This research project uses practical work and a supporting text to explore activism in contemporary art. Its chief concern is to consider what constitutes an activist art practice by clarifying the terms of engagement of such work. In the textual part of this submission the production of recent and contemporary artists who are widely presumed to make activist art has been examined. Their different approaches have been identified and critical evaluations of them have been offered. The artists under review include Christian Boltanski, Agnes Denes, Hans Haacke, Thomas Hirschhorn, Edward Kienholz, Doris Salcedo, and others. The analysis differentiates between them on the basis of their success as activist artists. Broadly speaking, two major strands of effective activism are identified. The first provides the audience/spectator with an understanding of their complicity in situations which are not clear-cut, where ethical standards are in conflict and where the perception of issues and solutions remains occluded. This kind of activism refuses any kind of programmatic clarity and encourages its viewer/recipient to acknowledge their moral and epistemological confusions. Although it may make use of local and particular circumstances and events its overall message transcends them and it is theoretically transportable to other sites without loss of impact. The second strand of activism is designed to work with maximum impact in highly localised situations, drawing on very particular shared experiences in tightly circumscribed locations. This kind of activist art, unlike the first, cannot be removed from its exact social and political context without loss of meaning. It is the contention of the thesis that successful activist art, in either strand, is very difficult to achieve and that much of what passes as activist art is flawed, either because it is crudely propagandic or because it is too opaque for the public to respond to it. The critical framework outlined in the textual submission is the matrix within which the practical element of this submission should be considered. The work submitted for examination extends the idea of activism as a means of making tangible the political and ethical confusions of everyday life. It is designed to be eye-catching , alluring and domineering, using scale, materials and iconography to encourage close inspection. The practical work offers the spectator a sculptural environment in which news reports, memories, moral beliefs, cultural stereotypes and historical markers are put in play. It is intended to provoke reflection, to linger in the memory, precisely because it cannot be categorised or assimilated easily as a simple message.

In this thesis, I observe the methods modern American poets employ to achieve literary activism in their work. Poets Amiee Nezhukumatathil, Marcus Wicker, and Tracy K. Smith all examine and critique different aspects of American life and culture. Ultimately, I argue that each poet, in their own way, develops a voice that deftly straddles between the personal and public. By doing so, the poets invigorate their work with an authenticity that is crucial in developing an ethos vivacious enough to create a call to action for readers. I will also discuss how I create a similar balance of the personal and public in my own work in order to stir readers into an activist mindset.

This thesis focuses on the Kurdish people of Turkey, who have struggled and advocated for a separate nation-state of their own. The Turkish state’s denial of Kurdish identity, and its heavy assimilation and oppression of the Kurdish people have turned some Kurds into political activists, both in Turkey and in the diaspora. In addition, the historical ban and current stigmatization of the Kurdish language have crystallized the importance and centrality of the language, particularly for both Kurdish identity and the Kurdish movement. This thesis explores the forms of political activism in Canada of the Kurds originating in Turkey, and the role of the Kurdish language in their activism. Using a qualitative research design, interviews with activists and participant observations were conducted in the cities of Toronto and Montréal. The findings draw attention to the significance of community centres as umbrella institutions for political activism, and as sites for the enactment of different forms of collective resistance. The study also illustrates that the role of the Kurdish language in activism is more salient at a representational level. That is, the Kurdish language is represented as the main identity marker fuelling activism, implying that speaking Kurdish is an act of resistance and thus political. In daily life, however, the usage of the Kurdish is far more attenuated and nuanced.

Within the historically conservative city of Córdoba, Argentina, LGBTQ activism has grown in the past year during a period in which the movement has achieved significant advances nationwide. This thesis examines how a new LGBTQ organization, Encuentros por la Diversidad en Córdoba, formed its identity by creating boundaries between itself and other organizations in Argentina through a frame of diversity and horizontalism, in which members have an equal opportunity to participate. While the group was able to maintain diversity through its activities, its attempts to create and follow a horizontal structure were not successful. Because of this failure, hierarchies based on members’ social and political capital developed within the group, despite the organization’s commitment to equality. / text

In 2014, a series of shocking and seemingly random acid attacks against women took place in the Iranian city of Esfahan. The attacks by unknown assailants sparked widespread reactions from the public, outside commentators, and especially social and political activists focused on women‘s issues. Subsequently, the tragic event also prompted thousands of people to take to the streets to protest the violence and demand the authorities to secure women‘s safety in the public spaces. Drawing on historical and media research along with semi-structured in-depth interviews, this thesis investigates how the wave of acid attacks managed to inspire subsequent mass political mobilizations. Situating the Esfahan acid attacks within the historical and political history of Iran, this thesis suggests that heterogeneous forms of women‘s rights activism cannot be viewed as simply pro-Western or Islamic. Drawing on the detailed analysis of the post-revolutionary history, this thesis shows how women‘s rights and bodily presence in public space in Iran have often played a central role in contemporary political mobilizations. In that sense, protests generated by the Esfahan incident represent a continuation of the long history of politicization of women‘s bodies, which continues to take new forms to this day.

Millennials are the world's digital natives and its largest generation. A general perception of this generation is that they lack engagement in social-political issues. This study explores how Millennials are engaging in social media activism and whether online activism is driving offline activism behaviors. A quantitative survey of 306 participants was conducted to learn more about the gratifications Millennials obtain through social media and whether associations exist between their online and offline activism behaviors. The results showed that Millennials engage in online activism behaviors to a greater extent than offline activism behaviors. Millennials primarily gratify intrinsic needs for interaction and belonging by engaging in social media activism behaviors. So-called “slacktivism” behaviors were most common among Millennials engaging in online activism. Similarly, online activism behaviors that require greater investment from Millennials were a good predictor of activism behaviors that occur offline. Results also demonstrate that, at an individual identification level, Millennials self-perceptions as activists predicted engagement in both online and offline activism.

The present study used action research with youth to investigate and create radio shows about the role place has played in maintaining the identities of activists committed to social and ecological justice. The research focused on whether youth involvement in a participatory, critical learning experience of creating radio shows interviewing activists from their community helped those students to develop and maintain their own activist identity and community. The study also examined other aspects of the critical learning process and conditions of the radio studio that affected their identity. Finally, the study asked if the youth participants planned to take any steps to maintain their activism beyond the study. In addressing these questions of activist identity in relation to place, the study is presented as three mini-studies. Mini-study 1 addresses how the experienced activists who were interviewed by youth described the role of material places in enabling and supporting their activism, the final product of which is two radio shows. Four inductively generated, theoretical categories are presented to capture the experienced activists’ descriptions of place including relationality, the act of making place, normalizing transgression in everyday life, and using power. Mini-study 2 addresses how the youth participants perceived the process of interviewing activists on a radio show, as well as other aspects of making radio shows including the radio studio as having contributed to their own activist identities. It also looks at the steps, if any, the youth had planned to stay active beyond the study. Profiles of each youth participant are presented to represent their perceptions of creating radio shows. Mini-study 3 invites the reader on my self-reflexive journey as an educator committed to social and ecological justice including reflections on existing practice in schools, place and youth identity, collective spaces for agency, intergenerational mentoring, slow pedagogy and mindfulness, radio as a pedagogical tool, and my own style of teaching.

This thesis is a netnographic study of Save Bugoma Forest Campaign and digitally enhanced environmental activism in Uganda. Save Bugoma Forest Campaign is a crusade run by a loose coalition of Ugandan environmentalists who oppose a planned sugarcane plantation project in Bugoma Central Forest Reserve, western Uganda. By examining who the activists envisage as their audiences, what online platforms they use and how, what messages they intend to send, and how the forest is represented in online narratives, I attempt to find out how Ugandan environmental activists use digital technologies as part of their campaigning strategies, and what the digital narratives created in these practices can reveal about their relation to nature. The study is built as a netnography, a research method developed by Robert E. Kozinets, which combines online participant observations, online interactions, and semi-structured online interviews. I highlight how digital platforms, social media in particular, should be understood as a tool for campaign activities or as an infrastructure within which the struggle takes place. I also show how nature receives multiple and dynamic meanings in digital narratives which are affected by the audience of choice. The findings indicate that, in addition to better understanding movements’ online practises, netnographic research methods can also give valuable insights into understanding culturally and socially bound phenomena and lend to a deep and rich reporting of the results.

Yes / This article examines transnational activism by coalitions of national minorities in Europe from the early 20th century to the present, setting this within the broader ‘security versus democracy dilemma’ that continues to surround international discussions on minority rights. Specifically, we analyse two organisations – the European Nationalities Congress (1925–1938) and the Federal Union of European Nationalities (1949–) – which, while linked, have never been subject to a detailed comparison based on primary sources. In so far as comparisons do exist, they present these bodies in highly negative terms, as mere fronts for inherently particularistic nationalisms that threaten political stability, state integrity and peace. Our more in‐depth analysis provides a fresh and more nuanced perspective: it shows that, in both cases, concepts of European integration and ‘unity in diversity’ have provided the motivating goals and frameworks for transnational movements advocating common rights for all minorities and seeking positive interaction with the interstate world.

The Gaelic movement was the general term used in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to refer to a range of diverse but interconnected activity in support of the Gaelic language and culture in Scotland, embracing educational, literary, musical and scholarly aspects. Accounts of the Gaelic cultural landscape at this time tend to focus on the leading male figures; the presence and participation of women has been largely overlooked and a number of women who were prominent and significant participants in the Gaelic movement have slipped into the shadows or disappeared completely. This study aims to reconfigure this view to foreground the contribution of women and to understand the complex dynamics of the Gaelic movement from the perspectives of the women involved. While the study importantly highlights certain individual women, the biographical focus is used as a means to uncover lesser-known women and the female friendships and networks in which they moved, as well as to explore their relationship and interaction with prominent male figures and other interconnected social groupings within the Gaelic movement and wider Pan-Celtic and Celtic Revival circles. The study examines and discusses the participation, contribution and influence of a number of women across a spectrum of Gaelic cultural activities, taking into account socio-historical, literary and cultural aspects and using gender as an analytical lens through which to examine the different challenges and tensions that individual women negotiated in a period of social and cultural change. The study shows that a number of women were actively involved with the Gaelic movement in the period between the passing of The Crofting Act and the start of the Great War; that they were innovative, ambitious and wide-ranging in their participation; and that they saw the accessibility of the Gaelic cultural sphere as an opportunity to progress both their individual aspirations as women as well as their support for the Gaelic language and culture.