<p> The purpose of this qualitative explanatory single case study was to understand why Knights of Columbus (KofC) volunteers in Ontario, Canada demonstrate motivation, organizational commitment, and engagement. The scope of the study was guided by two main research questions: &ldquo;Why do KofC members volunteer?&rdquo; and &ldquo;How do KofC members combine elements of motivation, organizational commitment, and engagement in their volunteer activity?&rdquo; The triangulation of participant interviews, observations from KofC general meetings, and online archived documents supported the study&rsquo;s qualitative methodology that required rich, descriptive data. For feasibility, the population of this study was comprised of KofC volunteers within three councils in Ontario, Canada and 17 KofC members were selected purposively based on age and experience criteria for face-to-face interviews. Transcribed interview data, observational field notes and archival documents were analyzed and coded using NVivo 11 to uncover three emerging themes: living one&rsquo;s faith, loyalty, and flexibility. The findings indicated that KofC members have alignment between personal and organizational values, intend to follow Biblical scripture to live their faith in the public square, and feel obligated to help others in need. Fraternity and unity were welcomed benefits that KofC members enjoyed while volunteering. KofC provides volunteers with role and task variety, which allows volunteers to choose the activities that suit their interest, skill set, and time commitment. By gaining insights from these themes, organizational leaders can improve their communication to potential and existing volunteers, foster stronger relationships among volunteers, and develop programs that engage volunteers through catered recruitment and retention strategies. </p><p>

This thesis examines the representation of Muslim women in Canadian media, specifically in CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie ( LMOTP) which represents women in non-Orientalist, realistic portrayals. This thesis traces Luhmann's (1987) theory on representation of society, Millar's (1793) observations about women in society and Hall's (1997) "Other"; and combines them with Said's (1978) Orienralism, Kristeva's (1991) theories on foreigners and Bhabha's (1994) Third Space to study the representation of Muslim women in LMOTP. A qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the first eight episodes investigates how the image of the Muslim woman has been (re)constructed on CBC. This thesis finds that Muslim women in LMOTP are not oppressed or stereotyped; they participate in Canadian culture and the workplace; and they are not considered outsiders. These characters portray Muslim women in Canada who exist in Third Spaces which allow Canadian and Islamic practices to merge resulting in uniquely Canadian artifacts like LMOTP.

When contemporary Caribbean-Canadian writer Dionne Brand encounters home, she is confronted by social norms - domestic and national - that may exclude her based on race, gender, sexuality and birthplace, or that may include her on the conditional denial of any one of these identifications. Reading her memoir and three novels, this study examines Brand's conceptualization of home and her attempts to uncover its failings, dismantle its borders, and ultimately refigure the concept of home as what I term Brand's uneasy homespaces - sites where provisional reterritorializations sign and enable agency, open the possibility of connection through negotiation, and retain uneasiness as a reminder of necessary provisionality. Through prolonged attention to the difference between the theoretically empowering and the materially destructive, Brand resists utopian fantasies of cosmopolitan global citizenship and the metaphorization of homelessness, while also countering, in her later work, easy dismissals of the nation-state by presenting a community that gains agency through identification with the city and nation even as it actively critiques the state.

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