This is an inquiry that explores both then and now. Father and Daughter. Temporality and Geography. Within these pages stories are used to explore my family’s present and past; migration, settlement, memory, experience and connection to place – Glace Bay, a village on Cape Breton Island. Through narrative, poetry and photography, the contrasting experiences of having lived in Glace Bay in the past, and the struggle to connect with Glace Bay in the present, and future, are explored. Finally, within this manuscript I examine the impact of my father’s stories and I identify storytelling as an important factor in developing a critical consciousness. My father inspired my sense of social justice at a young age and the impetus for this project was not just to document his stories for the sake of posterity, but also to exemplify the way consciousness is cultivated and passed down; across generations, despite changing landscapes, through story.

This is an inquiry that explores both then and now. Father and Daughter. Temporality and Geography. Within these pages stories are used to explore my family’s present and past; migration, settlement, memory, experience and connection to place – Glace Bay, a village on Cape Breton Island. Through narrative, poetry and photography, the contrasting experiences of having lived in Glace Bay in the past, and the struggle to connect with Glace Bay in the present, and future, are explored. Finally, within this manuscript I examine the impact of my father’s stories and I identify storytelling as an important factor in developing a critical consciousness. My father inspired my sense of social justice at a young age and the impetus for this project was not just to document his stories for the sake of posterity, but also to exemplify the way consciousness is cultivated and passed down; across generations, despite changing landscapes, through story.

This is an arts-informed qualitative research study looking at violence against women and how it affects their educational outcomes. It uses an art installation in which the narratives of the women involved are combined with photographs and real world objects in which viewers take on a ‘walking meditation’ as well as the use of participation stations for viewer feedback and further sharing of stories anonymously. This project is based on the belief that through a feminist research lens, participatory practice with the use of storytelling can be a form of transformation in community development.

This is an inquiry that explores both then and now. Father and Daughter. Temporality and Geography. Within these pages stories are used to explore my family’s present and past; migration, settlement, memory, experience and connection to place – Glace Bay, a village on Cape Breton Island. Through narrative, poetry and photography, the contrasting experiences of having lived in Glace Bay in the past, and the struggle to connect with Glace Bay in the present, and future, are explored. Finally, within this manuscript I examine the impact of my father’s stories and I identify storytelling as an important factor in developing a critical consciousness. My father inspired my sense of social justice at a young age and the impetus for this project was not just to document his stories for the sake of posterity, but also to exemplify the way consciousness is cultivated and passed down; across generations, despite changing landscapes, through story.

This is an inquiry that explores both then and now. Father and Daughter. Temporality and Geography. Within these pages stories are used to explore my family’s present and past; migration, settlement, memory, experience and connection to place – Glace Bay, a village on Cape Breton Island. Through narrative, poetry and photography, the contrasting experiences of having lived in Glace Bay in the past, and the struggle to connect with Glace Bay in the present, and future, are explored. Finally, within this manuscript I examine the impact of my father’s stories and I identify storytelling as an important factor in developing a critical consciousness. My father inspired my sense of social justice at a young age and the impetus for this project was not just to document his stories for the sake of posterity, but also to exemplify the way consciousness is cultivated and passed down; across generations, despite changing landscapes, through story.

(En)Compassing Heart explores and documents the organizational journey of POR AMOR Community Enhancement Initiatives. POR AMOR is a current, Toronto based, youth-led, non-profit organization I co-founded with three other young women in 2003. POR AMOR initiatives focus on youth empowerment and specifically helping young people to make responsible transitions into adulthood and become active leaders in their communities. Through the use of arts-informed methodological practices, this project is constructed as a modern narrative, infused with spoken-word poetry, to track the journey of a young girl from her passion for the arts to becoming an empowered individual within her community. The young protagonist is representative of the journey of POR AMOR, our journey as young people navigating our way to meaningful work in communities. The mission of POR AMOR is to promote and facilitate art-based youth empowerment initiatives in local and international community contexts.

This arts-informed, phenomenological, and heuristic inquiry focuses on what it means to immerse deeply into experiences within the natural world. Through attention and reflection on emotional and somatic aspects of my own ocean SCUBA diving experiences, and those of beginner and practiced divers, a method and the significance of learning through personal experiences and others’ shared stories is illuminated. Readers are invited to imagine or revisit what it is like to be enveloped by ocean life through an artful narrative account of the ocean diving experience. Crafted in meandering ways, through the aesthetics of photographic images, divers’ evocative descriptions and poetic text, and interspersed with remembrances and imaginations and contemplations of self and world, the narrative reflects the diversity, richness and resonance of divers’ shared stories, and the reverberating and nurturing beauty and mystery of the ocean world. Through five narrative sections that embody a sense of movement deeper into the experience – into relations with the natural world, (‘Immersing’ ‘Opening Pathways of Exploration’, ‘Widening Circles of Compassion’, ‘Nature Reveals Her Open Secret’ and ‘Surfacing’), I encourage readers to wander amongst ocean life to expand ways of experiencing the natural world. It is important to look for new, creative ways that allow space for explorations of self and world, to uncover new ways to reconcile both the mind-body connection as well as the human-nature connection. This inquiry brings the notion of connectedness with nature to the forefront as humans’ alienation from the natural world is recognized as a significant contributor to the present ecological crisis. The exploration of ocean experiences was also a search for ways to encourage and sustain a lifelong inquiry into the relations with the non-human world as a way to continually build and reinforce a strong bond with the natural world for psychological, social and ecological wellbeing. The immersive nature of research methods and representation illuminated how ocean life and artful expressions of remembrances and imaginations build lasting impressions, further adding vitality to what is perceived in both aquatic and terrestrial worlds – enhancing a sense of connectedness with the natural world.

The voices, perspectives and experiences of girls and young women in history, political and civic education remain rare, and those of girls of color are even rarer still. This dissertation reports on the results of a qualitative study exploring girls’ perspectives on and experiences of citizenship in the Toronto area. Through the use of document analysis, semi-structured interviews; and photovoice, this study suggests that the girls easily identify traditional gendered expectations in their families, schools and in the society at large. At the same time, the girls often make deliberate choices to defy these expectations, carve out their own paths, and serve as advocates for gender equality, social justice and engaged citizenship. This study focuses on the voices of girls and the ways in which concepts of gender enhance, shape and inhibit civic action within schooling. Despite an increased emphasis on education for active citizenship in education more broadly, this study provokes serious questions about what girls are learning about their roles in society and how concepts of gender affect the ways young people understand and enact their citizenship roles. There are new fields of research in the areas of youth civic engagement, citizenship education, feminist and girlhood studies, all of which informed my understanding of these ‘citizen-girls’, however they still often remain separated and inadequately consider the intersections of multiple identity factors as well as the relationship between individual agency and the societal structures that construct dominant values. This study has important implications for educators and policymakers, suggesting a need for more spaces and opportunities both within the classroom, and outside the school, for girls and boys to critically engage with the messaging they receive about gender, democratic participation and citizen engagement. Furthermore, these girls’ experiences also suggest that we must broaden our definition of citizenship and civic participation in order to better reflect the myriad new forms of citizen expression being used by girls and young people in modern societies today.

This audio documentary explores the contemporary landscape of death and dying with specific focus on caregiving, the process of cultivating personal death value systems, and the importance of intergenerational exchange for fostering inquiry and acceptance of the aging process. The audio thesis is fluidly presented in three parts, with an accompanying annotation to be read after listening. For the sake of textual clarity, the annotation is separated into chapters. Chapter I explores hospice care and the complexities of the dying process, leading the listener to consider what it is like to work professionally in the field of end-of-life care. Chapter II explores implications of highly technological medical care and advancements in health sciences. Finally, Chapter III implicitly suggests through personal narrative that embodied experiences of caregiving and intergenerational exchange create spaces that subvert cultural and temporal fears of aging and the dying process.

This arts-informed, phenomenological, and heuristic inquiry focuses on what it means to immerse deeply into experiences within the natural world. Through attention and reflection on emotional and somatic aspects of my own ocean SCUBA diving experiences, and those of beginner and practiced divers, a method and the significance of learning through personal experiences and others’ shared stories is illuminated. Readers are invited to imagine or revisit what it is like to be enveloped by ocean life through an artful narrative account of the ocean diving experience. Crafted in meandering ways, through the aesthetics of photographic images, divers’ evocative descriptions and poetic text, and interspersed with remembrances and imaginations and contemplations of self and world, the narrative reflects the diversity, richness and resonance of divers’ shared stories, and the reverberating and nurturing beauty and mystery of the ocean world. Through five narrative sections that embody a sense of movement deeper into the experience – into relations with the natural world, (‘Immersing’ ‘Opening Pathways of Exploration’, ‘Widening Circles of Compassion’, ‘Nature Reveals Her Open Secret’ and ‘Surfacing’), I encourage readers to wander amongst ocean life to expand ways of experiencing the natural world. It is important to look for new, creative ways that allow space for explorations of self and world, to uncover new ways to reconcile both the mind-body connection as well as the human-nature connection. This inquiry brings the notion of connectedness with nature to the forefront as humans’ alienation from the natural world is recognized as a significant contributor to the present ecological crisis. The exploration of ocean experiences was also a search for ways to encourage and sustain a lifelong inquiry into the relations with the non-human world as a way to continually build and reinforce a strong bond with the natural world for psychological, social and ecological wellbeing. The immersive nature of research methods and representation illuminated how ocean life and artful expressions of remembrances and imaginations build lasting impressions, further adding vitality to what is perceived in both aquatic and terrestrial worlds – enhancing a sense of connectedness with the natural world.