Browsing by Author "Robinson, Jack"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    "Common fires": a tribute
    (2018) Robinson, Jack
    This is a review of Richard Wagamese's 1994 novel Keeper 'n Me and a detailed appreciation of Anishnaabe values as presented in the novel.
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    Constructing ethical learning spaces through interdisciplinary dialogue
    (2021) Dawson, Leslie; Robinson, Jack
    First piloted in 2017, MacEwan University’s Interdisciplinary Dialogue is a collaborative teaching and learning project that addresses topics relating to social justice across disciplines. In 2019, in collaboration with kihêw waciston Indigenous Centre, the Dialogue expanded its intercultural learning through a partnership with University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills and explored truth and reconciliation through a focus on Indigenous research. Building on Willie Ermine’s concept of ‘ethical spaces’, this article highlights how ethical learning spaces were created through Indigenous-led educational forums followed by an online student Interdisciplinary Dialogue. The Dialogue positioned students to explore histories of colonial relationships and their attendant harmful research practices; and to centre Indigenous knowledges and methodologies as foundational to Indigenous research. Students questioned oppressions in western pedagogy, and they envisioned a pedagogy of mutual respect for Indigenous and non-Indigenous ways of knowing. This article focuses on the online discussions conducted by students in the 2019 Dialogue. It shows how students understood that they were participants in disrupting colonial discourse in academia, reframing education for reconciliation, and expanding the construction of ‘ethical spaces’ across the University and beyond.
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    It’s not gothic - it’s about the stories within the story
    (2019) Sorensen, Kelsey; Robinson, Jack
    Eden Robinson uses a variety of Haisla stories in her novel Monkey Beach. Some critics have viewed her novel as a gothic story, however, the novel is filled with cultural dimension that outshines any gothic elements. These elements and stories, not only preserve Haisla culture; but make it available to a variety of readers. Interdisciplinary Dialogue Project.
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    Tarrying with trauma while improvising gender in Alice Munro’s 1978 collection Who Do You Think You Are?
    (2022) Sorensen, Brianna; Robinson, Jack
    Alice Munro’s 1978 collection of linked stories, Who Do You Think You Are? enacts what Lorraine York calls Munro’s theory of fiction as “tarrying with difficult emotions and knowledges.” Judith Butler’s seminal 1988 theory of gender performativity postulated that improvising gender incurs obvious and covert social punishments, but that performing gender includes the possibility of innovation. Rose, the protagonist, succumbs to and contests norms imposed on women in the southwestern Ontario township of Huron County during the 1940s to 1970s. This thesis explores Rose surviving punitive social conventions in her cultural context which are contiguous with trauma. For Rose, failure to conform is what Jack Halberstam defines as “queer failure”: it is a triumph of personal authenticity over gender essentialism and an acceptance of human imperfection. In the journey towards self-knowledge, Rose’s surviving trauma and defying gender scripts cause the “sticky affects” of shame and humiliation identified by Amelia DeFalco; the feeling that women are not afforded hope; and, in stressful situations, emotional dissociation and emotional economies, as identified by DeFalco and York. Rose’s marriage fails because of a sadomasochistic power struggle. Rose tarries with disconnection from others and from self; however, she innovates gender and subverts the intergenerational cycle of victimvictimizer by achieving a sense of community and strengthening personal authenticity, which Margaret Atwood says is, for “Munro’s women,” “an essential element, like air.”
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    Tarrying with trauma while improvising gender in Alice Munro’s 1978 collection Who Do You Think You Are?
    (2022) Sorensen, Brianna; Robinson, Jack
    Alice Munro’s 1978 collection of linked stories, Who Do You Think You Are? enacts what Lorraine York calls Munro’s theory of fiction as “tarrying with difficult emotions and knowledges.” Judith Butler’s seminal 1988 theory of gender performativity postulated that improvising gender incurs obvious and covert social punishments, but that performing gender includes the possibility of innovation. Rose, the protagonist, succumbs to and contests norms imposed on women in the southwestern Ontario township of Huron County during the 1940s to 1970s. This thesis explores Rose surviving punitive social conventions in her cultural context which are contiguous with trauma. For Rose, failure to conform is what Jack Halberstam defines as “queer failure”: it is a triumph of personal authenticity over gender essentialism and an acceptance of human imperfection. In the journey towards self-knowledge, Rose’s surviving trauma and defying gender scripts cause the “sticky affects” of shame and humiliation identified by Amelia DeFalco; the feeling that women are not afforded hope; and, in stressful situations, emotional dissociation and emotional economies, as identified by DeFalco and York. Rose’s marriage fails because of a sadomasochistic power struggle. Rose tarries with disconnection from others and from self; however, she innovates gender and subverts the intergenerational cycle of victimvictimizer by achieving a sense of community and strengthening personal authenticity, which Margaret Atwood says is, for “Munro’s women,” “an essential element, like air.” Presentation notes.
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    "We story them": Thomas King's rhetorical approach to the de-othering and re-storying of First Nations people
    (2013) Moorsel, Alyssa Van; Robinson, Jack
    Canadian First Nations people have always been cast as the Other, as the colonized, by caucasian Canadian society: they are the depraved, the damned, the conquered, and the inferior. This image has been adjusted from century to century to suit society’s needs. As a result, Native people have been prevented from forming their own identities. Thomas King, in The Truth About Stories, tells stories, drawing upon his upbringing and life experiences while exploring the many stereotypes that have been historically attached to North American indigenous peoples. [Honours thesis]