Through an examination of neighbourhood conflicts over property boundaries, marriage contracts and defamation, this thesis argues that the dichotomy of public and private is an anachronistic and untenable division in fifteenth-century London. Instead, Londoners were concerned with degrees of visibility and control over space, rather than the maintenance of a strict separation of public and private. The tensions that resulted from shared, often subdivided space could culminate in a legal battle before the assize of nuisance, a secular court where individuals complained that their neighbour’s property encroached upon their own and that, through those encroachments, a neighbour exposed the plaintiff’s household to public scrutiny. Marriage conflicts and defamation suits brought before the ecclesiastical Consistory court were similarly concerned with public knowledge, as both relied on a certain degree of publicity in order to be effective. Witnesses were required to see and hear both the exchange of consent and the exchange of insults. Using these two London courts, this thesis explores how the house and household lives were open to others and how Londoners lived their lives in varying degrees of publicity, rather than in public or private.

This thesis explores the experiences of transnational agricultural migrant workers in Canada’s guestworker programs. Examined through a gendered lens, it focuses on migrant’s experiences as parents to children whom they must leave behind in their communities of origin when they migrate. Drawing on interview and ethnographic data, this thesis argues that transnational parents, especially mothers, face a unique set of challenges and barriers as participants in these programs. It explores how the injustices that migrants suffer impact parents’ ability to focus on their primary motivation to migrate— their children— thereby limiting their ability to fulfill their roles as parents and hindering their parent-child relationships.

For centuries, scholarship in the area of punishment, prisons and corrections has been generated by a number of different disciplines. It is difficult to argue the fact that there has been a bias in this literature toward discussions of the crimes and punishments of men. Given the historically disproportionate representation of men in criminal justice systems worldwide, the male ‘inmate’ has undoubtedly become the taken-for-granted norm in penality studies. However, works on ‘male imprisonment’ versus ‘female imprisonment’ (particularly feminist works) demonstrate a significant disparity in their approach. Despite the extensive nature of scholarship on penality, and the strong focus on gender by feminist scholars in the area, there has been a vast silence on the incarcerated male as a gendered subject, and the male prison as a gendered institution. Although this silence has been briefly noted by feminist scholars in their discussions of female imprisonment (e.g. Hannah-Moffat 2001; Howe 1994; Naffine 1996), few scholars to date have taken up a critical discussion of gender in the context of male incarceration. This oversight is especially characteristic of Canadian penal scholarship and Canadian penal histories in particular. It is the aim of this work to initiate the ‘catch-up,’ to engage in a historical examination of male penality in Canada that draws upon a number of the developments made in both the critical literature on punishment – predominantly focusing on the incarceration of men – and feminist scholarship’s gender approaches to women’s incarceration. Arguably, there is no better point to start this inquiry than with Kingston Penitentiary, Canada’s oldest and long-considered most ‘notorious’ prison for men. Using historical documents from the early history of Kingston Penitentiary (1833-1856), an analysis of discourse using a Foucauldian feminist theoretical approach is performed to uncover the gendered nature of the institution, and the policies and procedures developed for inmate men. Findings suggest that gendered power relations involving a number of different strategies (benevolence, control, pastoralism) and masculinities (aggressive, vulnerable, etc.) were at work. Implications of viewing prisons for men as gendered institutions are discussed. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2007-08-30 09:23:28.414

Since the commencement of welfare state restructuring in the mid 1990’s under the Harris government in Ontario, significant cuts to social assistance, or what symbolically became ‘Ontario Works’, have fundamentally altered how assistance is managed and delivered. Accompanying these financial reforms was the increased surveillance of individuals and families receiving social assistance in the province of Ontario. The central focus of this project examines the technological, task force-oriented and community surveillance practices administered by Ontario Works. Based on primary research of policy documents, legislation, regulations and directives, the thesis argues that through the multitude of surveillance technologies, Ontario Works has made living on social assistance increasingly more demoralizing, in addition to the added difficulty of obtaining welfare benefits. Finally, since an overwhelming majority of recipients are single mothers, the thesis addresses the substantial gender and class dimensions attached to Ontario Works’ surveillance practices and further questions the neoliberal policies such as the ‘war on fraud’ which justified the increased surveillance of poor mothers. / Thesis (Master, Sociology) -- Queen's University, 2009-05-29 16:36:00.676

This study examined the societal factors and subjective beliefs that are hypothesized to be affecting the lives of trans persons accessing Ontario health care services. The purpose of this study was to uncover information pertaining to trans persons’ needs and fulfillments within Ontario’s health care system in order to discover what the specific health care needs of trans persons accessing health care services are as well as if they are alienated and/or systemically discriminated against when seeking medical attention. The research questions were addressed through a secure, anonymous, online questionnaire taking approximately 30 to 45 minutes to complete. A small sample of 18 to 26 individuals who identified as trans, living in Ontario and have accessed, or are currently accessing, Ontario health care services were recruited through relevant list-servs and website postings. Participants accessed a variety of open-ended and closed questions concerning sociodemographics, sexuality, health care access experiences, and health care needs. Qualitative results showed that access to Ontario health care is complicated by race, class and language for participants in this study. Experiences for trans persons with Ontario health care services varied from individual to individual; some reported no negative experiences at all, some have been refused services by the Center for Addiction and Mental Health’s Gender Identity Clinic, and some avoided health care services entirely due to discrimination from medical professionals. / Thesis (Master, Gender Studies) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-20 12:42:59.005

Drawing upon close observation of site practices, interviews, and visitor surveys, this project analyses the programming offered at historic sites, highlighting the aspects of history that are omitted or treated superficially. The case studies conducted at Fort Henry, Upper Canada Village, and Fort William demonstrate that women’s and gender histories continue to be minimized, stereotyped, and segregated. Each site selectively communicates information about the past. The commemoration and preservation of the past and the tourism industry have been intricately connected in Ontario throughout the twentieth century. Historic sites have been directed by the dual goals of educating the public about a national past and of attracting visitors and revenues. As Ian McKay and Robin Bates have articulated, the resulting tourism/history is a narrative less interested in verity than in saleability. Though the management of historic sites have not jettisoned the concept of accuracy, broadening the picture of the past presented to be ‘more accurate’ by addressing such issues as courtship, birth control, or marital separation is often not as high a priority as increasing visitor numbers. The costs, financial and otherwise, of making changes to the traditional fare at historic sites are considered undesirable. Sites are unprepared to invest in changes to collections or programming unless it can be shown that the investment will pay dividends. The perpetuation of traditional political and economic narratives continues also because of the perception that this appeals to and pleases visitors. Sites aim to give visitors what they want and to entertain them in order to secure repeat patronage. Women’s history and gender history are considered, somewhat contradictorily, too controversial and too mundane to garner the interest of visitors. Despite being trusted by a majority of Canadians as trustworthy sources of history, historic sites are letting down their constituents by omitting significant aspects and concerns of daily life in their narratives. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-28 20:02:08.987

Upon marriage, women in early modern England became subject to the common law doctrine of coverture. Coverture had a number of consequences, all of which stemmed from a married woman’s lack of independent legal identity. These consequences largely manifested themselves in a married woman’s complete lack of property rights, but the lack of an independent legal identity created complications for assigning criminal responsibility to married women in the early modern criminal justice system. Coverture largely manifested itself in the criminal law through the defence of marital coercion, which held that a married woman who committed a crime – with the exceptions of murder and treason – was assumed to be acting under her husband’s coercion and was therefore not liable for her actions. This study examines the perceptions, treatment, and experiences of married women in the northern assize circuit and London between 1640 and 1760, with particular attention to the defence of marital coercion. This thesis discovered that the household ideal, not the defence of marital coercion, was the most important factor in determining the perceptions, treatment, and experiences of married women with the criminal justice system. People in early modern England did not see coverture as the loss of rights, but rather the means through which to create a unified household. The household ideal manifested itself in various ways, including understandings of women’s household role, the tendency of people to treat husband and wife as a criminal unit rather than two separate individuals, the “suitability” of victims in murder trials, and the unique treatment of married women in the execution pamphlets. The married women of this study were subject to the common law doctrine of coverture. While they did not feel its effects in their daily lives, their lack of an independent legal identity created complications in the criminal justice system. Above all, married women were both criminals and wives. Criminal actions may have removed these women from their husbands’ cover, but their experiences with the criminal law were still shaped by coverture and the corresponding household ideal. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2012-02-23 09:40:38.368

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No description available.

This thesis attempts to present the way in which male members of an emerging gay scene in Beirut, Lebanon conceive of their sexuality. The work is based on ethnographic research conducted between March 2005 and June 2007 that explores this gay scene and Helem, the first civil rights organization in the region publicly advocating gay rights. The ethnographic materials include interviews with the administrators of Helem, materials published by Helem (i.e. newsletters, magazines, press releases), secondary sources on the organization (i.e. media and news reports), twenty-five interviews with members of the Beirut gay scene, and two surveys with one hundred and sixty-four respondents. The analysis begins by exploring some of the limitations and binary constructions that appear within the study of homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world and pursues an ethnographic response to this scholarship. Case studies on Helem's activism and materials from informants in the gay scene are used to illustrate the construction and negotiation of "local" homosexualities. The reconstructed area of Downtown Beirut, where the fieldwork was conducted, is understood as a site of struggle where these sexual identities are negotiated. My central claim is that these understandings of (homo)sexuality disrupt a number of existing dichotomized frameworks that are currently embedded in the study of homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic world: global/local, identity/behavior, visible/invisible, and West/East. / Cette thèse tente d'identifier les façons selon lesquelles les membres d'une scène homosexuelle émergeante à Beyrouth conçoivent leur sexualité dans. La présente thèse, avec du recherches menées durant la période de Mars 2005 à Juin 2007, examine la gay scène dans la capitale libanaise, Beyrouth, et Helem. Cette dernière est la première association visant à promouvoir publiquement les droits civils des hommes homosexuels. Le matériel ethnographique inclut des entrevues auprès des administrateurs de Helem, des publications de Helem (bulletins, magasines, communiqués de presse), des sources secondaires concernant l'organisme (rapports et/ou reportages des médias et des nouvelles), vingt-cinq entrevues passées par des membres faisant partie de la scène homosexuelle de Beyrouth, et deux sondages avec cent soixante-sept répondants. L'analyse débute par l'exploration d'un certain nombre de limitations et de constructions binaires qui se sont manifestées à portée de l'étude de l'homosexualité dans le monde Arabe et Islamique. Cette analyse cherche à formuler une réponse ethnographique à son érudition. Afin d'illustrer un meilleur portrait de l'homosexualité ‘locale', nous utiliserons, des études de cas visant l'activisme de Helem et des matériaux offerts par des informateurs de la scène homosexuelle. Downtown Beirut, une région nouvellement reconstruite et qui me servit de terrain de travail, est reconnu comme étant un site où les identités sexuelles sont négociées. Ma principale hypothèse est que la multitude d'interprétations ainsi que la compréhension (ou le manque de) vis-à-vis de l'(homo)sexualité perturbent un grand nombre de structures dichotomiques déjà existantes : globale/locale, identité/conduite, visible/invisible et Ouest/Est.