Featured Students

This section features the profiles of students who were scheduled to present their research at the delayed Qualitative Analysis Conference 2020.


navjotpal kaur

Navjotpal (Nav) Kaur is a PhD Candidate in Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's NL. Nav's research explores the intersections of caste and the body within a spatio-temporal context as it relates to hegemonic masculinity. In her doctoral project, Nav maps the the subjective internalization of power and privilege within high-caste men’s bodies and explores how it leads to performative hegemonic masculinities within different spatial contexts, namely local and transnational. Nav was awarded Scotiabank Bursary for International Study (2019/2020) for her doctoral research.

Nav's Work:

Understanding Hegemonic Masculinities: Theorizing Pride

Keywords: Hegemonic masculinities, caste, body & embodiment, South Asia, Punjab

Following a discursive approach, I attempt to theorize the concept of Anakh (a Punjabi word which, depending on the context, could mean ego, pride, or dignity) which was time and again brought up by my participants when talking about their masculinities and caste-identity. My participants are young Punjabi men in Canada and Punjab who belong to a higher caste of Jats, a traditionally farming community. I propose, in this paper, that Anakh is a socio-historically constructed concept and a principle of hegemonic masculinity that resides within men’s bodies. Anakh is reactive, unlike the relatively popular concepts of izzat (honor) and sharam (shame) in the discourse of South Asian women and femininities that reside within women’s bodies, and are proactive. Anakh is especially considered challenged when izzat and sharam are violated and has the potential to lead to violence. I explore how Anakh intersects with gender, caste, and religion within an agrarian-patriarchal context.

In Punjabi music and movies, Anakh/Pride figures significantly in what constitutes hypermasculinity or hegemonic masculinity. So, along with in-depth interviews with young men, I analyze the content of Punjabi pop culture pertaining to Anakh of Jat men. The field of South Asian masculinities, particularly Punjabi masculinities, is still at its nascent stage with only a handful of researchers working in the area. The concept of pride I theorize in this paper will prove to be pivotal for future researchers studying agrarian-patriarchal masculinities in local as well as in the diasporic spaces.

jessica boateng

Jessica is a Master's student at Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's NL. Her interests are in gender equality and intimate partner violence. She enjoys working with women to promote women’s empowerment and development. Jessica's supervisor is Dr. Eric Tenkorang, an inductee of the Royal Society of Canada’s college of new scholars.

Jessica's Work:

A Qualitative Inquiry into Economic Abuse Among Women in Ghana

Keywords: Economic abuse, gender, intimate partner violence, Ghana

Economic abuse occurs when an intimate partner deprives or threatens to deprive their partner access and control of financial and economic resources. Emerging evidence indicates that women in sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana, experience higher levels and various types of economic abuse. Notwithstanding, academic research on this topic remains scant, and very few studies document the lived experiences of women with economic abuse. Using qualitative data collected in 2019 from 45 women in the Greater Accra, Ashanti, and Northern regions of Ghana, this paper explored the causes, consequences, and coping strategies of female survivors of economic abuse. Results indicate that economic abuse is common among Ghanaian women, although they were often oblivious about these types of abuse. Women narrated experiences of exploitation, deprivation, and sabotage in attempts to control various aspects of their lives. While some women indicated the incidence of husbands, preventing them from engaging in gainful employment, others complained about financial extortion from their partners. Husband’s unemployment, their controlling behaviors, drunkenness, jealousy, and cultural factors were major causes of these types of abuse. Economic abuse negatively affected the jobs and businesses of female survivors, their food security, and often led to physical violence. Women coped with these types of violence by relying on external family networks for economic survival. Findings suggest the need for policymakers to include programmes that educate women on economic abuse and a call for programs that empower them to be economically and financially self-sufficient.

Maddie Brockbank

Maddie Brockbank is a Master’s of Social Work candidate and incoming doctoral student in the school of social work at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Brockbank’s undergraduate and graduate research, practice experience, and community organizing initiatives have been around engaging men in sexual violence prevention. She was awarded the YWCA Hamilton’s Young Woman of Distinction Award (2019), the President’s Award of Excellence in Student Leadership (2019), and the Canada Graduate Scholarship (CGS-M, 2019) for her academic excellence, research contributions, and community leadership. For her doctoral research, she was awarded the H.L. Hooker Fellowship and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2020).

Maddie's Work:

Male university students' perspectives of sexual violence

Keywords: sexual violence prevention; masculinity; gender; qualitative research; critical masculinity studies; feminist theory.

Emerging anti-violence work has focused on the importance of engaging men in primary prevention efforts, especially on postsecondary campuses, due to the statistical reality that men are overrepresented as perpetrators of sexual violence (Black et al, 2011; Piccigallo, Lilley, & Miller, 2012; Flood, 2019). In my undergraduate research project, I explored male university students’ perspectives of sexual violence on Ontarian university campuses through qualitative interviews to better understand how they perceive their role in anti-violence work. Findings from my undergraduate study indicated that men perceive a ‘grey area’ between consent and sexual violence that can only be navigated by relying on interpretation of ‘signs’ of consent (e.g. body language) and seeking sexual education from the male peer group and media. While this project revealed significant gaps in male student participants’ understandings of consent, a potentially harmful male peer culture, and cisheteropatriarchal privilege shaping men’s disengagement from sexual violence prevention efforts, participants also expressed interest in acting as allies to survivors, albeit with little idea of how to do so. Suggestions for bolstering this engagement included integrating comprehensive sexual education earlier in education to normalize conversations around sex, consent, sexual violence, gender, and allyship.

My graduate thesis study sought to build upon both my undergraduate research and the existing body of literature exploring men’s involvement in anti-violence work by inviting male university students into discussions around their perspectives of sexual violence prevention efforts on campus. The overall goal is to better understand how prevention programming can be improved to elicit male student engagement. Six participants were recruited from McMaster University to participate in focus groups. Focus groups begun with the facilitation of a common activity used in anti-violence programming, titled “the gender boxes,” to contextualize the discussion around exploring the social construction of gender as it intersects with violence against women. The ensuing discussion revealed the following themes: (1) cisheteropatriarchal masculinity demands men perform gender in ways that recreate sexual scripts and traditional gender roles, as evidenced by their reflections on “the gender boxes” activity, (2) traditional masculinity intentionally obscures the dynamics of negotiating sex and consent, which subsequently create the potential for sexual violence to occur, (3) participants describe feeling disengaged from existing prevention efforts, and (4) participants imagined potential improvements to engage men in sexual violence prevention, which largely reflected existing literature on the subject. Implications for social work practice and anti-violence work include the need to continue qualitatively examining and integrating men’s perspectives, insights, and ideas into primary prevention programming, policy, and future research to ensure it reflects their lived experiences and subsequently elicits engagement. This project contributes to anti-violence efforts through revealing the continued need to engage men in every stage of the process to then facilitate their investment in ending violence against women.

Emerson LaCroix

Emerson LaCroix is a PhD student in the department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph. His research examines the institutionalization of experiential leaning in higher education, and the intersecting professional logics at play. He is currently investigating this process through the lens of organizational theory and considering principles of agency and neoliberalism. Emerson is also interested in the intersections of power, precarity, and pedagogical innovation in higher education.

Emerson's Work:

Experiential Learning and New Institutionalism in Ontario Higher Education: A Qualitative Analysis

Keywords: Experiential learning, new institutionalism, higher education, coupling

Experiential learning is becoming increasingly institutionalized in Ontario higher education. Interested researchers need not go further than the highly attended Ontario Universities Fair (pre-COVID) to find ‘Experiential Learning’ scrawled across institutional banners and program brochures. From a policy perspective, experiential learning has become formalized as one of the performance indicators of the provincial government’s newly developed funding metrics. This research investigated a new Experiential Education Certificate (EEC) at a selected research-intensive Ontario university as it responded to pressures from its organizational environment to foster this particular pedagogical approach.

Blending organizational theory with qualitative methods, this research contributes both theoretical and methodological rigour to a topic which has thus far been devoid of such contributions. Indeed, much of the scholarly literature on experiential learning is confined to self-studies by instructors who have incorporated experiential learning into their courses. Many of these studies incorporate the Experiential Learning “Theory”, which is more of a pedagogical model. Thus, there is room for more substantive sociological theorizing and methodological development. This study’s overall research design and analytic frame were heavily influenced by New Institutionalism and utilized a multi-method qualitative design.

Using a case-study approach, this program is used as an example of the institutionalization of experiential learning in higher education. Content analysis was used to analyze all publicly available descriptive content on the EEC program itself, to determine how the program is framed and communicated to those inside and outside the institution. Given the small scale of this research project it was imperative to include a variety of institutional constituents who had professional connections with experiential education at the university. Participants were recruited from the university’s professional development office, the office for teaching excellence, and faculty members who were listed as teaching experiential learning courses. Participants were asked about their experiences with experiential education broadly, the development of the EEC and their involvement with the program, as well how they interpreted experiential education impacting their professional roles.

The university’s Experiential Education Certificate represents a ceremonial response to organizational pressures and has not meaningfully penetrated the technical core of the institution. Participant responses indicate that the EEC program was developed through a top-down approach, emblematic of an institutional initiative that did not consider the perspectives of organizational actors who would be tasked with fostering experiential learning. Rather, findings suggest that the loosely coupled nature of the institution impacted the dissemination of the program’s intention, and even existence to instructors. There is evidence to suggest that there were conflicting professional roles, perspectives, and capacity between those developing the program and those teaching the courses. Faculty members discussed myriad challenges which impact their willingness to implement experiential learning, suggesting implications for institutional responses and the agency of technical actors.

Given the prominence of experiential learning in policy discussions and government decision-making, it is unlikely that the popularity of this teaching and learning method will wane any time soon. This research leaves room for further scholarly attention which could embrace a multi-cited work, and extend theoretical contributions by considering elements of isomorphism, power, and professional logics.

Lorena Jean D. Saludadez

Lorena Jean Saludadez graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science from the University of the Philippines Cebu (UPC). Currently, she is working on her Master’s Degree in ASEAN Studies at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU). In 2019, Ms. Saludadez served as the lead writer and research leader of her undergraduate thesis, for which she and her group-mates received the UPC Political Science department’s first-ever “Best Undergraduate Thesis” award. Her research interests include women, women’s rights, gender equality, international relations, and human rights.

Lorena's Work:

Uncovering Theoretical Limitations: Examining Predominant Perspectives of Prostitution in a Developing Country

Keywords: Prostitution, Theories of Prostitution, Prostitution in Developing Countries, the Philippines

In studies across the world, the liberal and radical feminist approaches are predominant frameworks in understanding prostitution. The exploitation-choice dichotomy remains to dominate the discourse, appropriating prostitution as either being “liberative” or “oppressive” to women who engage in it. Given that such theoretical presuppositions were formulated in a developed, Western setting, this study tries to understand the phenomenon of prostitution in the context of a developing country.

Utilizing constructivist grounded theorizing, this research examined prostitution within the Philippines. By gathering anecdotal data from women in the sex trade, this study was able to surface emerging factors that were not previously identified by the traditional Western dichotomy.

This shows that there is an insufficiency in the liberal and radical feminist approaches’ understanding of sex work in a developing country, specifically the Philippines. The exploitation-choice dichotomy enforced on prostitution is limited, and the very nature of attempting to define the experience of women is, in itself, a form of oppression.

In fact, this study revealed that a woman’s experience within prostitution could not be subsumed or academized into one coherent framework. In trying to address the women’s struggle, aggregating issues/experiences pose a double-edged dilemma. While acknowledging the collective problems faced by women is necessary, it also risks marginalizing other unique women’s experiences, as was done in the rigid liberal-radical feminist framework.

By situating this study in an often marginalized context in the feminist discourse, this research was able to shed light on a new, peculiar phenomenon that explains why some women in developing countries decide to enter prostitution. The non-interventionist interpretation of prostitution reveals that there are women who engage in the sex trade, hoping for “non-intervention” from the government. These women not only have a low perception of the government’s efficacy and capacity to help them improve their conditions, but they even perceive the government as a hindrance to their goal of financial stability. As such, they opt to participate in the underground economy, beyond the control and regulation of the government, where they believe they can thrive and sustain the needs of their families. Building upon this discovery, this study identified four determinants that make up a non-interventionist: poverty, lack of education, lack of opportunities, and inefficient government.

margaret mutumba

Margaret Mutumba is a PhD candidate in the School of Public Health & Health Systems, University of Waterloo. Originally from Uganda, Margaret is a passionate public health professional with over 6 years of experience in sexual and reproductive health. Her work focuses on awareness, access and affordability of infertility care in Sub-Saharan Africa. Margaret has an educational background in Pharmacology from Kings College London and a Master of Public Health from Imperial College London. Her PhD research seeks to provide actionable recommendations towards improving accessibility and affordability of fertility treatment in low-income settings. She has been awarded with the Ontario Graduate Scholarship (2018) and the Global Health Scholarship (2020) her doctoral research. Furthermore, Margaret is the founder of an advocacy organization called Infertility Voices that seeks to build a positive, inclusive community with appropriate, timely care for all persons impacted by infertility.

Margaret’s work:

Implementation of Affordable Fertility Treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Case Study of Uganda.

Keywords: infertility, low-cost IVF, public health system, qualitative research, Sub-Saharan Africa

Infertility is a major reproductive health barrier that affects approximately 186 million people worldwide. It is a reproductive disease defined by the inability to achieve a clinical pregnancy after 12 or more months of regular unprotected sex. Sub-Saharan Africa has one of the highest rates of infertility due to pelvic infections caused by untreated sexually transmitted infections, unsafe abortions and poor maternal healthcare. Furthermore, the consequences of infertility in this pronatalist context has severe implications on the psychosocial, economic and health of those affected. Studies have shown that women predominantly, experience depression, stigma, ostracization, identity loss, marital instability, HIV exposure, domestic violence and suicide. Therefore, infertility in sub-Saharan Africa is not only a public health issue but also a social one that requires urgent attention. Unfortunately, a lack of accessible, affordable infertility services in Sub-Saharan Africa has led to inequitable access to infertility treatment. Thus, low-cost IVF (LCIVF) initiatives have been developed to improve access to infertility treatment for the financially disadvantaged by offering in-vitro fertilization (IVF) at a reduced cost.

Uganda is the first country in East and Central Africa to implement and provide LCIVF through its public health system. Using an exploratory case study approach; my research seeks to explore how LCIVF has been implemented in the public health system of Uganda. The study employs in-depth interviews, clinical observation, document review and a multi-level thematic analysis to identify the facilitators and barriers to affordable fertility care in Uganda. The key stakeholders include funders, government, civil society, professional medical bodies and patients facing infertility. The contributions of this study provide a practical, holistic picture into the applicability of affordable care in a Sub-Saharan country. Therefore, offering opportunities for knowledge transfer to other low-income contexts in pursuit of universal access to infertility treatment as a means of supporting reproductive rights for all.

Abu Faiz Md Haque

Abu Haque is a PhD candidate at York & Ryerson Joint Graduate Program in Communication & Culture. His research interest lies in the spatiotemporal exploration of the margin within the discourse that presupposes a socio-political and cultural hegemony. He is a documentary filmmaker and has been the featured artist in two solo exhibitions. Abu is interested in combining research and creativity—either documenting research findings through a creative process or using the creative process as a means of inquiry. He is the winner of The Ken Mackenzie Memorial Award & Bell Media Videography Digital Media Award.

Abu's Work:

The Ambiguity of the Spatiotemporal

Keywords: Representational spaces, representations of space, identity, discourse, hegemony, margin, hybrid, diversity, power, control.

I grapple with the existing gap between the production of spaces and the lived experiences of the margin through an experiential video documentary project suggesting that these spaces are not only ambiguous but also resemble ‘other spaces’ between utopias and heterotopias (Foucault 1986). Through this qualitative research, I explore the embodiment of the spatiotemporal ambivalence of the marginalized, and the displaced within the limits of the hybrid living in the Western cultures, and as well, within the discourse.

Analysis of marginal spaces through the documentary invites us to unpack them not from binary oppositions but within a triad of three: lived, perceived, and conceived spaces (Lefebvre 1991) that reproduces various power dynamics of social relations. My research reveals the problems of analysis and interpretation within the Western theoretical framework. Minorities’ perception of Canadian media in general and how that affects their identity, as well as their understanding of the representation and identity politics, suggests the significance of qualitative research in the exposure of dominant-marginal relations within the broader context of Canada.

Buenaflor L. Rosete

Buenaflor Laoang Rosete had worked in Philippine academic institutions as both a non-teaching staff and instructor, before she finds herself displaced. This has become a blessing to her nonetheless, pursuing Doctor of Communication at the University of the Philippines Open University as a fulltime graduate student on a scholarship grant for displaced personnel under the Philippine Commission on Higher Education.

She’s on her way to “finding her placeness in the organization” as she currently tries re-entry to the academe, and while in the waiting, hopes to engage further in autoethnographic and the qualitative researches, as well as extending services to the community through her writing.

Buenaflor's Work:

Researcher Reflexivity: Using Autoethnography to Understand the Experience of Organizational Displacement*

Keywords: organizational displacement; discursive reflection; autoethnography; self-emancipation

Autoethnographic research is an excruciating but a liberating journey. In this study, autoethnography was used in understanding the experience of organizational displacement. The duty of the researcher “I” was to allow the communicative view of displacement emerge from the narratives that were compiled, categorized, and coded, until the transcription of vignettes (or powerful transpiring scenes) which served as the set of data subjected to reflexivity, as the researcher textually shares her life to the readers, which was both “pleasure and pain”. The organizational experiences were explored by telling a series of stories or self-narratives that directed the author to the conclusion that her displacement led to emancipation of the organizational member, although it can vary as to how readers processed their own conclusion.

The research method, autoethnography, promisingly located agreement of the Critical Tradition (discursive reflection as means towards consciousness-raising and emancipation) of communicative theorizing with three other traditions: the phenomenological (making sense of lived experience); socio-psychological (privileging the reflection of beliefs, feelings, personality); and the socio-cultural (an attempt at producing social order). The autoethnographic method is the qualitative research process freely traversed in this study, using an organized frame of analysis: an immersion to the details of experience; reflection; and modelling or turning gained meanings of experience into useful understanding and even, emancipation.

The following understanding emerged from this autoethnographic study: (1) To be a member of an organization requires foreknowledge about this lifeworld (or at least mentors). It also means bridging the estrangement by truly being part of the Organization—working alongside or in connection to it [whether about the organizational or personal matters]; (2) organizational movements are viewed to give excitement to organizational life; produce organizational antagonism/ conflicting perspectives and eye-opening spaces to unaddressed issues (e.g. oppression) that can be beginnings of resistance and limiting of organizational engagement; serve as necessitated disconnection to be a more resilient organizational member; and as a journey towards personal mastery which turns out to be my (actually sought for) “sense of placeness” in the Organization; and (3) organizational displacement—from six thematic constructs produced in the study, privileging the perspectives of an organizational member who has gone thru various movements in the organization—constitutes a new understanding of it as an exigency towards emancipation and true placeness of the organizational member as part of the organization, rather than the loss of material position in the organization.

This study has indeed been a rewarding research journey to this autoethnographer, and hopefully to its readers and communities concerned with organization and with communication as a discipline, and to that part of society represented by the voice: those organizational members struggling through a ‘journey of darkness’ in a displacement story such as mine. It encourages the unmuting of voice, and the journey towards confronting empirical ambiguities such as the experience of displacement in a truly reflective way that aspires towards a kind of understanding that can liberate the self thru knowing what may otherwise be unknown if left not communicated.


*A study pursued under the excellent guidance of my dissertation adviser, Dr. Jean A. Saludadez of the University of the Philippines Open University.