Immigrant youth face uncertainty in many aspects of their lives. Most have little control over their family’s decision to immigrate and once they arrive, many encounter challenges. The Navigating Multiple Worlds project worked with a group of youth researchers to explore the relationship between stress, resilience and expressions of subjectivity among immigrant youth. Moving beyond the negative conceptualizations of stress and acculturative stress that dominate the literature, this research gathered youth perspectives on stress and what could be done to enhance supports for immigrant youth in Victoria. Through our participatory approach, the youth research team was involved in the design and implementation of interviews, focus groups and finally a photovoice exercise. Our methodology sought to highlight narrative complexities and the fluidity of experiences, with the research team reflecting on their own experiences while gathering perspectives on stress from other immigrant youth. The benefits and challenges of working in participatory paradigms with youth and the value of arts based methods for capturing youth voices and creating ‘thinking spaces’ for community engagement are highlighted. Historically, research has problematized immigrant youth identities. A focus on immigrant youth perspectives reveals that while many youth face challenges after immigration, they also emphasize the value of flexibility in self-definition. The combination of our methods, participatory approach, our focus on youth voices and taking an ethnographic approach to documenting experiences of stress, contributed to the distinctiveness of our findings. Considering stress as an idiom of narrative expression rather than an index of negative experience, acknowledges its place as part of the worldview of the participants, who use the term in multiple ways. The physicality of stress, the spatial and temporal dimensions of stress and ‘everyday stressors’ emerged from our analysis as thematic categories that describe the ways that youth experience ‘stress’. The findings of the Navigating Multiple Worlds project speak to the value of conceptualizing stress as a narrative idiom. Over the course of our research it became apparent that youth were talking about stress in ways that allowed them to discuss and normalize negative experiences, re-framing experiences of ‘stress’ in positive terms. For many, this facilitated fluid movement from a focus on challenges to a focus on coping and resilience. Our research suggests that while conflicting expectations in the lives of immigrant youth are sources of ‘stress’ for many, they can also be understood as key ‘sites of flexibility’. The processes of negotiation that occur in these ‘sites of flexibility’, as youth use the language of stress to name challenging experiences and overcome them, contribute to the resilience of youth. Although our findings are specific to a small group of immigrant youth in Victoria, BC, considering stress as an idiom of resilience as well as distress creates opportunities to recognize and enhance the strengths of immigrant youth and the supports available to them. Recommendations from our research in terms of service provision, supports, and participatory research with youth are provided, as well as suggestions for future research in anthropology related to immigrant youth and stress. / Graduate / 0339 / 0326 / 0347 / sarah.fletcher@gmail.com

abstract: In this dissertation I present data gathered from an eleven-month qualitative research study with adolescents living and working on the streets of Lima, Peru. Through the pairing of photovoice with participant observations, this work incorporates distinctive methodological and theoretical viewpoints in order to complicate prevailing understandings of street life. In this dissertation, I examine the identities that children and adolescents on the street develop in context, and the ways in which photography can be a useful tool in understanding identity development among this population. Through a framework integrating theories of identity and identity performance with spatial theories, I outline how identity development among children and adolescents living on the street is directly connected to their relationships with the urban landscape and the outreach organizations that serve them. The organizations and institutions that surround children on the street shape who they are, how they are perceived by society, and how they view and understand themselves in context. It is through the interaction with aid organizations and the urban landscape that a street identity is learned and developed. Furthermore, as organizations, children and adolescents come together within the context of the city, a unique street space is created. I argue that identity and agency are directly tied to this space. I also present the street as a thirdspace of possibility, where children and adolescents are able to act out various aspects of the self that they would be unable to pursue otherwise. Weaved throughout this dissertation are non-traditional writing forms including narrative and critical personal narrative addressing my own experiences conducting this research, my impact on the research context, and how I understand the data gathered. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2011

Women and persons with disabilities are at increased risks of experiencing negative health outcomes during and after disasters. The Sendai Framework (2015), published by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, highlights the need to strengthen disaster risk reduction (DRR) among populations at disproportionate risk, using an all-of-society approach that is inclusive and engaging. This research investigated the perceptions of capability among female stroke survivors, in the context of DRR. The purpose of this study was to 1) examine the role of asset literacy in the social construction of capability and lived experiences of female stroke survivors and 2) create an opportunity for female stroke survivors to share their lived experiences among themselves, and members of the stroke and DRR communities. Four women were recruited through snowball sampling. Study participants were invited to join a PhotoVoice project – a participatory method in which survivors were asked to respond to prompts using photography. Data was analyzed using qualitative, thematic analysis. Study results revealed that perceptions of capability in DRR for stroke survivors was rooted in the context of their recovery. Participants discussed 4 sets of recovery and DRR assets: 1) physical, 2) social, 3) energy and 4) personal characteristics. Autonomy was identified as a valued recovery outcome, and as needed to establish self-efficacy and adaptive capacity to cope with disasters. Social participation and asset literacy can support one another, and may enhance disaster resilience. An important aspect of Photovoice initiatives is sharing the messages with important stakeholders, as identified by the participants. This research has been shared at the annual international EnRiCH meeting (2018). We are currently planning a photo exhibit to be held in the fall of 2018. Overall, this research shows how creative tools (i.e. Photovoice, asset-mapping) can be used to foster social participation, and include populations at disproportionate risk in the DRR discussion.

This thesis is an examination of how men describe and experience masculinity. Psychological and sociological research has suggested that masculinity is malleable (Smiler, 2006), there are different versions or pluralities of masculinity (Connell 1995) and can be context-dependent (Gilbert & Gilbert, 2017). Often however hegemonic masculinity is considered the only type of masculinity, and is not flexible, especially when discussed on a social level (Cuthbert, 2015). Based on the researcher’s cultural, social and historical knowledge and understanding, masculinity is very different for people and so is understood, demonstrated and experienced in various ways. This research employed an unstructured interview design, incorporating photovoice, with five participants overall where each participant, except one, was interviewed twice. The first interview was researcher-led, with images provided by the researcher to be the focus for the participant. The second interview was participant-led, with the images provided by the participant to represent what they considered to be masculine or represented masculinity in their everyday life. The data collected was analysed using a combination of phenomenological methods; Descriptive Phenomenological Psychology (Giorgi, 2009) and Hermeneutic Phenomenology (van Manen, 2016). The thesis is presented in two halves. The first is researcher-led and draws on hermeneutic psychology and presents three themes were found from the first interviews: Hegemonic Masculinity with Traditional Masculinity, Characteristics and Non-Conformity; Societal Influence with Culture, Image and Media; and Feminism and Women. The second part of the thesis is participant-led, and draws out the descriptive phenomenological aspects by presenting each individual’s interaction with their chosen images and their ensuing descriptions of masculinity illustrated by them. Themes in this context are individually related rather than demonstrated through a cross-case analysis. Findings demonstrated masculinity as an individual identity, with a social expectation of how men should behave and portray themselves. The way it is perceived, understood, experienced and described is different for each person, as was demonstrated here with the participants’ second interviews. Future research should consider expanding research to include more on everyday factors, such as the use and influence of social media, the projection of masculinity throughout a man’s life, and how men and women both aid in the creation and maintenance of masculinity.

In the social sciences, research on black male youth (BMY) experiences in traditional academic settings has been limited to their failure to achieve due to their perceived dysfunctional family structure, gender and ethnic identity, social class, and social structural constraints. Characterized by the anthropological investigation into youth cultural, Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) framework, a theory of practice that includes an alternative framework of learning, and a mixed method approach with an emphasis on capturing the youth perspective through a PhotoVoice process, this research captures a dimension of BMY educational experiences by describing how exclusion from traditional academic settings is produced. Exclusion, as described in this research, is the stage of academic, social and cultural separation leading up to a student dropping out of school. Using case profiles of five BMY who have been traditionally excluded from public schools, this research focuses on how the social forces, such as family structure, gender, ethnicity, social class, and social structural constraints, interact to produce said exclusion. The results of this research indicate that the production of exclusion is an obscure process that is located in and hidden behind: traditional views of learning of BMY and adult stakeholders in education, unexamined assumptions and biases of BMY and adult stakeholders in education, and State sponsored policies and regulations. The implications of this research are discussed, in terms of theory and application. Applied anthropologist in education must take a theoretical role in uncovering ingrained belief systems and unexamined paradigms that control our educational institutions. To move applied anthropology into the next dimension, this study also addresses the need for interdisciplinary collaboration to create and implement sustainable solutions for the various issues present in United States’ educational institutions.

The potential for art in peacebuilding has shown success but not complete acceptance in the peacebuilding field. Participatory photography’s method of photovoice has shown effective as a unique participatory action research tool able to allow users to communicate deeply on sensitive subjects with potential to influence larger social change. Participatory photography programs involving intergroup conflict or tensions presents an important relational component for practitioners and stakeholders to respond to, however the factors which lead to successful collaborative action, an ambitious outcome is not yet known. This thesis examines why some participatory photography programs involving intergroup conflict or tensions can reach collaborative social action more easily than others.  A structured focused comparison tests a theorized positive relationship between program duration and achievement of collaborative social action. The findings give moderate support to the hypothesis, as a low program duration shows a challenge to reach collaborative social action and a mid-range program duration proves able to achieve a high level of collaborative social action. On the other hand, an extreme high program duration can reach social action but it is not collaborative. Analysis considers some other factors affecting collaborative social action such as context and program design factors, which suggests the need for further testing to inform better practical designs of future participatory photography programs.

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El cambio climático es atribuido directa o indirectamente a la actividad humana y se considera como la mayor amenaza a la salud pública del siglo XXI. Tiene impactos sobre el acceso al agua, la alimentación, en la agricultura y medios de vida, y en la salud de las personas. El objetivo de este texto es evaluar las percepciones del cambio climático en niños, niñas, adolescentes, autoridades y representantes de organizaciones juveniles, de mujeres y que trabajan con la niñez en las regiones de Cusco, Loreto y Piura, en Perú. Para ello se realizó un estudio cualitativo que utilizó la técnica de Fotovoz con doce adolescentes y entrevistas a profundidad con veintidós actores clave. Para el análisis se utilizaron las narrativas en las fotos y el análisis temático de las entrevistas. En las tres regiones se identificaron cambios extremos en el clima. En la región de Cusco reconocieron el cambio de temperatura con sequías y heladas, mientras que en Loreto y Piura manifestaron aumento en la intensidad de lluvias. En general, estos cambios afectaron la agricultura. El cuidado del agua como recurso, tanto en su acceso y calidad, fue una gran preocupación para todos los participantes. El estudio concluye que no se identifica el concepto de cambio climático como tal, sin embargo, describen cambios y variaciones en el clima que afectan sus actividades diarias, en particular la agricultura. Un tema transversal a todas las regiones fue el cuidado y uso del recurso del agua. Además, los jóvenes se mostraron particularmente entusiasmados en colaborar en iniciativas futuras contra el cambio climático.