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This dissertation project takes an interdisciplinary approach towards theorizing how we understand new modes of incarceration and confinement in the digital age. It makes key interventions in the fields of surveillance studies, carceral studies, critical data and technology studies, ethnic and racial studies. I argue that less conventional modes of incarceration and confinement, which are enabled through technologies, the Internet and processes of datafication, conceal the everyday carceral functions that target and exploit racialized people. Chapter 1 examines mobile carceral technologies that are part of Canada’s immigration and detention system. I investigate how notions of increased freedom that are associated with carceral technologies like electronic monitoring and voice reporting do not necessarily coincide with increased autonomy. In Chapter 2, I consider the relationship between mobile phone cameras and the rise of police body-worn cameras. More specifically, I examine how policing and surveillance technologies disproportionately take aim at Black people and communities, making the mere occupation of public and digital space extremely precarious. Lastly, in Chapter 3, I challenge the notion that biometric systems and technologies are race-neutral guarantors of identity, specifically within the polemical space of the modern airport. I argue that the airport’s security and surveillance infrastructure operates according to racialized knowledges, which unofficially validate the profiling of Muslim travelers by both human and non-human operators. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This dissertation encourages the reader to rethink notions of incarceration from both theoretical and practical perspectives; however, it is not a project about incarceration in the traditional sense. I argue that any notion of incarceration needs to be re-conceptualized in an age that is driven by big data and emergent technologies. While I draw on state and institutional forms of confinement in Canada, all of which have long and established histories of racism and oppression, I contend that notions of incarceration or confinement have bled into everyday life, particularly for racialized and marginalized people and communities. By surveying different surveillance technologies deployed across Canada’s immigration and detention system, the institution of policing and the biometric airport, I suggest that our understanding of the carceral has drastically changed. As issues of race, discrimination and oppression continue to underpin the structures of this newer carceral system and its modes of surveillance and confinement, it is a system that is less visible and physically confining but equally restrictive.

This study aimed to assess the character in Recent American fiction. It concludes that writers of Negro literature have been quick to see the effectiveness of the use of Negro religious beliefs and practices in giving reality and substance to their racial pictures. Black men have to live in a white man's world. As a whole, contemporary American fiction gives a panorimic view of Negroes of almost every section.

Members of the Arab American community experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) face unique barriers to help-seeking and have different comfort levels with using formal and informal resources. This thesis surveyed Arab-Americans to identify perceived barriers and comfort levels with IPV help-seeking. A culturally informed and centered approach was taken to examine connections between individual level factors, perceived barriers and comfort levels in using resources. To do so, I gathered data via an online survey with 82 Arab American participants. Findings suggest that participants perceived the greatest barriers to seeking help for IPV are related to how others view and understand Arab Americans (i.e., "There is a stigma in how outsiders view Arab Americans" and "I feel my cultural values would not be taken into consideration") and that they would be more comfortable seeking help from informal resources, such as a friend or member of their family, compared to formal resources, such as calling the police or going to a homeless shelter. Participants who felt more connected to their local Arab American community perceived more barriers to IPV help-seeking and said they would feel less comfortable using informal and formal resources if they ever experienced IPV. Empirical evidence from this study suggests that Arab Americans believe that they would face many barriers and would feel uncomfortable in using more formal resources if they ever experienced IPV. To address these issues, it is important that those providing IPV resources better understand how they are being perceived by the Arab American community, and take steps to reduce those barriers and increase comfort levels in the Arab American community in using their services.

This exploratory study draws from six semi-structured interviews with multiracial Nikkei women living in Canada to investigate their experiences of mixed race belonging. After establishing belonging as intrinsic to the very nature of how multiraciality and Asianness have been historically constructed and are presently experienced in Canada, three areas relevant to how the interviewees experience mixed race belonging are then considered: multiracial name modification (MRNM), the nation and Canadianness, and Japaneseness in Canada. This study also considers how the recent racial climate of pandemic-related anti-Asian racism has potentially impacted how mixed race belonging is experienced by the interviewees, which reveals two additional areas of interest: the amplified experience of multiracial dysmorphia (MRD) during this time and the emergence of pan-Asianness in Canada as a potential new site of belonging. As captured, issues of mixed race belonging arise in various spheres of the interviewees' lives because of the very ways in which multiraciality and Asianness have been constructed and maintained in the Canadian social landscape. In doing so, this study hopes to drive home how issues of mixed race belonging speak more to the problematic nature of "race" itself than of mixed race people themselves.

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Trust is valuable as it plays a vital role in first impressions and decision-making. However, trust perceptions of speakers are heavily influenced by stereotypes and biases. Given how impactful eyewitness testimonies are in courtroom rulings and how often biases are used to judge speakers in courtroom settings, it is crucial to understand what factors impact perceptions of trust within this context. This is the first study to analyze the relationship between trust perception and emotion (Anger, Fear, Happy, Sad, Disgust, and Neutral) within the context of a courtroom testimony while also looking at how race, sex, vocal characteristics of the speaker, and intensity (gun-present vs. gun-absent crime) impact this interaction. Participants listened to a random sample of voices saying, "That is exactly what happened" and then responded yes or no when asked if they trusted the speaker. We found a highly significant interaction between sex and race on the proportion of voices trusted in select emotions. An in-depth analysis of voice characteristics indicated varying effects of pitch, Cepstral Peak Prominence, Vocal tract length, Subharmonic to harmonic ratio, Speech rate, Long-term Average Spectrum, and Harmonics to Noise Ratio (HNR) on perceptions of trust in male and female speakers. This experiment supports findings that heuristic cues influence the perception of trust in the courtroom. Understanding the role stereotypes and biases play in decision-making in the courtroom is vital to ensuring a fair prosecution. / Thesis / Master of Science (MS)

With the number of Chinese gay men affected by HIV rising annually and social media serving as popular information sources, this study aims to examine the information channels used by Chinese gay men to acquire safer sex knowledge and to test the effect of safer sex knowledge, information channel use, safe-sex communication with sexual partners on Chinese gay men's safer sex practices. Due to the sensitive topic and hard-to-reach population, a snowball sampling method was used to recruit eligible participants. Specifically, an online survey was designed and distributed to three LGBT-NGO-related WeChat groups. A total of 191 valid data points were used in the study. Different from previous studies on safer sex knowledge and safer sex practices, this study focused on a marginalized group and examined some of their unique information channels. Descriptive data reveal that social media platforms surpassed traditional channels (e.g., books, school, parents) becoming the most frequently-used channel to obtain safer sex knowledge. In addition, the findings revealed that even though Chinese gay men had high levels of sexual knowledge, they tended not to practice safer behaviors consistently. Chinese gay men also did not communicate with their sexual partners about their previous sexual relationship, HIV/STD testing and results. Regression analyses discovered that safer sex knowledge level and social media use for safer sex knowledge can predict condom use for anal sex. Surprisingly, social media use was associate with high-risk sexual behaviors such as not limiting sexual activity to only one person who only has sex with you. On the other hand, traditional channel use for safer sex knowledge was associated with HIV/STD testing behavior. Implications on health promotion on safer sex practices and HIV/STD prevention were discussed.