal is towards identifying and prototyping solutions for the diverse range of needs among the participants, rather than arriving at a statistical majority. This looks to tie into the Government of Canada’s National Financial Literacy Strategy 2021-2026, which aims towards enabling a financially resilient future.
Keywords: finance, money, literacy, Canada
From Mind to Machine: An Embodied Approach to Image Creation with Generative AI
Get PDFThis thesis explores the integration of embodied interactions within Human-to-Artificial Intelligence (AI) collaborative activity to support creative engagement and reduce the perception of AI as an uncontrollable, autonomous entity, also known as the AI “black box” rhetoric. Specifically, it investigates the utilization of kinetic sand as a sensory material and physiological data collector, facilitating the translation of users' hand motions and imprints in the sand into inputs for generative AI image creation. Informed by sociocultural frameworks of creativity, theories of embodied cognition and the positioning of AI as a statistical model, while grounded in iterative design methodologies and phenomenological analysis, the research aims to identify emergent guidelines from this collaborative creative process between humans and AI. The findings hope to contribute to the development of guidelines that inform the future design and implementation of generative AI systems for creative work. These guidelines account for embodied cognition as an essential facet of human creativity, promoting more intuitive and meaningful interactions between humans and generative AI. Ultimately, this research seeks to advance the discourse on human-AI collaboration, emphasizing the importance of embodied techniques in fostering creative synergy and mitigating the black box effect
Entrepreneurship in Toronto: Drivers, Barriers, and Ecosystem
Get PDFThis research study investigates the entrepreneurial landscape of Toronto, particularly addressing the disproportionate focus on software and technology startups over other industries. Through a mixed-method approach involving a literature review and qualitative, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with entrepreneurs, the study uncovers a spectrum of motivations driving entrepreneurial endeavours, including a desire for autonomy, a desire to help others, a desire to learn, pursuit of passion and fulfilment, desire to meet people and financial stability. Conversely, it identifies systemic biases favouring tech startups, networking challenges, regulatory complexities, and the struggle to connect with a culturally diverse population as significant concerns among entrepreneurs. The research study examines citizens, private institutions, public institutions and government involved in the entrepreneurial ecosystem of Toronto and how they are related directly and indirectly to the entrepreneur. Stakeholders, including government bodies and grassroots communities, play crucial roles in addressing these issues. Stemming from the primary challenge of systemic biases favouring tech startups, the study introduces the #BeyondTheCode movement as a strategy for mobilising grassroots support, leveraging social media campaigns, in-person events, and letter-writing campaigns to engage decision-makers. Acknowledging limitations in scope and potential biases, the research concludes with reflections on the findings. It proposes avenues for future research, emphasising the importance of exploring systemic problem solutions beyond tech bias, such as fostering entrepreneurial connectedness for a thriving ecosystem, and the need to explore several other alternative courses of action to address the systemic problem being studied
Power to Empower: Designing for Type 2 Diabetes
Get PDFAbstract
The growing prevalence of people living with Type 2 Diabetes (PLWT2D) and the increase in the magnitude of associated comorbidities continue to impact people across Canada leading to severe health problems with no signs of slowing down. Despite significant investments in research, public health interventions, clinical care and new treatments and technologies, Canada ranks 10th among the 17 peer countries. (OECD Health, 2023) in Diabetes prevalence.
Canada has a low physician-to-patient ratio and many Canadians do not have access to a family doctor. Canada has 2.7 physicians per 1,000 people compared to the OECD average of 3.5 physicians per 1,000 people (OECD Health, 2023). Most People living with Type 2 Diabetes are under the care of primary care practitioners, who are experiencing unprecedented burnout, an increase in unpaid administrative work, and limited time to see the overflowing numbers of patients in their practice.
The implications of the increase in prevalence of Type 2 Diabetes and less access to primary care practitioners to provide care, creates concern about the future of population health and the capabilities of health care systems to meet the demands.
To better understand why the problem persists, our research focused on what creates delays in recommendations for care from healthcare providers, and what creates delays in the adoption of recommendations for care by people living with Type 2 Diabetes.
Bold intervention strategies are required to change the trajectory of Type 2 diabetes prevalence and in this paper, we make a case for how design offers new perspectives on problem solving within the scope of providers of care and people living with Type 2 Diabetes
SKATING TOWARDS EQUITY: A NEW ERA OF DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN THE NHL
Get PDFThis research examines the ability of the NHL to foster meaningful culture change, particularly through the implementation of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). It delves deep into hockey’s ethos, evaluating how the NHL is integrating these critical values amidst evolving societal expectations. This exploration delves into the multifaceted role of sports as both a reflection of societal dilemmas and a catalyst for profound transformation.
Emerging from 23 interviews, this study identifies significant societal events—the presidency of Barack Obama, the polarizing elections of 2016 and 2019, the global upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and the renewed focus on racial injustice following George Floyd’s death—as key drivers reshaping DEI strategies in major sports leagues. These events challenged the sports domain to confront its exclusionary legacies, navigate socio-political shifts and commit to a future that is genuinely inclusive and equitable.
This research underscores an urgent need for transformative actions within hockey. Actions that not only challenge but disrupt the status quo. My exploration reveals that the NHL’s success in embedding DEI and transforming its culture hinges on a comprehensive strategy that addresses multiple factors at various systemic levels. It highlights the imperative for a coordinated, evolving approach to ensure DEI becomes a permanent facet of the league’s identity and operational ethos