Funded Research Projects
Department of Communication
Partnership Development Grant (2011-2014)
The Ottawa Multicultural Media Initiative
Led by Rukhsana Ahmed, the Ottawa Multicultural Media Initiative (OMMI) is a multi-researcher, multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral partnership, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, that links the University of Ottawa and the City of Ottawa to a network of multicultural media producers, leading multicultural media scholars and practitioners, representatives of the city’s Chinese, Somali, South Asian and Latin American communities, and other local stakeholders. OMMI will examine Ottawa’s growing multicultural media focusing on three inter-related objectives: 1) build long-term research capacity and expertise on the intersections between multicultural media, immigrant integration and economic prosperity; 2) forge strong partnerships with the City of Ottawa, targeted communities and local stakeholders through a broad and dynamic network of collaboration; and 3) co-create, mobilize and disseminate knowledge about multicultural digital and print media and their potential to address issues related to Ottawa’s economic prosperity and newcomers’ well-being and integration.
The representation of reality in the age of the indexical turn: a media study of the meaning of reality in the mediated environment of television and cinema
This study aims to contribute to the understanding of a socio-cultural trend that has grabbed the social imagination in the last decade, and which is taking over the globalized media environment: the avid consumption of reality-based media. In a remarkable convergence, television programs and factuality films produce a variety of non-fictional representations of reality enacted by non-professional performers engaged in everyday activities. Reality shows, docudramas and documentaries have grown exponentially. Coincidently, there is a widespread scholarly suspicion of any claim to the real of non-fictional media. Most media analyses are based on a constructionist theoretical premise which holds that any aspect of reality represented is only a mental construction, a fiction. I propose a combination triadic semiotic and Goffman´s frame analysis as an alternative analytical and theoretical framework to understand the relationship between reality and its audiovisual representation, as an approach that does not force the researcher to choose one or the other term, as in a mutually exclusive dichotomy.
Le Conseil de presse du Québec face au Conseil canadien des normes de la radiodiffusion : analyse comparative du fonctionnement et de la jurisprudence
Le mode de financement d'un organisme d'autorégulation des médias d'information a t il un impact sur son fonctionnement et l'orientation de ses décisions ? Plusieurs l'affirment ou l'insinuent, mais pour obtenir des réponses à cette question, il faut procéder à une analyse comparative. Nous suggérons de faire un premier pas en comparant le mode de fonctionnement et la jurisprudence du Conseil de presse du Québec (CPQ) et du Conseil canadien des normes de la radiotélévision (CCNR).
Travail sous pression et « hypermodernité » : de l'intérêt de faire parler les acteurs eux-mêmes
Depuis plusieurs années, le problème de la « souffrance » au travail est alarmant. Les pressions multiples auxquelles les travailleurs sont confrontés vont se manifester le plus souvent sous forme de fatigue et de dépression. En outre, au Canada, environ 11 % des hommes et 16 % des femmes feront une dépression majeure au cours de leur vie (Santé Canada, 2009). On apprenait plus récemment que les cas rapportés de détresse psychologique au sein de la fonction publique fédérale ont plus que doublé depuis environ 10 ans, et concernent surtout les femmes (Radio-Canada, 2010). Dans le cadre de ce programme de recherche, nous allons analyser le « travail sous pression » tel qu'il se pose aujourd'hui dans une société « hypermoderne » comme la nôtre. Cette analyse, nous proposons de la faire dans des organisations publiques et parapubliques là où le travail tend à se reconfigurer suivant des logiques qui prévalent dans le secteur privé. Ainsi, en complémentarité avec les travaux qui ont été faits dans le passé en sociologie, en anthropologie, en psychologie et, plus récemment, en psycho-dynamique du travail, nous allons analyser le sens que les travailleurs accordent à leur travail à partir d'un regard spécifique sur la manière dont ils vivent leurs interactions au quotidien.
The Ethical Role of Media Professionals in Promoting Awareness of Women’s Breast Cancer in Venezuela
This research project aims to enhance ethical communication, provide sustainable understanding, and facilitate effective dialogue among journalists, healthcare professionals, advocates, and survivors, regarding the challenges and opportunities in the fight against breast cancer in Venezuela. It attempts to identify any barriers that might exist within the ever-changing context of healthcare interactions between the media and healthcare sources of information. Building upon findings from the first and second phases of this research program, the project focuses on early breast cancer detection and treatment by covering topics including media ethical principles and standards in health communication, the understanding of health communication and how to deal with breast cancer in an ethical manner, the empowerment of journalists, physicians and patients, and articulating common goals between groups. Ultimately, the project serves a key function in facilitating the education and effective communication between media professionals, healthcare providers, patients, and activists within the context of a changing healthcare communication environment.
Constitution, incarnation et matérialisation de connaissances sensibles en organisation : une ethnographie multi-sites
Dans de nombreux contextes organisationnels, les travailleurs mobilisent leur corps, leurs sens pour ressentir, juger et agir au cours de leur activité professionnelle; produisant ainsi des connaissances dites sensibles (« sensible knowledge »). Ces connaissances sont mises en pratique quotidiennement par les acteurs organisationnels et dans tout milieu de travail le corps et les sens sont indispensables à l’expérience. Cependant, même si les recherches actuelles sur les connaissances sensibles se sont intéressées à décrire leur mode de production dans certains univers professionnels (les architectes, les ouvriers du bâtiment, les marins, les parfumeurs, les chefs cuisiniers), elles ont relativement peu porté leur attention sur les processus communicationnels soutenant leur « mise en forme » par des collectifs de travail; ainsi que sur leur incarnation, matérialisation dans des « traces » multiples (discours, dessins, textes, objets) afin de rendre possible leur partage. Par conséquent, l’objectif de ce projet de recherche est d’étudier les processus communicationnels soutenant la création et le partage de connaissances sensibles au sein de collectifs de travail. Pour ce faire, nous procéderons à une recherche ethnographique dans trois milieux de travail qui font appel au sensoriel au cours de leur activité afin de documenter empiriquement la création, la mise en commun et la formalisation de connaissances sensibles au sein de ces organisations.
Impacts psychologiques et économiques du discours public sur le vieillir : le cas des travailleurs seniors de la fonction publique du Canada.
Ce projet de recherche a pour but d’analyser le contenu et de saisir la portée pragmatique du discours public sur le vieillir au travail et ce, tant aux niveaux médiatique qu’institutionnel. Précisément, il sous-tend quatre volets : 1) déterminer, en quoi et comment ce discours sous-tend des marqueurs d’âgisme, de par les thèmes et de par le cadrage argumentaire associés à la question du vieillir et du travailleur senior; 2) déterminer jusqu’à quel point le travailleur senior reconnaît un discours public âgiste et dans quelle mesure il en est affecté, précisément en termes d’estime de soi et de désengagement psychologique comme effectif ; 3) quantifier les coûts d’un discours public âgiste, c’est-à-dire ses retombées économiques pour l’organisation; 4) à partir des résultats des études antérieures, le quatrième volet consiste à dégager des pistes de solution pour contrer l’âgisme au travail.
Department of English
Phantom Nation: Settler Gothic and the Miracle of Memory
This project represents a major reassessment of the Gothic tradition in Canadian literature by tracing a distinctive reworking of the British Gothic tradition in Canada that is characterized by a summoning of the Gothic for its vitalizing rather than unsettling potential. Canadian authors’ self-conscious invocations of a Gothic tradition led to a reimagining of a specifically Canadian Gothic that utilizes the genre as a form of cultural sustenance. This work focuses on a distinctive manifestation of “Settler Gothic” in Canadian literature, which has its roots in the early 19th century and can be traced through the 20th century into the “postcolonial” present. This body of work invokes the Gothic not only for its culturally sustaining potential, but as a way of asserting a form of cultural depth and national legitimacy. Because these narratives provide an illusion of antiquity, origin, and memory, they place settler descendants as secure “inheritors” of the land and its spirit. The creation of a homemade tradition of self-invented ghosts yields up a paradox by which the inherited British Gothic was de-familiarized by being rendered “familiar,” creating ghosts that were both uncanny and reassuring.
Speaking for the Past: Modern and Medieval Performances of Medieval Poetry
This is a two-part project. The first part addresses the figure of the minstrel in late medieval England, and the question of why minstrels should have exercised such a fascination in a period before Romanticism and its celebration of oral traditions. This part draws on a range of texts, including romances, chronicles, and sermons, in which minstrels play a major role either as custodians of the memory of chivalric deeds or as wheedling flatterers who offer dangerous distractions from more serious entertainment and distort linguistic order. The second part of the project explores modern efforts to imagine or recreate the performance of medieval English poetry, including revivals of the medieval mystery plays and the tradition of reading Old and Middle English aloud that was championed by J.R.R. Tolkien, asking whether these performances can provide insights into medieval practice. The entire project is situated within current re-assessments of the relation between oral and written culture, especially those related to the Supreme Court decison in 1997 in Delgamuukw vs. the Queen, which ruled that oral evidence should be on “equal footing” with written evidence.
Department of Classics and religious studies
The Religion and Diversity Project
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funded Major Collaborative Research Initiative (MCRI)
Have you ever wondered about religious diversity in Canada? What challenges does it present? What opportunities does it offer? Our team of 36 researchers from across Canada is looking at these questions and weighing in on religious issues in Canada from a variety of perspectives including: religion, law, communication, sociology, history, political science, education and philosophy. If you want to challenge the way you think, visit our website to find out about exciting events taking place on and off campus and to read thought-provoking research findings as well as stimulating current events. Be daring and visit us at: www.religionanddiversity.ca!
Procopius of Caesarea and Historiography in the Sixth Century A.D.
This project aims to produce the first detailed commentary on the first two books of Procopius’ Wars, those concerning the wars between the Romans and the Sasanian Persians. Procopius was an eye-witness to many of the events he describes, making his account particularly valuable but he has also been accused of bias. The project will also examine history-writing in the sixth century more generally.
“Scripture, Cinema and Society.”
This is a study of the ways in which the Bible is used in film. The study focuses primarily on American film (“Hollywood”) but also includes some comparison with other film industries, including Canada and Italy. The outcome will be a book, entitled The Bible and Film: An Introduction, to be published by Routledge Press. The first section of the book will discuss Bible movies (The Ten Commandments, The Greatest Story Ever Told, The Last Temptation of Christ, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, among others) and the second part of the book will examine the pervasive use of the Bible, biblical quotations and allusions, and biblical figures in Hollywood movies (The Great Dictator, Gran Torino, The Shawshank Redemption, The Lion King, among many others). The study will be situated at the intersection of film theory, cultural studies, and biblical studies, and will not only describe the use of the Bible and film but also attempt to account for the phenomenon in terms of the several roles that the Bible plays in contemporary, primarily American, society.
Département de français
Le verset dans la poésie moderne d’expression française : ouverture
Depuis le romantisme et surtout la fin du XIXe siècle, la poésie française a connu de profondes transformations, notamment au niveau de ses formes : perte du « haut » langage au profit d’une langue plus populaire, apparition de la prose poétique, du poème en prose, du vers libre, et abandon de la prosodie classique et de la rhétorique qui réglait ses usages. Si ces changements sont amplement documentés, on ne peut en dire autant d’une autre profonde transformation qui advient dans la poésie française quelques années plus tard, au début du vingtième siècle, avec l’apparition du verset poétique. Par ailleurs, il appert que la poésie d’expression française du XXe siècle demeure un territoire encore mal défini, marqué par des œuvres singulières fortes qui résistent aux groupements, mouvements ou courants. Or le verset demeure une forme encore mal définie et qui permettrait, si elle était mieux reconnue, grâce à une étude à la fois herméneutique et poétique, de saisir dans un même continuum des œuvres qu’on considère généralement isolément mais qui ont toutes fortement marqué le XXe siècle. Ainsi verra-t-on, à quelques dix ans d’intervalle, la naissance d’œuvres comme celles de Claudel, Saint-John Perse et Segalen, suivies notamment par celles de Senghor et de Glissant, toutes composées en verset et selon des variantes qui imposent d’emblée un modèle que plusieurs à leur suite emprunteront, notamment dans la francophonie.
Établir des paradigmes opératoires pour comparer les variations discursives dans les Amériques menant des identités enracinées aux identités transculturelles dans le contexte de la glocalisation.
Le but de cette recherche est d’établir une série de paradigmes opératoires dualistes mais se recontextualisant petit à petit dans le complexe afin d’aider à donner des fondements aux comparaisons transculturelles transaméricaines. Ces paradigmes vont permettre d’échapper à la fois à la tradition historique de la recherche fondée sur la causalité linéaire et à une géographie nationale statique dont les découpages ne donnent pas la possibilité de saisir les dynamiques du continent et ses multiplicités dans ses vecteurs convergents, dans ses rejets comme dans ses initiatives et ses divergences.
Le discours négro-africain et la crise de la modernité. À la recherche d’un nouvel humanisme post-continental :
Le projet vise à montrer l’actualité des textes fondateurs du discours négro-africain du vingtième siècle quand on les aborde comme une réponse critique à la modernité présentée comme un projet humaniste d’émancipation par la force de la raison critique et la science. En effet, en partant de la face sombre de la modernité (esclavage, colonisation, violence raciale, massacres et génocides des indigènes) souvent oubliée par ses défenseurs, les intellectuels négro-africains de la première heure (Césaire, Damas, Senghor, Fanon, etc.), bien formés dans le moule de l’universalisme français, ont procédé à une critique sans complaisance de l’universalisme et de l’humanisme abstraits du projet de la modernité pour en révéler l’hypocrisie. En revendiquant la diversité/ pluralité du monde et des civilisations, ces auteurs, bien souvent marginalisés par les historiens des idées du vingtième siècle, ont très tôt montré la possibilité de redéfinir et de ré-conceptualiser, à partir des histoires/mémoires particulières ou locales, les valeurs européennes dites universelles, et ont proposé un nouvel humanisme de la relation (Glissant) ou de la convivialité des cultures, des races, des peuples (Gilroy) appelés à bâtir un monde de l’en-commun. Un dialogue entre les critiques eurocentriques de la modernité (par ex. Heidegger, École de Francfort, Levinas, etc.) et les critiques des Négro-africains de la période située entre 1920 et 1960 est alors susceptible de donner lieu à une saisie plus complète des contradictions et limites du projet de la modernité et à l’appréciation du projet négro-africain de « Renaissance du monde » (Senghor) conçu comme montée [commune] en humanité (Fanon).
Évaluer l'intelligibilité des textes : usages, limites et perspectives
L'adéquation des textes à leurs destinataires constitue un problème majeur pour de nombreux secteurs de la société, notamment dans les champs de l'administration, de l'édition, de l'éducation, des médias et de la santé. L'une des méthodes d'évaluation les plus courantes repose sur des formules dites "de lisibilité", fondées sur la mesure de variables textuelles simples. Or, ces formules ont été au fil du temps l'objet de multiples travaux, qui ont réfuté à la fois leurs fondements théoriques, leur fiabilité technique et leur validité empirique. Elles restent cependant largement utilisées par les praticiens de l'écrit et les responsables publics et privés. Face à cette contradiction, la recherche en cours part de l'hypothèse que la pertinence éventuelle de tels indices dépendrait à la fois de la clarté de leur portée et limites pour ceux qui les utilisent et de la solidité scientifique et statistique des indices eux-mêmes. Elle vise, d'une part, à étudier les besoins pour lesquels ces quantifications sont employées et le sens qui leur est attribué par leurs utilisateurs, d'autre part à préciser les conditions théoriques et techniques et les limites de validité de ce type d'approche, et enfin à examiner la possibilité d'une méthode d'analyse renouvelée, répondant plus rigoureusement à ces conditions au sein de ces limites.
Le français à la mesure d’un continent : un patrimoine en partage
Ce projet a pour but d’évaluer l’impact réel des contacts linguistiques et culturels dans les communautés multiculturelles et d’examiner les conditions de maintien du français et des autres langues en situation de contact, du 17e s. à aujourd’hui. Ce faisant, le projet permettra de mesurer les enjeux du français d’Amérique du Nord et de façon plus large, de la francophonie à l’ère de la mondialisation.
Modéliser le changement : les voies du français
Grand projet de recherche concertée du Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada (2005-2010) dirigé par France Martineau, porte sur l’histoire de la langue française, en partant du français du Canada à l’époque de la Nouvelle-France et en remontant à ses origines, au Moyen Âge. La langue jouit d’une grande force identitaire, à la fois source de rassemblement et de distinction. Ce projet porte sur les changements importants qui ont modifié le visage du français, par les contacts avec d’autres langues et dialectes, et sur l’émergence d’identités linguistiques.
Department of Geography
Centre for Research on French Canadian Culture
The Faculty of Arts is proud to announce that the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council has awarded the Centre for Research on French Canadian Culture (CRCCF) a grant for the Construction d’une mémoire française à Ottawa: savoir communautaire et réseaux sociaux research project. The Collège des chaires de recherche sur la francophonie canadienne as well as the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Citizenship and Minorities (CIRCEM) are participating in the project headed by Anne Gilbert, Director of the CRCCF. The purpose of this collaborative and interdisciplinary project, which brings together 15 specialists in Francophonie from the University of Ottawa, is to gain a better understanding of Ottawa, this capital of French life in Canada, including its people, institutions, achievements and ambitions.
Environmental Conditions and International Migration to Canada
This multi-researcher, multi-disciplinary project led by Dr. McLeman represents the first systematic attempt to determine if environmental factors in other countries influence migration to Canada. Using community-based research, this project engages members of migrant communities, settlement support workers and legal experts in Ottawa-Gatineau and Toronto to gather empirical evidence on how environmental events or conditions in other countries may have shaped migrants’ decisions to come to Canada. Findings will be incorporated into an expert legal analysis to generate recommendations for mainstreaming environmental concerns into national and international policies on migration, settlement assistance and refugee protection. The project runs until 2014.
Department of History
Thomas Chapais et le loyalisme canadien-français
Ce projet se concentre actuellement sur la pensée de sir Thomas Chapais (1868-1946), un des chefs de file du loyalisme canadien-français à la fin du dix-neuvième et au début du vingtième siècles. Cette recherche se penche sur les fondements intellectuels et sociaux du loyalisme chapaisien, ainsi que sur son expression historiographique et politique. Le professeur Bélanger compte utiliser cette recherche comme tremplin pour lancer un projet plus vaste portant sur la pensée loyaliste au Canada français de la Conquête britannique à la Révolution tranquille.
“Aryanisation”: The Theft of Jewish Property in Occupied Poland [Generalgouvernement], 1939-1945
Franz Stangl, the commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp, once remarked that the Jews were murdered “for their money, of course”. One can disagree with Stangl - there were finally enough of other wealthy potential victims around, but it is hard to deny that organized theft of Jewish property pushed millions of Jews beyond the brink of poverty and precipitated their demise. In Poland, the economic measures implemented shortly after the end of September 1939 campaign included: police registration of all Jews, their exclusion from professional life followed by obligatory registration of their wealth (including personal items), retroactive ban on Jewish property transfers to non-Jews, seizure of bank deposits and accounts, seizure of all Jewish community accounts, increased taxation, ban on retirement payments to Jewish retirees, seizure of all means of transportation, such as cars, carriages, horses. Cash, gold, jewellery, paintings, furniture, carpets, clothing, furs, personal items were also added to the list. Soon Germans created institutions tasked with the administration of the seized property (Transferstellen, Werterfassung) - and by early 1940 the mechanism of massive expropriation has been firmly established put in place. In some areas these measures, although introduced more swiftly, and with unprecedented brutality, resembled the policies developed years before, in Germany. In other areas, however, the anti-Jewish measures put in place in Poland had no equivalent in other countries of occupied Europe. The goal of this research project is to conduct an inquiry into some of the crucial aspects of the theft of Jewish property perpetrated by the Germans and by their local facilitators in occupied Poland, 1939-1945. This research project, based on voluminous (and previously unknown to historians) archival evidence will present an overview of the “Entjudung” [term lost in translation, which means ”de-judification”], starting with the initial measures implemented by the Germans in the Fall of 1939, through the final seizure of Jewish moveable property during the last stages of extermination.
Takeushi Yoshimi, Lu Xun, and the Conundrums of Asian Modernity
When the recently elected prime minister of Japan, Yukio Hateyama, called for Asian countries to unite against the excesses of the United States, he evoked the disputed legacies of Asian solidarity and alternative modernity, which have hovered over China and Japan for more than one hundred years. After Japan used the ideal of Japanese led Asian modernity to justify imperialist expansion in World War II, such concepts have been surrounded by controversy. The ideals of Asian unity and alternative modernity imply liberation from Western imperialism and capitalism, but they simultaneously appear as reminders of Japanese domination in East Asia. This project will examine the complex history of the ideal of Asian modernity in relation to both the changing ways that Japanese and Chinese perceived one another and the larger context of resistance of the rationalization of life in the global capitalist world of nation-states.
Local to Global: Human Rights and Anti-colonialism in Africa's United Nations Trust Territories
This project probes the relationship between universal human rights (as they were articulated through the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and UN-affiliated NGOs) and the politics of Africa’s decolonisation. It explores the ways in which African anti-colonialists in UN Trust Territories appropriated human rights discourses, used them to connect their liberation struggles with transregional trends beyond their territories’ borders and metropolitan centers, and relied on human rights activists, anti-imperialists, and lawyers based in the United States, Great Britain and France to advocate for their political freedoms. Professor Terretta will also continue to research about how Trust Territory populations used human rights ideals to connect nationalist movements with international political trends. Her research joins a growing body of work that places greater emphasis on the connections African nationalists made beyond colonial boundaries and outside their metropolitan centers. Despite these new initiatives, Africans’ engagement with global political trends during Africa’s transition to independence has yet to be viewed through the lens of the human rights question. This is precisely the lens adopted in this project that supersedes regional and territorial boundaries to allow new comparisons.
Department of Modern languages and literatures
Women Intellectuals and Spain’s Transition to Democracy
This research project seeks to explore the dynamic cultural and political participation of women intellectuals in Spain’s transition to democracy after Franco’s dictatorship. It will examine the role of public intellectuals played by authors such as Ana María Moix, Lidia Falcón, Maruja Torres, Rosa Montero, Cristina Peri Rossi, and Marta Pessarrodona—still essential cultural figures in Spain today—whose writings appeared in the pioneering feminist journal Vindicación feminista and in other key periodicals of the Transition such as Triunfo, Camp de l´Arpa, Destino, El viejo topo and Diario 16. The final aim of this project is to appropriately situate the writings by women intellectuals in the context of the Transition’s cultural production in order to address the following questions regarding this historical period: the critical perception of the major political events by female intellectuals; the dynamics and tensions of nationalisms in the creation of a democratic state; the reassessment of gender ideologies and its impact on the definition of the new national identity; the problematic relationship of feminists and the Left; the divisions within the Spanish feminist movement; the relationship between feminist and lesbian movements; and the vindication of past and present Spanish and international women authors as an effort to reconstruct a female cultural tradition and genealogy.
Valentin Bulgakov on Leo Tolstoy: a study in evolving perspective
This work comprises an analysis of all hitherto unpublished extant materials relating to Valentin Bulgakov (Tolstoy's personal secretary during the last year of his life) and his relationship to Leo Tolstoy, the translation of a selection of these materials into English with annotations and commentaries, accompanied by a critical introductory essay and a separate volume outlining in full the results of my critical analysis. The analysis will focus on Bulgakov's evolving perspective on Tolstoy as a writer and philosopher, examining the specific points on which Bulgakov questioned or disagreed with Tolstoy's views. It presents a new perspective on one of the world's leading writers of all time as seen throught the changing thought of one of his closest associates.
Department of Linguistics
Unexpected modality
Modality is a core research topic for many disciplines interested in language, including linguistics, philosophy, and psychology. Modal expressions are the features of language that make it possible to displace our conversations from actual circumstances to situations that are not 'real', a defining characteristic of human communication. The project investigates the expression of modality from a cross-linguistic perspective. It adopts a novel comparative methodology, focusing on less familiar languages and on unexpected sources of modal meanings. The broad objective is to re-evaluate and extend current theoretical views on modality in the light of an expanded empirical base. Recent developments in the theoretical literature have the potential for substantially changing our views on modality. The project will make a contribution by investigating the expression of modality in Slavic, Romance and Amerindian languages. Access to genetically related languages allows for the study of microvariation within modal systems, while the comparison of genetically distant languages provides an important perspective into the universal features of the expression of modality. The hypothesis guiding our research is that modality is actually more pervasive than had originally been thought and can be found in 'unexpected' places.
Grammatical Trajectories of Change in Preadolescence
The primary objective of this research is to investigate the evolution of sociolinguistic patterns of grammatical variation in the speech of children aged between 6 and 12. A key component of the research addresses the insufficiently documented role of children in maintaining and propagating grammatical changes in progress. In order to situate children’s variable speech patterns in relation to those of the wider community, children’s use of grammatical variables is systematically compared with corresponding patterns of variation found in adult speech. The comparative axis of the research allows us to chart children’s acquisition of community-based linguistic norms, and to isolate and characterize patterns of variation that may be age-specific. By furnishing scientifically informed descriptions of the variable but patterned nature of children’s speech, this research is expected to be of particular relevance not only to sociolinguists, but also to school-based practitioners and clinicians who are regularly engaged in assessing children’s linguistic proficiency.
Cross-linguistic variation in noun incorporation and denominalization
The main objective of this project is to develop a deeper understanding of the cross-linguistic variation exhibited by noun incorporation and denominal verb constructions in aboriginal languages, especially Onondaga and Mohawk (Iroquoian), on the one hand, and Ojibwe, Blackfoot and Cree (Algonquian), on the other. A pervasive and generally accepted property of both noun incorporation and denominal verbs is that the incorporated noun is smaller than the full noun phrase in terms of its morphological structure. Beyond this, there is much disagreement in the literature as to what exactly constitutes noun incorporation and denominal verb formation, and whether these two phenomena are simply two sides of the same coin or two distinct phenomena. Our proposed research program intends to shed light on these disagreements by surveying and recording the natural variation that exists in noun incorporation and denominal verb constructions cross-linguistically. The languages under investigation belong to the Algonquian, Iroquoian as well as the Salish, Inuit and Paleosiberian language families.
Data mining and sound patterns
This research project investigates the phonetic and linguistic relationships between several thousand sound patterns in several hundred languages. The project will develop an existing database of sound patterns by coding sound patterns for many properties which are of interest to linguists, making it a useful tool for investigating the relationships between different aspects of language structure, language use, and language change. Correlations between phonetic factors and language structure will be investigated in the new CFI-funded Sound Patterns Lab. The coding of the patterns will be conducted not only by automated algorithms, but also by individual pattern assessment.
The bilingual mental lexicon: The role of age of acquisition and proficiency
Do English-French bilinguals represent the word ‘snow’ in exactly the same way as they represent ‘neige’? And, if they hear the word ‘snow’, do they automatically access the word ‘neige’? Are these words organized together as one representation or are they organized in separate, language-specific lexicons? Finding a conclusive answer to these questions is the main goal of this project. Researchers have struggled with the issue of how a bilingual represents the words of their languages. The debate focuses on whether the words of both languages can be found in the same lexicon or whether there is a separate store for the words in each language (e.g., Hernandéz, 2002). This research project tackles the issue of lexical organization by studying English-French bilinguals and second language (L2) learners and compares these groups to monolinguals. The roles played by age of acquisition and proficiency are investigated.
Imitation and production in phonological development
Many people have experienced the wonder, surprise, joy, and sometimes embarrassment of hearing a child say something unexpected. From some of the innocent and not so innocent things that come out of children’s mouths, it is unmistakable that children imitate language. This psycholinguistic research program looks at the way imitation relates to speech production and the acquisition of a language’s sound system. Findings will be of relevance to educators interested in pedagogical methods and theory. Moreover, because imitation is pervasive in other behaviours, findings will be pertinent to other disciplines, such as neuroscience, evolutionary theory, cultural studies, and studies of animal behaviour.
School of Music
L’apprentissage de la lecture musicale chez les jeunes pianistes
Par ce projet de recherche, nous tentons de comprendre comment les élèves novices en piano apprennent à lire le langage musical et à l’exprimer par des gestes appropriés et bien contrôlés au clavier. Pour ce faire, nous évaluons les éléments du code musical, étudions les processus de cognition spécifiquement en lien avec la mise en place d’un lexique mental et évaluons les compétences du jeu moteur en réponse aux caractéristiques du code écrit, tout cela afin d’élaborer un modèle théorique permettant de mieux expliquer les processus intervenant lors de l’apprentissage de la lecture musicale.
Department of Philosophy
Towards a Philosophy of Act: Rereading Aristotle with and against Martin Heidegger
Undertaking the first comprehensive and critical analysis of Martin Heidegger's appropriation of Aristotelian philosophy, this project aims to recover possibilities for future thought in Aristotle both in following Heidegger’s attempts to make Aristotle speak again and in uncovering what his reading silences. At issue is the possibility of interpreting being in a way that can do justice to human activity and temporality against the danger, especially acute in modern technology, of objectification and instrumentalization. While such an issue has exercised post-modern philosophy, the return to Aristotle is an opportunity for challenging the assumptions of post-modernism itself.
Fontenelle : de l'origine des fables à l'histoire des sciences
Fontenelle, tour à tour écrivain, dramaturge, historien, vulgarisateur scientifique et philosophe est peut-être l'une des figures les plus emblématiques de ce mouvement souterrain qui a servi de courroie de transmission pour des idées que les institutions de l'Ancien régime s'efforçaient d'endiguer. Ayant vécu près de cent ans (1650-1750), sa carrière seule illustre les transformations subies par ce mouvement : d'abord fortement empreints de libertinage érudit, ses écrits prennent progressivement acte de ce que les sciences modernes ont à offrir. Et quand il obtient le poste de Secrétaire de l'Académie des Sciences, c'est fort d'une conception originale de « l'histoire de l'esprit humain » qu'il entre en fonction. C'est à cet aspect de la démarche de Fontenelle que le présent projet s'intéresse. Il s'agit d'étayer l'hypothèse suivant laquelle le travail d'historien des sciences exercé par Fontenelle est largement tributaire d'une théorie de la connaissance élaborée antérieurement dans des écrits sur l'histoire. Ces écrits sont marqués par un effort pour expliquer la formation des fables de l'Antiquité par des causes naturelles, en en faisant de premières ébauches de « systèmes » philosophiques. De cette explication émerge une véritable théorie du progrès de la raison dont on trouve de nombreux échos chez les penseurs des Lumières.Secular Paradigms and Religious Identity
This project looks critically at the implications of certain secular political paradigms, focusing on their assumptions about, as well as their impact upon, the idea of religion and religious identity. It is particularly concerned with political models that in practice exclude deliberation about matters of religion from the public sphere, whether by prescribing the privatization of religion as a matter of individual conscience, or by offering state recognition to multiple religious communities. While these two procedures are in many respects very different, I maintain that they both wrongly encourage a view of religion as a subject intrinsically unsuited to critical reflection and rational debate. This conception of religion can lead members of religious communities to cordon off a highly important subset of their beliefs and values, treating this subset as fixed and unrevisable, or as purely a matter of individual choice, but in any case not as a content whose truth can be decided by processes of common reasoning. My argument is oriented towards three avowedly secular democratic countries that are also committed to accommodating religious pluralism: Canada, the U.S. and India.
Official Languages and Bilingualism Institute
Jeremie Séror
Learning the steps: Investigating L2 writers' composition processes in academic contexts
The act of writing and producing a text for others to read remains simultaneously one of the most important and mysterious processes found in advanced literacy development. While the end result of this process: the submitted text can readily be made available for analysis and evaluation, the time consuming and often nonlinear sequence of actions at the heart of the genesis of a text remain largely private and thus hidden. Motivated by an ever increasing presence of students pursuing post-secondary studies in a language other than their mother tongue as well as the need to better understand the transformational impact of computers on the ways in which individuals learn to write, this project investigates the development of second language learners’ writing processes and strategies in university settings. Combining interviews, the analysis of relevant documents and the use of computer screen capture technology to produce visual records of L2 writers’ on-screen actions as they complete writing tasks for their classes, the study brings to light the complex set of decisions, strategies and events that underlie students’ abilities to negotiate the conventions and knowledge sets that govern the production of successful academic texts.
School of Information Studies
Computer games and players’ experiences: the value of humour
We seek to develop a novel area of research in computer games related to humour by providing new understanding of players’ experience of humour and laughter as well as inform the design of humour in computer games. Our approach attempts to make sense of the humour phenomenon by adopting an open interpretation of humour in cognizance of the relatively unexplored nature of humour in this domain, particularly considering the role of players and the complex nature of humour mediation through game interaction. The proposed research aims thus to develop new theoretical understandings of humour in this context (through grounded theory), as well as gather design knowledge that will guide the use of humour within computer games (through identification of game patterns). With this approach we hope to gain insights about humour mediation, the role and function of humour within this context, but also about players’ behavior in games. In this research, we will advance a new conceptual model of humour grounded in computer gameplay that will benefit game designers, educators, researchers interested in humour.
Department of Theatre
Shakespeare and Theatrical Space
This project seeks to demonstrate through textual analysis, archival research, performance observation, and theatrical practice that in his plays Shakespeare employs theatrical space meaningfully and deliberately, with at least three distinct purposes: to communicate with the audience (spatial semiotics), to aid the actor (cognitive distribution), and to consolidate his company’s institutional position first within its permanent home, the Globe, in 1599 and then with renewed vigour when the company began using its indoor theatre, Blackfriars, in 1609 (landmarking). It argues for the existence of an emerging and hitherto unrecognized set of theatrical conventions that enabled these meaningful uses of space in the early modern period, and suggests that these spatial conventions may still be active in the contemporary performance of these plays, with implications affecting how space in Shakespeare is both theorized and performed.
School of Translation and Interpretation
Canada in Latin-America: Tracing Transfer by Translation
This project takes translation as the major vehicle of intercultural and international exchange and follows the movement of Canadian cultural production - largely writings (fiction, non-fiction, theatre, poetry, children's literature) and some film - into the many different cultures of Latin America via the two main languages used there: Spanish and Portuguese. The objective of the research project is to study the last 40 years of translation between Canada and Latin America - often via Spain and Portugal - to find out what has been translated, who made the selections and why, in what condition the texts arrived at their destinations, and how they have been read. Given the importance assigned to cultural diplomacy and nation-branding, and the government funding made available for such purposes, we will try to understand the effects these translation processes have had in disseminating certain images of Canada. More importantly though, the project seeks to understand and describe how and to what other effects the complex work of translation is undertaken in this particular environment, and how the agents (translators, cultural entrepreneurs, diplomats, random friends, publishers, and others) as well as certain events (book fairs, academic endeavours, prizes and scandals) impinge on the power of translation.
Maurice Maeterlinck : trajectoire d’un médiateur interculturel (1886-1914)
Le Belge Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949), prix Nobel de littérature en 1911, a joué un rôle remarqué de médiateur interculturel entre ce que Madame de Staël avait appelé l'Europe du Nord et celle du Midi. Pour ce Flamand francophone mais diglotte, le dialecte du peuple était un tremplin vers le néerlandais standard, l’allemand et l’anglais. Grâce aux lectures qu’il pouvait faire dans toutes ces langues sans devoir attendre les traductions françaises, Maeterlinck sut doter son œuvre « d’une originalité certaine, d’une nouveauté si vraiment neuve qu’elle déconcertera longtemps encore » (Remy de Gourmont). Ce cheminement cosmopolite sera mis en rapport avec la trajectoire institutionnelle de Maeterlinck d’une part, avec ses interventions discursives de type interculturel d’autre part. Parmi ces dernières, il faut mettre à part ses traductions (du mystique flamand Jan van Ruusbroec, du romantique allemand Novalis, des élisabéthains Shakespeare et John Ford, puis des préraphaélites Dante Gabriel Rossetti et A.C. Swinburne); elles se trouvent au centre de ce projet combinant la sociologie des agents inspirée de Bourdieu avec l’analyse des textes et du discours qui les accompagne.