VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
Staging the Nation, Staging Democracy: The Politics of Commemoration in Germany and Austria, 1918-1933/34

Between 1914 and 1919, Germans and Austrians experienced previously unimaginable sociopolitical transformations: four years of war, military defeat, the collapse of the Hohenzollern and Habsburg monarchies, the creation of democratic republics, and the redrawing of the map of Central Europe. Through an analysis of new state symbols and the staging of political and cultural celebrations, this dissertation explores the multiple and conflicting ways in which Germans and Austrians sought to reconceptualize the relationships between nation, state and politics in the wake of the First World War. Whereas the political right argued that democracy was a foreign imposition, supporters of democracy in both countries went to great lengths to refute these claims. In particular, German and Austrian republicans endeavored to link their fledgling democracies to the established tradition of großdeutsch nationalism – the idea that a German nation-state should include Austria – in an attempt to legitimize their embattled republics. By using nineteenth-century großdeutsch symbols and showing continued support for an Anschluss (political union) even after the Entente forbade it, republicans hoped to create a transborder German national community that would be compatible with a democratic body politic. As a project that investigates the entangled and comparative histories of Germany and Austria, this dissertation makes three contributions to the study of German nationalism and modern Central European history. First, in revealing the pervasiveness of großdeutsch ideas and symbols at this time, I point to the necessity of looking at both Germany and Austria when considering topics such as the redefinition of national identity and the creation of democracy in post-World War I Central Europe. Second, it highlights the need to move beyond the binary categorizations of civic and ethnic nationalisms, which place German nationalism in the latter category. As the republicans’ use of großdeutsch nationalism demonstrates, the creation of a transborder German community was not simply the work of the extreme political right. Third, it contributes to recent scholarship which seeks to move past the entrenched question of why interwar German and Austrian democracies failed. Instead of simply viewing the two republics as failures, it investigates the ways in which citizens engaged with the new form of government, as well as the prospects for the success of democracy in the wake of military defeat. In drawing attention to the differences between the German and Austrian experiments with democracy, this dissertation points to the relative strengths of the Weimar Republic when compared to the First Austrian Republic.

Keywords: Weimar Republic
First Austrian Republic
Nationalism
Advisor: Jenkins, Jennifer M.
The Politics of Canada's Access to Medicines Regime: The Dogs that Didn't Bark

Decisions to reform pharmaceutical policy often involve trade-offs between competing social and commercial goals. Canada's Access to Medicines Regime (CAMR), a reform that permits compulsory licensing for the production and export of medicines to developing countries, aimed to reconcile these goals. Since it was passed in 2004, only one order of antiretroviral drugs, enough for 21,000 HIV/AIDS patients in Rwanda for one year, has been exported. Future use of the regime appears unlikely. This research aimed to examine the politics underlying the formation of CAMR. Parliamentary committee hearing transcripts from CAMR's legislative development (2004) and from CAMR's legislative review (2007) were analyzed using a content analysis technique to identify how stakeholders who participated in the debates framed the issues. These findings were subsequently analyzed using a framework of framing, institutions and interests to determine how these three dimensions shaped CAMR's final policy design. In 2004, policy debates were dominated by two themes: intellectual property rights and TRIPS compliance. Promoting human rights and the impact of CAMR on innovation were hardly discussed. With the Departments of Industry Canada and International Trade as the lead institutions, the goals of protecting intellectual property and ensuring good trade relations with the United States appear to have taken priority over encouraging generic competition to achieve drug affordability. The result was a more limited interpretation of patent flexibilities under the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. The most striking finding is the minimal discussion over the potential barriers developing country beneficiaries might face when attempting to use compulsory licensing, including their reluctance to use TRIPS flexibilities, their desire to pursue technological development and the constraints inherent in the WTO Paragraph 6 Decision. Instead, these issues were raised in 2007, which can be partly accounted for by a greater representation of the interests of potential beneficiary country governments. While the Government attempted to strike a balance between drug affordability and intellectual property protection, it designed CAMR as a last resort measure. Increased input from the developing country beneficiaries and shifting to institutions where the right to health gets prioritized may lead to policies that better achieves affordable drug access.

Keywords: Canada's Access to Medicines Regime
CAMR
TRIPS
WTO
intellectual property
patents
access to medicines
drug access
HIV/AIDS
pharmaceutical policy
framing
content analysis
Paragraph 6
Advisor: Kohler, Jillian Clare
Le Mal Jaune: The Memory of the Indochina War in France, 1954-2006

National historical memory in France has often given rise to violent polemic. Controversial episodes of national history, such as the Second World War and Algerian conflict, have attracted considerable attention. Yet despite its obvious importance as a particularly violent war of decolonization and precursor to the Vietnam War, the First Indochina War (1946-54) has largely been ignored. In the context of decolonization and the beginning of the Cold War, however, Indochina offers a unique example of the complex relationship between event, commemoration, and memory. This dissertation examines state commemorations, official and unofficial sites of memory, film and other media representations of the war, and several “flashpoint” events that have elicited particularly heated debates over the legacies of the war. The thematic structure allows me to bring together various vehicles and artefacts of memory, from monuments to commemorative ceremonies to veterans’ associations, along with less tangible expressions of memory expressed through public debates and film. I also analyze the tangible legacy of colonialism in the metropole: the ‘repatriate’ camps that housed primarily French citizens of Vietnamese, Lao and Cambodian origin after 1956. This chapter makes an important contribution to the history of immigration to France, which is critical to understanding issues currently facing this multicultural society. Two dominant narratives emerge from my analysis. The first is maintained by a majority of veterans and elements of the political right and extreme right, and is characterized by themes of heroic soldiers combating communism and a belief in their abandonment by the metropolitan government and public. In some cases, a sense of duty to protect ‘Greater France’ is invoked, and in others, the duty to fight with the independent Vietnamese against their communist oppressors. The second narrative casts the conflict as a ‘dirty’ war of colonial reconquest. Though the primary goal of the dissertation is to elucidate the construction of particular narratives of war, I argue that this memorial process is inherently intertwined with the re-evaluation of the colonial project. The fundamental disagreement over the nature of the war, as either a battle against communism or a war of colonial reconquest, has prompted extensive debates over the relative merits of the colonial project and its putative resurrection in 1945.

Keywords: Memory
Decolonization
Modern France
Indochina War
Advisor: Jennings, Eric
L'inscription du trauma dans le récit d'enfance autobiographique au féminin en France depuis 1980

Cette thèse a pour but d’analyser la construction textuelle du trauma dans le récit d’enfance dans la littérature française contemporaine au féminin. Ce travail montre comment chaque auteure articule la scène traumatique, l’organise au sein du récit et manie les procédés narratifs et énonciatifs pour saisir le réel traumatique. Le chapitre I trace l’évolution du récit d’enfance en tant que pratique littéraire depuis deux siècles pour ensuite s’arrêter sur la modification de la notion de trauma depuis les recherches sur l’hystérie de Freud, en passant par les effets du choc initial sur le moi pour arriver à la nécessité de regagner contrôle des souvenirs traumatiques par la mise en récit. Ce chapitre théorique se termine par une discussion sur les limites et détours de l’écriture du trauma dans les récits autobiographiques. Le chapitre II commence par un bref survol sur l’enfance maltraitée dans la littérature française et sur les différents types de maltraitance et leurs effets persistants sur l’individu. Puis, l’analyse des textes de Marguerite Duras (Un barrage contre le Pacifique, L’amant et L’amant de la Chine du Nord) et de Chloé Delaume (Le cri du sablier) fait ressortir le jeu avec le réel et le fictif pour parler du trauma de la maltraitance. Le chapitre III sur le trauma de l’inceste débute sur les recherches de Ferenczi sur la séduction, pour ensuite démontrer, d’une part, que Béatrice de Jurquet (La traversée des lignes) favorise des stratégies textuelles mettant en avant une identité plurielle, et que, d’autre part, Colette Mainguy (La Juive) multiplie les discours qui lui permettent d’agir sur la reconstruction de son trauma d’inceste. Le chapitre IV s’ouvre sur une discussion sur le deuil dans la littérature française contemporaine suivie d’une analyse sur l’hétérogénéité énonciative chez Chantal Chawaf (Le manteau noir), qui se traduit par l’emploi de la troisième personne du singulier et par la présence spectrale des parents et d’une étude de la structure dialogique chez Marie Nimier (La reine du silence). Notre déplacement vers l’analyse des stratégies textuelles montre comment la forme de la prise de parole dans le récit négocie le choc consécutif au trauma, l’intègre, le transforme pour tenter de dépasser un blocage.

Keywords: récit d'enfance
littérature française contemporaine
trauma
écriture des femmes
Advisor: Havercroft, Barbara
Ceramic Continuity and Change at Shechem (Tell Balatâh): Assessing the Impact of Egyptian Imperialism in the Central Hill Country

The material culture of Late Bronze Age Shechem (Tell Balatâh) provides an opportunity to assess the nature and extent of the Egyptian imperial presence in the Central Highlands, as well as the ways in which endogenous cultural traits endured during a period of intensifying military presence. While scholars have yet to fully agree on the exact nature of Egyptian imperialism, most concur that contact with Egypt had a profound impact on the political, economic and social institutions of the southern Levant. The analysis of ceramics at Shechem reveals continuity in settlement, ceramic morphology and technology throughout the Late Bronze period. These findings contribute to an expanding corpus of ceramic studies, which indicate that a complex interaction and negotiation of cultural boundaries existed during this imperial period. While there was not a sustained Egyptian presence in the Central Hill Country, textual and archaeological data suggest there was limited interaction. While more is known about how this imperial presence was manifested architecturally in the form of “governor residencies” and “trading entropôts,” recent investigations at coastal and inland sites reveal that the interaction between Egyptian and Canaanite ceramic technology was site-specific and reciprocal in nature. The Shechem ceramic analysis illustrates the tenacity with which potters retained Canaanite traditions at this Central Hill Country site during a period of sporadic Egyptian contact.

Keywords: Archaeology
Ceramics
Levant
Late Bronze Age
Advisor: Harrison, Timothy P.
“The Psychosocial Portrait of Immigration through the Medium of Reading”: Leisure Reading and Its Role in the Lives of Russian-speaking Immigrants in Toronto

This doctoral study investigates the nature and role of leisure reading in the lives of avid immigrant readers. Guided by hermeneutic phenomenology and conducted by means of surveys and in-depth interviews, it uses a sample of Russian-speaking immigrants in Toronto, Canada, as a case study. The overarching research problem is divided into three research questions (RQ): RQ1: Who are the readers? RQ2: What are the main characteristics of reading behavior and habits of participants after immigration? RQ3: What role does leisure reading play in participants’ lives in immigration? Answering RQ1, the study paints demographic and socio-cultural portraits of participants; recreates a variety of contexts shaping their reading; and unfolds their reader histories. In response to RQ2, it traces immediate post-immigration fluctuations in reading behavior; records the most peculiar reading contents; explores participants’ self-perceptions as readers; outlines the major areas of post-immigration changes in leisure reading; and presents the analysis of acculturation stress in the area of leisure reading. It is concluded that leisure reading can be a more sensitive indicator of acculturation than more utilitarian measures, because it can open a window to the cultural and psychological intricacies of acculturation. Finally, RQ3 generates a theoretical discussion of the concept of ‘the role of reading’ and determines the study focus on immigration-specific, emotional and instrumental, roles. Leisure reading is found important in coping with the culture shock; sharing the experience of others and assessing personal immigration paths; re-evaluating the history of the fatherland and gaining a new perspective on the national heritage; stabilizing identity; learning about the new country; improving English-language proficiency; and compensating for the deficiencies of a transitional period. In addition, leisure reading emerges as a powerful force cementing ethnic and transnational reading communities. The study expands the selected acculturation models and theories; introduces clarity to the concepts of the role and appeal of reading; highlights the dual and self-reinforcing function of reading as a measure and a determinant of acculturation. Finally, it presents a systematic examination of the ethnic readership that has escaped the attention of reading researchers in the largest immigrant-receiving countries, Canada and the United States.

Keywords: leisure reading
books and reading
readers
immigrants
acculturation
adaptation
Canada
North America
Russia
Soviet Union
Advisor: Dilevko, Juris B.
The Roles of Far Field Stress and Mantle Downwelling In Intraplate Deformation: The Michigan Basin

The Michigan basin has long been established as the type example of an intracratonic basin due to its near circular geometry and gently inward-dipping Paleozoic formations. The backstripping of major formations within the basin reveals that its geometry varied over the duration of the Paleozoic, displaying two distinct subsidence signals consisting of quasi-circular basin-centered subsidence interspaced with periods of irregular basin geometry. The quasi-circular basin-centred subsidence is thought to represent the surface expression of a driving mechanism located beneath the Michigan basin, which persisted for the duration of the Paleozoic. An irregular subsidence geometry periodically interrupts the quasi - circular basin-centred pattern and is contemporaneous with the Ordovician Taconic and Devonian Acadian orogenies. Through the use of scaled analogue experiments, the effects of convective mantle downwelling and long wavelength folding are explored as potential driving mechanisms to explain the subsidence patterns of the Michigan basin. Convective mantle downwelling is hypothesized as the process responsible for the quasi-circular basin-centered subsidence patterns and the relationship between mantle flow velocities and a variety of continental strength profiles is explored. A series of scaled analogue vice experiments explore the effects of regional orogeny on a continental hinterland, with some experiments containing a strong lower crustal strength heterogeneity, designed to test the possible influence of the Mid Continental rift beneath the Michigan basin. The results of both types of experiment demonstrate that quasi-circular subsidence patterns within the Michigan basin may have been formed due to convective mantle downwelling, while the effects of regional orogeny and long wavelength folding dramatically influenced subsidence patterns during the Taconic and Acadian orogenies.

Keywords: Michigan
Subsidence
Advisor: Cruden, Alexander R.
Elucidating the Role of Endothelin-2 (ET-2) in Inherited Photoreceptor Degenerations and the Indirect Effects of Systemic ET-2 Loss

Inherited photoreceptor degenerations (IPDs) are the most common monogenic cause of blindness in humans. To discover genes that may influence the risk of death in IPDs, microarray studies were used, and ET-2 was identified as the most differentially expressed transcript. ET-2 mRNA was 32-fold (p< 0.004), 70-fold (p< 0.009) and 72-fold (p<0.0009) increased in the Rds+/- , Tg(RHO P347S) and Rd1-/- mouse models of IPD, respectively, and the ET-2 peptide was minimally three-fold upregulated in Rds+/- retinas. The increased ET-2 transcript was detected solely in the photoreceptors (PRs) of Rds+/- and Tg(RHO P347S) retinas, but not in wild-type (wt) retinas by in situ hybridization. To determine the biological role of ET-2 in IPDs, mouse IPD models were crossed to ET-2-null mice. At age 40 and 15 days, ET-2-/-; Tg(RHO P347S) and ET-2-/-;Rd1-/- retinas showed, respectively, a 41% (n=6;p<0.003) and 49% rescue of PR degeneration (n=5;p<0.007). Unexpectedly, however, the PRs in ET-2-/- Rd1-/-retinal explants were not rescued (n=6;p>0.05), suggesting that the rescue observed in vivo might be due to extraocular mechanisms. Additionally, the expression of ET-2 mRNA from an rAAV5-CBA-ET-2 vector in ET-2-/-; Rd1-/- retinas did not restore PR degeneration (n=6;p>0.05). A survey of the extraocular phenotypes of ET-2 null mice showed them to be hypoxic owing to aberrant lung development, with a loss of normal alveolarization of the lung. Erythropoietin (EPO) levels were 11-fold elevated in the serum of ET-2 null mice (n=7;p<0.05) and retinal vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) was increased 4-fold (n=4;p<0.05). To examine the role of hypoxia in PR degeneration and to exclude increased EPO levels as the sole factor accounting for the rescue of mutant PRs in ET-2-/-; Tg(RHO P347S) and ET-2-/-;Rd1-/- mice in vivo, the effect of hypoxia on PR death in Rd1-/- retinal explants was examined. Rd1-/- explants cultured in 6% O2 from PN10 to PN17 showed a 32% rescue of PR death (n=5;p<0.05). Although ET-2 may mediate PR death through a direct role in mutant PRs, the PR rescue observed in ET-2-/-; Tg(RHO P347S) and ET-2-/-;Rd1-/-retinas may also result from systemic hypoxia due to poor lung function in ET-2-/- animals.

Keywords: Retina
Endothelin
Advisor: McInnes, Roderick
Geometric Control of Cardiomyogenic Induction from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells

Pluripotent stem cells provide the opportunity to study human cardiogenesis in vitro, and are a renewable source of tissue for drug testing and disease models, including replacement cardiomyocytes that may be a useful treatment for heart failure. Typically, differentiation is initiated by forming spherical cell aggregates wherein an extraembryonic endoderm (ExE) layer develops on the surface. Given that interactions between endoderm and mesoderm influence embryonic cardiogenesis, we examined the impact of human embryonic stem cell (hESC) aggregate size on endoderm and cardiac development. We first demonstrated aggregate size control by micropatterning hESC colonies at defined diameters and transferring the colonies to suspension. The ratio of endoderm (GATA-6) to neural (PAX6) gene and protein expression increased with decreasing colony size. Subsequently, maximum mesoderm and cardiac induction occurred in larger aggregates when initiated with endoderm-biased hESCs (high GATA-6:PAX6), and in smaller aggregates when initiated with neural-biased hESCs (low GATA-6:PAX6). Additionally, incorporating micropatterned aggregates in a stirred suspension bioreactor increased cell yields and contracting aggregate frequency. We next interrogated the relationship between aggregate size and endoderm and cardiac differentiation efficiency in size-controlled aggregates, generated using forced aggregation, in defined cardiogenic medium. An inverse relationship between endoderm cell frequency (FoxA2+ and GATA6+) and aggregate size was observed, and cardiogenesis was maximized in mid-size aggregates (1000 cells) based on frequency of cardiac progenitors (~50% KDRlow/C-KITneg) on day 5 and cardiomyocytes (~24% cTnT+) on day 16. To elucidate a relationship between endoderm frequency and cardiac differentiation efficiency, aggregates were initiated with varying frequencies of ExE progenitors (SOX7-overexpressing hESCs). Maximum cardiomyocyte frequencies (~27%) occurred in aggregates formed with 10 to 25% ExE progenitors. These findings suggest a geometric relationship between aggregate size and ExE differentiation efficiency subsequently impacts cardiomyocyte yield, elucidating a mechanism for endogenous control of cell fate through cell-cell interactions in the aggregate.

Keywords: Human Pluripotent Stem Cells
Cardiomyocytes
embryonic stem cells
microfabrication
Advisor: Zandstra, Peter W.