This thesis investigates the dual concepts of place as home and place within the canon for diasporic communities, immigrants, and minorities within Canada. This thesis argues that a new understanding of “home” is necessary as the immigrant, forced within an in-between place of “there” (the birth-country) and “here” (the host-country), does not experience “home” as a singular, rooted location. “Home” for the immigrant is a feeling of belonging that spans multiple places simultaneously. This investigation of politics through poetics is grounded in the belief that national literature reflects national identity. As the immigrant presence within Canada has heretofore been perceived as secondary to the national identity, and diasporic and immigrant literature as other-to the Canadian canon, this thesis purposes to re-imagine that national identity in a way that includes minority literature. I focus on the work of two widely known Caribbean Canadian poets: Cyril Dabydeen and Lorna Goodison.

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This thesis reports on a secondary analysis of individual and focus group interviews from the Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ Migration, Mobility and Health research project (Ristock, Zoccole, and Passante, 2010; Ristock, Zoccole, & Potskin, 2011). This was a community-based qualitative research project following Indigenous and feminist methods, involving two community Advisory Committees, and adopting research principles of Ownership Control Access and Possession (OCAP) (First Nations Centre, 2007). This analysis reviews data from 50 participants in Winnipeg and Vancouver and answers: How do Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ people describe home, community and belonging in the context of migration, multiple identities, and in a positive framework focusing on wellbeing, strengths and resilience? Findings demonstrate how participants experience marginalization in both Aboriginal and gay communities. Their words illustrate factors such as safety required to facilitate positive identities, community building, belonging, and sense of home. For participants in this study home is a place where they can bring multiple identities, a geographical place, a physical or metaphorical space (with desired tone, feeling), and a quality of relationships. Community is about places, relationships, participation, and shared interests. Belonging is relational and interactive, feeling safe, accepted, and welcome to be yourself. Detractors interfere with positive meaning making and are identified in examples of contemporary effects of historical trauma. Also included are participant recommendations for community building, descriptions of holistic wellbeing, and examples of many ways urban Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ people are creating communities of Two-Spirit vitality and resurgence (Simpson, 2011).

This thesis reports on a secondary analysis of individual and focus group interviews from the Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ Migration, Mobility and Health research project (Ristock, Zoccole, and Passante, 2010; Ristock, Zoccole, & Potskin, 2011). This was a community-based qualitative research project following Indigenous and feminist methods, involving two community Advisory Committees, and adopting research principles of Ownership Control Access and Possession (OCAP) (First Nations Centre, 2007). This analysis reviews data from 50 participants in Winnipeg and Vancouver and answers: How do Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ people describe home, community and belonging in the context of migration, multiple identities, and in a positive framework focusing on wellbeing, strengths and resilience? Findings demonstrate how participants experience marginalization in both Aboriginal and gay communities. Their words illustrate factors such as safety required to facilitate positive identities, community building, belonging, and sense of home. For participants in this study home is a place where they can bring multiple identities, a geographical place, a physical or metaphorical space (with desired tone, feeling), and a quality of relationships. Community is about places, relationships, participation, and shared interests. Belonging is relational and interactive, feeling safe, accepted, and welcome to be yourself. Detractors interfere with positive meaning making and are identified in examples of contemporary effects of historical trauma. Also included are participant recommendations for community building, descriptions of holistic wellbeing, and examples of many ways urban Aboriginal Two-Spirit and LGBTQ people are creating communities of Two-Spirit vitality and resurgence (Simpson, 2011).

This thesis examines post-2003 Iraqi refugee narratives of identity in the United States and the intricacies constituting the establishment of 'home' in the country that remains an occupying force within their native land. The project provides insight into the lived experiences, feelings of belonging, and resettlement of Iraqis in two U.S. cities. I draw on interviews focused on the resettlement experiences and expectations of Iraqis currently living the Pacific Northwest city of Portland, Oregon and how that may compare to constructs of identity and conceptualizations of home in the southwestern city of Austin, Texas. I employ work by geographers and the growing body of literature on diaspora, refugee studies, and resettlement in other related disciplines to frame important and challenging questions about refugee identity, home-making, and sense of belonging.

nÃo hà / This research took place from the need to expand the meanings of afroquilombola belonging to contribute to the empowerment of the people of Sierra Jua community, from the construction path of my blackness. The field of research was the quilombo Serra do Jua, which had the participation of 15 co-investigators (as) in the period 2013 to 2015. To find out how people experience the feeling of belonging, culture and African ancestry, making relationship with their histories, trajectories and reference places in your life, I have formulated the following questions: As markers of Africanities, worked by Pretagogia may allow the appropriation of elements that contribute to the strengthening of afroquilombola belonging? As the SociopoÃtica can contribute to the empowerment of bodies and collective memory for approaching the themes of africandiades? These questions led me to discover potentiating information for the community to have more engagement in the struggles and resistances. The main authors I used were: Jacques Gauthier (2012) with the theme of poetics, which needed to introduce techniques for unlocking the bodies and individual and collective memory; Petit (2015) on the Pretagogia and markers of Africanities, which brought the main contribution to the production of knowledge, Semedo (2010), with the riches of the Guinean Comb cloth, and Silva (2013) on experiences with pretagÃgicas practices classroom, which gave me concrete evidence of use of this methodology, among others (as) that were fundamental to my readings and conclusions. I found that the afroquilombola belonging is a broad concept of senses and meanings. People demonstrated interaction, because before the work they had remained silent, timidly and after the workshops began to express more will, through various languages, oral and body, expressing the sense of belonging. Thus, I conclude that Pretagogia and SociopoÃtica were protagonists in the assumption of positive attitudes / co-researchers / the. / A realizaÃÃo desta pesquisa deu-se a partir da necessidade de ampliar os significados do pertencimento afroquilombola, para contribuir com o empoderamento das pessoas da comunidade Serra do JuÃ, a partir da trajetÃria de construÃÃo da minha negritude. O campo da pesquisa foi a comunidade quilombola Serra do JuÃ, onde teve a participaÃÃo de 15 co-pesquisadores(as) no perÃodo de 2013 a 2015. Para descobrir como as pessoas vivenciam o sentimento de pertenÃa, cultura e ancestralidade africana, fazendo relaÃÃo com suas histÃrias, trajetÃrias e lugares de referÃncia em sua vida, formulei os seguintes questionamentos: Como os marcadores das africanidades, trabalhados pela Pretagogia podem permitir a apropriaÃÃo dos elementos que contribuem para o fortalecimento do pertencimento afroquilombola? Como a SociopoÃtica pode contribuir com a potencializaÃÃo dos corpos e da memÃria coletiva para a aproximaÃÃo das temÃticas das africandiades? Esses questionamentos motivaram-me a descobrir informaÃÃes potencializadoras para que a comunidade tivesse mais engajamento nas lutas e resistÃncias. Os principais autores que utilizei foram: Jacques Gauthier (2012) com a temÃtica da Sociopoetica, onde precisei introduzir tÃcnicas para o destravamento dos corpos e da memÃria individual e coletiva; Petit (2015) sobre a Pretagogia e os marcadores das africanidades, que trouxe a principal contribuiÃÃo para a produÃÃo dos conhecimentos, Semedo (2010), com as riquezas do Pano de Pente guineense, e Silva (2013) sobre as experiÃncias com prÃticas pretagÃgicas em sala de aula, que me deu elementos concretos de utilizaÃÃo dessa metodologia, entre outros(as) que foram fundamentais para as minhas leituras e conclusÃes. Descobri que o pertencimento afroquilombola à um conceito amplo de sentidos e significados. As pessoas demonstraram interaÃÃo, pois antes dos trabalhos elas mantinham-se caladas, com timidez e depois das oficinas passaram a se expressar mais a vontade, atravÃs de vÃrias linguagens, orais e corporais, manifestando o sentimento de pertenÃa. Assim, concluo que a Pretagogia e a SociopoÃtica foram protagonistas na assunÃÃo de atitudes afirmativas dos/as co-pesquisadores/as.

Doctor of Philosophy / School of Family Studies and Human Services / Amber V. Vennum / Belonging to groups has been found to lead to many positive outcomes, including acting as a buffer for maladaptive coping behaviors, in the lives of emerging adults. Less is known about how belonging may act as a protective factor to engaging in unhealthy behaviors, less is known in regards to how group coping norms of the groups emerging adults belong to impact the motivations for coping and subsequently coping mechanisms. Further, belonging is a necessary component to life; however, less is known about how emerging adults understand what it means to belong. This dissertation includes two studies focused on belonging in emerging adulthood. Both studies utilized participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk). In study 1, a quantitative study (N = 438) was conducted to further explore how group coping norms moderates the associations between group belonging and individual motives for coping. Additionally, coping behaviors were included to understand how belonging to groups is associated with coping motives and coping behaviors. Results from study 1 indicated that while belonging was not significantly predictive of motivations and functions of using specific behaviors, unhealthy group coping norms were positively predictive of motivations for and functions of behaviors for coping purposes. Moreover, the interaction term (belonging X unhealthy group norms) yielded one significant path indicating that belonging to groups may be protective of using sex to cope even when unhealthy group norms are present. Additionally, belonging was negatively associated with drug frequency and positively associated with healthy supportive and self-soothing coping. Further, several coping motives were positive predictors of both unhealthy and healthy coping behaviors. In study 2, a qualitative study (N = 422) using open-ended questions was conducted to hear from emerging adults about their experiences of belonging. A thematic analysis approach was used to code participant responses before categorization and identifying themes. Participant responses indicate that emerging adults belong to groups based on personal identity, religious and spiritual affiliations, life stage and circumstances, educational group associations, professional association, significant relationships, social change initiatives, shared interests and activities, online connections. Moreover, themes outlining what it means to belong to emerging adults include embraced, increased self-confidence, greater life meaning, experience of a safety net, commonalities among group members, relationship component to group belonging, and fitting in and conformity. Before belonging to groups, results indicate that becoming a member of the group is necessary. Reasons for joining groups, group membership through intentionality, formal group entrance process, group membership as a natural process, group membership through identity formation, and group membership in an online context are all components of joining groups for emerging adults. Participants described the process of belonging with the following themes: building investment and intimacy, messages of inclusion, developing connection and community, mutual support, positive feelings that foster belonging, and individual growth and development and the process of belonging. Finally, participants identified what they get from belonging to groups which included a sense of belonging, feeling included and a part of something, personal growth needs, emotional needs, communal needs, work needs, and giving back and volunteering needs. The findings of this qualitative study indicate a need to further understand the belonging phenomenon in emerging adults across many populations. Research, clinical, and practical implications are outlined and provided.

This autoethnographic research project explores how a first-generation Canadian Ismaili Muslim, grapples with the tensions of belonging and identity while living in the in-between spaces of multiple social locations. Using an intersectional third-wave feminist approach, a method I term “third-wave dervish”, I metaphorically spin in a similar manner to a whirling dervish. Each spin provokes a round of critical reflection grounded in a node of intersect. Throughout the dance, how each node of intersect – religion and spirituality, geographical location, ethnicity and culture, and gender – implicates the in-between spaces I find myself located within, on the periphery of, and wavering between is explored. Narratives from my early years, adolescence, as a young adult in a graduate classroom, and as a young practitioner serve as data. For the first time, during re-iterations of memories, experiences of being minoritized and racialized are acknowledged and I begin to challenge gender binaries and offer insight into how I unknowingly negotiated and navigated complex social spaces. Personal experiences and reflections are then translated beyond the self to offer insight into how human and social development practitioners can use the key findings of how a brown-bodied female moved through childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. The dissertation offers suggestions for practitioners to actively engage in, understand, and respond to children and youth’s verbal and non-verbal responses to experiences they are having. In addition, the text outlines the benefit of and ways in which practitioners may encourage difficult conversations with clients who are minoritized, and how to foster safe spaces for children, youth, and young adults to explore their sense of belonging and identity. / Graduate

The following is a collection of six short stories written between 2014 and 2016. While the short stories are not connected, they tend to grapple with issues of grief and belonging. Characters who struggle to name their feelings, to inhabit them, and yet feel them nonetheless, populate these pages. There is also a theme of fantastical bodies in some of the stories--women who levitate and little boys who suffer heart problems when they feel too much joy. The interplay between emotion and physical ailment is exaggerated and dramatized in these instances.

Place is disguised, hidden or simply ignored in much sociological research. Belonging, however, has become a focus of sociological concern. This thesis proposes that one way of belonging is through belonging-in-place leading to a sociological positioning of place as an active participant in social life. In much sociological research places have been seen as fixed and essentialised. To avoid this problem, this study turned to geography and anthropology for suitable frameworks incorporating an open, fluid and relational understanding of place. In particular, Ingold’s (2000) concept of the ‘taskscape’ has been used to understand the connections between place, people, activity and time. The thesis argues that ‘imagined’ and narrativised places create only an ‘outer layer’ of belonging and that it is through embodied connections to other people in the place (what I call a ‘peoplescape’) and through inalienable connections to material places over time that a three dimensional ‘ontological belonging’, as a way of being (and doing) in the world, can develop. Belonging, often spoken of as a sense or feeling, is here shown to be the outcome of social practices, by embodied beings, in a material place.The research took a phenomenological approach in order to see the life-world of the participants from within. A multi-dimensional belonging was uncovered through various user driven qualitative methods: biographical interviews and photo and written diaries with families who have lived in one place, Wigan, for at least three generations. The diaries detailed social encounters which revealed that knowing other people and being known are crucial to an embodied belonging-in-place. Taking photos alongside the diaries enabled specific places of importance to the respondents to be discussed and these revealed that places can be passed on, as inalienable gifts, from one generation, or one life phase, to the next. Inalienable traces of previous generations of Wiganers are present in the material place. The phenomenological methodology and the mix of qualitative methods enabled an inductive analysis which disclosed the everyday life-world of these people in this place. Diaries, both written and photographic, together with other respondent directed methods could be used more widely to explore seemingly mundane aspects of social life from the perspective of the participants. The research found that place is not merely a backdrop to social life but is an integral part of the social practices carried out by embodied and emplaced people. A greater emphasis on both place and materiality as they impact social life could enhance much sociological research.