MacEwan Open Journals (MacEwan University)
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atmospheric etudes: no 1, troposphere
No full textAs a fourth-year music composition major at MacEwan University, Mari Alice Conrad was interested in exploring the concept of vulnerability. She was particularly inspired by her recent vulnerable experiences returning to school as a mature student and sought to understand these existential experiences in more depth. This curiosity led Conrad to design a research-creation project in her Ethnomusicology course that utilized her skills in composing a musical work that explored vulnerability on three distinct levels: personal vulnerability, societal vulnerability, and global vulnerability.
The first level, personal vulnerability, plunged into Conrad\u27s personal experiences as a mature student who, by age and life experience, had been socially segregated to a minority group, and how she was processing those experiences. The second level, sociological vulnerability, specifically focused on addressing societal traditions of classical music and notational conventions for the piano. Conrad sought to displace the customary approach she had developed with the instrument since childhood and considered ways to make the piano (an inanimate object) and its notated music vulnerable. The third level was a more global, ecological, or environmental vulnerability of the weather systems found in the troposphere, the first layer of the atmosphere. Conrad wanted to understand why this layer was extremely volatile and susceptible to multiple variables and how humans interacted with the vulnerability of this force. This third level was also an area that she could universally connect with her audience (hence the title of the composition) and acted as a bridge to explore the other two levels of vulnerability in her work.
Throughout the research-creation process, Conrad was able to explore the three levels of vulnerability in tremendous depth, express her interactions and discoveries of these three levels, and further disseminate her findings through notating a graphic score, recording the composition, and crafting an audiovisual representation. The final result of the research-creation composition project (music score and video) brilliantly weaves together concepts of vulnerability in a compelling and meaningful way and shares insight into how these ideas influence and encapsulate Conrad\u27s budding artistic practice
The Significance of Osteobiographies: Building a Life Narrative for the Individuals buried in the Royal Navy Hospital Cemetery (1793-1822) in Antigua
No full textTo better understand the past holistically, osteobiographies provide an excellent framework for bioarchaeologists. Through building an osteobiography, many lines of evidence need to be analyzed, such as the mortuary, social and historical context of a site, and skeletal data. This paper looks at multiple lines of evidence required to build an osteobiography, using a cemetery in Antigua as a case study. In Antigua, a site on the English Harbour was excavated from 1998-2001, where 30 suspected naval soldiers were buried. This site was located behind a Naval Hospital that ran from 1793-1822 AD during the Napoleonic Wars. Many researchers have studied this site since 2001, attempting to learn more about the history of this site, considering there was little historical documentation recovered. While using the Antigua cemetery as a case study, I will expand on how different lines of evidence are used to analyze the geographic origins of individuals, skeletal data, and the social, mortuary, and historical context of the site. The objective of this paper is to discuss the significance of osteobiographies to bioarchaeology, while highlighting some of the limitations associated with creating osteobiographies.
Department: Anthropology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Treena Swansto
The Marxist and Postmodern Representation of the Subaltern: : Capitalist Othering in Richard Wright’s Native Son and Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger
No full textRichard Wright’s Native Son examines the marginalization of Black Americans in the United States in the forties. In addition, Aravind Adiga adapts the Booker prize winning novel The White Tiger from Wright’s novel; however, The White Tiger depicts a postcolonial capitalist India in the twenty-first century. Despite the adaptation, Wright composed Native Son in 1940 when Marxism existed as a potential solution to the marginalization of Black Americans under a capitalist system; in turn, Wright depicts marginalization by applying social realism to produce a socially didactic text that promotes Marxism. However, James Baldwin criticized Wright’s reliance on social realism and argued that Wright’s text fails to envision a future without marginalization. In contrast, Adiga wrote The White Tiger in 2008 following the rise of global capitalism and postmodern literary aesthetics, and in so doing, nihilistically and amorally examines the marginalization that results from capitalism. However, comparing Wright and Adiga’a texts reveals the correlation between capitalist oppression and colonialism despite both texts occurring during periods of post colonization. Furthermore, by analyzing the main characters’ problematic and violent actions in each text, Wright and Adiga suggest that toxic subaltern masculinity stems from the effects of oppression. In so doing, comparing both texts reveals both the twenty-first century postmodern and social realist responses towards capitalist oppression.
Department: English
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sara Grewal and Dr. David Hollingshea
Sexual Violence During Partition in Bapsi Sidhwa’s Cracking India and Deepa Mehta’s Earth
No full textIn this thesis, I will analyze literary and cinematic representations of sexual violence during Partition by comparing Cracking India and Earth. I will discuss both Sidhwa’s and Mehta’s representations of Partition as not just an immediate historical catastrophe but as a lingering cultural presence. However, Sidhwa’s novel focuses on the sociocultural permissibility toward sexual violence that pervaded daily life in Lahore in early 20th century, and which forms the vital backdrop to and explanation for the unthinkable sexual violence that occurred on an extreme scale during Partition. In contrast, Mehta’s film promotes the more widely recognized narrative of Partition, which emphasizes the tragic effects of religious communalism and its attendant nationalism, and which found expression through sexual violence.
In what follows, I will suggest that Mehta provides opportunities for catharsis--similar to Butalia’s “remembering in order to forget”--through symbolic reunification amongst South Asia’s religious communities, imagined through film. Indeed, this move from Anglophone novel to Hindi film posits translation not only as a means of reunification but also as an antidote to the nationalist sentiments that ultimately led to the Partition itself. In contrast, Sidhwa’s novel emphasizes the ongoing sexual violence embedded in South Asian cultural norms, which transcends both religious community and national borders, ultimately resisting the trope of Partition as a dramatic break with daily life, and instead representing the continuing undercurrent of violence against women in South Asia.
Department: Design Studies
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Sara Grewa
Analysis of Alberta’s Monthly Unemployment Rate 1976 – 2020
No full textUnemployment rates are a useful measure when looking at the functioning of the labour market, and are an important economic indicator. In this study, data was collected from the Canadian Labour Force Survey (LFS) in order to model Alberta’s monthly unemployment rate using time series analysis. The seasonally adjusted monthly unemployment rate in Alberta from January 1976 to November 2020 was analyzed as a time-series in order to fit an appropriate model. Models were chosen based on several evaluative methods, including checking normality, stationarity, performing outlier analysis, and generating the ACF, PACF, and EACF of the time-series. Two models were chosen and compared to determine the best model fit. The most effective of these models could be used to better understand Alberta’s unemployment rates over time and could be maintained to maximize accuracy and longevity. Additionally, several potential explanations for changes in unemployment rates were explored. For further research, examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in hindsight, as well as comparative analysis between provinces, could be valuable in order to evaluate economic resilience and to better understand the factors affecting unemployment across Canada.
Department: Statistics
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Cristina Anto
Living with Animals and Others During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Impacts on Mental Health
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has led to an increase in feelings of isolation and anxiety (Chand et al., 2020), which has had a significant, negative impact on people\u27s mental health (Brooks et al., 2020). During the COVID-19 pandmeic, adoption rates for animals have significantly increased (Morgan et al., 2020), which may be because interactions with animals are associated with reductions in loneliness and anxiety (Brooks et al., 2012; 2018). To date, however, it is unclear whether people’s interactions with animals will improve feelings of isolation and anxiety that are brought forth, or exacerbated by, public health restrictions used to combat a global health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic. It is quite possible that the stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandmeic could result in increased stress and worry for those who own animals. For example, the public health restrictions used to combat COVID-19 has led to significant job losses (Lemieux et al., 2020). In such a circumstance, the care of an animal may become a financial burden and thus exacerbate the owner’s stress (Enders-Slegers et al., 2019). To this end, our study aims to determine if spending time with animals mitigates or exacerbates feelings of isolation and worry. We will assess participants\u27 feelings of anxiety and depression, stress related to COVID-19, perceived social support, ratings of happiness, and pet attachment. We plan to survey individuals 18 years or older who either live alone, live alone with an animal, live with other adults but no animals, or live with other adults and animals. We will survey both MacEwan students and individuals from the general population of Edmonton and the surrounding area. We generally expect to see that having animals will result in a decrease in worry as animals help mitigate people’s feelings of isolation and anxiety. However, we also expect that such mitigation will be less impactful for those living alone, than those who live with others. This research will help broaden our understanding of how animals impact people’s feelings of worry and isolation during a global health emergency. As well, our findings may provide important evidence for policy decisions related to rental rules restricting animals in rental properties.
Department: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Eric Legg
The Interdisciplinary Dialogue 2021 Student Photography Contest
No full textAs part of our Arts and Cultural Management practicum, we created the Interdisciplinary Dialogue Photo Exhibit & Awards for MacEwan students and asked them to convey through photography has the pandemic affected the relationships in their lives.
Department: Interdisciplinary Dialogue Project
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Heather Fitzsimmons-Fre
Good Ol Days
No full textThis photograph was taken during the early days of the pandemic where physical distancing was in full effect. Keeping that in mind this photograph was taken on the other side of the window and features a poem written by the model in this photograph ( Mia Melnyk). The photograph touches on a yearning to return to a time before the pandemic and how the reality of being separated from loved ones and feelings of loneliness were beginning to set in
Me, Myself, and My Thoughts
No full textOur environment has become a vital resource during international isolation. Individuals are using this time to self-improve and reflect. The environments we surround ourselves in influence these reflections and being able to access environments that positively impact our mental health is even more paramount during the COVID-19 Pandemic. This photo is a peek into one individual’s safe haven, a place where they can peacefully reflect, connecting to their environment and to themselves. It reflects the lack of social interaction of modern-day, while still carrying a calm and grounded energy that we all hope to find in our own environments
Indefinite Moratorium - Happy Distraction - Ex Nunc
No full textIndefinite MoratoriumWaiting to visit a loved one is hard, yet every day, we continue to wait.
Ex NuncFrom now on...
Happy DistractionTime to break-in a new deck of cards