Faculty of Arts
Research Seed Money Awards for 2011
Arts research matters are varied and touch many aspect of the human condition as exemplified by the winning proposals for the 2011 Faculty of Arts Research Seed Grants outlined below. These projects range from the study of snack foods in Canada to modern Japan and were funded by the Faculty of Arts in hope of later securing long term funding.
In these proposals, we hope to show some of what is going on here at the University and to help you see why this arts research matters.
Department of Criminal Justice
The
Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies
Dr.
Richard Jochelson and Dr. Steven Kohm
Dr. Richard Jochelson, left, Dr. Steven Kohm, right
The
Centre for Interdisciplinary Justice Studies, located in the Department of
Criminal Justice at the University of Winnipeg, was designed to bring together
the various stakeholders in the criminal justice system. One goal was to
generate conversations with legal, political, philosophical, historical,
linguistic, and international scholars and practitioners. Through a series of
workshops and publications, these ideas are shared with community groups
serving youth, indigenous peoples, immigrants, senior and others. The Centre expects
to be a place where we can learn from each other by “working with the
community, listening to the justice community and disseminating the research
findings of that community in as open a manner as possible."
Department of History
(i) Black and female in
the sixteenth century
Dr. Darlene
Abreu-Ferreira
While slaves from Africa are most readily
thought of as a North American phenomenon, Dr. Darlene Abreu-Ferreira looks at
its European face. Her research shows that Portugal, in the fifteen and
sixteenth centuries, played the central role in bringing slaves to Europe. They
came as spoils of war and were treated like other commodities. Men were shipped
to south Portugal, but women and their children, who were thought to be more
malleable, were dispersed throughout Europe as domestics and market vendors.
From legal records, Dr. Abreu-Ferreira shows that the transitions were not
always smooth. Her study will look at the lives of these women and examine how
their situations differed from the treatment of and acceptance by those around
them and will, she notes, “in the process, make a contribution to the growing
scholarly debate on the extent to which we can trace modern Western notions of
race to pre-industrial European concepts of blackness and whiteness.”
Dr. Janis Thiessen
If we are what we eat, then what we eat
is fodder to an historian. What our snack foods say about us is the subject of
a study undertaken by Dr. Janis Thiessen of the History Department. What you
might think of as your small snack involves an industry of 7500 workers generating
$1.6 billion in product. In one study, the snack meal is second only to dinner
in importance to the average Canadian. Snacks impact business and commerce, governance,
how we interact socially, as well as our health with obesity and diabetes as
one too-common result. “This project will investigate the manufacturing,
advertising and consumption of snack food and will incorporate business, labour
and social history.” Need I say that there is much food for thought here.
Department of Religion and Culture
(i) Multiculturalism Liberalism and Religion in Canada
Dr. Carlos Colorado
Canadian liberalism and multiculturalism are often
seen as connected and supportive of similar goals. But a look at some of the issues
arising around multiculturalism shows a tension between the two. “A large number
of Canadian political conflicts that are located along religio-ethnic lines are
articulated in terms of the infringements on rights and the right to
non-interference.” Quebec has been particularly sensitive to these issues.
Incidences of accommodation to the religious, ethnic and cultural requirements
of one group have been presented in media reports as an assault on the freedoms
of the majority. These conflicts cast multiculturalism and accommodation as an
adversary of traditional liberal values. As Dr. Colorado notes “the widespread
perception was that accommodation often amounted to interference on freedom.”
Society’s resultant agitation “demonstrates how quickly a large proportion
of the population [can become] increasingly entrenched against any cultural accommodations that [have]
even the possibility of undermining liberal values.”
But these tensions need not grow. Solutions, he proposes, can be found in a broader concept of liberalism, particularly as it relates to religion. He notes that “what is obscured in the liberal telling of wars of religion or those accounts, which emphasize only religion’s divisive character, are the ways in which religion can and does play a central role in peacemaking, reconciliation, and national and international humanitarianism.” His goal is “to develop a fuller model of citizenship participation that incorporates religionists and their worldviews as potentially constructive and democratic forces in the secular—which is to say, religiously neutral rather than non- or anti-religious—public sphere.” Societal waters are often turbulent. Rather than the all-too-frequent agitation cycle, this more inclusive approach might help to set a better way forward. We invite you to join Dr. Colorado in these explorations.
(ii)
Myths and Modernity in Nineteenth Century
Japan
Dr. Jeffrey Newmark
For half a century, at least since a 1961 Princeton conference, scholars have tried to identify the beginnings of modernity in Japan. Dr. Jeffrey Newmark considers the when in the context of how Modern Japan came to be. In attempting to establish a definitive date, scholars have looked to developments in the macro economy and the political sphere. These were top-down events that shifted the culture and shared common attributes. One such trait “was the embrace of rational-mindedness and the abandonment of superstitious thinking.” The impression is that this embrace happened later. But Newmark feels that Japan, by this criteria, became modern at the beginning of the nineteenth century—at least half a century earlier than had been considered. And they did so for reasons important to ordinary people—business and commerce.
His work shows ordinary citizens
using and manipulating the myths in a rational way for their own ends. In some cases, ordinary Japanese acted in opposition
to government dictates. This is an interesting study of how change happens.
Department of Sociology
A Research Proposal on Immigrant Families in WinnipegDr. Wei Xing
Immigration in Winnipeg is continuing to climb in part due to the Manitoba Provincial Nominee Program (PNP). But now that the immigrant families are here, the question is how do they become Winnipeggers. Dr. Xing will look at the families, the social programs and government options that assist with the social integration of these newcomers into the existing city fabric. The research will also offer opportunities for students of her immigration course to pose hypotheses, conduct research and draw conclusions.