Browsing by Author "Thurairajah, Kalyani"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9
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    Colourblind racism discourses presented in YouTube review videos of "Just Mercy"
    (2021) Nguyen, Laura; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    In the current age of the COVID-19 pandemic with issues about race and discrimination becoming more apparent, many individuals turn towards media to learn more about race and racism in the world. Therefore, this research project aims to explore how white audiences are discussing films that depict race-based issues. Just Mercy, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, depicts the true story of civil rights defence attorney Bryan Stevenson as they work to free wrongly convicted African Americans on death row. Using critical discourse analysis, this study explores whether colourblind racism discourses are present in how white audiences discuss the film Just Mercy. To do so, this project will be using Eduardo Bonilla-Silva’s four frames of colourblind racism and Jayakumar and Adamian’s fifth frame of colourblind racism to analyze movie review videos published by white YouTubers. Through the analysis of these videos, the findings indicate that Jayakumar and Adamian’s fifth frame of colourblind racism is used more commonly by white individuals in racially conscious contexts than Bonilla-Silva’s initial four frames.
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    How those with close connections with LGBTQ2S+ talk about that community
    (2021) Reynolds, Dorothy L.; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    There has been a steady increase in North America of people who identify as LGBTQ2S+. In a 2017 survey done by GLAAD, 20% of millennials identify as LGBTQ2S+. This increase would seem to increase the odds that soon we are all going to have someone close to us who is LGBTQ2S+. With that in mind, this research was done with the idea that having someone close to you that identifies as LGBTQ2S+ could affect the way you talk about that community. Critical discourse analysis was used through the lens of qualitative research, the use of a focus group and a qualitative interview from convenience sampling were done, and from those data collection techniques, language, behaviours, attitudes, and perceptions of the participants were analyzed. While many studies focus on the negative attitudes and language of society, this study took the approach of starting from the positive aspects of having a close relationship and being a support to someone who is LGBTQ2S+. Due to the nature of my subject matter, I chose to use gender neutral pseudonyms, gender neutral pronoun references and refrained from gender binary language.
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    How those with close connections with LGBTQ2S+ talk about that community
    (2021) Reynolds, Dorothy L.; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    There has been a steady increase in North America of people who identify as LGBTQ2S+. In a 2017 survey done by GLAAD, 20% of millennials identify as LGBTQ2S+. This increase would seem to increase the odds that soon we are all going to have someone close to us who is LGBTQ2S+. With that in mind, this research was done with the idea that having someone close to you that identifies as LGBTQ2S+ could affect the way you talk about that community. Critical discourse analysis was used through the lens of qualitative research, the use of a focus group and a qualitative interview from convenience sampling were done, and from those data collection techniques, language, behaviours, attitudes, and perceptions of the participants were analyzed. While many studies focus on the negative attitudes and language of society, this study took the approach of starting from the positive aspects of having a close relationship and being a support to someone who is LGBTQ2S+. Due to the nature of my subject matter, I chose to use gender neutral pseudonyms, gender neutral pronoun references and refrained from gender binary language.
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    How those with close connections with LGBTQ2S+ talk about that community
    (2021) Reynolds, Dorothy L.; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    For human beings, the first significant social group we belong to is our family. Family can mean genetic connections, but it can also be meaningfully created close social bonds by those who are not genetically linked as well. How we talk, not just to, but about persons in that group are important and can resonate throughout our social world. A critical discourse analysis (the process by which individuals use language to accomplish personal, social and political endeavour’s (Starks & Trinidad, 2007, p.1374)) was done on persons who had close personal connections with those who are LGBTQ2S+ to examine how they speak about them.
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    Human trafficking: a critical discourse analysis of governmental and non-governmental organizations in Alberta
    (2019) Jong, Melanie; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    This presentation will discuss the results from a Sociology Honours research project which used critical discourse analysis to look at the discourses of human trafficking among governmental and non-governmental organizations. This presentation will demonstrate how through the use of critical discourse analysis three main levels of power relations were found, each having significant impacts on the knowledge production around human trafficking. By addressing the commonalities as well as the differences between the governmental and non-governmental organizations, this presentation will also discuss how power relates to the discourses of human trafficking that are most commonly disseminated to the general public, and how this may be problematic in continuing to silence certain groups in society.
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    One night of pleasure or risk: hook-up culture and sexual violence
    (2018) Friesen, Kelsey; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    Sexual violence on post-secondary campuses is highly problematic. While sexual violence has been recognized as a health issue and social concern for many years, it is only recently that sexual violence and its concerning effects of victimization have merited closer attention from media. This media attention has, subsequently, resulted in a public outcry and has forced post-secondary institutions to implement sexual violence policies and programming. However, it has also led to an explosion of studies within academia. One of the areas that has not been studied extensively in the past but is increasing today is the study of uncommitted sexual encounters—otherwise known as hook-ups—in connection to sexual violence. Many studies concerning sexual violence discuss items that place an individual at higher risk for experiencing sexual violence, and one of the many risks is engagement in hook-ups. While engagement in hook-ups increases the risk of sexual violence victimization, it is questionable as to whether or not students are aware of this reality. With today's attitudes surrounding relationships and intimacy, it is difficult to measure this, as, according to some, engagement in hook-up culture simply fills one's desire for pleasure. In other words, perhaps the thoughts around engaging in hook-ups are less focused on the idea that there may be a risk for violence. Because it is unknown as to whether or not students conceptualize engagement in hook-up culture with sexual violence, this study seeks to discover the extent to which students conceptualize connections between sexual violence and hook-ups.
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    The racialization of motive: understanding the framing of East Asian crime in video games
    (2019) Pfliger, Amber; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    To gain a comprehensive understanding as to how East Asian crime is framed in video games, the origin stories of three video game protagonists were examined. To accomplish this, a coding scheme was utilized to draw themes on protagonist motive, which was then compared to Liu’s Asian paradigm theory (Liu, 2016). By doing so, it demonstrated the homogenization of motive in relation to East Asian culture and emphasized honour as a racially explicit motive. These findings are discussed concerning accurate cultural framing and the development of the racialized other.
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    The racialization of motive: understanding the framing of East Asian crime in video games
    (2019) Pfliger, Amber; Thurairajah, Kalyani
    To gain a comprehensive understanding as to how East Asian crime is framed in video games, the origin stories of three video game protagonists were examined. To accomplish this, a coding scheme was utilized to draw themes on protagonist motive, which was then compared to Liu’s Asian paradigm theory (Liu, 2016). By doing so, it demonstrated the homogenization of motive in relation to East Asian culture and emphasized honour as a racially explicit motive. These findings are discussed concerning accurate cultural framing and the development of the racialized other.
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    “Who are we without the war?”: the evolution of the Tamil ethnic identity in post-conflict Sri Lanka
    (2020) Thurairajah, Kalyani
    Studies of post-conflict societies have often focused on inter-ethnic group dynamics following the end of conflict, specifically the process of reconciliation between groups, or resurgence of violence across groups. This paper focuses on intra-ethnic differences with respect to defining ethnic identity. This paper will examine how the end of the Sri Lankan ethnic conflict created cleavages amongst Sri Lankan Tamils with respect to how they define their ethnic identity and their ethnic group. Drawing upon 66 semi-structured interviews conducted in three regions of Sri Lanka, this paper presents three perspectives that were held among Tamils in post-conflict Sri Lanka. The first perspective was that the end of the ethnic conflict led to a loss in the fundamental tenets of the Tamil ethnic identity. The second perspective considered the promotion of a distinct Tamil ethnic identity to be a gateway to conflict. The third perspective articulated that the end of the ethnic conflict meant that the Tamil ethnic identity could move forward in a more cosmopolitan direction. The findings of this study demonstrate the importance of considering the social construction of ethnic identities, and their implications on post-conflict reconstruction.