VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Creative Expressive Writing: A Situated Pedagogy for Confidence, Skill, and Negotiated Meaning

This dissertation seeks to coin a term and theorize creative expressive writing (CEW) as a situated, negotiated, and distributed mode of writing that serves to support, not replace, other types of writing instruction at all levels of education including second language writing. Using the work of Elbow (1973) and Allen (2000, 2002) as pedagogical approaches, along with Fulkerson’s (1990, 2005) framework for a full theory of writing, this thesis offers a reassertion of expressive writing as a pedagogical opportunity that empowers writers and works against traditions of dominance in the writing classroom. Creative expressive writing is a democratic mode of writing seeking to decolonize writing instruction by honouring and exercising voice. Expressivism, a mode of writing about personal experience that was popular in the 1970’s, has been denigrated as being solipsistic and careless; however, it has not left the landscape of writing instruction despite it being “seriously undertheorized” (Hyland, 2016, p. 13). With the framework provided by bioecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006), this dissertation argues that creative expressive writing is socially situated and has both cognitive and affective benefits for students that can be transferred to their academic work. This is a three-article dissertation that includes one chapter of personal narrative and two grounded theory research studies. The first of the two studies took place in a middle school English class where students attended creative expressive writing workshops that were designed around their novel study. Findings reveal that creative expressive writing (CEW) as new literacy practice supports meaningful engagement, confidence, critical thinking, and empathy among peers. The second study took place in a second language English for Academic Purposes (EAP) context. Findings revealed that learners benefitted from the community of practice that formed. Engagement and enjoyment of writing activities led to both affective and cognitive gains similar to those found in the middle school classroom study. Ultimately, the argument is made that creative expressive writing has multiple benefits, but articulated, consolidated, and deliberate conversation about the possibilities and limitations needs finally to occur for the benefit of teachers and students alike. This dissertation endeavours to begin this conversation.

Keywords: Creative Expressive Writing
English for Academic Purposes
Narrative Inquiry
New Literacy Studies
Second Language Writing
Writing Studies
Advisor: Feuerverger, Grace
Cooper, Karyn
Unsettling Actor: Reading the 94 Calls to Action Out Loud

In June 2015, Canadians received the Calls to Action, 94 recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC 2015c). Indigenous Studies scholar Paulette Regan (2010) calls for “socio-political actors in Canadian society” (p. 23) to commit to an unsettling pedagogy that creates “decolonizing space for Indigenous history—counter-narratives of diplomacy, law, and peacemaking practices—as told by Indigenous peoples themselves” (p. 6). My settler initiative takes Regan’s call literally, asking: What happens when actors read the 94 Calls to Action aloud in community? Enaction of the Calls remains underachieved; 13 (arguably 8) have been completed in 6 years. Following Métis artist/scholar David Garneau’s (2016) proposal of “irreconcilable spaces of aboriginality” (p. 26) this settler intervention reconceptualizes a familiar acting practice; we brought an Indigenous-led policy document to the rehearsal floor, relying on the actor’s embodied practice to dialogue with the story of the text. Rereading the Calls in the Zoom/studio, we lifted the text from the page to our listening body, speaking our discomfort, complicity, and hope. This exercise is prelude: an oral action to provoke unsettling conversation, to seed commitment to action, to prepare the playground for collaborative encounter with Indigenous colleagues (Call 83). Enaction is our responsibility. My research analysis takes two forms: a script (Chapter 4) and an academic inquiry (Chapter 5); both query reading aloud as oral resource for unsettling. We found evidence of settler inaction that underlies the story (and necessity) of the Calls. We named our complicity. As storying citizens, I argue theatre makers take responsibility for the politicising impact of our storying craft. Moments of mirth surprised us. We found evidence of decolonizing possibility in a pedagogy of play. I ask: is there a generative role for the actor’s practice of complicité (as playful collusion) and transgressive play in restorying relations between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples? We are called to reconsider; I name sites of reconsideration. In conclusion, I urge we continue reading the charge (including treaties) aloud in community to ignite and deepen our collective commitment to enaction of the Calls, as preparatory step toward respectful reciprocal (re)conciliation action in Canada.

Keywords: 94 Calls to Action
acting
oral
play
reading aloud
reconciliation
Advisor: Goldstein, Tara
Speaking Truth to Historiography: The Power of Dramaturgy in Making Relationships Between Indigenous and Settler Peoples

AbstractHistory and historiography only exist one to the other, but their relationship is not an obvious one. The factors that influence how we know what occurred in the past are a conglomeration of interpretations constructed from a selection of chosen elements orchestrated with particular intent. As a process of creation, organization, narration, design, research, and analysis, dramaturgy has a seminal role to play in the relationship between history and historiography. Manufacturing historical knowledge is the work of the historian but the making of it is an act of dramaturgy, a process through which history becomes historiography. As Canadian historiographies continue to fall into question under the weight and urgency of the revelations and fabrications exposed in The Truth and Reconciliation Report, the protestations and challenges in and around Canada150, and artistic manifestations that re-story our shared pasts, the myth of a benevolent Canada has fallen apart and so too has the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Many would argue that it was never together. False historiographies have caused profound damage to Indigenous peoples as well as to settler Canadians who have perpetrated or inherited the reigns of injustice. Dismantling false historiographies in exchange for a plurality of truthful ones is work that can be redressed with dramaturgies that are both old and new. In this study I offer examples of how different and varied dramaturgical approaches to politics and performance are changing how we know history. By studying performative interventions such as the appearance of the Bawating Protectors on Parliament Hill during the Sesquicentennial celebrations, and theatrical productions such as the 1967 and 2017 versions of the opera Louis Riel, as well as the contemporary opera Missing, I chart the dramaturgical processes which influence what we know about history by changing the conditions of how we know. As a Canadian of settler descent and a professional in the live arts for more than forty years, I bring my experience as a dramaturg to fields of performance and political action to explore how together they can effect change in the future relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples.

Keywords: (Re)conciliation
Activism/Collaboration
Dramaturgy
Historiography
Performance
Theatre
Advisor: Carter, Jill
Copeland, Nancy
MR-Guided Cardiac Ablation and Lesion Assessment for Ventricular Arrhythmia Management

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation has become a mainstay of treatment for ventricular tachycardia (VT), yet this therapy is complex and is associated with high rates of procedural failure and late recurrence. Adequate ablation lesion formation remains challenging, and current methods for assessing the accuracy and permanence of RF lesions are limited. In this thesis, magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is used to address these challenges by evaluating the spatial extent and characteristics of RF ablation lesions. The first study aimed to comprehensively describe the composition and evolution of acute left ventricular (LV) RF lesions using native-contrast MRI in a pre-clinical model. By performing this procedure entirely within the MRI scanner for MR guidance, these RF lesions could be characterized within minutes to hours post-ablation, during the time frame of a clinical ablation procedure. Combining native T1- and T2-weighted MR imaging provided a detailed picture of acute lesion composition, showing that the distinctive regions of ablation injury reflected by these contrast mechanisms evolve separately throughout the time period of an intervention. To better understand and interpret the MR images of RF lesions in the context of an ablation procedure, a study of the electrophysiologic voltage corresponding to the MR visualization of the RF lesions was performed. MR guidance enabled co-registered MR imaging and electroanatomic bipolar voltage mapping of the heart after ablation. Native-contrast MR lesion visualization differentiated permanent RF lesion cores and transient edema, while these regions were not distinguishable using bipolar voltage measurements. These findings suggest a possible role for MR lesion assessment as an additional procedural endpoint during VT ablation procedures. A third study was performed to investigate the capacity of native T1-weighted MRI to visualize RF lesions in the arrhythmogenic VT substrate. Ablation was targeted to potential VT substrates in an animal model of chronic infarct. This study showed that patterns of RF ablations are accurately visualized by native T1-weighted MRI in healthy myocardium, scar, and heterogeneous tissue channels comprising the arrhythmia substrate. This work represents significant advances towards the goal of increased RF ablation efficacy for VT by providing more specific and detailed assessment of the therapeutic RF lesions using MRI. Future work will involve evaluating chronic RF ablation lesions with respect to VT inducibility, further facilitating clinical translation of these findings.

Keywords: Cardiac ablation
Image guided interventions
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Ventricular arrhythmia
Advisor: Wright, Graham A
Functional Expression and Regulation of Drug Efflux Transporters and Drug Metabolic Enzymes in the Testis and Circulating T-cells: Relevance to HIV-1 Pharmacotherapy

Despite significant advances in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pharmacotherapy with the implementation of combination antiretroviral therapy (ART), HIV persistence in cellular reservoirs and tissue sanctuary sites is a major obstacle preventing the eradication of the virus. Suboptimal antiretroviral drug (ARV) concentrations reached in several anatomic sites such as the brain, testis, and gut-associated lymphoid tissues, could contribute in part, to persistent HIV infection. Biological membrane-bound ATP-binding cassette (ABC) and solute carrier (SLC) drug transporters, as well as drug metabolic enzymes, are known to interact with numerous ARVs, and as a result, could affect their distribution at sites of infection. Particularly, ABC drug efflux transporters and drug metabolic enzymes could reduce ARV concentrations in HIV target cells and tissues. The testis is recognised as an HIV sanctuary site, displaying subtherapeutic antiretroviral concentrations and persistent HIV infection. Furthermore, T-cells are the major cell types contributing to the HIV reservoir. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to: i) investigate the role of transcription factors i.e., pregnane X receptor (PXR) and constitutive androstane receptor (CAR) in the regulation of drug efflux transporters at the BTB, ii) assess the functional expression of ABC drug efflux transporters and drug metabolic enzymes in various human testicular and circulating T-cell subsets, and iii) examine the expression of drug efflux transporters, and their regulation by the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), in T-cells exposed to HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein (recombinant gp120IIIB) or pseudotype virus (pHIVNL4-3). We obtained novel data demonstrating PXR- and CAR-mediated upregulation of the functional expression of drug efflux transporters at the mouse BTB. We further demonstrated that drug efflux transporters and metabolic enzymes are functionally expressed in T-cell subsets infiltrating the human testis, suggesting their potential roles in restricting ARV permeability in this tissue. Finally, we provided evidence that ABC drug efflux transporters are upregulated in T-cells exposed to HIV via the mTOR signaling pathway. Understanding the roles and regulation of drug efflux transporters and metabolic enzymes in ARV disposition in HIV cell reservoirs and tissue sanctuaries is critical to overcome the challenge of suboptimal drug penetration at these sites.

Keywords: ABC transporters
Antiretroviral drugs
HIV reservoirs
Human Immunodeficiency Virus
Metabolizing enzymes
Nuclear receptors
Advisor: Bendayan, Reina
Towards the Next Generation of Lightweight Polypropylene Composites with Well-balanced Mechanical Properties

Reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites currently find their place in various structural components by integrating the benefits of PP as a matrix and rigid reinforcement filler, largely replacing traditional metals and their alloys. Their low resistance to fracture, however, is often the major limiting factor for applications where catastrophic failure of components must be avoided. Rubber toughening is a common method that addresses this challenge but a trade-off between rigidity and toughness is usually inevitable. To this end, this dissertation aims to uncover the limits of current systems and to explore alternate strategies.The first part of the thesis focuses on optimization of existing polymer formulations for lightweight PP composites via foam injection molding process. The effect of several critical parameters including processing conditions, rubber modifier and reinforcement filler type and loading on their mechanical properties are scrutinized as a function of relative density. The results indicate that, regardless of the relative density or the filler/rubber type, increasing the filler loading leads to gradual enhancement of rigidity and reduction of toughness, while incorporation of rubber modifier displays the reverse trend. Moreover, albeit an effective modifier for toughening of PP composites in general, rubber significantly loses their efficiency for PP composite foams in the presence of nucleated cells as the relative density is reduced further. The second part of the thesis introduces novel techniques for fabrication of lightweight PP composites toughened with in situ generated organic nanofibrils. The first methodology benefits from the formation of core-sheath nanofibrils that are thermodynamically favourable, while the second study combines in situ fibrillation and vulcanization processes to generate partially crosslinked rubber nanofibres. The distinct morphology of both nanofibrillar PP composite systems imparts mechanical properties that are superior to classical PP blends produced with the equivalent material composition. In summary, the outlined research serves as a guideline for the formulation of lightweight PP composites and opens up a new avenue for nanofibre-reinforced PP composite production, broadening the spectrum of their potential applications where excellent strength/toughness balance is indispensable. Furthermore, it provides a detailed framework for understanding the process-structure-property relationships of conventional and nanofibrillar PP composite systems.

Advisor: Park, Chul B.
Lee, Patrick C.
Exploring Domestic Violence Social Support Work in Postcolonial Trinidad and Tobago: Old Talk, New Conversations

Domestic violence social support work is often simplistically conceptualized as ‘help’. In this thesis, I query this narrative of help through a critical examination of domestic violence social support praxis in the neoliberal, postcolonial, multiracial context of Trinidad and Tobago. I contend that (re)reading the historical legacy of social support work as a site of regulation in the Caribbean is a significant component of this critique as these support interventions are deeply implicated in attempts to manage the social body during the post-emancipation, post-indentureship era. By both historicizing and attending to the current neoliberal context of this support work, I explore its contradictory character by illustrating the ways in which workers engage with hegemonic scripts of gender, race, class, sexuality and family. I track the ways that workers reproduce, interrupt and adapt these scripts, specifically in relation to the logics of governance reminiscent of the colonial period and in response to the contemporary neoliberal moment in the Caribbean. In this qualitative study, I offer an analysis of semi-structured interviews with twenty-six domestic violence social support workers. I specifically explore how they narrate their praxis and the ways that they conceptualize domestic violence and the subjects who are embroiled within it. Analyzing instantiations of hegemonic understandings of difference in these narratives, I argue that many workers conceptualize domestic violence in ways that individualize and de-gender it, while producing women’s survival in ways that are inflected by understandings of ‘the neoliberal subject’. What also comes to the fore is how notions of domestic violence are racialized in ways that are deeply linked with historically rooted discourses of race, violence and family. In spite of this link and the overtly racialized social environment, workers disclose deep investments in disavowing the significance of race in their praxis. I situate and explore these findings within the convergence of the colonial and disciplinary legacy of social support work in the region; the growing prominence of neoliberal discourses; and the continuities of colonial constructions of race, gender, class, sexuality and family.

Keywords: Caribbean
Domestic Violence
Violence Against Women
Neoliberalism
Racialization
Social Support Work
Social Work
Advisor: Trotz, D. Alissa
The Relationship between Multimorbidity and Incident Dementia in Ontario

It has been suggested that dementia is currently the greatest global challenge for health and social care. Given projected increases in prevalence, coupled with a lack of effective treatment, the primary prevention of dementia is being recognized for its potential role in reducing future disease burden. However, for preventive strategies to ultimately be tailored to individuals, there are gaps in our understanding of dementia that must first be addressed. In this context, this thesis examines three research questions related to the risk of incident dementia using linked provincial health administrative data: 1. Are all risk factors equal in how they contribute to dementia risk and how do the effects of multiple chronic conditions compare to the effects of chronic conditions considered as risk conditions for dementia? (Study 1) 2. When the role of time is appropriately accounted for, is there evidence of synergistic and dose-response effects of diabetes and hypertension and what role does medical comorbidity play? (Study 2) 3. Is there evidence of sex differences in the associations of diabetes, hypertension, and medical comorbidity with dementia? (Study 3) Study 1 confirmed a dose-response relationship between increased risk factor exposure and an increasing risk of dementia. However, it also shed light on the unequal contribution of risk factors to risk and highlighted a strong association between multimorbidity and dementia. Study 2 revealed evidence of a dose-response relationship between diabetes duration and risk of dementia. Hypertension was only associated with dementia in the presence of diabetes. Strong cumulative effects were found for medical comorbidity (i.e., number of chronic conditions other than diabetes and hypertension). There was also evidence that risk condition combination (i.e., the presence of diabetes and/or hypertension) and medical comorbidity each modified the association of the other with dementia. Study 3 did not find evidence of sex differences in the associations of risk condition combination and medical comorbidity with dementia. The thesis aimed to capture a slice of the nuances in health status that may contribute to heterogeneity in dementia risk. The results underscore that a holistic, lifecourse approach is required for understanding dementia risk and its prevention.

Keywords: Dementia
Dementia risk
Diabetes
Health services research
Hypertension
Multimorbidity
Advisor: Wodchis, Walter
A Problem Oriented Approach to Urban Transportation Planning

The complexity behind the urban phenomenon and the relationship between its systems and agents make the integrated land use and transportation (ILUT) planning practice a challenging and sophisticated step of the decision-making process. The difficulty in defining an adequate representation of problems that reflects both the perception and interests of all stakeholders involved and the interaction of the land use and transportation systems has often resulted in opposition and backlash towards decisions. Moreover, it seems clear that ILUT planning should focus on accessibility, promoting the efficient movement and access for people in urban areas and fulfilling a supporting role in promoting social inclusion, economic opportunities, and overall quality of life. This research addresses the existing theoretical, conceptual, and methodological gaps regarding urban transportation planning. It focuses specifically on the early stages of the planning process, seeking to highlight the importance of diagnosis for planning and its relevance to the later definition of objectives. It aims to answer the following questions: How does current planning practice identify and diagnose problems? How to frame “diagnosis” within ILUT planning? How, within the accessibility paradigm, can accessibility measures help to diagnose problems and inform the decision-making process? The research presents a literature review that highlights conceptual and methodological gaps, sets the current paradigms in the urban transportation planning field, and discusses different methodological approaches to address the complexity and systematic nature of urban problems. It also introduces an overview of the current urban and transportation planning practice in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area through a survey of planning practitioners. Additionally, it expands the discussion on problems and proposes a problem-oriented planning framework to identify, characterize, and diagnose problems. A theoretical exercise is presented to illustrate how planning dilemmas could benefit from the proposed planning framework in reconciling conflicting interests within a future vision for the city. Lastly, a case study is developed to characterize accessibility problems under the equity lens in the City of Toronto, allowing for a better understanding of how the land use and transportation systems, as well as individuals attributes, interact in shaping the socio-spatial reality where problems may emerge.

Keywords: accessibility
decision-making
diagnosis
land use
planning
transportation
Advisor: Miller, Eric J