McMaster University Library Press Open Journal Systems
Not a member yet
3788 research outputs found
Sort by
Accessibility, authenticity, and agility: Lessons learned from a case study of students as partners in research
No full textStudent loneliness is a prevalent challenge across universities around the globe. Epistemological, ethical, and efficacious challenges characterise contemporary research on student loneliness. To address this, our team of 11 staff researchers implemented a students-as-partners initiative with 16 students from 12 universities across the United Kingdom (UK). This student research team were responsible for co-producing the design, delivery, and dissemination of a research project to understand student belonging and loneliness. Adopting a participatory evaluation approach co-authored with seven members of the student research team, this paper critically examines strengths and limitations in our team’s approach to addressing common challenges in student-as-partners activities, namely engaging underrepresented groups, fostering meaningful and authentic engagement, and navigating sensitive topics. In doing so, we elicit good practice for inclusive, accessible, and impactful research with students as partners
Understanding Naturalism With Quine From Within Science and History
No full textIn this essay, I present Quine’s fragmented and often forgotten views on writing history. However, this needs to be done in conjunction with an examination of his notion of science as our “total world-picture.” Quine elegantly avoids the task of specifying a demarcation criterion of science. The result is to position science as a Wittgensteinian language game that gradually expanded from its purpose of predicting our experiences and became socio-historically institutionalized set of practices. Thus, this essay has two aims; (i) I analyze Quine’s idiosyncratic, post-positivist concept of science with a particular focus on his inclusion of sciences that are traditionally labeled as soft or social. Then, (ii) I eventually indicate how Quine deals with historical inquiry. When taken together, this essay can also be read as a case study analysis of Quine’s take on all non-experimental modes of scientific inquiry, and, more broadly, his special account of naturalism and pragmatism
Taken Boys and Mistaken Benevolence in the Early Modern English Theatre and the Virginia Company
No full textThis article analyzes overlooked evidence concerning the conscription of boys by early modern English choirs and theatre companies, arguing that legal and cultural representations depicted these abductions as benevolent while violating consent. It further speculates that points of contact between the theatrical economy and the Virginia Company may have prompted authorities to use a parallel mode of impressment to take Powhatan children to populate Henrico College. I argue that the practices of coercion and abduction on the English stage can provide a useful framework for understanding the rhetoric of benign subservience that the English authorities cultivated in an Atlantic context
‘And art thou changed?’: Romeo’s Transformation from Renegade to Martyr
No full textAttuned to the early modern period’s contested conversion culture, the essay traces how Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet overlays its romantic plot with the language and logic of religious confession, skepticism, persecution, and martyrdom. Romeo’s shifting affections and Juliet’s performative repentance stage anxieties about the sincerity of professed faith or love, and the tragic resolution questions the culture’s over-reliance on martyrdom as proof of devotion. The play ultimately rejects the logic that constrains characters to a binary choice between renegade or martyr and affirms instead the inevitability of uncertainty in all professions of devotion, whether spiritual or romantic
Griselda Fights Back: Converting the Prodigal Husband in The London Prodigal
No full textScholars often contextualize the faithful wife archetype as an iteration of the exhaustingly obedient ‘Patient Griselda’ trope. However, this essay demonstrates the significance of these characters to conversion narratives, showing the agency and power wives were granted to return their wayward husbands to family values, economic and sexual restraint, and the spread of Christianity through reproduction. The London Prodigal responds to topical discourses regarding women’s moral responsibility toward men, staging scenarios in which a wife tames her husband without threatening patriarchal structures and is celebrated for it. The play thus offers an important contribution for studying gendered patterns of conversion
Editorial
No full textThis editorial for Early Theatre issue 28.2 (December 2025) welcomes new editorial advisory board members and announces the journal\u27s 2025 essay prizes for research appearing in volumes 26 and 27
Santé Québec: Reflections on Québec’s 2025 Health System Reform
Full text linkQuébec retains a unique set of social and health policies which distinguishes it from other Canadian provinces. Québec’s welfare state, distinct within Canada and North America more generally, is the product of the province’s history of secularization and detachment from traditional institutions, all tenets of the Quiet Revolution of the 1960s (D. Béland and Lecours 2008; Rocher 2002). Examples of unique policy initiatives include generous family policies (parental leave including paternity leave, universal daycare programs), as well as the democratization of education through generous government subsidies for higher education.
Québec’s health care system, like those of other provinces, guarantees publicly funded physician services and hospital care. But the province has also used its jurisdictional autonomy to pioneer innovative health and social programs that expand beyond universal coverage, addressing broader determinants of health and embedding equity considerations across all sectors of policy-making. Examples include the Local Community Service Centres (Centres locaux de services communautaires; CLSC), a cornerstone of primary care in Québec; embedding the responsabilité populationnelle (accountability for population health) into health and social programs; a publicly subsidized drug insurance plan introduced in the late 1990s; and the integration of health and social care under the same governing authority, the Ministry of Health and Social Services (Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux; MSSS) — with the latter two innovations unique in Canada. This orientation was further institutionalized with the adoption of Article 54 of the Public Health Act, which facilitated the adoption of the Health in All Policies framework by requiring ministries to assess the health impacts of their proposed legislation. (continued in full text PDF / HTML
The students-as-partner experience: Perspectives from the students and the faculty
Full text linkThis article offers a case study of a student-faculty partnership. Focusing on the perspectives of two student research assistants and a faculty member, the authors utilize current literature on student-faculty partnerships to support their perspectives. This case study adds to the body of research suggesting student-faculty partnerships enrich and mutually benefit those involved. This article explores the working partnership of the consultation team and their work as part of a large collaborative project amongst post-secondary institutions and community-based organizations. Over the course of 3 years, success was evidenced by the outcomes of this project. The team has led workshops on the subject matter, and, additionally, contributed to the co-creation of a workbook/e-course on mitigating vicarious trauma for English language learning teachers. The research team published two subject-related articles. This article explores the facets that impacted the quality of the partnership
Building pedagogical partnerships: Exploring an innovative work-integrated learning initiative
Full text linkEngaging students as pedagogical partners in teaching and learning in higher education is becoming increasingly prevalent. However, developing and sustaining such partnerships can be challenging. The present study highlights the potential of utilizing work-integrated learning (WIL) students as partners. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 18 university instructors to explore how access to an online learning assistant (OLA) program helped them navigate remote instruction challenges. The OLA program was a novel WIL initiative providing co-operative (co-op) education students with full-time, paid work to assist instructors transitioning to remote learning. Unexpectedly, our findings demonstrate that pedagogical partnerships emerged in the context of this WIL program, leading to teaching and learning benefits. Online learning assistants were able to assist instructors with many of the difficulties they faced, although some program challenges also emerged. Our findings suggest that full-time, paid co-op student positions offer a unique program structure that make them ideal for the development and ongoing success of pedagogical partnerships
Editorial
No full textThis editorial for issue 27.1 (June 2024) of Early Theatre offers news and information to readers