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No. 39: Considering the Migration and Food Security Nexus in African Cities
No full textInternational migration and food security are still treated as separate policy and research domains, yet they are deeply intertwined in the African urban context. This paper unbundles the nexus between migration and urban food security by examining how migrants and refugees navigate food systems, cope with vulnerabilities, and deploy resilience strategies to mitigate food insecurity. As rapid urbanization reshapes African cities, migrants are becoming actors in informal food economies, both as consumers and vendors. However, economic exclusion, weak social protection, and precarity often expose them to heightened food insecurity. The paper explores how migrant food security is shaped by urban food environments, informal markets, and social networks. While migrants demonstrate agency in securing food through adaptive coping strategies, structural barriers such as xenophobia, legal restrictions, and economic volatility persist. The role of remittances in migrant food security is also critically examined, with a comparative analysis of Somali migrants in Nairobi, who are primarily remittance recipients, and Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa, who are predominantly remittance senders. By unbundling the migration-food security nexus, this paper highlights the complex, yet essential, role of migration in shaping African urban food systems and livelihoods
“JUST CHECKING”: RACIAL PROFILING AND THE CRIMINALIZATION OF BLACK STUDENTS AT POST-SECONDARY INSTITUTIONS
No full text“Just Checking”: Racial Profiling and the Criminalization of Black Students at Post-Secondary Institutions
This dissertation examined the experiences of Black students who came into contact with campus security at five universities and one college in Ontario, Canada. Critical race theory and methodology, and qualitative research design amplified the voices of 17 participants who shared stories of racial profiling marked by racialization, criminalization, surveillance, and the normalized scrutiny of Black life. These experiences are legitimized by post-secondary institutions that are actively reproducing the very racism they are often celebrated for interrogating by allowing a culture of anti-Black racism to exist with impunity.
Importantly, this dissertation shares stories of resistance and resilience as Black students are showcasing their culture and identity irrespective of profiling as an anticipated reality and consequence. They will not be silenced or pushed out of spaces they claim.
Theoretically, this dissertation addresses the convergence of racial neoliberalism, carceral logic, race, and space which continue to be emerging areas of scholarship in social work. It complements scholarship, policy, and practice on racial profiling in Canada, education, and Black excellence and concludes with recommendations to address anti-Black racism in postsecondary settings and ameliorate social work pedagogy in this area
Lieutenant-Colonel Donald Mackenzie and the 48th Highlanders of Canada: A Study in Battalion Command and Officer Progression
No full textLieutenant-Colonel Donald Mackenzie was the commanding officer of the 48th Highlanders of Canada from June 1944 until his death in April 1945. He had been a lieutenant in the militia when the war broke out. His chain of command quickly made him a company commander, then sent him away from the unit to gain valuable staff training and experience. Although lacking combat leadership experience, he rejoined the 48th Highlanders in Italy, became the battalion’s second-in-command, and, after only five months, took over as the commanding officer at the age of twenty-nine. Mackenzie’s experience provides valuable insight into the challenges faced by infantry battalion commanders. Additionally, by considering Mackenzie’s progression in comparison with the career paths of other potential commanding officers within the unit, we can see the challenges faced by one battalion as it attempted to promote from within and develop its officers
Behind Barbed Wire: Jack Powerful Griss and the Material Culture of Dieppe POWs at Stalag VIII-B
No full textThrough a collection of material culture that includes letters, ephemera and objects, this article traces the Second World War service of Private Jack Powerful Griss. Griss was a survivor of Dieppe and subsequently interned as a POW from 1942 to 1945. Griss’ collection of donated materials reveals his personal story but also sheds light of the broader experience of captivity, especially among the Canadians captured at Dieppe, France in 1942 who were imprisoned in Germany until the end of the Second World War.
À travers une collection de documents culturels, incluant des lettres, des documents éphémères et des objets, cet article retrace le service du soldat Jack Powerful Griss pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. Survivant de Dieppe, Griss fut ensuite interné comme prisonnier de guerre de 1942 à 1945. La collection de documents donnés par Griss révèle son histoire personnelle, mais éclaire également l’expérience plus large de la captivité, notamment chez les Canadiens capturés à Dieppe, en France, en 1942, puis emprisonnés en Allemagne jusqu’à la fin de la Seconde Guerre mondiale
Re-imagining Care for Aging Disabled Adults
No full textIn Ontario, the landscape of aging is shaped by ageist and ableist ideologies that view older disabled adults through the lens of decline and dependency. Much of the current discourse on aging focuses on reforming long-term care (LTC), reinforcing institutional and carceral responses both within policy and academic imagination. This qualitative study takes a different approach by asking participants how care for aging disabled adults can be reimagined beyond institutionalization. Grounded in intersectional feminist, disability justice and abolitionist praxis, and using a critical transformative paradigm, this research employed Appreciative Inquiry across three focus groups with four participants engaged in aging-related research, policy, and advocacy. Findings highlight how participants identified LTC as a site where aging becomes grounds for confinement, severing community ties and undermining collective capacity to care. Participants emphasized the need to return to community as the starting point for care, naming the skills and relationships and abundance already present. Participants called for the abolition of LTC and proposed non-institutional, autonomy-centered alternatives that sustain aging in place. This study complicates the binary between institutions and community care by exploring how community shows up as buffers to soften the harm faced within institutions, as well as how community resists institutions all together. This research argues that imagining futures for aging requires grappling with the full complexity of people’s lives and the intersecting structures that shape them across the life course, including, ageism, ableism, poverty, housing and food insecurity, gender and race-based violence, among others. Ultimately, this research seeks to disrupt dominant academic discourses that center institutional care in their imaginings and illuminate the community-based alternatives that participants and their communities are already actively building in resistance. In doing so, this work invites us to dream beyond confinement, and towards futures sustained by care, justice, and solidarity
Who We Are: Four Questions for a Life and a Nation
No full textSinclair, M., Sinclair, S., & Sinclair, N. J. (2024). Who we are: four questions for a life and a nation. McClelland & Stewart. ISBN: 978077109910
How the Story of Jesus is Aiding This Generation of UCC Clergy to Make Sense of their Vocation in a Secular Age
No full textThis dissertation, an exercise in practical theology, undertakes two tasks. First, it explores the Christology of fourteen active United Church of Canada (UCC) clergy trained and/or ordained/commissioned in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. Secondly, given that their training, and the first years of their ministries, have taken place against a background of overwhelming secularism and unprecedented church decline, it also examines how their understanding of Jesus Christ and his story are aiding them to make sense of their vocation in a secular age. Charles Taylor’s 2007 magnum opus, A Secular Age provides the backdrop for this study. Using a Narrative Inquiry methodology, the primary data will involve a series of interviews with UCC clergy, exploring how the narrative of secularization is impacting their experience of ministry and their faith in Christ. The literature review briefly examines what the United Church has taught about Christology, as revealed both in its official doctrinal statements and in more popular writings like the United Church Observer, which was the denomination’s national magazine during most of the time under investigation. Drawing especially on the pastoral theology of Andrew Root and his six-volume series on the Church in a secular age, and against the backdrop of Taylor’s thesis on the malaise of modernity, it looks at the Church’s confrontation with secularization. In addition, two other theoretical approaches for this topic will be included: Intersectional Theology and Carnal Hermeneutics. It is my hope that the findings in this dissertation will serve as an aid to clergy who find themselves flummoxed by the secular age in which we live
INTEGRATING INDIGENOUS VALUES AND COMMUNITY STRENGTHS TO ACHIEVE INDIGENOUS FOOD SOVEREIGNTY AND COMMUNITY WELL-BEING IN THE KA’A’GEE TU FIRST NATION, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES
No full textNorthern Indigenous communities face disproportionate impacts from interconnected challenges related to climate change, food security, health, and cultural preservation, that threaten traditional food systems and practices. While there is a growing recognition of the importance of community-driven solutions, existing frameworks fail to integrate Indigenous values and local priorities effectively. This research addresses this gap by exploring how the Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation (KTFN) is responding to these crises through climate change adaptation efforts focused on food system sustainability as a pathway to self-sufficiency and community well-being. To contribute to these efforts, this dissertation uses Participatory Action Research to facilitate community-driven planning and action intended to improve access to healthy foods, foster knowledge-sharing, create employment opportunities, and encourage engagement in local food governance. This research introduces a novel framework, the Community Agroecological Values Framework (CAVF), which integrates the Community Capitals Framework and Agroecology to prioritize Dene values in the planning process. I characterize Kakisa’s food system, map traditional food-sharing networks, and identify critical resources and synergies to strengthen community and regional food systems. Findings highlight the contributions of Kakisa’s traditional food-sharing networks in supporting food sovereignty, cultural preservation, and social cohesion, while identifying barriers such as resource limitations and governance misalignments. This work provides recommendations for fostering sustainable food systems in northern communities by integrating traditional and modern practices, regional collaboration, and systemic change. Future research should focus on enhancing governance structures, strategies for building local capacity, and fostering regional partnerships to ensure long-term viability
Contested Development: China’s Influence, Authoritarian Agency, and NGO Resistance in Uganda
No full textIn 2021, the Ugandan government suspended the operations of 54 non-governmental organizations (NGOs), citing a range of administrative and legal justifications. This crackdown reflects a broader pattern emerging across the African continent, where over the past twenty years, more than twenty-four states have introduced restrictions on NGOs, particularly those engaged in human rights advocacy and governance. At the same time, the continent has witnessed a marked increase in Chinese investment, most notably through Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013 as a global infrastructure and development project. While scholarship on the BRI has increased, limited attention has been paid to its intersection with authoritarian consolidation and the shrinking space for civil society. This dissertation addresses this gap by examining the Ugandan case, analyzing how the convergence of rising authoritarianism and strategic Chinese investment has reshaped the political spaces for NGOs. In particular, the study investigates how Chinese economic engagement provides alternative pathways to development that diminish reliance on Western liberal donors and their demand for democratic rights governance. This is providing the Ugandan government increasing agency in their choices of governance, and the NGOs fighting these violations are being impacted. This research draws on empirical evidence, including interviews with affected NGO leaders, to trace the connections between increased authoritarian governance and repression of NGOs. It argues that the Chinese model, while economically attractive, contributes to governance practices where rights-based advocacy is increasingly marginalized. By situating Uganda within wider continental trends, this study contributes to the understanding of how emerging global power dynamics, particularly China’s role in Africa, are enabling authoritarian governments to suppress civil society organizations while maintaining political and economic legitimacy
Functional Design of Dissymmetric Ligands for Coordination Systems
No full textHerein, the functional design of dissymmetric ligands for coordination systems is explored with a focus on their synthesis and structural characterization. The design strategy of these ligands incorporates the ability to coordinate both metal cations and anions along with a ligand site for other functionalization. Their synthesis, structural and other characterization, Hirshfeld surface analysis, and some metal-coordinated complexes are discussed. Chapter 1 introduces supramolecular and coordination chemistry, along with relevant literature that supports this research and outlines the thesis objective. Chapter 2 investigates the hydrogen bonding of a dissymmetric pyrimidine thioether ligand in its neutral form, water solvate, protonated nitrate salt, and a cobalt(II) complex, highlighting ligand adaptability in these forms. Chapter 3 describes the synthesis of a carboxylate functionalized amino-pyrazole ligand and analysis of its metal complexes with nickel and cobalt. This chapter highlights the expanded coordination capacity for this class of ligands based on versatile ligand functionalization and explores the incorporation of oxygen donors into the ligand framework. Chapter 4 describes the synthesis and fluorescent properties of bridged amino-pyrazole molecules through their reaction with carboxaldehydes demonstrating possible applications in ion sensing. Chapter 5 provides a general discussion and concluding statements of this research. The investigation of structure-property relationships contributes fundamentally to the understanding required for the development of new molecules that advance the field of supramolecular chemistry