VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Minor Transethnicity: Chinese, First Nations, and Blacks in Multilingual Chinese Canadian Fiction
Keywords: Black Canadians
Chinese Canadian literature
Chinese immigrants
First Nations
Transethnicity

This dissertation was conceived in response to the recent paradigm shift in ethnic studies from the dominant vertical model of minority-versus-majority opposition to horizontal networks of minor-to-minor interconnectedness. It explores the diverse representations of cross-ethnic relationships between Chinese immigrants, First Nations, and Black Canadians in Anglophone and Sinophone Chinese Canadian fiction. At the centre of this dissertation is an examination of the contested interstitial space between “transversality” and “ethnicity,” a space which reveals the continuous formation and transgression of permeable ethno-racial boundaries. This transethnic space challenges the multicultural frame that ignores and discourages the study of interactions and relations between visible minorities and First Nations. It provides a vantage point from which to survey the coexistence of horizontal interconnections and vertical hierarchies still entrenched in the horizontal networks, a reminder of the asymmetrical power relations between minority groups that persist either unrecognized or in less recognizable forms. The multiple forces of race, gender, class, and relations to the state push and pull minority groups toward or away from each other, forcing them to reposition themselves under changing circumstances. Through a multidirectional critique of these shifting positions, I attempt to rethink personal and political alliances in contradistinction to the minor-against-major polarity without ignoring the structural complexity within and the power imbalance between minority communities. The first part of this dissertation examines the long and complicated history of Chinese-Native relations, as reflected in the narratives of Chinese-Native romance. These narratives reveal the closely related yet also conflictual and divided positioning of the two communities in the settler-state of Canada, especially with regard to the ambivalent formation of national identity. The second part moves to Chinese-Black encounters in new immigrant literature. Taking into account the racial hierarchy of Canada and geo-political changes in Asia, this new immigrant literature reveals how Chinese-Black relationships are mediated by the global movement of ethnicized labour and transnational capital, demonstrating fluid processes of “whitening” and “blackening.” Reading Anglophone and Sinophone Chinese Canadian fiction in conjunction allows us to dispute a homogenous Chinese or Chinese Canadian subject position and presents us with a more complex picture of cross-ethnic relationships.
Drawing Out: Alternative Configurations of ‘I’ in Contemporary French, Québécois, and American Autographics
Keywords: Autobiography
Autography
Bechdel
Graphic Memoir
Neaud
Self-portraiture

“Drawing Out: Alternative Configurations of ‘I’ in Contemporary French, Québécois, and American Autographics” investigates the autobiographical genre as it appears in graphic narratives. It focuses on the author’s subjectivity as an implied bodily presence that manifests itself formally, in addition to being communicated through a linguistically constructed ‘I’. My purpose is to further develop and support the current graphic novel scholarship that suggests the medium is inherently autobiographical. I argue that the mixed sign systems that comprise the graphic novel afford cartoonists the ability to both deconstruct conventional conceptions of the autobiographical ‘I’ and to reveal a pre-discursive subjectivity that pervades the text. The cartoonists Julie Doucet, Fabrice Neaud, Alison Bechdel, and Phoebe Gloeckner have developed an autobiographical praxis that emphasizes the ontologically real subject behind each of their works. Their autobiographical works experiment with narrative devices from comics, film, and literary media to challenge conventional life narratives, especially the textual narrative strategies used in traditional autobiography. I aim to show that their graphic memoirs and diaries provoke a simultaneous reading of multiple sign systems, the intersections of which signify a closer physical connection between the author and the text than does the self-referential pronoun ‘I’ alone. My analysis focuses on depictions of the creative process as a meta-representative trope of autographics (autobiographical narratives in comic book form), which reveals dimensions of the artist through her/his alter-ego narrator and character, as well as the formal and physical elements of the graphic novel. I closely read patterns in the visual language of certain graphic narratives to demonstrate how the cartoonists in my corpus take advantage of the medium’s ability to re-hierarchize words and images. In so doing they disrupt mimesis and challenge both dominant creative methods as well as normative representations of girls, women, and alternative sexual identities. I contend that this tension among sign systems allows cartoonists to recover gaps in self-signification that would reduce the ‘I’ to an empty referent and instead allows them to invoke the presence of the author’s body, thereby (re)establishing a sense of subjectivity that resists (socialized) mainstream heterosexual gender identifications. This dissertation ultimately seeks to reveal the power of graphic memoir and diary to simultaneously represent the author and engage critically with self-signifying processes.
A Changing Mosaic: Multicultural Exchange in the Norman Palaces of Twelfth-Century Sicily
Keywords: landscape
Medieval Mediterranean
Muslim Sicily
nineteenth-century historiography
Norman Sicily
secular architecture

This dissertation examines the twelfth-century residences associated with the Norman Hautevilles in the parklands that surrounded their capital at Palermo. One of the best-preserved ensembles of medieval secular architecture, the principal monuments are the palaces of La Zisa and La Cuba, the complexes of La Favara and Lo Scibene, the hunting lodge at Parco, and the palace at Monreale. The Norman conquest of Sicily in the previous century dramatically altered the local population’s religious and cultural identity. Nevertheless, an Islamic legacy persisted in the park architecture, arranged on axial plans with waterworks and ornamented with muqarnas vaults. By this time, the last Norman king, William II, and his court became aligned with contemporaries in the Latin West, and Muslims became marginalized in Sicily. Part One examines the modern “discovery” and reception of the twelfth-century palaces. As secular examples built in an Islamic mode, they did not fit preconceived paradigms of medieval Western architecture in the scholarly literature, greatly endangering their preservation. My examination reconstructs the vast landscape created by the Norman kings, who modified their surroundings on a monumental scale. Water in the parklands was harnessed to provide for artificial lakes and other waterscapes onto which the built environment was sited. Part Two presents in-depth studies of lesser known sites associated with Roger II, including the likely pre-Norman Lo Scibene, perhaps a prototype for the later La Zisa built by his successors. In the second half of the century, monumental epigraphy in Arabic crowned the pavilions of the Genoard Park. These texts were significant visual constructs, delimiting a newly formed space of power, whose content referenced paradise at these palaces that were also sites of song. The last royal residence at William II’s fortified monastic complex of Monreale was built as a miniaturized version of the Benedictine cenobium. Largely self-sufficient, the construction of Monreale, where the secular and ecclesiastical spheres were joined together, also denotes deteriorating Christian-Muslim relations. The dissertation participates in an emerging discourse on the medieval Mediterranean through an examination of royal parkland architecture that undermines prevailing notions of Norman Sicily as a syncretic kingdom throughout the entire century.
Dialogical Apologetics: Leo Baeck and the Task of Jewish Philosophy
Keywords: Jewish-Christian Dialogues
Jewish philosophy
Method and Theory
Religious Studies

Leo Baeck (1873-1956) is widely regarded as a symbol of German Jewry. Though numerous institutions have been named after him, Baeck’s writings are hardly read nowadays and he is not considered a source of inspiration for Jewish philosophy or a thinker of relevance for contemporary discussions. Moving away from earlier hagiographical accounts, this study argues for Baeck’s ongoing significance for both Jewish thought and the study of religion more broadly. I contend that with Baeck we can think about Jewish philosophy not as a quest for authenticity, but as a process of coming to terms with the challenge of the other and developing new questions for one’s own self-understanding. I term this process dialogical apologetics and show that Baeck is part of this long and important tradition in Jewish thought, which includes Josephus, Judah Halevi, and Nahmanides. Furthermore, Baeck’s contribution to the study of religion lies in his writings on the concept of essence, a question central in his own time that is too often neglected in contemporary scholarly discussions. Baeck does not simply privilege the essence of Judaism over the essence of Christianity; instead, he changes the terms of the debate and rejects an understanding of essence as an unchanging core in favor of a developmental concept. Finally, Baeck identified the spiritual crisis of Protestantism early on in Weimar Republic, and vigorously rejected suggestions—very much alive today—to remove the Old Testament from the Christian canon. In his theopolitics, Baeck developed a scholarly and theological language to counter what he saw as the political dangers of Marcionite Christianity. Taken as a whole, this study therefore contributes not only to a better understanding of Baeck’s thought, but also to a discussion about the tasks of Jewish philosophy and the study of religion.
A Long Way Home: First Nations Adoptions and Repatriations
Keywords: Aboriginal
Adoptions
Genocide
Identity
Indigenous
Sixties Scoop

This dissertation project explores a phenomenon known as the Sixties Scoop and some of its consequences as told by survivors through their own oral testimony. The Sixties Scoop was a period of aggressive adoption of Indigenous children in Canada and the United States in the 1960s. The Sixties Scoop did not happen in a vacuum; it was part of an ongoing attempt at genocide against Indigenous peoples of the Americas. This study is situated within the history in the eastern Maritimes of genocidal attempts towards the Wabanakis, the Indigenous peoples of the Maritimes. First hand accounts of sailors, traders, soldiers, missionaries and settlers describe observations, interactions and policies. The far-reaching effects of The Indian Act, passed in 1876, are also addressed. Survivors of the Sixties Scoop are interviewed in Toronto between 2012 and 2013. Much has been written about Indigenous Research Methodologies, which is discussed in the thesis. Although autoethnography is used in this study the thesis is only partly autoethnographic. Autoethnography was used as a tool to help Sixties Scoop survivors to speak more freely. The method of a scrapbook of memories relating to the adoptive experience (Arts-informed/Indigenous) was also used to help build a relationship with the adoptees that are interviewed. These adoptees expressed many of the same symptoms described by Residential School survivors. These are the symptoms recognized as post-traumatic stress disorder. Some of the experiences these adoptees relate are long-term depression, recurring suicidal thoughts, a feeling of worthlessness and abandonment, chronic tiredness and a marked tendency to sabotage relationships. These experiences are coupled with a seeming irreparable sense of loss and broken relationships with both birth and adoptive families and communities. These adoptees feel their voices have not been heard and have difficulty finding a place to call their own.
Bio-Inspired and Nanotechnology-Enabled Drug Delivery for Diabetes and Brain Cancer
Keywords: Cancer
Chemotherapy
Diabetes
Drug Delivery
Insulin
Nanoparticle

Nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery systems, inspired by biological processes, were developed to overcome current treatment challenges facing diabetes and cancer patients. Two different systems were developed. The first system, an implantable closed-loop insulin delivery device, utilizes pH-responsive nanoparticles embedded within a glucose-sensing matrix to mimic the physiological delivery of insulin. To prolong implant lifetime we developed a formulation of highly concentrated insulin, up to 80 mg/mL, which maintained excellent insulin stability for up to 30 days under physiological conditions. Moreover, a novel device structure was designed comprising of a microporous membrane that hindered leukocyte migration to the functional implant surface and minimized host inflammatory response. Combining the thermostable insulin formulation and the new device design, long-term closed-loop glycemic control was achieved in Type 1 diabetic rats. The second system is a nanoparticle platform capable of delivering imaging agents and drugs across the blood-brain barrier by mimicking low-density lipoprotein uptake in the brain. We developed this system based on a polysorbate 80-containing terpolymer for improving chemotherapy of metastatic breast cancer disease in the central nervous system. Two nanoparticle formulations were developed: doxorubicin-loaded terpolymer nanoparticles and docetaxel-loaded terpolymer-lipid nanoparticles. Both nanoparticle formulations exhibited high drug loading efficiency, colloidal stability and low systemic toxicity. Parenteral administration of the nanoparticle formulations enabled delivery of blood-brain barrier-impermeable compounds to the brain in healthy mice. Systemic administration of the nanoparticles loaded with clinically relevant doses of drug in brain-tumor bearing mice resulted in drug delivery across the blood-brain barrier to brain metastases of breast cancer and significantly enhanced therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects compared to free drug. The nanotechnologies and drug formulations developed in this work present significant progress towards improving therapies for the clinical management of Type 1 diabetes and brain metastases of breast cancer.
A Method for Evaluation of the Management of Chronic Non-cancer Pain in Global Cities
Keywords: Case study
Chronic non-cancer pain
Framework
Global cities
Pain managment
Specialised pain clinics

This dissertation explores the outputs of structures and processes influencing clinical services for chronic non-cancer pain (CNCP) management globally. It focuses on facilities and services available in three global cities: Kuwait, Karachi, and Toronto. It develops and demonstrates qualitative and descriptive survey tools capable of assessing CNCP services and management, and associated barriers from the perspective of academic pain specialist involved in the delivery of CNCP services in those cities. Those tools are based on an original conceptual framework for guiding evaluation of CNCP services and management globally. In addition to a general introduction and discussion sections, the dissertation is made up of three sections. The first section integrates and reviews the literature on chronic diseases, CNCP management, and existing health care systems with respect to CNCP services generally and with a focus on the target global cities in particular. The second section consists of an analysis of methodological research options and development of a Structure Process Output evaluation frameworks based on a hybridization of Donabedian and Logistic evaluation frameworks (DL-Hybrid). Mixed methodology survey and interview instruments were designed to evaluate perspectives of pain clinic leader using that DL-Hybrid framework and organized to characterize three output domains: 1) infrastructure utilization, 2) clinical service delivery and 3) education and research activities. The third section reports on semi-structured interviews with academic pain specialists using those instruments. Four participants were recruited from each of the three global cities (8 men and 4 women). Data was analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Krippendorffâ s thematic clustering was used to reveal themes within qualitative data. The three cities showed important differences in how the health system operated but pain specialist shared common training and professional goals and barriers. This qualitative survey provided insights into those goals and barriers. Similarities were observed across the three cities reflecting perhaps the fact that by definition global cities resemble each other economically. The biggest shared obstacle was a lack of resources for coordinating services and evaluating outputs as well as the lack of recognition of the significance of CNCP. The study highlights similarities and variation in perception of barriers. It demonstrates how a global cities lens and a systematic evaluation framework can reveal structural and process issues related to pain clinic outputs aimed at reducing the burden of chronic diseases such as chronic pain both locally and globally.
Storying Shame: Humiliation in the Colonized Classroom
Keywords: Creative Non-fiction
Critical Pedagogy
Critical Race
Humiliation
Latin@ Studies
Shame

In this dissertation, I explore the use of shame and humiliation in schools as technologies of colonial violence. In particular, I draw from critical race and anti-colonial scholarship to situate colonialism as both violent and ongoing. My interests are in tracing systemic racism in classrooms as it exists through acts of humiliation and shaming. In this process, I am interested in examining the physicality of humiliation and shame: the subtle, metaphoric, and emotional ways in which shame weaves into and through bodies. Utilizing personal narrative and collective storytelling as my methods of analysis, I argue in this thesis that contextualizing and historicizing humiliation within a collective gathering of shame stories has the potential to bring the operation and ongoing effects of colonialism into a collective consciousness, one that has the potential to highlight the ways humiliation is bound to bodies and the ways in which racialized bodies are organized and educated in social spaces. In order to respect the multiple voices and experiences of this research project, I combined personal narrative and collective storytelling (Baskin, 2005; Mahoney, 2007) to explore the collective gathering of shame stories as an anti-racist practice. My focus is on expanding our understanding of student disengagement to account for the affective experiences of shaming. To do so, I draw on critical race theories that explore the corporeality of racism and the ways it operates through affective forms. My hope is that by focusing on the corporeal mechanisms at work in colonial technologies of shaming, this work will make meaningful contribution to anti-racist work on student disengagement and will support racialized students struggling with racism and oppression in classrooms across Canada.
Preschool Socio-cognitive and Language Development in the Context of the Sibling Environment
Keywords: Cognitive sensitivity
Language
Preschool
Sibling interactions
Social cognition
Theory of Mind

Children’s socio-cognitive and language development occurs in the context of social interactions, including those involving siblings. Using data from a longitudinal birth cohort study, the current thesis investigated the contributions of structural and process-based features of sibships to children’s socio-cognitive and language development. Using a cross-sectional design, Study One (N = 385) explored sibship size (i.e., number of children in the home) and older sibling cognitive sensitivity as contributors to younger siblings’ receptive vocabulary (M age = 3.15 years, SD = .27). Results indicated that children from large sibships (i.e., 3+ children) had lower receptive vocabulary scores in the absence of a sensitive older sibling. Using a longitudinal design, Study Two (N = 385) investigated these same variables in predicting younger siblings’ theory of mind development approximately a year and a half later (M age = 4.77 years, SD = .26). A similar pattern emerged wherein children from larger sibships had lower theory of mind scores in the absence of a sensitive older sibling, after controlling for earlier theory of mind. Using a within-family design, Study Three (N = 288) explored birth order and sibling prosocial behavior as predictors of younger siblings and older siblings cooperative abilities when they were the same age (M age = 3.33 years, SD = .39). Laterborn children demonstrated enhanced cooperative abilities, particularly if their siblings showed higher levels of prosocial behaviour. The current findings demonstrate the utility of investigating the ways in which sibling factors combine to influence children’s social cognition and language. The relationship of receptive vocabulary, theory of mind and cooperation to one another, as well as the ways in which they shape and are shaped by their social environments are discussed. Implications of the findings for intervention studies designed to promote sibling responsivity are also discussed.
Modeling Campomelic Dysplasia Using Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Identifies a SOX9-WNT Signaling Axis Involved in Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition
Keywords: Campomelic dysplasia
Chondrogenic differentiation
Disease modeling
Epithelial to mesenchymal transition
Pluripotent stem cells
SOX9

Campomelic dysplasia (CD) is a congenital disease causing skeletal defects, such as shortened and angulated long bones, hypoplastic scapulae, hypomineralized thoracic pedicles, and craniofacial defects. Neonatal death often occurs due to respiratory complications caused by underdeveloped tracheobronchial cartilage. Non-skeletal malformations also occur such as sex reversal in XY individuals and cardiac, pancreatic, renal, and sensory organ defects. This doctoral thesis investigates the molecular pathogenesis of CD using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) as the model. CD is caused by heterozygous mutations in SOX9, the master regulator of chondrogenesis. The pleiotropic effects of these mutations are due to the developmental role of SOX9 in various lineages, which have been uncovered using mouse models and reductionist approaches. In addition, SOX9 regulates certain adult stem cell populations and epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in neural crest development. In order to understand the pathogenesis of CD in humans, iPSCs were generated from two CD patients with distinct SOX9 coding mutations. In preliminary experiments, differentiation towards mesendoderm-derived cartilage or neural crest demonstrated that EMT and differentiation were severely impaired in one of the CD patients. Using a systems level approach, comparative transcriptome analysis of CD iPSCs versus those from healthy individuals undergoing differentiation was combined with published SOX9 chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) followed by high-throughput sequencing (ChIP-seq) data to generate a SOX9 gene regulatory network (GRN). Analysis of the GRN uncovered a SOX9-WNT axis that is imbalanced in this particular CD patient. In testing this network we found that SOX9 overexpression at high levels exacerbated the phenotype but exogenous WNT activation rescued the phenotype. Thus, using CD iPSCs, a critical role for SOX9 in the regulation of the WNT signaling pathway was identified and restoring WNT signaling partially rescues the CD phenotype.