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Title: Singing to remember, singing to heal: Ts'msyen music in public schools.
Contributors: Anne B. Hill (author), Judith Lapadat (Thesis advisor), Margaret Anderson (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The Ts'msyen Nation of the Terrace area of northern British Columbia has a rich cultural tradition that is not adequately represented in local public school music curricula, despite the support of government policy documents and First Nations organizations for such representation, and despite the significant proportion of First Nations students in the school district. This study seeks to develop resources for music teaching that reflect local Ts'msyen culture, heritage and language, in a manner consistent with Ts'msyen culture and protocol. The study consists of interviews with six Ts'msyen elders to determine their views about (1) the advisability of including Ts'msyen music in public schools (2) protocol for the use of Ts'msyen music in schools (3) ideas and material for presenting Ts'msyen music in schools. Finally, I examine other cultural information provided in the interviews and present teaching material that conforms to the guidelines that emerged from the study.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:05:12.558Z

Title: Go to the river: Understanding and experiencing the Liard watershed.
Contributors: Jeremy Staveley (author), Ang~le Smith (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: This study contributes to an emerging space of interdisciplinary literature that explores the cultural dynamics people and rivers and the associated contestations. A network of rivers in northern British Columbia, all within the Liard River watershed, provides a relevant case study to examine such topics. Data and analysis are presented using a phenomenological approach that employs archival and participatory fieldwork. Through this research, I ask: why do people go to the river ? In attempting to understand the significance of rivers in people's lives, Go to the River addresses questions concerning the Liard watershed, including: how interpretations of rivers are represented in historic maps the significant transitions during the nineteenth and twentieth century that redefined human-river relations and how rivers are still experienced through direct lived engagements. I argue that past and present direct experiences with rivers are essential in reframing the dialogue about the future of rivers in western Canada. --P. ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:12:36.195Z

Title: Perspectives of the influence of stigma on care-seeking behavior among ethnic Russians living with HIV/AIDS in Ida-Virumaa, Estonia
Contributors: Tyler Wood (author), Michel Bouchard (thesis advisor), Josée Lavoie (thesis advisor), Russell Callaghan (committee member), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Since 2001, Estonia has been struggling to contain its explosive HIV epidemic, yet despite years of interventions, adherence to antiretroviral therapy remains between 20% and 40%. The purpose of this research was to examine how HIV stigma is influencing care-seeking behaviour of people living with HIV (PLWHIV) in Ida-Virumaa County, Estonia. This study identified that HIV stigma presents a serious challenge for PLWHIV. The findings not only identified clear cultural metaphors and stigma of HIV and PLWHIV, but also identified that fear of disclosure of status and discrimination from healthcare providers represent significant barriers to care for PLWHIV. The findings also identified that the combination of HIV stigma, fear of disclosure, discrimination from healthcare providers and certain state policies have fostered an environment of structural discrimination that not only limits PLWHIV in Ida-Virumaa ability to access care, but also pushes them away from the healthcare system.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-05-16T20:38:59.894Z

Title: Representations of community in Toni Morrison's fiction
Contributors: Darlene Rose Shatford (author), Dee Horne (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: In this thesis, I propose a study of Toni Morrison's novels with attention to her fictional representations of African-American communities. I demonstrate how she contests constructions of a homogeneous American communal identity through representations of diverse African-American experiences. Further, I examine the processes of communal identification depicted in her work. Some literary critics have analyzed Morrison's representations of community as either a hindrance or a help in the development of individual characters. But, because Morrison's communities are situated in different regions and decades, and formed under different circumstances, my study of her novels involves an exploration into how, why, and where these communities are formed with attention to space, place, history, and function. I argue that the communal spaces, places, and identities in the novels The Bluest Eye, Sula, and Paradise are constructed by, and out of, social interactions. I also demonstrate how communal identity is a process, not a product, and how it is consistently and continually subject to the forces of history, culture, and power. This particular perspective on identity demands an acknowledgment of the past and how it informs the present, but it also demands a recognition of the ways in which communities are constructed relationally. I also explore the significance of history, memory, and storytelling in Jazz, Tar Baby, and Beloved. I point to how these elements are vital to processes of healing and how they are important to the survival of her varied communities.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-04-10T22:12:12.407Z

Title: Examining integration of refugees in multicultural Ireland: policy, advocacy and lived experience
Contributors: Krista Ramsay (author), Ang~le Smith (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: In this study I explore refugee integration in Ireland. I focus on state policies and structures of integration as well as the lived experience of refugee integration. I ask three questions: 1) What are the state policies and structures that might influence refuge integration? 2) What are the roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in refugee integration? 3) How do refugees themselves understand their experience of integration in their new home country? This study uses the research methods of policy analysis and ethnographic research, specifically participant observation and semi-structured interviews. I argue that refuge integration is a complicated negotiation between positive experiences of integration into parts of a multicultural/intercultural society, and negative experiences of discrimination and racism levied against marginalized and "~different' individuals. This negotiation is influenced by the government's neoliberal approach to policy and service implementation and the reliance on NGO advocacy groups. --Leaf ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-29T17:29:45.954Z

Title: Smoke on the water: uncovering a socially complex pre-contact Babine fishing village at Nass Glee (GISQ-4)
Contributors: Cory Hackett (author), Farid Rahemtulla (thesis advisor), Theodore Binnema (thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia College of Arts, Social, and Health Sciences (Degree granting institution), Karyn Sharp (committee member)
Abstract: For the last century there has been very little modification to the geographic boundaries for the Northwest coast culture area, as defined by anthropologists. Moreover, complex hunter-gatherer models, which identify the hallmarks for social complexity of coastal First Nations, tend to exclude inland and up-river societies. Although academics recognize a post-contact complexity at Babine Lake, they have relied primarily on ethnographic sources which implied that ranked and socially stratified societies emerged only in response to the social and economic influences of the fur trade. However, recent research indicates that Babine society possessed complex trade networks, ranked houses, inherited lineages, individual wealth, and status inequality long before the fur trade era. Excavations at the salmon fishing village GiSq-4, on the Babine River, indicate that these social attributes have a much greater antiquity than the proto-historic era. ...
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-05-15T21:14:41.034Z

Title: Perspectives on the organization of lithic technology at the Punchaw Lake site---FiRs-1.
Contributors: Keli Watson (author), Farid Rahemtulla (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The Punchaw lake village site, FiRs-1, is in the north central interior of British Columbia, a rarely researched region in terms of the archaeological record. A small area of the site was excavated in 1973 the finds of this excavation are the subject of this analysis. The lithic assemblage is classified and a technological organization approach is used with design theory to attempt to determine what activities were occurring at this site and how they fit into past lifeways. A community-based approach is attempted by bringing the finds to the Nazko First Nation, whose claimed traditional territory encompasses Punchaw Lake. Their knowledge and stories regarding these artifacts and this region are woven in to bring their voice and perspective to the interpretations. This enriched analysis determined that this village and its diverse tool assemblage could have been the centre of a complex subsistence strategy that ranged far across the landscape to best utilize the available resources. --P. ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:09:11.982Z

Title: Poems of the promised land: women's stories in the King James Old Testament
Contributors: Jacqueline Joan Hoekstra (author), Dee Horne (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: This project entails a feminist examination of women's stories in the King James Version of the Holy Bible. I focus directly on the Old Testament stories, beginning with Eve in Genesis and ending with Vashti and Esther in Esther. I have engaged these particular narratives for a number of reasons. I pick some stories because of how their oppressive patriarchal interpretation defines womanhood. I choose some other stories because of the manner in which they have been ignored. I select some stories of autonomy because of their liberatory potential for contemporary women. I explore the emancipatory and oppressive narratives concerning women in the text. This systematic approach to images of women and the narratives of women's stories will enable a loosening of interpretation.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-04-10T22:12:00.219Z

Title: Storying urban indigeneity in the Russian far east: Eveny and Evenki women navigating Yakutsk, Sakha Republic
Contributors: Tsatia Adzich (author), Gail Fondahl (thesis advisor), Sarah de Leeuw (committee member), Sarah Hunt (committee member)
Abstract: Federal laws in the Russian Federation set out restrictive criteria for Indigenous peoples to be recognized politically, socially, and culturally as Indigenous Small Numbered Peoples of the north (KMNS). These criteria emphasize “traditionality,” a strategic tactic equating indigeneity with rural landscapes and thus discounting urban Indigenous individuals and communities as modern political and self-determining subjects. Stories from Indigenous women living in Yakutsk, the capital city of Sakha Republic (Yakutia) challenge these narratives by reconstituting the urban landscape from an Indigenous perspective. The challenges emanating from urban landscapes, and relationships integral to navigating these challenges, are examined in this thesis from a critical Indigenous feminist geographical framework, honouring and celebrating the numerous manifestations of urban indigeneity entangled throughout Yakutsk.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2019-12-19T23:01:08.041Z

Title: Stories we tell about "others"
Contributors: Melissa Johnson (author), Sarah de Leeuw (thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution), Blanca Schorcht (committee member), Ross Hoffman (committee member)
Abstract: Indigenous peoples in Canada face significant health inequities compared to the non-Indigenous population. While the effects of historical and on-going colonialism are understood to contribute to these health disparities, the mechanisms by which pathologizing, racist, or colonial discourses contribute to the social environments underlying these health disparities remain under-examined. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, this research investigates the role of Canadian print media in disseminating pathologizing discursive representations of Indigenous peoples. Focusing on columns, editorials, and letters to the editor printed in the Globe and Mail in 2008, I analyzed mainstream media’s contribution to the discursive environment underlying racialized health inequities. This analytical process has identified multiple instances, both implicit and explicit, wherein pathologizing and stereotypical discourses about Indigenous peoples and communities are disseminated, legitimated, and perpetuated. These discourses ultimately function to maintain existing power imbalances and health inequities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2019-03-28T22:18:19.549Z

Title: Beyond 'La baguette et le fromage': Studying minority francophone culture and community in western Canada.
Contributors: Natalya Veresovaya (author), Michel Bouchard (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The question of French language rights has been continuously discussed in the Canadian State. In 1982 the Canadian constitution and Article 23 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed French students to receive primary and secondary education in that language. This research examines whether an elementary FFL school in Peace River, Alberta, produces a positive impact on French identity and culture. It also studies how francophone teachers and students define and construct French identity on a daily basis. In order to complete this study qualitative methods (participant observation, informal and formal interviews, questionnaires, and participatory action research) were used. The results indicate that an elementary FFL school of Peace River has succeeded in promoting positive attitudes to French language and culture and that extracurricular activities can reinforce this effect. This research demonstrates that students have more positive opinions of French language and culture once they have participated in a French cultural activity. Francophone students use the French language when they are in a FFL school and sometimes when they are among anglophones. L’École Des Quatre Vents and its teachers has become an effective tool in constructing French identity and a sense of belonging for a French-speaking community among a young generation of francophones. The status of French language has improved, whereas in the past it was stigmatized. This study reveals that education in French language helps students articulate and understand their culture better in the minority context of the Peace River region, Alberta. --P. i.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:11:18.96Z

Title: Human trafficking: an examination of available services and support in Prince George, B.C.
Contributors: Carolyn E. Emon (author), Neil Hanlon (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Human trafficking is an abhorrent crime that exists throughout the world, affecting communities of all sizes. Men, women, and children are treated as slaves and are forced into exploitive situations for both labour and sexual services. While the body of research on global human trafficking is growing, there are fewer studies that look at community-level care and support of victims, and even fewer that look at conditions in smaller urban centres where human trafficking is less prominent. The purpose of this interdisciplinary research is to address both these gaps by examining service provision for victims of trafficking in Prince George, British Columbia. I employ the conceptual lenses of intersectionality and heteronormativity to understand human trafficking victimization and the theory of social care to account for systems of care and support organized in response to this victimization. Using a case study approach, I conducted key-informant interviews with service providers in Prince George and Vancouver in order to understand the nature of service coordination and how service delivery differs in a small urban centre compared to a gateway metropolitan centre where human trafficking is more prevalent. My findings indicate that service providers' understandings of human trafficking differ, and that resource access and institutional conditions create barriers for victim identification and service coordination. Finally, I offer recommendations for policy and practice intended to enhance the capacity of local care and support networks to identify and offer help to victims. --Leaf ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-29T17:30:29.945Z

Title: Mujeres autorizadas: Women's empowerment programs as a form of community development in Guatemala.
Contributors: Jennifer Reade (author), Catherine Nolin (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:02:22.509Z

Title: Lymph node vascular plasticity during Herpes Simplex Virus Type II infection.
Contributors: Stephanie L. Sellers (author), Geoffrey Payne (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Lymph node (LN) blood supply has long been thought to be integral to the immune response. Recently, the phenomenon of remodeling of the LN feed arteriole during viral infection was demonstrated as a key component of induction of an effective adaptive immune response. Here, the data presented show that during infection the LN feed arteriole is capable of non-pathogenic, reversible, outward remodeling peaking seven days post-immunization before returning to pre-infection size. Using pharmacological blockade and genetic ablation models, the remodeling process is demonstrated to be dependent upon the presence of CD4⁺ T cells in the LN, the expression of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), tumor necrosis factor alpha, and age, as well as influenced by mast cells. Collectively, these results demonstrate key links between immune response, arteriole remodeling, and vascular mediators and represent a novel mechanism of vascular modulation of immunity. --P. ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:11:50.67Z

Title: Planning utopia: Control over women and nature in Mary Shelley's "The Last Man", William Morris's "News from Nowhere" and M. P. Shiel's "The Purple Cloud".
Contributors: David Gamble (author), Kristen Guest (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: Nineteenth-century utopian British literature often articulates the ideal of a society of equals, but it also evinces the problem of control over women and nature. In order to deal with this contradiction, I examine three novels from key moments in the development of utopian fiction. As case studies, I have chosen Mary Shelley's The Last Man, William Morris's News From Nowhere, and M.P. Shiel's The Purple Cloud because each novel evaluates utopian potential as occurring through revolution and enacted by social and city planning. I analyze their representations of prophecy, control over women, and control over nature. While these utopian novels imagine utopia as an alternative to capitalism, I find that capitalist impulses remain in the novels, undermining their articulations of utopia. --P.ii.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:04:38.754Z

Title: Landscape and collective memory in post-conflict Ayacucho, Peru
Contributors: Kirk Walker (author), Catherine Nolin (thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution), Angèle Smith (committee member), Ross Hoffman (committee member)
Abstract: Peru was enveloped in an internal armed conflict from 1980 to 2000. The Shining Path, a militant communist group, sought to revolutionize Peru through violence. Indigenous Peruvians were targeted in extrajudicial massacres and killings. Nearly 70,000 people, mostly indigenous, were either killed or disappeared by both the Shining Path and government military forces (CVR 2004). Today, post-conflict Peru still grapples with the human rights violations of the past and is challenged to achieve reconciliation. For the victims of violence, how the memory of the conflict is conveyed is an important element of the transitional justice process (Alexander et al. 2004). My interdisciplinary research explores collective memory, the shared representation of the past that is socially constructed by a group of people (Halbwachs 1992). The Peruvian Truth and Reconciliation Commission identified the region of Ayacucho as the epicentre of violence during the conflict (CVR 2004, 21).
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2019-03-31T03:29:03.336Z

Title: Characterization of methylmercury demethylation in the central nervous system.
Contributors: Aaron Shapiro (author), Laurie Chan (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: The toxicity of mercury is dependent on its chemical composition at its point of entry and site of toxicity. Differences in toxicity indicate that inorganic mercury (iHg) and methylmercury (MeHg) mediate adverse reactions via different mechanisms. Based on the available toxicity data, demethylation of MeHg to iHg has proven detrimental as it increases the severity of toxic insult. Accordingly, an in vitro system was established in order to characterize the demethylation reaction using primary astrocytes from neonatal rat cerebellum. Incubation of MeHg with a pro-oxidant increased the rate of demethylation (control vs. rotenone = -1.86±5.57 vs. 16.27±2.68%, p<0.05) and accumulation (control vs. rotenone = 86.53±4.13ng/mg vs. 23.6±3.80ng/mg, p<0.001) relative to control. These findings suggest that demethylation is not only harmful as a result of increased iHg levels, but also because total mercury is increased. In light of rising atmospheric mercury levels, it is important that this pathway be fully characterized.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:05:54.931Z

Title: The Iroquois
Contributors: Michael A. Landry (author), Michel Bouchard (thesis advisor), Earl Henderson (committee member), Siomonn Pulla (committee member), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: This thesis will posit that the Iroquois migrations into the Northwest and Oregon Territories are misunderstood in their interactions amongst both the Indigenous and frontiersmen. By Iroquois we specifically mean the French-speaking and Catholic Iroquois who settled in New France in Sault St. Louis (1680), Lac des Deux-Montagnes (1717) and in 1755 when the St. Régis Mission was established. After 150 years of acculturation (1650s to 1800s), these Iroquois had become a hybrid culture with a syncretic Catholicism. The Iroquois immigrated to the Saskatchewan River in 1799 to escape ‘improvements of civilization’ in the east and to follow the mode of life of their forefathers. Peter Fidler’s three versions of the Chesterfield House incident, where 14 Iroquois and 2 Canadiens were killed, will be analyzed to provide a new understanding of the role of the Iroquois as central actors in the fur trade rivalries.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2020-08-18T15:58:50.417Z

Title: Gypsies and Jews: George Eliot's use of "race" in "The Spanish Gypsy" and "Daniel Deronda".
Contributors: Anna McLauchlan (author), Kristen Guest (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: No abstract available.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-03-30T17:00:54.926Z

Title: Spirituality and mixed-blood identity: a comparative study of Miguel Angel Asturias and Leslie Marmon Silko
Contributors: Colleen Anna Irwin (author), Dee Horne (Thesis advisor), University of Northern British Columbia (Degree granting institution)
Abstract: In this thesis I propose that the texts of Guatemalan author Miguel Angel Asturias and the North American Native author Leslie Marmon Silko can be compared and interpreted from the perspective of spirituality. I approach both mixed-blood authors as mediating a spiritually-centred contemporary identity. They revalue and update the spiritual teachings in the myths of their Meso-American-Anasazi ancestral heritages. A cross-cultural reading of mythical quests, indigenous sacred texts, Western mysticism, and the universal heroic paradigm discloses a universal recognition of the need to maintain order and balance between spirituality and materiality. An examination of contemporary Native and Latin American literary studies demonstrates that the dominant Western perspective creates a static view of indigenous people and a materialistic lifestyle which alienates individuals from the spirituality of their ancestors. I conclude that Asturias' and Silko's mediation of their multiple heritages provides a necessary re-valuing of Western and indigenous epistemologies. The mythical and sacred sources restore balance and unity in the individual and create a viable basis for contemporary mixed-blood and mixed-heritage identity.
Discipline: Interdisciplinary Studies
Date added: 2017-04-10T22:13:43.567Z

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