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Introduction
No full textThis is the introductory chapter of Deyohahá:ge:: Sharing the River of Life, edited by Daniel Coleman, Ki\u27en Debicki, and Bonnie M. Freeman.
Deyohahá:ge:, “two roads or paths” in Cayuga language, evokes the Covenant Chain-Two Row Wampum, known as the “grandfather of the treaties.” Famously, this Haudenosaunee wampum agreement showed how Indigenous people and newcomers could build peace and friendship by respecting each other’s cultures, beliefs, and laws as they shared the river of life.
Written by members of Six Nations and their neighbours, this book introduces readers not only to the 17th-century history of how the Dutch and British joined the wampum agreement, but also to how it might restore good relations today. Many Canadians and Americans have never heard of the Covenant Chain or Two Row Wampum, but 200 years of disregard have not obliterated the covenant. We all need to learn about this foundational wampum, because it is resurging in our communities, institutions, and courthouses—charting a way to a future.
The writers of Deyohahá:ge: delve into the eco-philosophy, legal evolution, and ethical protocols of two-path peace-making. They tend the sacred, ethical space that many of us navigate between these paths. They show how people today create peace, friendship, and respect—literally—on the river of everyday life.https://scholars.wlu.ca/books/1006/thumbnail.jp
Palestine in Westphalian Worldmaking: The Production of the OPT as a Place through International Humanitarian-Developmental Governance
No full textThis multiple manuscript dissertation examines the international governance of the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT)—a non-sovereign territory— undertaken by an assemblage of actors doing both humanitarian and development work. The study puts forward the theoretical and methodological framework of place-making to analyze the effects of the long-term governance of the OPT under the umbrella of humanitarian service provision and external ‘state-building’ development interventions. This dissertation argues that the long-term international governance of the OPT, even though mandated to be apolitical, acts as an interpellator of place. The production of place or place-making through the overlapping discourses of humanitarianism and sustainable development situates the OPT as part of the Westphalian system where otherwise it exists outside sovereignty and the attendant protection of human rights. Place-making is an effect rather than an intended policy. Nonetheless, it is an important by-product of international governance as it highlights how governance actors as agents of the Westphalian structure are limited by the constraints placed on them but also counter these by mobilizing the more universal (and less contentious) policies and frameworks to advocate for deeply political issues. The dissertation analyzes the use of the Sustainable Development Framework in the policy literature of UN agencies and other development actors working in the OPT as a heuristic of place-making. The use of the SDG language in policy documents since 2015 illustrate a blending of the conventionally siloed humanitarian and developmental aspects of intervention. Instead of a technical assessment of the SDG implementation, the dissertation focuses on the implications this has on solving the problem of invisibility faced by the stateless Palestinian population of the OPT. By mobilizing the SDGs, international governance positions this population as valuable lives deserving of rights just like other ‘full citizens.’ In assessing the relevance of the SDGs through the lens of place-making, the dissertation illustrates the management of the long interim of the transition of OPT. In the absence of sovereignty, frameworks like the SDGs help to underline the inherent deservingness of the Palestinian population in the OPT and hence acts, as it were, a discourse of inclusion. Further, the dissertation highlights that while the SDGs help to visiblize the OPT, the goals are also used in the foreign donor led state-building interventions through which the infrastructure of Palestinian statehood is funded by countries like Canada, even as its realization is interminably deferred through their foreign policy actions. This reveals a reinforcement of statist place-making onto the OPT, disregarding the structural conditions that disallow it. These arguments have implications for how we understand statelessness as more than absence of legal identity, the use of global public policies in the context of entrenched statelessness and the political horizons and futurity of the OPT in the Westphalian system
Review of From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Poser
Get PDFReview of From the Battlefield to the Stage: The Many Lives of General John Burgoyne by Norman S. Pose
Social Behavior & Personality in Corn Snakes
Get PDFThe sociality of snakes, long thought simplistic, has been shown to be governed by a host of different factors such as kinship, experience, sex, weight and personality. There is, however, still a need to untangle how snakes prioritize different kinds of information when interacting. I hypothesized that examining each dyad that composes a group could partly predict how individuals would behave in a larger group context, providing insight into the mechanisms governing aggregation. Six groups of six corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) had their personalities tested, then underwent dyadic interactions with each member of their cohort followed by a week aggregating with all five of those snakes. No significant relationships between the snakes’ personalities, dyads or aggregations were found, beyond a consistent weak preference for interacting with the opposite sex, suggesting that corn snakes are more plastic in their behavior than other snake species. In my second experiment, four clutches of corn snake eggs were incubated at different temperatures (hot, medium, cold and variable) to attempt to physiologically manipulate cognitive mechanisms of sociality and personality. These snakes (N = 50) underwent the same personality assays, revealing a trend for boldness to increase with incubation temperature, as well as a strong effect of clutch on boldness and several other measured traits. Altogether, this thesis presents some of the first findings on corn snake sociality and personality, and contributes to our understanding of the diversity of cognition among snake species
DANCE IS FOR EVERYONE: A COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF COMMUNITY-BASED DANCE PARTICIPATION FOR OLDER ADULTS
No full textObjective: As the population ages, increasing physical activity (PA) among older adults (65+) is crucial for enhancing their health; however, only 40% meet the recommended PA guidelines (Statistics Canada, 2023). Dance offers an engaging form of physical activity that can enhance holistic well-being (Santos et al., 2020). Despite these benefits, barriers to participation persist. This study investigated the effects and experiences of older adults participating in community- based dance as a form of PA, including the various factors influencing their engagement.
Methods: In Study I, participants completed a questionnaire which included five scales: the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-S), the Activities-specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), the Short Happiness and Affect Research Protocol (SHARP), the Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) and the UCLA 3-Item Loneliness Scale. Study II utilized interpretive phenomenology to guide one-on-one semi-structured interviews.
Results: Questionnaire analysis revealed older adults in dance exhibited moderate to high PA levels (IPAQ-S), strong physical functioning and low fall risk (ABC), strong emotional health (SHARP), no impaired functioning or cognitive impairment (FAQ), and low levels of loneliness (UCLA3). Interviews highlighted three intrapersonal (e.g., physical impairments), two interpersonal (e.g., poor instructors), and four community-level barriers (e.g., availability), while seven intrapersonal (e.g., adaptable), two interpersonal (e.g., social connections), and four community-level facilitators (e.g., inexpensive fees) enhanced participation.
Conclusions: This study highlights how community-based dance enhances the holistic health of older adults, motivating them to engage in a form of PA that enriches overall quality of life. By identifying key factors influencing and hindering dance participation, the research offers valuable insights for designing effective dance programs tailored to older adults
NPR1 AS A TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE REGULATOR OF PIPECOLIC ACID-MEDIATED PLANT SYSTEMIC IMMUNITY
No full textHealthy plant development requires balancing both abiotic (e.g. climate) and biotic (e.g. pathogen) challenges, which intercept important signaling pathways in plants. For example, climate change-associated elevated temperature can negatively modulate various aspects of plant immunity, including the production of central immune signals salicylic acid (SA) and N-hydroxypipecolic acid (NHP). Since SA and NHP signaling both require the master immune co-activator protein NON-EXPRESSOR OF PATHOGENESIS-RELATED GENES 1 (NPR1), it is important to investigate NPR1 as a potentially temperature-regulated molecular hub. Although the NPR1 gene is not transcriptionally downregulated at elevated temperatures (28° C vs. 23° C), little is known about the translational and/or post-translational regulation of NPR1 by NHP and/or its precursor pipecolic acid (Pip) under warmer temperature conditions. In this thesis, I have investigated the effect of exogenous Pip treatment on NPR1 protein levels, nuclear localization and phosphorylation under changing temperatures in the model species Arabidopsis thaliana. Immunoblot analyses revealed that Pip could induce NPR1 total protein levels at 23° C, but struggled to induce NPR1 protein levels at 28° C. Laser confocal microscopy of Arabidopsis leaves was then conducted to observe Pip mediated NPR1 nucleocytoplasmic dynamics at both ambient and warm temperatures. Optimal NPR1-eYFP nuclear localization was observed at 23° C, 8-hours post Pip treatment, but this Pip effect was not maintained at 28° C. Lastly, Phos-tag™ gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting suggested increased NPR1 phosphorylation after immune elicitation with Pip, at both normal (23° C) and elevated temperature (28° C). Increased NPR1 phosphorylation under mock conditions at 28° C suggest NPR1 phosphorylation may also play a role in warm temperature signaling, potentially limiting pathogen-induced NPR1 signaling under similar conditions. Evaluation of NPR1 serine 11 and serine 15 phosphomimic mutant plants suggested the two phosphorylation events were not sufficient to improve the immune priming response at either temperature under both pathogenic Pst AvrRpt2 DC3000 and chemical Pip immune elicitation. Together these findings provide insights into how plants deal with the stressful combination of climate warming and pathogen attack, while also demonstrating the temperature modulation of Pip-induced NPR1-mediated immunity
Art/Place Making in a Settler Colonial Context: A Critical Place Inquiry on the Haldimand Tract/Kitchener-Waterloo From a White Settler Perspective
Get PDFAlthough critical place scholars implicate artists in settler colonial processes of placemaking, there is little information on how white settler artists (WSAs) might use their creative practice to support practices of accountability and solidarity with Indigenous resurgence. This research responds to this gap by investigating the creative practices of WSAs located on the Haldimand Tract/in Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), and how they might approach critical, contextual practices in their creative work. A critical place inquiry was combined with ethnographic research principles and a transformative critical research paradigm. Six WSAs participated in mobile interviews, which took place in a location significant to them. To locate myself, I engaged in critical listening positionality after each interview, generating a soundscape, photos, and written reflections. Through qualitative analysis, key findings emerged including: moving towards practices of accountability in creative practice as WSAs, moving towards practices of solidarity with Indigenous resurgence in creative practice as WSAs, and creative practice is relational: situating self, relationship with others, land, place, and systems of settler colonialism. Findings indicate that WSAs creative practice can support practices of accountability and solidarity with Indigenous resurgence, however methodological and practical movement building is needed
Quantifying Ecological Processes Predicting Barren-Ground Caribou (Ɂetthën; Rangifer tarandus groenlandicus) Occurrence Across a Heterogenous Northern Indigenous Protected and Conserved Area.
Get PDFNorthern ecosystems are experiencing a period of rapid and unprecedented change, with implications for species distributions, mammal community dynamics, and habitat associations. Understanding the ecological processes that shape species distributions is crucial for developing effective conservation strategies that can adapt to such change. This study examines drivers of barren-ground caribou occurrence, a species of cultural and ecological significance, across Thaıdene Nëné Indigenous Protected Area, an ecologically intact landscape of high habitat heterogeneity straddling the treeline of the Northwest Territories. I use spatial and temporal variation in caribou detections generated by camera traps to test the relative importance of apparent competition, top-down, or bottom-up ecological processes across biologically relevant seasons and areas of varying environmental heterogeneity. This is accomplished by regressing weekly detections of caribou against habitat covariates and/or the occurrence of heterospecific ungulates and their shared predators using generalized linear mixed models, each representing a specific ecological process and scale. As predicted, my results suggest this is a primarily bottom-up driven system. Caribou were negatively associated with taiga-type landcovers across all seasons regionally and showed more varied habitat associations locally. I found evidence for a localized seasonal shift in the relative importance of ecological processes, where top-down pressures exerted by gray wolves were the dominant driver of winter caribou occurrence. The hypothesis-based models used in this study failed to adequately explain spring caribou occurrence at the local spatial extent, suggesting unmeasured or no ecological processes govern caribou detections at that spatiotemporal scale. Future work could consider traditional knowledge and additional ecological variables (e.g., movement facilitation, insect harassment) to further refine spatiotemporal models of caribou occurrence. Effective caribou stewardship must be adaptive and context-sensitive, identifying when and where key ecological processes exert the strongest influence on the species. By determining the contexts in which bottom-up and top-down processes dominate across different spatiotemporal scales, this research can help inform management strategies within Thaıdene Nëné and contribute to broader ecological theory regarding the drivers of species distributions
The Passion: My Father and Garbage
Get PDFThe Passion begins with a poem about my father\u27s preoccupation with picking up trash as a life\u27s mission and continues with a combinative reflection and interview to elaborate on the origins and persistence of this essential act
One of These Things: A Poetic Exploration of Waste and Discordant Objects
Get PDFIn this narrative essay, I present my thoughts and concerns about the physical waste I encounter on my adventures in my hometown of Corner Brook, NL. I also introduce and differentiate between garbage and my proposed concept of discordant objects and how these objects have inspired my poetic and creative writing practice. The essay concludes with a poem and photograph of one such discordant object