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Queer Political Imaginings: Narratives of Queer Life from the Post-Yugoslav Context
Get PDFThis project draws on the memories and life stories of six post-Yugoslav queer migrants - Nika, Senka, Leon, Bojan, Mato, and Željko - to offer insight into the interplay between the affective legacies of the Yugoslav socialist project, their sexual and gender identities, and their political imagination. I investigate how the migration trajectories of my research participants intersect with Western neoliberal ideologies and global constructions of sexual and gender identities, such as being “out” or celebrating pride. Using oral history as a method, I draw on their life stories to map the dissonances between their discursive and embodied experiences that were prompted by their movements across nation-state borders and communities. In doing so, I interrogate the linearity of developmental queer narratives of progress and homonormativity. Examining political imagination and sexual politics across various geopolitical-temporal and historical contexts, my research contests representations of the West as a place of progress and liberation.
Exploring themes of nostalgia, disillusionment, belonging, identity formation, and political visions of the world, I offer an interpretative analysis of the life stories and reflections shared by my interlocutors. Through this project, I formed a set of relationships of transnational queer diaspora that complicates and challenges both the memory of Yugoslavia and the image of the West as a place of progress and refuge for minoritarian subjects and I investigate whether reclaimed or shared memories resist official national histories to highlight how the nation-state framework constricts and regulates political imaginaries
From Photography and Walking to Walking and Photography
No full textThis dissertation examines the link between photographs taken by photographers who walk to
take pictures and walking artists who take pictures as a visual record of their art. The
interconnection between photography and walking underwent a major reconfiguration in the
1960s when walking became an autonomous form of art while, at virtually the same moment,
American, British, and European street photographers were walking to produce documentary
photographs injected with a new subjective approach. My research program was initiated at Tate
Archives where a messy snapshot taken in 1967 by Hamish Fulton drew my thinking into sharp
focus. Here was the inception of walking as art in a street photograph. This snapshot is given
close visual analysis as the central photographic document for this thesis. A conversation with
Fulton concentrated on this picture, which had laid dormant for four decades. Close visual
analysis of this photograph sets the direction of the thesis toward qualitative investigation,
underpinned by historical findings and theoretical insight. This methodology is applied to select
photos and art projects from the 1960s to the near present. Genres include street photography,
conceptual art, performance art and land art. This thesis is structured around a dual perspective of
photography/walking as well as walking/photography. It offers new insight into the
interdependency of photography and walking and argues that this relationship underwent a major
change and institutional challenge around 1967. My study has been enriched by my interaction
with a network of walking artists and my own research-practice
Parental Support of Language Development in Multilingual Contexts: Insights from Chinese and Chinese-Canadian Families
Get PDFThis project explores how families living in China and Canada navigate parent-child interactions to support early bilingualism, integrating insights from four interconnected studies. Study 1 examines the perspectives of 16 Chinese parents of 3- to 6-year-olds living in China on two language support strategies: dialogic reading (DR) and co-viewing and conversing about television programs or videos (CVC). Parents recognized these strategies’ potential benefits for language and cognitive development but expressed reservations, including challenges related to child engagement, children’s potential resistance to interruptions, the parent’s own linguistic skills, and the practices’ demands on parental time and effort. These findings underscore the importance of adapting language support strategies to address parents’ practical concerns.
Studies 2, 3 and 4 shift focus to 29 Chinese-Canadian families living in multilingual Montreal, where children were being raised in Mandarin and also regularly exposed to one or more of the local societal languages (French or English). Methods included a parent questionnaire, pretest-posttest observations of storybook reading by parent-child dyads, the use of DR and the digital reading pen by parents and children at home over an eight-week period, and focus group discussions with parents. Study 2 revealed that parents preferred interacting in Mandarin when reading together, even when reading a book written in a societal language. Parents used more dialogic talk, particularly literal questions, with societal language books, but inferential and distancing questions, critical for advanced cognitive and linguistic development, were used sparingly. Study 3 introduced DR instruction to parents, leading to increased use of DR strategies, and thus prompting richer interactions across languages. However, parents reported challenges to DR, such as practical constraints, divergence from home practices, and occasional child resistance. Study 4 introduced a digital reading pen to explore its role in multilingual storybook reading. While the pen eased language demands and promoted child autonomy, it often disrupted parent-child interaction, leading parents to view it as better suited to independent than interactive reading.
Collectively, the studies bridge gaps between practices recommended in applied research and real-world parenting practices. The findings point to the need for greater collaboration between researchers, parents, and developers of educational tools to develop practices and create resources that align with families’ lived experiences and goals, enriching both research and practice
Memory, Culture, and Capitalism: Reframing and Refracting the Past Through Vaporwave
Get PDFThis thesis explores the aesthetic and cultural significance of vaporwave, an internet-born movement that blends music, visuals, and digital platforms to critique late capitalism and reimagine collective memory. Drawing on theoretical frameworks from postmodernism, media studies, and cultural theory, this research examines vaporwave’s materiality, its relationship to the internet’s rapidly expanding platform culture, and its status as both a critique and product of late capitalism. The study highlights vaporwave’s use of recontextualized media, its DIY-inspired practice, and the ways it engages with globalized systems of communication to produce a genre that is at once ephemeral (or vaporous) and enduring.
Through close analysis of vaporwave’s visual identity online, this thesis argues that the movement embodies a tension between cultural critique and aesthetic indulgence. On the one hand, vaporwave’s reliance on platforms like YouTube reveals the transformative impact of digital spaces on cultural production, fostering new forms of community and redefining the concept of the music scene. On the other hand, vaporwave’s reliance on pastiche, simulacrum, and cultural recycling, as well as its ambivalent messaging on consumer culture, raises questions about its potential as a form of political resistance.
Ultimately, this work positions vaporwave as a vital lens through which to understand the interplay of memory, culture, and capitalism in contemporary media, while also reflecting on the broader implications of internet-mediated art in the 21st century
Moving the Needle: A Qualitative Evaluation of Implementation Fidelity in Reentry Programming
Get PDFThe state of... has notable rates of incarceration and probation combined, with a rate of.. per people. With …residents on probation, the state has systems of confinement within and outside of prison that compare internationally. This state holds a reputation of having the harshest mass punishment laws when it comes to systems of confinement, lead post-offending individuals to pathways back into incarceration. Various research and evaluation studies demonstrate what works when reintegrating groups from prison to community, but there is limited understanding of how reentry programming and its interventions are working and to what degree, beyond quantified success. This study explores the direct experiences of program stakeholders in four facility sites at a reentry program in... Using qualitative evaluation methods to ascertain program fidelity at each of reentry sites, I explore what program recipients and staff members at the program believe affect their environment of a successful transition. Findings implicate the need for additional training in staff members, as well as organizational and inter-organizational dialogue with diverse community member groups that allow for individual-based resource provision and community investment. The data suggests links between paraprofessional staff members’ histories in substance misuse and program participants’ feelings of trust, identity, and safety
sabinar
Get PDFSabinar is a multimedia installation that explores the relationship between self and environment, bridging physical and virtual realms through 3D volumetric captures, video, animation, and an immersive soundscape. Inspired by my personal experience, the work engages with the transformations triggered by a persistent sense of rootlessness that I have encountered after migrating from Colombia to Canada. Through the metaphor and embodied experience of becoming the Sabina tree (Árbol del Viento), the work reflects on identity, resilience, and the female body’s connection to ancestral roots, displacement, and an ongoing personal metamorphosis. By intertwining my memories with ancestral narratives, this project re-imagines how one inhabits the world, not as a fixed state but as an evolving process shaped by adaptation and reconnection with the environment.
In the exhibition space, the installation includes two (Juniperus phoenicea.T)2 branches, a Canadian relative of the Sabina tree (Juniperus Canariensis).3 This presents a bridge between geographies and identities, an evolving family tree, a connection with the place I inhabit now and the home of La Sabina. Visually and spatially, the installation employs multiple layers, including a translucent screen (Sharkstooth Scrim), animated projections, and dynamic shadows, to construct a dreamlike environment that evokes the sense of being simultaneously present in multiple realities. A large-scale video projection illuminates the suspended screen, the back gallery wall, and the Juniperus branches with its light. This interplay creates ghostly, holographic echoes of Sabina’s metamorphosis: as a woman, as a tree, as an entity, and as a landscape
Craft & Craftivism: A Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Ceramic, Fibre and Glass Artists in Canada: Volume 1: Ceramics
Get PDFContemporary work in ceramics, fibres and glass is commanding unprecedented attention in the visual arts world. Many Canadian artists have gained recognition for their aesthetic proficiency, conceptual relevance, and skill-based expertise in provincial, national, and international public institutions using these materials. The visual arts community in Canada and elsewhere seeks information concerning the historical importance and significance to contemporary Canadian craft artists of these materials and skills. Craft and Craftivism, edited by Loren Lerner, Janice Anderson, Shannon Stride, and Karine Antaki, is a biographical dictionary of artists working in these media, created as a free e-publication to fill this need. The material is readily available for both pedagogical purposes and the general public’s use. It aims to encourage scholarly interest while acknowledging the artists’ contributions to Canadian visual arts, a path currently encouraged in many Canadian post-secondary art education institutions. -- Introduction.
Volume One of Craft & Craftivism is dedicated to Ceramics. It includes entries for 125 artists
Perceived Inclusivity in Mobility Aids Use: A Qualitative Study in Iran
Get PDFDespite inclusive design focusing on improving environmental accessibility for mobility aid (MA) users, it often fails to ensure true inclusivity due to mismatches between interventions and user perceptions. Therefore, understanding MA users’ perceptions of inclusivity is essential for advancing disability studies and design, as it highlights key interventions for more effective practices. This study aims to explore perceived inclusivity in MAs’ usage and identifies gaps in users’ needs, classifying their needs and offering recommendations to meet them. First, the DARE-Inclusive Design Framework was used to develop interview guidelines and interpret results. Next, using a qualitative descriptive research, semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 experienced physiotherapists in Iran. Finally, an inductive thematic analysis was applied to identify and present the emerging themes. Four themes were identified: 1. Perceived Financial Value: Assessing Worth, 2. Objective Enhancements: Optimizing Environments and MAs, 3. Subjective Enhancements: Trustworthiness, Support, and Hope, and 4. Contextual Factors: Interpretations and Representations. The four interconnected themes provide guidelines for inclusivity-oriented interventions, emphasizing financial assessment, high-tech integration, and aesthetic and symbolic considerations in MA design. Physiotherapists can also mediate emotional responses and enhance inclusion during rehabilitation. Additionally, social context and disability etiology impact users’ acceptance and use of MAs
From Humanist Design Perspectives to Human-Centered Design: A Canadian Public Service Organisation Co-Design Strategy
Get PDFThis Master’s Degree Research-Creation project explores the development of a co-design strategy informed by humanist design principles and human-centered design approaches.Through its research-creation process and outcomes, this study aimed to humanise and democratise bureaucracy by integrating a broader range of approaches and drawing on Julien Hébert’s philosophy as a foundation for socially engaged design practice that fosters trust. In doing so, this research aims to investigate how such a co-design strategy can identify opportunities and challenges for embedding design in public organisations for the socio-cultural benefit of Canadian citizens and public servants alike. Utilising Metro North Health’s Co-Design Process, the project established a structured co-design lookbook for federal partners, stakeholders, and the Canadian public, ensuring adaptability for broader applications.
A literature review examined mid-century humanist design perspectives through the work of Richard Buckminster Fuller, Victor Papanek, Jane Jacobs, Gui Bonsiepe, and Julien Hébert. These designers advocated for the socio-cultural significance of design and the integration of participatory methodologies. Case study research on contemporary human-centered design initiatives further demonstrated how co-design fosters systemic change and sustainable practices. Insights from this analysis guided the development of a strategy emphasising accessibility, empathy, and participation as core principles for integrating human-centered design into public service functions and multidisciplinary teams.
The strategy was developed through a months-long co-design process, including three collaborative sessions with public servants. This iterative approach identified key challenges such as siloed operations and the need for design-driven methodologies in public service. The final design outputs—a logomark, landing page, lookbook, and systems map—were evaluated and refined based on participant feedback. Drawing from Julien Hébert’s humanist design philosophy, the proposed strategy offers an adaptable model applicable across various public service functions, reinforcing design’s role as a driver of positive social change