Despite a preoccupation with the concepts of land and rent during initial historical cycles of colonization and capital expansion, today’s Western philosophers neglect the importance of land, preferring the generic ontologies offered by the ostensibly analogous affordances of space, place, earth, and world. At the same time, Native philosophers provide substantial and robust philosophies of land both as anticolonial strategies and as expressions of the self-determined legitimacy of Native worlds. This dissertation seeks to redress the failure of Western philosophers to engage in meaningful dialogue with Native philosophers by taking anticolonial criticism to the heart of settler environmental philosophies, especially ecological phenomenology and Marxism. / 2021-04-30

The current moment of education in Canada is increasingly asking educators to take up the mandate and responsibility to integrate Indigenous perspectives into curricula and teaching practice. Many teachers who do so come from a historical context of settler colonialism that has largely ignored or tried to use education to assimilate Indigenous peoples. This project asks how teachers are (or are not) integrating Indigenous perspectives into the classroom curriculum. It asks if and how Eurocentric and colonial perspectives are being disrupted or reproduced in classroom dialogue, and how learning spaces can be guided by an ethics of relationality and co- existence between Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing. Finally, it seeks promising pedagogical practices through which curriculum can be a bridge for building a new relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada. This project is a critical ethnography of five high school English classrooms in which teachers were attempting to integrate Indigenous perspectives into the curriculum. Over the course of a semester classroom observations, interviews, and focus groups gathered the stories, experiences and perceptions of five high school English teachers, their students, and several Indigenous educators and community members. The stories and experiences gathered describe a decolonizing praxis, which pedagogically situates Indigenous and non-Indigenous worldviews in parallel and in relation, each co-existing in its own right without one dominating the other. The teacher and students who took up this decolonizing praxis centered an Indigenous lens in their reading of texts, and saw questions of ethics, responsibility, and reciprocity as key to changing the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. Despite this promising pedagogical approach, I identify knowledge of treaties and the significance of land to Indigenous peoples as a significant gap in knowledge for students (and some teachers), which allows many colonial misunderstandings to persist.

The task of attending to cultural difference amongst women while also ‘bridging’ these differences is deeply contested in feminism. This concern arose in response to criticisms that ‘hegemonic’ feminism is indeed part of the colonial project. These critiques demonstrated that the notion of feminism as a universal movement for all women is deeply problematic and founded on the exclusion of sex, race, and class differences. Subsequently, the aim to recuperate a notion of the universal that refuses these exclusions is of central concern to contemporary feminism. As feminism comes to grip with the impact of globalization on women in different parts of the world, this impetus to engender understanding and alliances across cultural difference is more salient than ever. This thesis explores one response to the dilemma which I term the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’. Only recently emerging from the field of contemporary feminist theory, this impulse and the key authors which inform it has not be examined in any substantial way. This is where the original contribution of this thesis lies. My main focus is to explore the central aim of this emerging set of ideas and to identify their strengths and weaknesses. I argue that the central aim of the decolonizing impulse is to build feminist alliances and coalitions that are premised, first and foremost, on women’s heterogeneity. It thus purports to offer a re-constructed vision of the ‘universal’. This is a universalism where differences and particularities are privileged in advance of any announcement of the ‘universal’. To do this, I first establish how the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ emerged from different fields of scholarship, including postcolonial studies, indigenous political thought, Third World, postcolonial and poststructuralist feminisms. I then map the major features of the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ by examining the work of important authors who have given shape to this impulse. To discover the strengths and weaknesses of the decolonizing impulse, I engage with the work of two prominent contemporary feminist theorists, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Martha C. Nussbaum. Both Mohanty and Nussbaum aim to advance a model of cross-cultural feminism, though go about this in vastly different ways.

The task of attending to cultural difference amongst women while also ‘bridging’ these differences is deeply contested in feminism. This concern arose in response to criticisms that ‘hegemonic’ feminism is indeed part of the colonial project. These critiques demonstrated that the notion of feminism as a universal movement for all women is deeply problematic and founded on the exclusion of sex, race, and class differences. Subsequently, the aim to recuperate a notion of the universal that refuses these exclusions is of central concern to contemporary feminism. As feminism comes to grip with the impact of globalization on women in different parts of the world, this impetus to engender understanding and alliances across cultural difference is more salient than ever. This thesis explores one response to the dilemma which I term the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’. Only recently emerging from the field of contemporary feminist theory, this impulse and the key authors which inform it has not be examined in any substantial way. This is where the original contribution of this thesis lies. My main focus is to explore the central aim of this emerging set of ideas and to identify their strengths and weaknesses. I argue that the central aim of the decolonizing impulse is to build feminist alliances and coalitions that are premised, first and foremost, on women’s heterogeneity. It thus purports to offer a re-constructed vision of the ‘universal’. This is a universalism where differences and particularities are privileged in advance of any announcement of the ‘universal’. To do this, I first establish how the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ emerged from different fields of scholarship, including postcolonial studies, indigenous political thought, Third World, postcolonial and poststructuralist feminisms. I then map the major features of the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ by examining the work of important authors who have given shape to this impulse. To discover the strengths and weaknesses of the decolonizing impulse, I engage with the work of two prominent contemporary feminist theorists, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Martha C. Nussbaum. Both Mohanty and Nussbaum aim to advance a model of cross-cultural feminism, though go about this in vastly different ways.

The task of attending to cultural difference amongst women while also ‘bridging’ these differences is deeply contested in feminism. This concern arose in response to criticisms that ‘hegemonic’ feminism is indeed part of the colonial project. These critiques demonstrated that the notion of feminism as a universal movement for all women is deeply problematic and founded on the exclusion of sex, race, and class differences. Subsequently, the aim to recuperate a notion of the universal that refuses these exclusions is of central concern to contemporary feminism. As feminism comes to grip with the impact of globalization on women in different parts of the world, this impetus to engender understanding and alliances across cultural difference is more salient than ever. This thesis explores one response to the dilemma which I term the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’. Only recently emerging from the field of contemporary feminist theory, this impulse and the key authors which inform it has not be examined in any substantial way. This is where the original contribution of this thesis lies. My main focus is to explore the central aim of this emerging set of ideas and to identify their strengths and weaknesses. I argue that the central aim of the decolonizing impulse is to build feminist alliances and coalitions that are premised, first and foremost, on women’s heterogeneity. It thus purports to offer a re-constructed vision of the ‘universal’. This is a universalism where differences and particularities are privileged in advance of any announcement of the ‘universal’. To do this, I first establish how the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ emerged from different fields of scholarship, including postcolonial studies, indigenous political thought, Third World, postcolonial and poststructuralist feminisms. I then map the major features of the ‘feminist decolonizing impulse’ by examining the work of important authors who have given shape to this impulse. To discover the strengths and weaknesses of the decolonizing impulse, I engage with the work of two prominent contemporary feminist theorists, Chandra Talpade Mohanty and Martha C. Nussbaum. Both Mohanty and Nussbaum aim to advance a model of cross-cultural feminism, though go about this in vastly different ways.

In this dissertation, I explore how crossing national borders has made me aware of the many identity borders that I have crossed as a transnational Chinese, and how I am caught up in identity politics between the “Chinese,” who do not necessarily always identify as “Chinese” in the transnational context. However, as a racialized group in the U.S., transnational Chinese are perceived as a homogeneous population, usually through racially (“Yellow Peril” or “Chinese Virus”) and politically (“Red Scare”) charged lenses measured by Western/U.S. binaristic and hierarchical standards. Therefore, in this research project, I problematize dominant U.S. race logic, i.e., the White/Non-White binary, for its limited capabilities of understanding and explaining identity, communication, culture, and power in an increasingly interconnected world; and I also call for an alternative theorizing of race and identity in the transnational context. Border crossings within the conditions of contemporary globalization have intensified interconnectivities and complicated how we comprehend and communicate our identities. It thus becomes essential to find ways to “unsettle and restage” racial and cultural differences in the context of globalization (Shome & Hegde, 2002a, p. 174-5). With a different skin color, speaking English with a foreign accent while being perceived as “Model Minorities,” transnational Chinese have lately been ascribed with another pathologized identity label: “Chinese Virus,” which may be understood as an extension of the “Yellow Peril” rhetoric. Furthermore, within the Chinese communities, due to historical reasons, colonialism, political unrest, and civil war, many Taiwanese and Hong Kongers identify themselves very differently from mainland Chinese. When crossing borders to live together in the U.S., the identity tensions among Chinese ethnicities in addition to the interracial confrontations between transnational Chinese and local racial groups only make understanding what it means to be Chinese on the racial landscape of the U.S. even more complex.I weave together Yep’s (2010) notion of thick(er) intersectionalities and Kraidy’s (2005) description of transnationalism to build my conceptual framework. On the one hand, thick(er) intersectionalities advocates for more complex and embodied ways of theorizing intersectional identities and “the interplay between individual subjectivity, personal agency, systemic arrangements, and structural forces” (p. 173). On the other, transnationalism helps make sense of transnational identities with “a shifting location of contradictions that straddles multiple viewpoints,” which cannot be defined “in binary and essentialist terms” (Bardhan & Zhang, 2017, p. 288). I thus examine why an in-depth, transnational understanding of Chinese identity is necessary and how to move toward such an understanding, including that of racial, cultural, linguistic, and political identities of transnational Chinese living in the U.S., especially in the context of the current trade tensions between the U.S. and China, two nations tightly connected economically while largely differing culturally and politically.Methodologically, I employ a mixed-method approach by applying autoethnography and in-depth interview as my primary research methods. The dissertation mainly addresses three research questions through a communicative lens: 1) What does it mean to live in the U.S. as transnational Chinese? 2) How do transnational Chinese make sense of Chinese-ness(es) in such a context? 3) What is at stake in understanding Chinese-ness in a transnational context that necessitates an alternative theorization of race to the dominant/White U.S. race ideology? The findings show that there is no singular definition of what Chinese-ness(es) is(are) and what it(they) entail(s). It is a thick and fluid concept that is unique to each transnational Chinese based on their lived experiences and subjected to their own understandings while also constrained in the larger social framework by Chinese and U.S. cultural scripts and contexts. Chinese-ness, to transnational Chinese, cannot be compartmentalized in the limited identity categories specific to either cultural context. Being exposed to a broader world with multiple cultural references, they are flexible enough to creatively identify, dis-identify, or even counter-identify with either their avowed identities, or ascribed identities, or both in either or both cultural contexts. The complexities, specificities, and particularities of their transnational identity experiences, thus, cannot be adequately understood within the confines of simple intersections of U.S.-centric identity categories. I conclude that Chinese-ness(es) is local and global, racial and ethnic, cultural and political, and spatial and temporal. There is no such thing as a singular, uniform Chinese-ness. Not even in the imaginary. This study may contribute to critical intercultural communication scholarship by situating knowledge of race, identity, and power in a very specific and complex context that includes the U.S. but is transnational in scope. Further, with an aim to provincialize dominant U.S. race logic, it makes an effort to transnationalize and internationalize theorizing of race and identity. Finally, speaking in a voice from a non-Western perspective currently situated in the West, I practice self-reflexivity throughout my writing with the hope of avoiding re-essentializing identity, race, and power in a covert “oppressor-oppressed” Manichean dualism that I attempt to deconstruct.

This thesis examines how traditional medicine workshops offered by an Aboriginal health centre contribute to capacity re-building through self-care in two local communities in Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Health disparities that exist between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population have prompted a need to better understand health determinants that are of relevance in these communities including the importance of culture, tradition, and self-determination. A variety of qualitative methods were employed in this work including in-depth interviews, focus groups and “art voice.” The use of art voice on Manitoulin Island advances decolonizing methodologies by emphasizing how the incorporation of locally and culturally relevant methods or “methods-in-place,” is an effective way to engage communities in the research process. Results show the need to approach traditional teachings, health programs, and research from an Aboriginal worldview and indicate that more frequent workshops are required to empower youth and adults to practice and share traditional knowledge. Furthermore, a continuum exists in which the interest in language, culture, and tradition increases with age. Capacity can therefore be re-built over time within communities promoting autonomy and self-determination through self-care. Findings can be expected to further inform the traditional programming in participating communities, enhance existing Aboriginal determinants of health models by including traditional medicine as an element of self-care, and can act as a springboard for the inclusion of unique place-based methods into community-based research projects in the future.

This thesis examines how traditional medicine workshops offered by an Aboriginal health centre contribute to capacity re-building through self-care in two local communities in Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Health disparities that exist between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population have prompted a need to better understand health determinants that are of relevance in these communities including the importance of culture, tradition, and self-determination. A variety of qualitative methods were employed in this work including in-depth interviews, focus groups and “art voice.” The use of art voice on Manitoulin Island advances decolonizing methodologies by emphasizing how the incorporation of locally and culturally relevant methods or “methods-in-place,” is an effective way to engage communities in the research process. Results show the need to approach traditional teachings, health programs, and research from an Aboriginal worldview and indicate that more frequent workshops are required to empower youth and adults to practice and share traditional knowledge. Furthermore, a continuum exists in which the interest in language, culture, and tradition increases with age. Capacity can therefore be re-built over time within communities promoting autonomy and self-determination through self-care. Findings can be expected to further inform the traditional programming in participating communities, enhance existing Aboriginal determinants of health models by including traditional medicine as an element of self-care, and can act as a springboard for the inclusion of unique place-based methods into community-based research projects in the future.

This thesis examines how traditional medicine workshops offered by an Aboriginal health centre contribute to capacity re-building through self-care in two local communities in Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Health disparities that exist between Aboriginal people and the rest of the population have prompted a need to better understand health determinants that are of relevance in these communities including the importance of culture, tradition, and self-determination. A variety of qualitative methods were employed in this work including in-depth interviews, focus groups and “art voice.” The use of art voice on Manitoulin Island advances decolonizing methodologies by emphasizing how the incorporation of locally and culturally relevant methods or “methods-in-place,” is an effective way to engage communities in the research process. Results show the need to approach traditional teachings, health programs, and research from an Aboriginal worldview and indicate that more frequent workshops are required to empower youth and adults to practice and share traditional knowledge. Furthermore, a continuum exists in which the interest in language, culture, and tradition increases with age. Capacity can therefore be re-built over time within communities promoting autonomy and self-determination through self-care. Findings can be expected to further inform the traditional programming in participating communities, enhance existing Aboriginal determinants of health models by including traditional medicine as an element of self-care, and can act as a springboard for the inclusion of unique place-based methods into community-based research projects in the future.

In this thesis, I consider the ways in which classroom teachers develop critical consciousness and implement it within their pedagogy in the context of effectively teaching Black students to achieve academic success. The process of critical consciousness is complex and is mainly studied outside of teacher education. The findings of this thesis fall into three main themes: self-awareness; analysis of power; and inquiry of assumptions. The research also demonstrates that the spirituality of the teacher is an important contributing factor in one’s transformation. With this work, the hope is that teacher education programs dialogue about the importance of critical consciousness, and integrate it into the recipe that makes up “quality teaching” so that all students can have the opportunity to succeed in an equitable schooling environment.