Undergraduate Academic Work

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https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/1880/111462

Collection of unpublished undergraduate work.

Submissions are sponsored by Faculty for inclusion. For details on how to submit Undergraduate Academic Work see: Undergraduate Work in PRISM

For more information about University of Calgary Undergraduate Programs see: Undergraduate Degree Programs

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 21
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    Critical Commentary: Canadian Educational Systems as Structures of Indigenous Oppression
    (2021-05-02) King, Abigail; Reid, Sasha
    I was inspired to write the topic of my critical commentary through Episodes 1 and 4 of Sasha Reid’s Podcasts titled Sociology of Indigenous People (2021a; 2021b). In Episode 1, Reid (2021a) gave a brief review of Indigenous history in Canada and touched on topics such as the Indian Act and Residential Schools. Further, Reid asked multiple true or false questions testing students understanding of Indigenous people and discussed her previous classes misconceptions (Reid, 2021a). In Episode 4, Reid delved into the relationship between education and Indigenous people and education as a significant determinant of health (Reid, 2021b). Reid furthered the discussion with the concept of Indigenizing education to combat the negative consequences of a Eurocentric curriculum that stereotypes and misrepresents Indigenous people (Reid, 2021b). The four topics from the lectures I discussed above; the Indian Act, Residential Schools, widespread misconceptions around Indigenous peoples and Eurocentric education, demonstrate Canada’s transition from explicit to implicit oppressive tactics on Indigenous peoples. I believe Canada’s educational system, besides being a major health determinant for Indigenous people, is also working to further the cycle of racism. In the late 1800s to 1900s, Canada used a combination of overtly racist policies and practices including the Indian Act and Residential Schools along with widespread negative stereotypes to create nationwide prejudice against Indigenous People (Reid, 2021a). The stereotypes justified the Canadian government’s control and domination over Indigenous people. Now, I argue Canada uses public education to produce both negative stereotypes about and structural subordination over Indigenous peoples. These topics introduced the question: to what extent is Canadian public education used as a structure of oppression and domination over Indigenous people? To better understand this, I will examine biases within the development and content of the curriculum and how this engenders the cycle of racism. The purpose of this examination is to expand the readers’ knowledge regarding education as a prominent and necessary tactic in the government’s continued racist perspective on Indigenous people and to make more complete, my understandings of Episode 4.
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    Dust, Oil, and Swarm-Selves: Re-Imagining Middle Eastern Subjectivity with Reza Negarestani’s Cyclonopedia
    (2020-05) Ali, Rukhsar; Camara, Anthony
    For many years, the Middle East and its cultural and political contexts have been examined from solely Western epistemological standpoints, creating an orientalist view of the Middle East which fails to capture the complexity of identity and sentience formation in the region. Previous scholarship uses Western methodologies such as Jacques Lacan’s mirror stage to understand this development, providing an incomplete and essentialized explanation of identity formation. This paper uses Iranian philosopher Reza Negarestani’s Cyclonopedia as the theoretical basis for exploration of the recurring “fragmented” identity motif in Middle Eastern science fiction/horror literature. Cyclonopedia does not claim that there is an “authentic” Middle East to be discovered, as this is also a form of orientalism; instead, it builds on Western thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, Sigmund Freud, and Nick Land to form a creative hybrid methodology of Western and Eastern epistemologies called Hidden Writing. Negarestani’s methodology locates points of contention in the creative texts (Peter Watt’s “Malak”, Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein) highlighting connections inter and intra-textually that emphasize the shortcomings of Western conceptions of identity formation, especially through the exploration of different forms of sentience across the texts. The growing technology of artificial intelligence and Negarestani’s development of Hidden Writing highlight different possible forms of sentience that push back against a solely Western anthropocentric view of sentience and subjectivity.
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    Celluloid Thirsty
    (2020-11-02) Bews, Jacob; van Herk, Aritha
    In the exegesis, Bews argues that cities have and act as paratexts which define their borders and interpretations by residents. Situated knowledge and research creation, then, become valuable methods for decoding and exploring the implications of those city-paratexts. This is followed by the novella "Celluloid Thirsty," about a film critic tasked with writing a script by a oil-drinking, cannibalistic cowboy.
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    Loonie Calls
    (2020-06) Chua, Christian Philip; van Herk, Aritha