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Insofar as the postcolonial project is one of the elaboration of “the plurality of modernity, and the agency multiplying its forms”, my project is a contribution to this larger one in the form of a postcolonial theory of multiculturalism (Ashcroft, 2009, p. 85). Drawing from minority standpoints, arguments, and narratives, I focus on the lives and perspectives of a few broad groups in particular: indigenous peoples in Canada, Muslim women, and East Asian “immigrant” minorities. I take up a critical theory approach to framing multicultural theory and the questions it asks from the standpoints of minorities themselves, foregrounding the challenges and perspectives of racialized groups for whom their ethno-culture is morally salient and central to their own understanding of their identities and aims. This framework draws on the insights of feminist theorists of deliberative democracy but also departs from them in the crucial respect of affirming a conception of culture and identity that accepts some basic “communitarian” ideas of morality and culture, while conceiving these within a postcolonial project of cultural reclamation rather than a republican framework of the public sphere. My project is organized into two parts: The first section systematically critiques the dominant liberal multiculturalist model based on Canadian multicultural policy and theorized by Kymlicka, which is oriented by the liberal state’s perspective in its aims of integrating minorities. In the first chapter, I reject his universalist principle of liberal neutrality as the standard for justice in favour of a pluralist democratic standard that accommodates “thin” theories of the good. In the second and third chapters, I reformulate Kymlicka’s categories of “national minorities” and “polyethnic minorities” respectively in order to take account of postcolonial indigenous sovereignty and the transnational scope of ethnic identity. The second section develops a pluralist account of agency in its descriptive (Chapter 4), normative (Chapter 5), and prescriptive (Chapter 6) aspects (Deveaux 2006 p. 179). This is developed as a constructive critique of liberal standards of autonomy, particularly feminist proposals for a standard of procedural autonomy, as unable to adequately describe and assess heteronomous agency.

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This thesis reveals relationships between the neoliberal subject and the suburban subject relative to the built environment. It argues that today's "architecture" is an integration of digital and analog worlds. The thesis articulates that American society's subjectivity is imposed by a consumer condition that is tied to the iconography of suburban landscape, such as the iconic house shape or a recognizable brand icon. The advent of the internet accelerated this condition by providing additional conduits of capital-based icons to emerge from and merge with the suburbs. The work focuses on creating parallels between the American suburban landscape, the suburban home, digital infrastructure, and the emerging structures which merge with the internet. The thesis asserts that the suburban project dominates the entirety of the landscape and is the governing force building an incipient landscape. The written part of the thesis discusses how our modern identity, influenced by both physical and digital worlds, has evolved from suburban roots, while the visual commentary uses architectural drawings to reveal four modalities which frame our environment and shape our lives and interactions. / Master of Science / This thesis looks at how architecture shapes our lives and frames our interactions with the world around us. It specifically focuses on how suburban landscapes influence our identity and behavior, emphasizing the typical suburban elements like single-family housing, commercial strip development, and global consumer goods that define this environment. The rise of the internet has intensified these suburban influences by connecting the suburban environment more deeply with the flow of money and data. The research interrogates and uses images and symbols from the suburban landscape to comment on their latent impact on our surroundings and how they now blend with digital technology. The thesis develops the connections between the physical suburban environment and developing digital infrastructures to articulate emergent structures in their combination. The written part of the thesis discusses how our modern identity, influenced by both physical and digital worlds, has evolved from suburban roots. A visual commentary uses architectural drawings to reveal four modalities which frame our environment and shapes our lives and interactions.

In a time of high stakes tests and mounting pressures in favor of standardized curricula at all levels, teachers continue to work in the best interests of their students as is evidenced by their statements both public and private, their continued commitment to their profession, and their political actions. Indeed, many advocate loudly and repeatedly for their students and for maximal opportunities for those same students. Without doubt, many of these teachers aspire to help learners of all ages and from all sociocultural strata develop into not only critical readers, consumers, and even critical civic participants, but into citizens with active critical consciences and a lively critical consciousness of their own culture and the cultures of others. In this study, the author observed and interviewed two middle school teachers and two high school teachers—all English teachers—for purposes of examining the participants' teaching practice for identifiable acts and statements involving the promotion of critical literacy among learners in the teachers' classrooms. The observations and interviews were conducted across a contiguous three-day period for each participant during the same class period each day. Participants self-selected dates and class period, and also were aware of the purpose of the study, i.e. to look for critical literacy practices in teaching. All observations and interviews were coded inductively and used Strauss and Corbin's (1998) three-step coding process for grounded theory of open, axial, and selective coding. Teachers' observed actions and statements were subsequently analyzed in a constant comparative analysis. / Ph. D.

A multi-method study investigating incarcerated women’s experiences of rage towards their intimate partners was conducted. The sample was drawn from a Philadelphia prison's recovery unit for women. Phenomenological and feminist critical theory perspectives guided the study; these combined approaches captured the essence of rage, while also offering a critical analysis for understanding complexities involved in the cultivation of rage. Three primary forms of data collection methods were used: (a) the Aggression Questionnaire, which was completed by 60 inmates; (b) a Demographic Worksheet, which was completed by 46 inmates and used to screen for subsequent interviews; and (c) in-depth interviews, which was completed by 37 women. Focus groups were used to debrief participants at the completion of the study. Results indicated rage as a distinct experience from anger. Past sources of emotional pain, embedded within shame and trauma, were revealed as fueling current actions of rage. Links between women's social location, their experiences of rage, and their involvement within the criminal justice system were revealed. / Ph. D.