Sociology - Student Works

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14078/76

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Getting to the heart of gender disparity: with a focus on coronary heart disease
(2025) Marks, Justice; Thurairajah, Kalyani
The Gender Health Gap is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Thus, a focus on the gender differences found in treatment and diagnosis of CHD/CAD will be conducted. A content analysis on medical professional's findings regarding the existence of these gender disparities will be conducted via videos uploaded to YouTube. Actively analyzing the broader themes within the expertise from a multitude of individuals will allow an answer to why we still see this 'gap' in terms of coronary heart disease at the level of diagnostic and treatment practices. The Results: a failure in early research studies including females in their clinical trials; leading to the overall lack of knowledge on female symptoms today. These findings allow more research on how to ensure equitable treatment in terms of diagnosing and treating CHD/CAD in Canada.
Racial justice and contentious politics: the impact of racial bias in employment
(2025) Brown, Terique
Contentious politics focuses attention on collective actions and lobbying efforts to remedy injustices, particularly in the workplace, where racial inequalities continue to influence hiring procedures, promotions, and compensation. Despite anti-discrimination legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1964, racial and ethnic prejudice continues to limit economic possibilities and exacerbate systemic disparities. Subtle kinds of bias, such as implicit and aversive racism, worsen the problem, influencing hiring decisions and maintaining socioeconomic disparities. Case studies from the United States, Brazil, and Malaysia show that racial bias in the workplace is a global problem, showing itself in behaviors such as neighborhood-based recruitment, cultural stereotyping, and implicit preference for dominant ethnic groups. Intersectionality exacerbates these processes, as those who face many forms of discrimination, such as race and gender, are marginalized even more. Emerging solutions, such as the use of artificial intelligence for blind hiring, diverse hiring committees, and broad policy changes, have the potential to reduce bias and promote inclusivity. However, establishing actual racial justice necessitates confronting both apparent and unconscious biases, as well as removing structural inequities entrenched in historical and systematic oppression. By promoting fair employment practices, societies may maximize the potential of a diverse workforce and promote equitable economic opportunities for all.
The amplifier of gang culture: prisons
(2025) Konnayil, Kevin
This paper examines how the prison system amplifies gang culture and fosters gang involvement among incarcerated individuals, particularly marginalized youth. It argues that instead of rehabilitating offenders, prisons serve as environments that facilitate gang recruitment, leading to their growth. To support this claim, three key ideas are analyzed. First, social and economic conditions drive marginalized youth towards violent behaviours and gang affiliation. Second, the prison environment exacerbates gang connections. Finally, the convergence of street and prison cultures has established a vicious cycle that deepens marginalized youth's entrenchment in gang life. The paper highlights systemic issues, such as poverty, ineffective foster care systems, and historical trauma, which create vulnerabilities that gangs take advantage of to recruit new members. This exploitation frequently happens in prisons, where gangs offer protection, identity, and economic opportunities. Additionally, the convergence between the “code of the street” and the “convict code” reinforces dangerous levels of hyper-masculinity, mistrust of authorities, and retaliatory violence. As a result, it has become a new cultural norm that sustains the cycle of gang involvement that extends far beyond incarceration. To conclude, responses from institutions have failed to disrupt this cyclical pattern. Instead, it has exacerbated it, allowing gangs to use the prison system to accelerate recruitment, thus proving how prisons no longer and have never served as a deterrent.
The inhumane reality of contemporary solitary confinement
(2025) Sidhu, Sanvindam
This paper argues that modern prison systems degrade incarcerated individuals through their use of solitary confinement, and this dehumanization only gets exacerbated through the significant inaction shown by legislative bodies. Drawing on the works of Sykes, Smith, Guenther, Hattery, Casella, Reiter and Aranda-Hughes, this research examines how systems of solitary confinement strip prisoners of identity, autonomy and fundamental humanity. It explores the psychological and physical consequences of extreme isolation, supported by harrowing inmate testimonies, and critiques the structures that continue to perpetuate these inhumane practices. In particular, it questions the failure of Canadian policies such as Bill C-83 to offer a meaningful sense of solitary reform. This essay concludes that solitary confinement not only fails to accomplish its goal of prisoner rehabilitation, but serves as a vessel of institutional dehumanization that demands urgent ethical and policy reconsiderations.
Change in the Canadian Midwest: an analysis of land in Edmonton
(2025) Clark, Matt
In this paper, I analyse the usage and layout of land in Edmonton, its impacts on the city’s growth and future, and propose potential solutions to the city’s current problems. Zoning is one specific area that will cause the council many political issues in the coming years. In city planning, “zoning” refers to how cities divide land into areas called “zones.” These zones typically have different regulations regarding how developers can use land and what buildings they can build. Recently, outdated zoning laws have hindered Edmonton’s climate goals and development in urban areas, which I will show in this paper. Even after zoning reform, the public remains concerned about the influence of big-money developers. However, Edmontonians are also uneasy about a more significant tax burden due to economic uncertainty. I propose regular 20-year zoning bylaw revisions, creating an inventory of unutilised and underutilised public land, and taking steps towards common land ownership. These solutions combine Edmonton’s future with current sustainability and development goals in mind. I also propose the creation of a land value tax and will show why it would be the most viable source of revenue for the city. This would reshape land ownership in Edmonton and Canada while boosting potential government resources.
Imperialist consequences and contemporary crisis: a comparative analysis of human trafficking in Ukraine and Canada
(2025) Rhodes, Alyssa; Buchkovska, Dariia; Havhun, Diana; Mamo, Natalie
Human trafficking is a highly intersectional problem as the victim pool, perpetration, and assumptions regarding these dynamics are largely intertwined with positions of power, race, gender, and other social factors. This paper will focus on power in the form of imperialism as a critical extenuating factor for trafficking. Imperialism is the aggressive enforcement of one nation onto another, which can include colonialism, systemic oppression of minorities, and increased victimization of those not part of an imperialistic force. This paper compares Canadian and Ukrainian students' perceptions of the hypothesized relationship between imperialism and human trafficking, specifically within these countries. By elucidating how power disparities aid in recruiting, transporting, and transferring individuals for exploitation translates to a better assessment of how to educate and prevent future trafficking cases. Interviews with research participants supplemented the literature, creating a consensus linking colonial/imperialistic forces and the heightened risk Indigenous populations face within Canada. Similarly, research underscored how the current war in Ukraine, a contemporary example of imperialistic invasion, has translated into an increase in human trafficking cases. These findings substantiate the correlation between imperialism and human trafficking. This connection should be further exhausted with a larger sample size to further illuminate human trafficking crime trends and the bias that denies justice to specific populations.
Lost in transition: the unseen struggles of sexual and gender minorities during migration
(2025) Manderson, Kailynn; Schmaltz, Emory; Halahuz, Tanya
This research aims to investigate the victimization of sexual and gender minority (SGM) migrants, focusing on Canadian and Ukrainian perceptions and perspectives. Through in-depth interviews with six students from MacEwan University and Ukrainian Catholic University, perceptions regarding SGM migration processes were explored. Four intersecting themes emerged: “Hierarchy of social problems,” “Institutional influence,” “Othering,” and “Society requiring change.” Analysis reveals the prevalent influence of cis-heteropatriarchy and colonialism on societal perceptions, contributing to SGM migrant victimization further. The study underscores the need to acknowledge and address these power structures to mitigate harm during migration. While providing no direct benefits to participants, the research enhances understanding of societal influences on SGM migrant experiences, facilitating future efforts to address structural oppression. Ethical considerations were paramount, ensuring participant confidentiality and minimising risks.
Addressing the perpetuation of violence and impunity: a call for reforming the definition and enforcement of genocide
(2025) Turrecha, Steven
The heinous crime of genocide is an abomination that strikes at the very core of humanity. It represents the ultimate harm that can be inflicted upon a group of people, as it involves not only the extinguishment of their lives but also the eradication of their cultural existence. To provide a broader conceptual definition of genocide, Presser (2013) states, “Genocide has been called ‘the crime of crimes’ (Schabas, 2000). It strikes us as the worst possible harm because its eliminationist intent is absolute and explicit, because large numbers of people are harmed or meant to be harmed, and because it is often associated with unthinkable atrocities” (p.31). Despite the grave nature of this crime and the numerous atrocities and harms that are associated, this paper will argue that the current legal definition of genocide, as it is currently applied, contributes to the perpetuation of violence and aggression by being too narrow and selectively enforced, allowing those in positions of power to act with impunity. Thus, there is a pressing need to restructure international procedures overseeing global conflicts and amend the current application of international law to address these concerns. A point of focus of this paper will be the mass atrocities committed against the Tutsi minority during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, in conjunction with the failed peacekeeping efforts by the United Nations and their role in the catastrophe in order to demonstrate the fallibility of international law and the shortcomings of mainstream criminology within the context of genocide.
Why buy? The impact of social media on young consumers’ perceived environmental responsibility
(2025) Rhodes, Alyssa; Thurairajah, Kalyani
Environmental issues and consumerism are becoming critical to young people's lives and identities. This is a significant trend as they emerge as a vital segment in the consumer market. This seemingly contradictory connection can be better understood when considering social media's place in young people's lives. Social media is a powerful tool for consumers and companies, as it promotes products and perceptions. However, social media's role in shaping young people as shoppers is largely overlooked, especially in literature regarding sustainable shopping practices. Thus, this qualitative study used a grounded theory approach to investigate this topic through one focus group and 50 online survey responses. In it, many participants spoke about their struggle to balance a desire to make environmentally responsible choices with the pressures of social media, affordability, and lifestyle aspirations. They explained how these competing interests and obstacles create a complicated social landscape that young consumers must navigate. Thus, there was a call against the current system. Most respondents expressed heavy frustration about companies' roles in promoting overconsumption and continuing to overproduce, with little regard for the environment. This suggests that individuals feel negatively about environmental responsibility being cast onto consumers instead of corporations. However, participants still emphasize individual efforts to be environmentally conscious. Therefore, this study offers thoughtful and creative insights into how young people understand sustainability and their role in it. It also showcases young consumers' feelings and beliefs about how they can comfortably impact their environment, offering perspectives on healing relationships with companies and the environment.
The Earth speaks: cultural trauma and climate change narratives in media
(2025) Rhodes, Alyssa; Stepnisky, Jeffrey
This honours project argues that climate change represents a form of cultural trauma for human societies and our relationship with the Earth as an active agent. While ecological crises are often framed through scientific or political lenses, this research emphasizes their profound social and cultural dimensions. Drawing from cultural trauma theory, disaster sociology, and environmental thought on the Anthropocene, the project examines how narratives construct meaning around environmental harm, responsibility, and the evolving relationship between humans and the Earth. Central to this work is recognizing the Earth not as a passive backdrop to human action, but as a sentient, responsive force that both absorbs and reacts to human-driven harm. The project maps how the Earth is cast as victim, villain, antagonist, or protagonist within climate stories through narrative analysis of literature, activism, and media. Focusing on narratives from the Global North, it interrogates how dominant discourses reflect and shape collective meaning-making around the environmental crisis. Ultimately, the project offers a new way of interpreting the climate crisis: as a prolonged cultural trauma that demands social reckoning and a reimagining of humanity’s place within a living, remembering world.
The intersection of religious control and gender inequality
(2025) Thind, Kirpal; Addo, Aviva; Symbaluk, Diane
The study connects two powerful systems–religion and the prison system through the lens of gender inequality to explain how these systems reflect and reproduce social inequalities, particularly for women and marginalized communities. Religion means different things to different people, and it plays a powerful role in shaping beliefs, values, social norms, and even political systems. While it can foster identity and unity, it has also been used to control, govern, and divide.
Evaluating Atomwaffen Division using the grievance-ideology-mobilization model
(2023) McDermott, Emily; Chaudhry, Irfan
As radicalization into hate groups grows in the United States, it is becoming increasingly important to have a framework to assess how these groups come to be. Founded in 2015, Atomwaffen Division is a rapidly growing neo-Nazi hate group based in the United States with members in several countries around the world. With their far-reaching influence and focus on violence to achieve their goals, Atomwaffen Division has become an important case study through which one can understand similar groups. The Grievance-Ideology-Mobilization model by Peter Neumann is used to examine such groups by looking at the various grievances, ideologies, and mobilization tactics used by hate groups to recruit new members, gain traction, and enact change on the world. Through the Grievance-Ideology-Mobilization model, this paper will examine the hate group Atomwaffen Division to aid in the development and implementation of deradicalization procedures for hate groups in North America.
The significance of the cultural meanings of alcohol
(2024) McDermott, Emily; Bereska, Tami
Alcohol is an important part of Canadian society. For most, it is not the liquid itself that is important, rather it is the meanings associated with the alcohol that individuals latch onto. Social constructions of alcohol within Canadian society create a material and non-material culture of alcohol that individuals must interact with in the world of alcohol. On the micro-level, individuals use the cultural meanings to learn how to engage with and behave on alcohol, while on the macro-level, cultural meanings are used to create policies and guidelines that affect society as a whole. Through examining the impact of the cultural meanings of alcohol on the micro and macro level, this presentation demonstrates why cultural meanings are more important than the alcohol itself.
Cannabis legalization in Canada and combatting the illicit cannabis market
(2024) Andresen, Matthew
Despite the elimination of the illegal cannabis market being a fundamental element to cannabis legalization, as outlined in the Cannabis Act (S.C. 2018, c. 16), the Canadian federal government's efforts have had a mild impact in mitigating its influence. In analyzing possible contributions to the illicit sector's sustainability, these factors are in large part due to the federal government failing to understand consumer behaviours in recreational cannabis usage, as evidenced by lack of accommodation for frequent users, pricing and quality of legal cannabis compared to illegal cannabis, alongside faulty enforcement of cannabis law due to issues of conciseness and discretionary powers between the police and federal government. However, there are some suggestions that could better help the federal government in achieving its goal of combatting the illegal cannabis market. The potential amendments to cannabis policy include lowering tax on legal cannabis to better compete with illegal cannabis at the market level while refocusing on addressing public health concerns through promoting the safety of legal cannabis, controlling accessibility of legal cannabis, and providing public education regarding cannabis consumption. If done correctly, each amendment made would address the flaws within cannabis policy, allowing the Canadian federal government to combat the illegal cannabis market more efficiently.
Gender roles in corrections: how gendered expectations impact female correctional officers
(2024) Hermary, Samantha
Compared to other organizations within the criminal justice system, the world of corrections is hidden from public view, and therefore, quickly forgotten. However, like many of these male-dominated organizations, there are significant issues regarding gender and women's roles in the job. With the considerable lack of research regarding correctional officers within Canada and the relatively small percentage of women in the correctional workforce, it is vital to expand this topic to understand the complication of a gendered role. Research has shown gendered issues among female correctional officers and the lack of the support they may receive. With all these persistent issues, we ask ourselves, why do women continue a career path that appears to be working against them? More specifically, how does gender influence women's experience in long-term careers in corrections? To answer this, I conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with women who maintained long-term roles in Correctional Service Canada (CSC). This presentation will discuss these women's gendered experiences working within a masculine organization, how their gender affected their relationships and job expectations, and how CSC may view them.
Decolonization and restorative justice: addressing Canada’s Indigenous incarceration
(2024) Kito, Ashu
Mass incarceration of Indigenous people has been well documented in Canadian prisons. It represents a national crisis resulting from the government's failure to eradicate the ongoing colonization problem and poses a threat to the sustainability of Indigenous people and their communities. The government's response includes the landmark Gladue decision, which essentially recognized mass incarceration as a crisis and required judges to consider the background of Indigenous offenders when sentencing, as well as the process of decolonizing the prison by introducing programs that teach Indigenous culture and history. However, both these responses have not effectively addressed the problem. In this paper, I argue that the Canadian government's response to the over-incarceration of Indigenous people represents a human rights issue that the Gladue Report has not alleviated because the report has not been implemented in a meaningful manner during bail hearing or sentencing. Therefore, the government should consider an alternative measure that returns to the traditional Indigenous law through the implementation of restorative justice, which has been proven to be effective.
Exploring social isolation among Black parents who have children with autism: research proposal
(2024) Boateng, Josephine; Thuranjah, Kalyani
According to Dis/ability critical race studies (DisCrit), inequalities based on disability do not exist separately from those in other domains of life, such as race. Instead, they intersect, building upon our identity in ways that amplify one's discrimination and the discrimination of those with disabled adjacent identities (e.g., parents) (Annamma et al., 2013; Pearson et al., 2023). This literature allowed me to marry my interests in race and health to explore the (social) implications that autism has in the parenting community. As such, through my partnership with Autism Edmonton, I explored how inequalities (i.e., ableism and racism) present within Canada exist in a multitude of ways that impact the lived experiences of those with disabled adjacent identities, specifically Black parents of children with autism. This presentation summarizes a research proposal that was developed for Autism Edmonton as a community partner for a fourth-year independent study course. Which explores the subjective experience of parenthood and how it becomes impacted by social factors such as race and disability. In order to study this topic, we propose future research that uses phenomenology and vignettes to center the voices of Black parents of children with autism (Creswell, 2014; Creswell, 2018; Starks & Trinidad, 2018). This will give researchers and community organizations such as Autism Edmonton a deep understanding of the experiences of Black parents of children with autism.
A critical discourse analysis of Canadian news media coverage of immigration and multiculturalism during the first wave of the 2019 global pandemic (COVID-19)
(2024) Arroyo, Angelika; Thurairajah, Kalyani
This paper aims to examine how Canadian news media framed immigration and multiculturalism during the first wave of the pandemic, between January and July of the year 2020, focusing on determining and identifying patterns in the media coverage of three different major Canadian news outlets (CBC, the National Post, and the Globe and Mail). This study utilized critical discourse analysis (CDA), employing media framing as one of its theoretical frameworks, to deconstruct underlying meanings in the selected articles, conceptualize thematic descriptions, and better understand the representation of ethnic and racial minorities in Canada within the construction of the text.
“Being without restriction”: contemporary sociological theory and the gender anti-binary
(2023) Richards, Ezra; Pope, Annaliese
Canada and the US have seen recent increases in transphobic attitudes and policies, under the guise of “parental rights” or adherence to tradition. Trans people are often painted as predators attempting to indoctrinate children into “gender ideology,” and any deviance from the cisgender, male-female binary are seen as inherently dangerous or inappropriate, misconstruing and preventing trans liberation. Using sociological theories from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the Frankfurt School, and Judith Butler, I propose a path beyond this transphobic discourse: redefine gender devoid of any and all labels and categories. This anti-binary attitude puts the emphasis on embodied experience, such that gender is centred around personal joy and self-awareness rather than external, societal criteria. With this anti-binary in place, gender liberation will extend not only to trans individuals, but to all individuals facing pressure from the gender culture industry.
“Being without restriction”: contemporary sociological theory and the gender anti-binary
(2024) Richards, Ezra; Pope, Annaliese
Canada and the US have seen recent increases in transphobic attitudes and policies, under the guise of “parental rights” or adherence to tradition. Trans people are often painted as predators attempting to indoctrinate children into “gender ideology,” and any deviance from the cisgender, male-female binary are seen as inherently dangerous or inappropriate, misconstruing and preventing trans liberation. Using sociological theories from Maurice Merleau-Ponty, the Frankfurt School, and Judith Butler, I propose a path beyond this transphobic discourse: redefine gender devoid of any and all labels and categories. This anti-binary attitude puts the emphasis on embodied experience, such that gender is centred around personal joy and self-awareness rather than external, societal criteria. With this anti-binary in place, gender liberation will extend not only to trans individuals, but to all individuals facing pressure from the gender culture industry.

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