At the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, French artist, Sophie Calle presented for public consumption a starkly simple yet elegant work entitled Pas Pu Saisir La Mort. The work was not only a comprehensive investigation of the Biennale theme for that year of capturing a fleeting moment in life but was also an ethically challenging and confrontational piece. Calle chose to display a video loop from the final moments of her mother Monique Sindler's life. As the title in a childlike manner informs the viewer, the subject of the work is Calle's inability to physically comprehend this moment. She, to add in the poignantly missing referent to the English translation of the title, “couldn't capture death”. Calle prompts the audience not only to watch but to actively look for the universally ungraspable moment of Monique's passing. Pas Pu Saisir La Mort is unique piece which both characterises Calle's work while also marking a departure from her normal style of working. It raises challenging issues of the ethical responsibilities of the contemporary art Biennale and of a more moral nature for the audience by placing them in the intimate role of voyeur. At the centre of aesthetic theory and within contemporary art writing the idea of a connection to universal concepts or notions of an underlying humanity within art is referenced, debated and negated. I believe in Pas Pu Saisir La Mort Calle engages with this discussion through foregrounding the idea of the contemporary sublime and re-evaluates art's connection to modernist universals as illuminated though the recent work of Thierry De Duve in particular his concept of 'nous voici' or work with speaks to the 'we' of humanity.

This thesis contributes to critical theoretical interpretation of Sophocles' Antigone. Analyzing texts by Kelly Oliver, Jacques Lacan, and Judith Butler, the thesis demonstrates how the work of these writers re-installs oppositional binarism, the form of thought that undergirds the hierarchical structure of Western metaphysics as exemplified in the dialectical philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel. Focusing on texts by Carol Jacobs, Martin Heidegger, and Jacques Derrida, the thesis analyzes the performative effect of Antigone, as sister figure, in the graphics of these works. Employing a deconstructive and performative critical approach, the thesis explores the theoretical productivity of a "sororal" graphics, that, dispersing and subverting binarism, opens the texts and their interpretation to alterity. The thesis demonstrates how critical reading of the performativity of Antigone as sister figure implicates ethicological discussion on justice in relation to family, genre/gender, classification, and inheritance.

In this dissertation I examine representations of the events surrounding the disappearance and murder of women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, in the interests of animating a sense of implication in these events among a wider public. To do so, I build on theoretical concepts developed in the work of Avery Gordon, Judith Butler, and Wendy Brown, namely the notions of hauntings, grievability, and inheritance. My approach to knowledge production builds upon Avery Gordon’s theorizing about the significance of hauntings in particular. Following Gordon, I argue that while the women disappeared from Vancouver are no longer physically “there” in the Downtown Eastside, they do indeed maintain what Gordon describes as a “seething presence” in Vancouver (and beyond), one that suggests matters of some urgency for contemporary social and political life, and so my research traces those presences as they have arisen through my engagement with a variety of cultural productions (including documentary film, photography, journalism, art, and poetry). Building on insights from each of the three theorists listed above, I argue that ethical encounters with the ghosts of the women who have been disappeared require rethinking conventional ways of understanding the relationships between self/other and past/present/future. Because the women disappeared from the Downtown Eastside are disproportionately Indigenous, I begin by investigating how histories of colonization, and in particular the frontier mythology so commonplace in western Canada, are implicated in these contemporary acts of violence. I argue that conventional understandings of space, temporality, and history are inadequate for understanding these events in all of their complexity. From there, I investigate how and why the women were initially cast, in a variety of representations, as living lives that many assumed could not be widely recognized through the framework of what Judith Butler has coined a “grievable life.” And finally, I ask after what kind of memorial practices might be most capable of hailing an “us” into relations of inheritance with the women who have been disappeared - such relations, I argue, are a necessary part of reckoning with our individual and collective implication in the disappearances of women from the Downtown Eastside. / English

Thesis (M.F.A.)--University of North Carolina Wilmington, 2009. / Notes: p. 193-199. Title from PDF title page (January 19, 2010) Includes bibliographical references (p. 193-199)

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-89).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2005. / Advisor: W. J. Slater. Includes bibliographical references (p. 172-184). Also available online.

Thesis (MA(Prakt. Teol.)--University of Pretoria, 2005? / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70-72)

Previous field studies of hunter-harvested mourning doves (Zenaida macroura) have reported lead (Pb) shot ingestion rates of 1 &ndash 6.5%. However, considerable uncertainty exists concerning mechanisms affecting pellet ingestion across different habitats. To reduce some of this uncertainty, an experiment was conducted to test the Pb shot ingestion rate of mourning doves on bare soil (typical of a managed dove field). Wild doves were trapped and held in captivity 5 &ndash 13 weeks prior to treatment. One week prior to treatment, a blood sample was taken from each bird before placement in open-bottomed treatment pens on a disked field. Each of 3 treatment groups of 80 birds was divided into 35 low density (1.5 million pellets/ha), 35 high density (29.5 million pellets/ha), and 10 control (0 pellets/ha) animals. Five positive control birds were gavage &ndash dosed with 2 Pb shot in trials 2 and 3. Pb shot and mixed seed were scattered uniformly on the loosely packed soil of their pens and birds were exposed for 4 days. Birds were x &ndash rayed post &ndash treatment on days 2 and 4 for the presence of Pb shot in the digestive system, and euthanized following the drawing of a blood sample on day 4. Overall, 2.9% of doves voluntarily ingested &ge 1 pellet. The shot ingestion rate for birds in the high density Pb treatment (4.9%) was not statistically different (P = 0.0977) from birds in the low density Pb treatment (1.0%). Pb concentrations in liver, kidneys, and blood reached maxima of 94.402, 346.033, and 13.883 ppm wet weight, respectively, and were statistically greater in birds that had ingested shot than in controls (P < 0.0083). Delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase (ALAD) activity decreased by an average of 92.2% post-treatment as compared to pre-treatment in birds that had ingested shot, while increasing by 1.1% in control birds. Heterophil:lymphocyte ratio increased by 28.2% in birds that ingested shot as compared to 1.5% in controls, while packed cell volume decreased by 7.6% in birds that ingested shot and 0.6% in controls. No significant difference in weight among groups was observed post-treatment (P = 0.3131). If managers deem the number of mourning doves at risk of Pb shot ingestion unacceptable, some options are to ban Pb shot either on entire management areas or only on high shot deposition areas like dove fields, or to disk fields after dove hunting to reduce Pb shot availability.

[pt] Embora perdas sejam esperadas no curso normal da vida das pessoas, o entendimento é que o luto pode causar muito sofrimento, associado a severas consequências para a saúde e o bem-estar das pessoas. A literatura sobre o luto aponta que uma das perdas mais dolorosas e devastadoras é a perda de um filho, afetando a vida emocional, conjugal, familiar e social. O processo de luto, necessário após perdas significativas, deve ser compreendido de forma global, não atentando apenas aos seus sintomas e reações, mas ao modo de enfrentamento de cada enlutado e aos significados construídos por ele e que revelam os recursos utilizados para o enfrentamento da perda. Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo investigar as características específicas do processo de luto da perda de um filho adulto através da ótica das mães. Realizamos um estudo de campo, entrevistando cinco mães enlutadas, com idades entre cinquenta e setenta e cinco anos. O material discursivo coletado nas entrevistas foi analisado. Emergiram quatro categorias de análise: 1) reações iniciais e sentimentos diante da morte do filho; 2) estratégias de enfrentamento e elaboração do luto; 3) continuidade do vínculo com o filho morto e 4) relacionamento conjugal/parental. Constatamos que a religiosidade, o suporte da rede de apoio e a continuidade do vínculo com o filho morto são poderosos recursos de enfrentamento da perda. Além disso, os dados extraídos dos relatos das mães indicaram que cada uma delas impõe a sua marca ao seu processo de luto, marca que deriva da relação particular com o filho morto, da idade da mãe ao perder o filho, das perdas anteriores, do contexto familiar e do apoio recebido. Os resultados desse estudo apontam para a necessidade de educação para a morte e para o luto em nossa sociedade, e para a importância da preparação de profissionais de saúde que trabalham com enlutados nos mais diversos âmbitos. Assim, contribuímos para reduzir o estigma que circunda esse tema, promovendo a resiliência como ferramenta importante. / [en] Although losses are expected to occur in the normal course of people s lives, the understanding is that grief can cause a lot of suffering, associated with severe consequences for the health and well being of people. The literature on grief indicates that one of the most painful and devastating losses is the loss of a child, affecting the emotional life, marriage, family and social relationships. Although necessary after significant losses, the grieving process should be understood as a whole. Attention should be paid not only to symptoms and reactions, but also to the individual way of each mourner to cope with it and to the meanings constructed by him or her, which will reveal the resources used to face the loss. The objective of this research was to investigate the specific features of the process of mourning the loss of an adult child through the lenses of mothers. We conducted a field study by interviewing five bereaved mothers, aged between fifty and seventy-five years old. The written material collected from the interviews was analyzed. There were four categories of analysis: 1) initial reactions and feelings about the death of the child; 2) coping strategies and elaboration of mourning; 3) maintenance the bond with the dead child and 4) marital/ parenting relationship. We found that religiosity, network support, and maintenance of the bond with the dead child are powerful resources for coping with loss. Furthermore, the data extracted from the reports indicated that each mother imposes her personal mark on the grieving process, the mark that derives from her particular relationship with the dead child, her age at the time of the child s death, her previous losses, the family context and the support received. This study contributes to assert the need for education for death and grief in our society and help in the preparation of health professionals who work with bereaved people in various contexts. Thus contribute to reduce the stigma that surrounds this theme by promoting resilience as an important tool.

Esta dissertação de mestrado põe em questão o morrer, verbo tão elástico que confunde-se com a própria vida. Partindo do pressuposto que o morrer é um processo que cabe aos vivos e, por isso, é atravessado pelas relações do sujeito com a verdade, o seguinte trabalho pretende analisar, a partir do instante presente, como a sociedade moderna ocidental se organizou para dar conta dos infinitos mistérios que a morte desperta nos indivíduos em paralelo com o projeto de governo do Estado de gestão e controle da população, a partir das práticas biopolíticas e da legitimidade do saber médico que prescreve o que é uma vida, quais são os valores que a determinam e sob que códigos e condutas os seres devem se submeter para serem considerados existentes. Aliado ao filósofo Michel Foucault e Giorgio Agamben, propõe-se um percurso sinuoso da emergência do racismo biológico e do racismo de Estado para refletir sobre os grandes genocídios do século XX, sob a perspectiva de uma Tanatopolítica. Através do recurso do ensaio, este trabalho provocará a pergunta: como escrever sobre algo que não se fala O ensaio, mais do que um método, é um artesania capaz de costurar o tempo e a história em busca do passado de nossas verdades presentes e um convite ao leitor a um livre flanar pelos rastros de um conhecimento subsumido das cátedras acadêmicas, mas que clama por sua palavra e seu sepultamento. Ensaiar é permitir, também, que a ficção, a poesia e a literatura entrem pela porta da frente na obstinação do saber. Se a ciência moderna carece de evidências acerca do morrer e seus processos, o ensaio responde, sem ferir os mistérios do mundo, com mais questões que permitem criar outras realidades, fora das instituídas. Junto com Walter Benjamin, Jorge Larrosa, Peter Pal Pelbart e outros filósofos, a dissertação problematiza a distância entre a pesquisa e a militância, flertando com o saber morrer e apostando no luto enquanto luta, ensaiando outras maneiras de dar sentido a ausência com a inventividade política dos movimentos de ocupação atuais para fazer frente ao projeto biopolítico. / This master's dissertation questions dying: a verb so elastic that it is confused with life itself. Based on the assumption that dying is a process that belongs to the living and is therefore crossed by the subject's relations with the truth, the following work intends to analyze, from the present moment, how modern Western society organized itself to address the infinite mysteries that death awakens in the individuals in parallel with the state governor's project of management and control of the population, from the biopolitical practices and the legitimacy of the medical knowledge that prescribes what a life is, what the values that determine it are and under what codes and behaviors living beings must undergo to be considered existing. Allied with the philosophers Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben, it is proposed a sinuous route of the emergence of the biological racism and the racism of State to reflect on the great genocides of century XX, from the perspective of Tanatopolitics. This work will provoke the question in the form of an essay: how do we write about something that is not spoken The essay, more than a method, is a craft capable of sewing time and history in search of the past of our present truths and an invitation to the reader to a free walk through the traces of a subsumed knowledge of academic chairs, but that claims by its word and its burial. Essaying is to allow, also, that fiction, poetry, and literature enter the front door in the obstinacy of knowledge. If modern science lacks evidence about dying and its processes, this essay responds, without hurting the mysteries of the world, with more questions that enable us to create other realities, other than those instituted. Along with Walter Benjamin, Jorge Larrosa, Peter Pal Pelbart, and other philosophers, this dissertation problematizes the distance between research and militancy, flirting with the acceptance of dying, and betting on mourning while fighting, essaying other ways to make sense of absence with the political inventiveness of the current occupation movements facing the biopolitical project.