Student research highlights

The following are examples of presentations made during the 2009-10 Mapping the New Knowledges Graduate Student Research Conference. They demonstrate the calibre and scope of graduate research under way at Brock.

Session: Justice and Equity
Kate Williams, Social Justice and Equity Studies
“Medicalization and Women: O, The Oprah Magazine Diagnosed Through Critical Discourse and Analysis”
Research undertaken by Kate Williams, Social Justice and Equity Studies, gives you something to think about next time you happen to flip through a copy of O, The Oprah Magazine, while you wait at a grocery checkout.
Williams examines the impact on women of direct-to-consumer advertisements by pharmaceutical companies published in four issues of O in 2006. Her study opens a discussion on the medicalization issues for women. She raises questions about advertising tactics that play on gender norms and notions of autonomy and empowerment. Her research highlights the role of pharmaceutical advertising in relation to concerns about increases in the use of prescribed treatments for a wide array of everyday problems. Williams also comments on the irony of the contrast between the magazine’s advertising messages and the more holistic health-oriented editorial content.
 
Michael Lincoln, Political Science
“The Security Element of Cultural Nationalism”
Michael Lincoln looks at the role of federalism and language laws in Quebec as one of three case studies to examine the broader issue of cultural security. The Political Science student says the goal of his research is to explain the differences that put liberalism and nationalism in conflict with each other and how governing institutions respond. His other case studies include analyzing factors that led to the establishment of the Autonomous Basque Community in Spain, and exploring tensions related to Estonia’s language and citizenship laws in the context of the country’s recent admittance to the European Union.

Chance Minett Watchel, Political Science
“REAL women before the Appellate Courts of Canada: An assessment of the effectiveness of Christian Conservative Interest Group Litigation in Canada, 1982-2009”
Chance Minett Watchel, Political Science, applies his interest in Canadian public law to his study of litigation initiated by Christian Conservation interest groups. The adoption of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1982 sets a timeline for the study of third-party court actions. A number of previous studies, Watchel explains, have found high rates of litigation success among liberal, equality-seeking women’s groups. Using methodology similar to these studies, Watchel shines light on legal challenges mounted by a conservative counterpart. Moving well beyond the development of a scorecard to compare wins and losses, however, his study applies critical thought in assessing litigation action by both right- and left-leaning groups as a means of influencing policy change.

Session: Managing Environmental Resources
Ayure-Inga Mark Anthony Anga, Geography
“Sustainability and Management of Common-Pool Resources: The Case of the Upper East Region of Ghana”
Ayure-Inga Mark Anthony Anga, Geography, takes us to farming communities in Ghana. His research focuses on past and present management systems of the Vea and Tono irrigation dams. Irrigation is an essential common-pool resource for agriculture sustainability and productivity in the semi-arid environment of this region. The dams were constructed in the immediate post-colonial era to improve agriculture productivity in the area. However, this irrigation project has a long history of financial issues. Adjustments in management systems, from top-down to community-based approaches, have so far failed to solve the problems.

Matt Wegner, Management
“The Carbon Disclosure Project, an Evolution in International Environmental Corporate Governance: Motivations and Determinants of Market Response to Voluntary Disclosures”
Canadian companies coming clean about climate change is the focus of a Management study by Matt Wegner. His project examines factors associated with Canadian firms voluntarily disclosing climate change information through the Climate Disclosure Project, a United Nations initiative. Wegner’s study looks at the issue of transparency of environmental performance against the world of business and the prevailing factors of shareholder activism, signalling, litigation risk and low-cost publicity that influence decisions by business organizations regarding sharing information on environmental records.

Ian Wood, Geography
“Regulating Public Space in the Peripheral Districts of Lima, Peru: Municipal Responses to Informal Vendors”
Ian Wood, Geography, shares insights from field work that he conducted as part of his study into regulations and policies that control street vending in the historic city centre of Lima. The city’s informal street vending dates back to the 1950s. The 1990s was a period of change in policy regarding vendors as part of an aggressive urban renewal campaign. These actions have extended to peripheral zones of the city and the squatter settlements of rural migrant families. Wood’s research looks at the impact of the district government’s relocation and eviction strategies on the community of intinerant vendors.