Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Crutzen and Stoermer's (2000) announcement of the Anthropocene draws attention to the agentic nature of the nonhuman world as it appears to be striking back against human intervention through an environmental crisis that is threatening humans and nonhumans alike. Their narrative reveals complex relationalities where humans are now revealed to beinseparable from the nonhuman world… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Games immerse players. Through immersion, players can see themselves embodied in their avatars. There is space for meaningful experimentation of gender through these avatars as embodied players can blur the lines between their real-life and virtual selves. The player's avatar becomes that person — in terms of personality, feelings, and gender identity/expression. In virtual reality… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation focuses on the intersectionality between images posted on social media and social rules in the lives of young people. The findings are based on thirty-four qualitative interviews with young social media users where photo-based methodologies were employed. From these interviews, three key themes emerged: 1) Posting and sharing images are connected to identity exploration… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Never, Alana, Thesis advisor (ths): Henderson, Scott SH, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jiménez, Karleen KPJ, Degree committee member (dgc): Avdeeff, Melissa MA, Degree committee member (dgc): Epp, Michael ME, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This thesis examines Beyoncé's art within the context of Black feminist thought, specifically focusing on how her work reflects and contributes to the themes of sisterhood, female empowerment, and intersectionality. A comprehensive analysis of her songs and performances will demonstrate how Beyoncé's art advocates for unity, female empowerment, particularly for Black women, and… more Year: 2024, 2024
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Bailey, Tanya Ann, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jiminez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Bellamy, Brent, Degree committee member (dgc): Anastakis, Dimitry, Degree committee member (dgc): McGuire, Kelly, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>An interesting question arises upon viewing the 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz (MGM). The main character Dorothy Gale faces a long arduous journey on foot. Why did she not have a car? Women had formed strong associations with the automobile in its early years, yet they appeared to have weaker associations with the automobile a few decades later. A look back to three other "Dorothies… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Taunton, Rachel L. J., Thesis advisor (ths): Keefer, Katrina, Thesis advisor (ths): McGuire, Kelly, Degree committee member (dgc): Schwarz, Suzanne, Degree committee member (dgc): Nguyen-Marshall, Van, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This thesis demonstrates how the proper application of theoretical archaeological and osteological methods to archival documents can be both illuminating and vital to create a fuller understanding of those who have been historically silenced. By performing an archival analysis informed by an archaeological background, the first four volumes of the Registers of Liberated Africans from… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>For the Road is a study of the modes of transmission of ideas within the Counterculture in its different forms. It is a genealogy of movements that define themselves "against" what is established as "Culture". The philosophy of the Beat Generation does not come out of nowhere and in turn, many recent movements are indebted to the Beat Generation. The goal of this… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation offers a historical look at the book cover as a material object of particular significance. As a part of the bibliographical tradition, the cover binds the book not only to its reader, but also to the culture that gives it meaning. Consequently, by chronologically reviewing the book cover through a mix of historical and fictional accounts, this study had as its goal to… more Year: 2023, 2023
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation traces the emergence of the "transgender predator" discourse on social media. Taking its cue from the 2019 British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal case Yaniv v. Various Waxing Salons, in which a white Canadian trans woman named Jessica Yaniv unsuccessfully filed a series of complaints against a number of racialized cisgender aestheticians claiming that they… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Zelenskiy, Alexey, Thesis advisor (ths): Penney, James JP, Degree committee member (dgc): Bailey, Steven SB, Degree committee member (dgc): Mitchell, Liam LM, Degree committee member (dgc): Flisfeder, Matthew MF, Degree committee member (dgc): Synenko, Joshua JS, Degree committee member (dgc): Epp, Michael ME, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>The goal of this dissertation is to formulate a critique of embodiment through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis and in the context of digital media and intelligent technologies. Along with psychoanalysis, our research methodology and philosophy are informed by Badiou's philosophy of the event, Stiegler's philosophy of technics and infrastructuralism in media studies. Our… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): van Vliet, Elizabeth, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Thesis advisor (ths): Synenko, Joshua, Degree committee member (dgc): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): Synenko, Joshua, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton-Jiménez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Mitchell, Liam, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This thesis examines the ways in which body image is discussed in online settings. There are three different communities discussed: body positivity, proED (pro-eating disorder), and body neutrality. Both body positivity and proED content are fairly popular online, and both have found significant support and followers on various social medias. In this thesis, I argue that both of these… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>In 1995, Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation held its inaugural symposium titled "Art in the Landscape". During the roundtable discussion, walking artist Hamish Fulton asserted that there are fundamental differences between his art and American Land Art. Drawing on Fulton's assertion, this dissertation argues for the redefinition of British environmental art,… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The purpose of this research is to highlight the limitations and opportunities for playful expression of gender identity in character creation systems of virtual worlds, and how these might work to reinforce, or disrupt, the heteronormative imperative. The primary sites considered in this analysis are the video game World of Warcraft and the live action role-playing game Amtgard. I… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation is about Forests, their loss and the grieving that arises from their loss. The loss of ancient and old-growth forests by way of clearcutting and or anthropogenically driven disturbances, including climate change, presents the quandary of loss of both biological and cultural diversity. Following Umeek's/E. Richard Atleo's term, I suggest that "dis-ease… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis examines the impact that digital labour and work from home have across different populations. This work is framed with regards to Marxist-feminism and particularly examines the impact of work from home across different genders. To demonstrate the depth and breadth of the impact that work from home has on worker agency, four unique industries are analyzed: office jobs, gig… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Allwood Portillo, Mark, Thesis advisor (ths): Bordo, Jonathan, Degree committee member (dgc): Cammaer, Gerda, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Cazorla Sánchez, Antonio, Degree committee member (dgc): Fenner, Angelica, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>From Altdorfer and Poussin to Cézanne, Monet and to the Group of Seven, landscape has been a focal point of artistic inspiration for most of what we think of as modern art history. In contemporary times the concept and representation of landscape has shifted from visions of an idealized and exalted place to notions of the landscape as a ruins and site of ecological disaster. Because of… more Year: 2022, 2022
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Cousins, Richard James, Thesis advisor (ths): Epp, Michael, Degree committee member (dgc): McLachlan, Ian, Degree committee member (dgc): Mroz, Daniel, Degree committee member (dgc): Manning, Paul, Degree committee member (dgc): McGowan, David, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Why show things that aren't people acting like people? In the field of animation, it's a surprisingly big "why?", because it's a "why?" that doesn't lead to any sort of doctrine of ontology, of inevitability, of manifest destiny, or of anything like that. But it does lead to another "why?"—"why did anthropomorphic depictions of… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The following thesis problematizes different theories of subject formation in relation to morality, accountability, and consciousness raising. Focusing on the conditions subjects emerge in, I argue that socially transformative subjectivities emerge in movement through spaces. The theoretical discussion departs from the premise that morally accountable subjectivities drive social change.… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The objective of this dissertation is to measure the influence of the contemporary influx of women's involvement in the horror genre in three dimensional capacities: female representation in horror films, female representation as active, participatory spectators and female representation in the industrial production of horror. Through the combined approach of theoretical and… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This thesis explores access to feminist zine culture and community, specifically if, and how, access has been altered in the age of digital technologies and increased access to digital spaces. Results from a questionnaire completed by 8 young feminist zine-makers and readers of marginalized genders indicated that though the modern boundaries of what a zine is has been expanded to include… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The thesis examines the changes in the representations of women in Turkish cinema from the 1980s through the 2000s in terms of semiotic codes. To demonstrate the shifts of the representations of women over three decades, four films directed by two representative filmmakers of the 1980s and the 2000s are analyzed within the context of gender codes: A Sip of Love (Atıf Yılmaz/1984), The… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Hines, Kelly Dorothea, Thesis advisor (ths): Hollinger, Veronica, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Egan, Kelly, Degree committee member (dgc): Cecchetto, David, Degree committee member (dgc): Howes, Moira, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Untitled (dissertation 4.2) offers a performative take on the political implications of digital archives. I argue that technological developments and their increasing ubiquity has not resulted in more reliable archives; it has facilitated the exacerbation of what Jacques Derrida calls mal d'archive—or archive fever—which refers to the institutionally supported passion to preserve… more Year: 2021, 2021
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Mahdavi, Mir Hussain, Thesis advisor (ths): Hodges, Hugh, Degree committee member (dgc): Donaldson, Jeffery, Degree committee member (dgc): Rouselle, Duane, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>The central question of this research is "What is poetry?" The ambiguity and unintelligibility of the question itself forces the writing to take two different approaches to it. The first approach is to define poetry not by what it is but by how it is related to the human being and to the world. Seeing poetry as its relation to Being allows a definition of poetry based on its… more Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Thursby, Laura, Thesis advisor (ths): Hollinger, Veronica, Degree committee member (dgc): Bordo, Jonathan, Degree committee member (dgc): Dunaway, Finis, Degree committee member (dgc): Lepselter, Susan, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This dissertation offers a cultural analysis of UFOs and extraterrestrials in the United States. In it I look at what I call real aliens — extraterrestrials believed to be real and interacting with humans on Earth. Beliefs in real aliens are often denigrated and dismissed in official discourse, yet they continue to not only persist, but thrive, in American society. Hence, this… more Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Aghayan, Nooshin, Thesis advisor (ths): Bordo, Jonathan, Degree committee member (dgc): Wernick, Andrew, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Tavakoli-Targhi, Mohammad, Degree committee member (dgc): Mincheva, Dyliana, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This dissertation is a critical review of the discursive formation of Islamic art in the twentieth century and the continuing problems that the early categorization of this discipline carries. It deals with the impact of these problems on the conceptualization of another category, Persian art. The subject is expounded by three propositions. First, the category of Islamic art was… more Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The central scholarly contribution of this dissertation develops through bringing the theories of Michel Foucault to bear in a sociolegal study of rave culture's criminalization by the United Kingdom's 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act. My methodology develops rave as a cultural keyword. This keyword navigates through a quasi-materialist definition of rave as a… more Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The modern sense of historicism developed over time that brought different textures at the intersection between history and fiction. The life of Jesus of Nazareth, prolifically researched after Herman Reimarus (1694-1768) right until today – a phenomenon known as The Quest for the Historical Jesus – provides an instructive case study for a wider discussion about the intersection between… more Year: 2019, 2019
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Affleck, Sara Jane, Thesis advisor (ths): Hollinger, Veronica, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Pendleton Jimenez, Karleen, Degree committee member (dgc): Chivers, Sally, Degree committee member (dgc): Verwaayen, Kim, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Parody has been a strategy within cultural production since the ancient Greeks: "paraodia" referred to a song sung alongside the main narrative thread of a dramatic work; the prefix "para-" also signifies "against." In A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-century Art Forms, Linda Hutcheon offers this core definition: parody is "a form of… more Year: 2018, 2018
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>Independent music venues are important hubs of social activity and cultural</p><p>production around which local punk scenes are both physically and conceptually</p><p>organized. Through interactions with participants over extended periods of time, these</p><p>spaces become meaningful places that are imbued with the energy, history and memories</p… more Year: 2018, 2018
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Ingwersen, Moritz Andree, Thesis advisor (ths): Hollinger, Veronica, Thesis advisor (ths): Berressem, Hanjo, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Holdsworth, David, Degree committee member (dgc): Pethes, Nicolas, Degree committee member (dgc): Milburn, Colin, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This dissertation presents the work of the American science fiction writer Neal Stephenson as a case study of mediations between literature and science by mobilizing its resonances with contemporary science studies and media theory. Tracing the historical and thematic trajectory of his consecutively published novels Snow Crash (1992), The Diamond Age; or, A Young Lady's Illustrated… more Year: 2018, 2018
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Patnaik, Anhiti, Thesis advisor (ths): Bordo, Jonathan, Thesis advisor (ths): Thomas, Yves, Degree committee member (dgc): Penney, James, Degree committee member (dgc): Bailey, Suzanne, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This dissertation examines how sex crime and serial killing became a legitimate subject of aesthetic representation and mass consumption in the nineteenth century. It also probes into the ethical implications of deriving pleasure from consuming such graphic representations of violence. Taking off from Jack the Ripper and the iconic Whitechapel murders of 1888, it argues that a new… more Year: 2017, 2017
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>In dialogue with the critical scholarship on war and remembrance, my research deals with the construction, contestation and negotiation of collective memory in contemporary Vietnam with a focus on commemorations devoted to dead soldiers. Utilizing the methodologies of cultural studies and ethnography, this research seeks to comprehend the politics of memory which characterize collective… more Year: 2017, 2017
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Cyr, Rachel Esther, Thesis advisor (ths): Junyk, Ihor, Thesis advisor (ths): Bordo, Jonathan, Degree committee member (dgc): Pletenac, Tomislav, Degree committee member (dgc): Milloy, John, Degree committee member (dgc): Innis, Randy, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>Forensic scientific practice is conventionally understood as a solution to absence. With every technological advance the power and span of the archive grows and with it revives hopes of uncovering facts and locate bodies that might put genocide denial and/or negationism to rest. Destruction, however, continues to define the reality and conditions</p><p>for testimony in the… more Year: 2016, 2016
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation focuses on the English-language anarchist periodical press in the United States in the 1890s and early 1900s. Each of the three chapters of this dissertation examines one anarchist paper and its coverage of a specific issue. The first chapter focuses on Prison Blossoms, which was started by Alexander Berkman, Carl Nold, and Henry Bauer and written and circulated in the… more Year: 2016, 2016
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Potempski, Jacob, Thesis advisor (ths): Angelova, Emilia, Degree committee member (dgc): Egan, Kelly, Degree committee member (dgc): Penney, James, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>The three projects that make up this dissertation try to articulate an ontological idea of art; which is to say, they all approach art, or the imagination (as in project two), from the standpoint of a philosophical question concerning the sense of being. The ontological question is elaborated in terms of a theory of the spatial-temporal structure of the aesthetic or sensible realm. This… more Year: 2016, 2016
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The 1980s in the United States have come into focus as years of extensive ideological and socioeconomic fracture. A conservative movement arose to counter the progressive gains of previous decades, neoliberalism became the nation's economic mantra, and détente was jettisoned in favour of military build-up. Such developments materialized out of a multitude of conflicts, a cultural… more Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Bell, Jeremy Owen, Thesis advisor (ths): Bordo, Jonathan, Thesis advisor (ths): Thomas, Yves, Degree committee member (dgc): Junyk, Ihor, Degree committee member (dgc): Wernick, Andrew, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>The dissertation explores the aesthetic anthropology of Georges Bataille and his collaborators in the Collège de Sociologie, a distinguished group of intellectuals including Roger Caillois, Michel Leiris, Pierre Klossowski, and Walter Benjamin among others. At the dissertation's outset the role, influence, discovery and indeed invention of the Marquis de Sade as the almost mythic… more Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The overarching argument of this manuscript concerns Lacanian Realism, that is, the Lacanian theory of the Real. Initially, my argument may seem quite modest: I claim that Lacanians have been preoccupied with a particular modality of the Real, one that insists on interrupting, limiting, or exceeding the various orders or agencies of the human mind. The implications of such a position are… more Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Name(s): Creator (cre): Bordun, Troy Michael, Thesis advisor (ths): Panagia, Davide, Degree committee member (dgc): McLachlan, Ian, Degree committee member (dgc): Stavro, Elaine, Degree committee member (dgc): Hollinger, Veronica, Degree granting institution (dgg): Trent University Abstract: <p>This dissertation re-evaluates theories of genre and spectatorship in light of a critic-defined tendency in recent art cinema, coined extreme cinema. It argues that the films of Mexican director Carlos Reygadas and French director Catherine Breillat expand our generic classifications and, through the re-organization of the visual presentation of genre-specific clichés and devices, their… more Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This three-part dissertation will consider both theoretical and practical implications that Baruch Spinoza's (1632-1677) immanent philosophical system holds for developing a contemporary "pedagogy of renaturalization." One of the intents of this thesis is to draw out how "intellectual slut shaming" is a naturalized part of neoliberal subjectivity. </p><p… more Year: 2015, 2015
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>On Tilt: The Inheritance and Inheritors of Digital Games accepts and extends Eric Zimmerman's contention that literacies currently being developed during video-game play will be more broadly applicable (outside games) in the next hundred years as Western work, education, entertainment, and citizenship spaces become ever more shaped like video games. </p><p> To the end of… more Year: 2014, 2014
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>The dissertation explores and defends the theory and practice of a Western-Islamic public sphere (which is secular but not secularist and which is Islamic but not Islamist), within which a critical Islamic intellectual universe can unfold, dealing hermeneutically with texts and politically with lived practices, and which, moreover, has to emerge from within the arc of two alternative,… more Year: 2014, 2014
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>This dissertation traces the concept of transcendentalism from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781) to Michel Foucault's historical a priori and Pierre Bourdieu's field and habitus, with implicit reference to Deleuze's `transcendental empiricism,' and the influence this trajectory has had on contemporary theory and culture. This general conceptual framework is… more Year: 2014, 2014
Member of: Trent University Graduate Thesis Collection
Abstract: <p>My research examines the figure of the 'vagabond' as a case study to illustrate how 'modern' </p><p>perception of the 'vagabond' has depleted the diversities in its 'pre-modern' counterparts. It </p><p>argues that the paranoia towards the 'vagabond' was inherited from the west out of the </p><p>colonial… more
