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The Waking Glacier: A High Arctic Lyric (excerpts)
Get PDFThese excerpts are drawn from “The Waking Glacier: A High Arctic Lyric,” a book-length series of lyrical passages that chronicle and reflect upon a tall-ship artist residency around Svalbard archipelago in Norway’s high Arctic
Review of Thomas Louis Tremblay, Journal de guerre (1915-1918) edited by Marcelle Cinq-Mars
No full textReview of Thomas Louis Tremblay, Journal de guerre (1915-1918), edited by Marcelle Cinq-Mar
Mindfulness Techniques and Practices in Islamic Psychotherapy: The Power of Mu-raqabah
No full textIsgandarova, N. (2025). Mindfulness techniques and practices in Islamic psychotherapy : the power of muraqabah. Routledge. ISBN: 978103263138
A Dance of War or Love: Applying a Gendered Lens on the Lived Experiences of Women Social Entrepreneurs in Nigeria
No full textThis study explores the lived experiences of Nigerian women social entrepreneurs, using a qualitative methodology rooted in yarning circles, a culturally respectful, relational approach that foregrounds storytelling and co-construction of knowledge. Through this method, the research examines how these women navigate the intersections of gender, culture, power, and purpose within highly patriarchal and institutionally constrained environments.
The findings assert that Nigerian women social entrepreneurs are not static actors driven by fixed motivations, but dynamic changemakers whose goals shift as they gain access to resources, legitimacy, and social capital. The Cycle of Privilege framework helps us understand this evolution as an expanding vision that integrates financial sustainability, cultural identity, and long-term empowerment. These women begin their ventures with a mission and purpose, which is often driven by personal experience or community need. Yet, as they navigate the constraints and opportunities within patriarchal, cultural, and institutional systems, their strategies evolve. They become more intentional about thriving on their own terms with agency and vision. For some, this means balancing social purpose with wealth creation; for others, it means redefining what empowerment looks like in a context where culture cannot be separated from daily life.
This research calls for an expanded definition of impact that values cultural well-being, community legitimacy, and adaptive strategies alongside financial outcomes. It contributes to theory and practice by offering a context-rich roadmap for reimagining women’s social entrepreneurship in Nigeria, through their voices, within their realities, and toward futures they are already building. Through Nigerian women’s lived experiences, this research challenges dominant narratives and offers new perspectives on motivation, agency, and transformation in social entrepreneurship
Barriers and Strategies for Reducing Wait Times for Counselling in the Post-Pandemic Setting: Perspectives from Community-Based Sexual Assault Centres, and “This is a Societal Issue Not Just a Womxn\u27s Issue”- Addressing the Impact of Vicarious Trauma in in Womxn-Dominated Nonprofit Gender-based Violence Services
No full textBarriers and Strategies for Reducing Wait Times for Counselling in the Post-Pandemic Crisis Setting: Perspectives from Community-Based Sexual Assault Centres
The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified gender-based violence (GBV), placing unprecedented strain on nonprofit organizations already operating with limited resources. In Ontario, sexual assault services have increasingly relied on short-term, trauma-informed counselling strategies to manage rising demand and reduce waitlists. However, research has yet to comprehensively evaluate the benefits and limitations of these approaches within the nonprofit sector. This study addresses this gap by exploring perceptions of service delivery and short-term trauma-informed strategies used by service providers and advocating for increased funding to better support survivors. Grounded in critical feminist theory and a transformative paradigm, this research prioritizes intersectionality and inclusivity to enhance service accessibility and support within funding constraints. Semi-structured interviews with 8 service providers from 8 Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) organizations informed a thematic analysis identifying key care practices and systemic barriers linked to underfunding. Findings contribute to more inclusive and sustainable support strategies, offering actionable recommendations for service providers and policymakers. By addressing funding challenges and promoting equitable practices, this research aims to strengthen the capacity of sexual violence nonprofits to support survivors in a post-pandemic crisis context.
“This is a Societal Issue Not Just a Womxn\u27s Issue”- Addressing the Impact of Vicarious Trauma in in Womxn-Dominated Nonprofit Gender-based Violence Services Vicarious trauma significantly impacts frontline workers, particularly in the nonprofit sector. In womxn-dominated gender-based violence organizations, where funding and resource constraints are common, the effects of vicarious trauma are especially severe yet under-researched (Shakespeare & Lafrenière, 2012). Using Bronfenbrenner\u27s ecological approach with acritical feminist lens, this study explores how chronic underfunding in the nonprofit GBV sector exacerbates vicarious trauma among worker leading to the disempowerment of womxn. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight service providers from eight Ontario Coalition of Rape Crisis Centres (OCRCC) organizations, and content analysis was applied to identify key challenges. Findings reveal the perceptions of personal, organizational, and societal nature of GBV frontline work forces womxn to provide unpaid labor, reinforcing cycles of vicarious trauma that perpetuate GBV. This study underscores the urgent need for increased advocacy for structural support and funding to enable GBV service providers to offer care that recognizes and dismantles GBV. Recognizing GBV as a societal issue, not just a womxn\u27s issue, this research calls for fair compensation and sustainable funding to ensure frontline workers have the resources necessary to provide effective care while safeguarding their own well-being as well as survivors
Macroinvertebrate Communities and Food Web Structure in Tundra Streams are Shaped by Substrate Size and Beaver Impoundments
No full textNorth American beavers (Castor Canadensis) are expanding their range into the Arctic tundra as climate change drives earlier ice and snowmelt, and increased shrub cover. As ecosystem engineers, beavers build dams that alter water chemistry by creating impoundments within streams, trapping sediment and organic matter, and modifying nutrient cycling. This thesis evaluates how beaver impoundments interact with natural geomorphic variation in tundra streams and how impoundments affect tundra freshwater ecosystems in the western Canadian Arctic.
In Chapter 2, I compared water chemistry and benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) community composition across 16 stream reaches, including those with and without beaver dams, with gravel and sand substrates. Sand-dominated streams exhibited significantly higher dissolved organic carbon and mercury concentrations and supported a higher relative abundance of disturbance-tolerant BMI taxa compared to gravel-dominated sites. Beaver-impacted sites had higher downstream mercury concentrations, but did not affect BMI community composition. In Chapter 3, I used stable isotope analysis to derive Layman metrics of food web structure across 15 streams. Gravel streams showed broader trophic diversity and higher niche overlap compared to sand sites. Beaver impoundments had minimal influence on any food web metric. Together, these findings demonstrate that physical stream characteristics have a greater influence on water chemistry, BMI communities and food web structure compared to beaver impoundments. By highlighting geomorphology as a key driver of benthic invertebrate communities and food web structure, this work informs monitoring and stewardship efforts in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, where healthy stream ecosystems support food and water security, and cultural well-being under rapid environmental change
Inductions of Long-Term Potentiation with Biomimetic Electromagnetic Fields in Primary Neurons
No full textEndogenous brain rhythms guide neural communication and plasticity, raising the question of whether weak, temporally structured electromagnetic fields (EMFs) that mimic these rhythms can modulate neuronal activity in a targeted, biomimetic manner. This thesis investigates whether patterned EMFs designed to reflect the temporal structure of hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP) are more effective at inducing neural plasticity than conventional sinusoidal fields or no stimulation at all. Cortical neurons cultured from postnatal rats were exposed to patterned EMFs for 30 minutes and assessed across three distinct experimental domains. In Chapter 2, microelectrode array (MEA) recordings revealed that the LTP-patterned field significantly increased burst spiking and evoked response amplitudes, effects abolished by NMDA receptor antagonism, indicating involvement of canonical plasticity pathways. Chapter 3 examined immediate early gene expression following stimulation. While several plasticity associated genes showed no change, c-jun expression was selectively elevated in the LTP field group, suggesting that brief but synchronous activity may selectively initiate certain transcriptional programs. In Chapter 4, we used immunofluorescence to quantify synaptic remodeling, showing increased colocalization of PSD-95 and synaptophysin in neurons exposed to the LTP pattern, consistent with enhanced synaptogenesis. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that low-intensity EMFs patterned on physiological firing can enhance functional, molecular, and structural correlates of synaptic plasticity more effectively than non-biological waveforms. This supports a resonance-based model of neuromodulation in which neurons respond not only to field strength but to the temporal information embedded in the stimulation itself. These results offer a new approach to brain stimulation that may have clinical applications in neural repair, learning, and memory enhancement
Exploring the Experiences of Racialized Immigrant Mothers in Contributing to Patterns of Community Life in the Victoria Hills Neighbourhood
No full textThe experiences of racialized immigrant mothers are complex, nuanced, and beautiful. Oftentimes, their stories are described in a way that frames women as helpless victims, merely writing about their challenges in the absence of their protagonism. The stories in this thesis suggest that, against the obstacles unique to racialization, motherhood and immigration, mothers are often the primary caretakers of their families and play a significant role in the development of children, while creatively exploring and responding to questions pertinent to community development. They navigate community life in a place different from the one they grew up in – addressing questions around how to belong and battle isolation, how to shape and contribute to patterns of life that are at once parallel to experiences from back home yet interlinked with existing elements of culture, and how to create conditions that nurture the spiritual and intellectual development of children. These are areas of learning that have been the focus for many residents in Victoria Hills, a neighbourhood in Southern Ontario that has received large influxes of immigrant families for several decades. As such, this thesis highlights and explores the lived experiences of racialized immigrant mothers within the scope of Victoria Hills, displaying how central they are in contributing to vibrant communities and raising generations who will shape future society. This project employed a qualitative research paradigm, incorporating elements of ethnographic and community-based research, and drawing on various theoretical frameworks, including social constructivism, transformative worldview, critical race theory and intersectional feminism. At a time of increasing global isolation and rampant individualism, drawing insight from the experiences of these mothers is pertinent to anyone who wishes to contribute to the development of communities that serve as safe havens. Additionally, exploring factors that enable and hinder a mother’s pursuit of her aspirations for herself, her children, and her community might incite a critical discussion about how to better support mothers as protagonists
Issue 22: Actors Overlooked in Economic Integration: Syrian Refugee Single Mothers in Turkey
No full textSyrian refugees in Turkey are struggling with integration, as policies fail to address holistic approaches, especially at they pertain to class and gender. Previous research on this topic has focused on legal rights, employment, the impacts on Turkey\u27s labor market, and local perceptions of Syrian refugees in the workforce. This policy paper addresses a significant gap in the integration of Syrian refugee single mothers. Specifically, this research explores how economic integration is influenced by class and gender. To understand their experiences, semi-structured interviews were conducted with Syrian refugee single mothers residing in Istanbul. We argue that the economic integration of Syrian refugee single mothers in Turkey is ignored by policies that overlook class and gender dimensions, amplifying inequalities and making the role of NGOs and philanthropists crucial to address the gaps left by insufficient government measures
No. 43: Migration, Food Insecurity and Angolan Migrants in Namibia
No full textThis study examines the food security challenges faced by Angolan migrants in Namibia, focusing on the interplay between migration, livelihoods, and food insecurity. Drawing on survey data from households in Northern towns and the capital city of Namibia, the research reveals high levels of food insecurity among Angolan migrants, characterized by limited dietary diversity and a reliance on coping strategies such as consuming less preferred foods and reducing meal portions. The findings highlight the marginalization of migrants, who primarily work in the informal sector with low incomes, exacerbating their vulnerability. The COVID-19 pandemic further worsened food insecurity by disrupting livelihoods and access to food. The paper emphasizes the importance of policies that address the vulnerabilities of migrants, including improved documentation and access to livelihood opportunities, to promote food security and social integration