Recherche uO, le dépôt numérique de l'Université d'Ottawa, réunit le matériel de recherche et d'enseignement créé par notre communauté universitaire et nos partenaires. Le savoir de l'Université est ainsi disponible à long terme et en accès libre, ce qui lui procure de la visibilité et facilite sa diffusion.
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Type d'Item : Item , Environmental Fate and Biological Effects of Radium-226 in Freshwater Environments: Evidence from Fingernail Clams (Sphaeriidae)(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-30) Proulx, Catherine; Goulet, Richard R.; Fortin, DanielleRadium-226 (²²⁶Ra) is a naturally occurring radionuclide that is typically present at low concentrations in freshwater environments but can be elevated by industrial activities that disturb or concentrate naturally occurring radioactive materials, including mining, oil and gas extraction, coal production, and wastewater treatment. Despite concerns regarding its mobility, bioaccumulation potential, and radiotoxicity, the ecological effects of ²²⁶Ra remain poorly understood. This knowledge gap has contributed to the absence of a Canadian freshwater quality guideline for the protection of aquatic life. This thesis investigated the occurrence, environmental fate, bioaccumulation and toxicity of 226Ra to a sensitive freshwater species of fingernail clams (Sphaerium striatinum), with a particular focus on the influence of calcium on its behaviour and toxicity. As alkaline earth metals with similar physicochemical properties, calcium and radium are expected to exhibit comparable environmental and biological behaviours, making calcium a potentially important factor influencing 226Ra fate, bioavailability, bioaccumulation, and toxicity. Analysis of Canadian mining effluent data demonstrated that ²²⁶Ra is released from multiple mining sectors and that uranium mines are not uniquely responsible for elevated discharges. Final treated effluent concentrations ranged from 0.2 to 7800 mBq L-1, with average concentrations in several sectors exceeding the regional background upper tolerance limit of 21.7 mBq L-1. To address ecotoxicological data gaps, laboratory methods were developed for the freshwater fingernail clam Sphaerium striatinum, a sensitive bivalve species. Experimental results demonstrated that 226Ra bioaccumulates in both soft tissues and shells, with preferential partitioning to shells. Chronic exposure reduced growth (EC10 = 4.1 Bq L-1) and reproduction (EC10 = 0.37 Bq L-1) at environmentally relevant concentrations, while survival was comparatively less sensitive. Sorption experiments further showed that the environmental fate of 226Ra is strongly controlled by mineralogy and water chemistry, with adsorption to reactive clay minerals rapidly reducing dissolved concentrations. Increasing calcium concentrations reduced sorption and increased the persistence of dissolved 226Ra, whereas organic matter had comparatively little influence. Combined bioaccumulation and toxicity studies demonstrated that calcium exerts competing effects on ²²⁶Ra behaviour. Although calcium can reduce biological uptake through competitive interactions at biological membranes, it also increases ²²⁶Ra dissolved exposure by limiting sorption to mineral phases. Consequently, calcium did not consistently mitigate toxicity and, for some endpoints, resulted in increased organism sensitivity. Dose modelling further indicated that waterborne exposure was the dominant pathway under the conditions tested. Overall, this research demonstrates that the environmental risk of ²²⁶Ra is governed by coupled geochemical and biological processes and that water chemistry can substantially influence both exposure and toxicity. These findings provide critical information for environmental risk assessments and support the future development of science-based freshwater quality guidelines and management strategies for ²²⁶Ra releases.Type d'Item : Item , The Gentileman's Agreement in Canadian University Campuses: How Jewish Faculty Members Navigate an Asymmetric Contract and Stigma(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-30) Rockman, Talia; López, José; Butler, DeidreThis thesis examines the materialization and operation of what I term The Gentileman's Agreement - the asymmetric, often implicit, moral contract between Jews and non-Jews that governs the formers' inclusion - and how Jewish faculty members navigate it on Canadian campuses. It draws primarily on Erving Goffman's (1963) stigma theory to understand how the stigmatization of certain expressions of Jewish identity, namely Zionism, upheld and reproduced The Agreement at the individual and institutional levels. This thesis undertakes a secondary data analysis of interviews with 40 Jewish faculty members, diverse in academic discipline, location, professional rank, and political leaning. The interview data originates from the "Faculty Experiences of Antisemitism Research" study, co-led by Drs. Cary Kogan at the University of Ottawa and Deidre Butler at Carleton University. The findings and analysis developed in this thesis provide insight into how Jewish faculty members came to understand and experienced Zionism as a spoiled identity through indirect and direct instances of stigmatization prior to and following their entry into Canadian academia. They also illustrate how Jewish faculty members negotiated their stigmatized identities through concealing, minimizing, and reclaiming their Jewish identities. The accounts by Jewish faculty members underscore the asymmetry of The Agreement: non-Jewish actors are positioned as the arbiters of what, if any, expression of Jewish identity is "acceptable", and that Jews must continually prove their worth and justify their existence through fulfilling their prescribed role as subservient, powerless, and agreeable - in essence, as a human giver.Type d'Item : Item , Same Problem, Alternative Approaches: Combatting Antisemitism in Contemporary Canada(Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa, 2026-09-30) Hollinger, Megan; Beaman, Lori G.Antisemitism, or hatred of Jews, has been on the rise in Canada for most of the 21st century. Research on combatting antisemitism both within and beyond Canada is urgently needed, but evidence-based research is severely lacking in the literature. Current research suggests that traditional, dominant approaches, such as legal and educational strategies, are inadequate on their own to combat antisemitism effectively. This thesis offers data that challenges these dominant approaches and proposes an alternative: social strategies. The social strategies this thesis explores centre on Intergroup Contact Theory, which, supported by social psychologists, posits that sustained, positive contact between competing outgroups is the most effective way to reduce bias and prejudice. Specifically, I examine intergroup contact in the context of antisemitism and Jewish and non-Jewish relationships. By exploring the roles of social bonds, empathy and relational factors, and resilience and ingroup confidence, I show that intergroup contact between Jews and non-Jews is a promising, proactive and preventive approach to combatting antisemitism in the long run. This thesis also explores mechanisms of intergroup contact programming in Canada between Jews and non-Jews and ties them to the deeper cognitive and emotional processes that I also suggest maintain antisemitism in different temporal and spatial contexts. This thesis draws on data from 54 participants across three Canadian cities, namely Ottawa, Victoria, and Montreal, to highlight the potential of intergroup contact to promote long-term positive change for Canada's Jews.Type d'Item : Item , “Nature” vs. Nature: An Analysis of the Nature Character in Two Creation Stories and Their Practical Implications(Université d'Ottawa | University of Ottawa, 2026-09-29) Eyzaguirre, Lucia; Anderson, EmmaSacred stories are an entryway into societal attitudes, and so are worth examining in relation to the most pressing societal issues, including the climate crisis. This project contributes to the larger climate conversation by asking what the “Nature” character in the Christian and Algonquin Anishinaabeg creation stories tell us about the societies’ attitudes towards the natural environment. Drawing on narrative theory and thematic narrative analysis, the study investigates this question in the context of Ottawa, Canada, tracing the relationship between mythological frameworks, attitudes, and practical behaviour. The findings resist easy conclusions. Rather than confirming a straightforward relationship between myths and practice, the analysis reveals a more complex – and sometimes surprising – picture. What does emerge consistently is that the two creation stories encode a fundamental connection between human and other-than-human nature – a connection that contemporary Canadian society may have lost sight of. The broader implication is urgent: if we are willing to read our creation stories closely and to interrogate our assumptions about them, they may provide a pathway for rethinking our environmental attitudes. At a moment of ecological crisis, this may be not merely illuminating, but necessary for our survival.Type d'Item : Item , Young Black Women’s Experiences and Resistance to Structural Violence: An Intersectional Feminist Participatory Study in a Brazilian Marginalized Community(Université d'Ottawa | University of Ottawa, 2026-09-29) Costa Cardeal, Camila; Lapierre, Simon; Ribeiro, LudmilaThis thesis explores how young Black women living in a marginalized Brazilian community name, experience, interpret, and respond to violence. It explores how feminist participatory research based on arts-based interventions can contribute to the production of alternative discourses that give centre to these young women’s voices. Scholarship on youth and violence has often framed young people, particularly Black youth, through lenses of crime, risk, and victimhood. This study seeks to shift attention toward systems that produce unequal and violent social relations. Drawing on intersectional feminism and the concept of structural violence, the study adopts a Participatory Action Research approach with five young women aged 15 to 17 in Vargem das Flores, Minas Gerais. Data were collected through focus groups, interviews, and an arts-based photographic project. Findings show that structural violence is a recurrent phenomenon embedded in everyday life. It operates across interconnected dimensions, including space, time, relationships, institutions, and embodied experiences, assuming different forms while being sustained by shared logics of domination. At the same time, the young women’s narratives reveal critical awareness, agency, and diverse forms of resistance. By centring young women’s voices, this thesis contributes to making visible forms of violence that are often normalized and overlooked, while also demonstrating how power relations intersect and are co-constitutive. The arts-based intervention illustrates how alternative discourses can be created, enabling young women to articulate their own self-definitions. These findings highlight the importance of approaches that move beyond masculine and individual problem-oriented frameworks, opening possibilities for more just, transformative and complex understandings of youth and violence.