Browsing by Author "Johnston, Dawn"
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Item Open Access A Wild Ride: Women’s Bar Work in the Calgary Stampede Tents(2023-08) Scalf, Jane; Nelson, Fiona; Klostermann, Janna; Johnston, DawnThis study explores the employment experiences of women who work in the tents during the Calgary Stampede. The findings are drawn from a total of eight qualitative interviews. The data suggest that the women who work in the tents occupy roles that are highly feminized and sexualized. The three main findings of this thesis suggest: first, that the women who were interviewed performed their work within the patriarchal arena of the Calgary Stampede which allows the workers to dismiss the frequently inappropriate behaviour of patrons; second, that the participants operated under a rhetoric of choice which impacted their work experience; and, third, that the distinction the participants made between their work performance and that of “other girls” provided a way that the women made sense of their work.Item Open Access Canadian Female Alpine Athletes’ Constructions of Risk and Gender(2020-11-04) Kelly, Danika; Bridel, William; Din, Cari; McDonough, Meghan H.; Johnston, DawnFemale alpine athletes’ constructions of gender and risk are poorly addressed in the academic record. The vast majority of publications focus on the reproductive risks inherent in being in a less oxygenated environment and not on the experiences of female alpinists themselves. For my master’s project, I explored the experiences of female athletes in alpine sport. The primary objective was to gain greater understanding of Canadian female athletes’ constructions of gender and risk in alpine environments and in relation to the larger cultural context. Informed largely by Michel Foucault’s concepts of agency and governmentality, as well as Pirkko Markula’s feminist interpretations of Foucault’s perspectives on the (moving) body, and following the tenets of feminist qualitative research methods, I interviewed women alpine athletes living in and around Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Five participants agreed to complete two one-on-one interviews using go-along or moving interviewing techniques; they also agreed to take part in a guided-group-conversation comprised of all five participants and me. The process of analysis was completed, in part, through participant validation between each interview and thus, participant-driven analysis was integral to this project. Participants constructed gender and risk largely through a comparison of doing what they felt they ought, which usually centred on their careers and families, and what they wanted, which centred on the draw that they felt toward the alpine. Valuable insights were also gained on research methods and (the making of) community.Item Open Access Constructing the Queer Christian: A Counterdiscourse Analysis of Queer Exvangelicalism on Twitter(2023-06-13) O'Brien, Claire Elizabeth; Thrift, Samantha; Keller, Jessalynn; Johnston, DawnThis thesis examines the counterdiscourses created by “queer exvangelical” communities on Twitter in response to the queer-exclusionary discourses of fundamentalist Christianity. The queer exvangelical community is comprised of former and questioning queer Christians who use digital platforms to share their experiences of leaving or reforming their faith due to the homophobia and LGBTQIA2+ exclusion that takes place within many Christian communities. Using Foucauldian discourse analysis, this research identifies and examines the counterdiscourses constructed and disseminated within these online networks and considers the ways in which Twitter’s affordances facilitate their creation, circulation, and levels of engagement. Ultimately, this case study finds that these communities construct a counterdiscursive figure of a “queer-Christian,” who challenges the exclusionary and hateful theology and beliefs that has long denied sanctity and “goodness” to queer identities. Through acts of storytelling, solidarity, and support, the “queer-Christian” facilitates personal and community healing within the exvangelical community. This project views the de- and reconstruction of anti-queer fundamentalist Christian discourse as a necessary step in creating new, inclusive knowledges about sex, sexuality, and gender in the Western context.Item Open Access Dating Ga(y)mes: Queer Performance in Farming Simulation Roleplay Games(2019-05) Stockton, Sam; Johnston, DawnDating Ga(y)mes: Queer Performance in Farming-Simulation Roleplay Games examines the differing ways in which LGBTQ+ people resist hegemonic structures and perform their queer identity within video game franchises such as Harvest Moon, Story of Season, and Stardew Valley. This successful genre of games contains a highly identifiable and heteronormative formula in which players must run a farm and court a heterosexual partner. Despite their popularity, little scholarship exists on these games, from a critical queer perspective or otherwise. This lack of academic attention means that these games, despite their clear, shared structure, have not yet been deemed a specific genre of roleplaying games – much less studied as a site of queer resistance. From a queer gaming studies perspective, my paper asserts that these games do constitute an important gaming genre, Farming Simulation Roleplay Games (FSRPGs), particularly for LGBTQ+ players who ‘queer’ the technonormative matrix of these games and perform resistant identities. This paper first identifies the key characteristics of this genre classification, and then examines communications about the games, taking place in microblogs, blogs, and forum posts, by LGBTQ+ players. Analyzing online communications best informs this taxonomy as they detail the organic experience of LGBTQ+ players, either as they play or shortly after they finish, as well as the conversations between members of the community about resisting the games’ heteronormativity and, in some cases, how they work together to queer these games. Ultimately, this paper creates a taxonomy of how resistive ‘queerness’ is performed within these games. The results of the methodology conclude that users queerly play FSRPGs in five ways: [1] playing at the ‘opposite gender’ to achieve the desired dating outcome, [2] using affordances to explicitly play queerly, [3] using affordances to implicitly play queerly, [4] creating a headcanon, and [5] modding the game.Item Open Access Living stories one day at a time: Recovery storytelling in online communities of practice(2017) Hedges, Amber; Schneider, Barbara; Schneider, Barbara; Johnston, Dawn; Ewashen, CarolRecovery is an on-going, socially constructed practice that is “done” by individuals through storytelling. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate and explain how members of an online community of practice –r/stropdrinking (r/SD)– normalize recovery by crafting and enacting a recovery identity through recovery storytelling in a stigma-laden world with others. The aim of this thesis is to make sense of how self-described disordered drinkers “do” recovery in online communities of practice (CoP). I argue that alcohol use disorder (AUD) is a disorder of a person in social context, and that storytelling is the process through which recovery is enacted in the world. For data collection and analysis, I applied an autoethnographic storytelling approach. Three processes of recovery storytelling emerged: (re)storying, (re)forming, and (re)learning. These aspects are mutually interdependent and make up a recovery helix that must be nurtured through storytelling. CoP is also described as helical, made up of engagement, imagination, and alignment. These helixes work together to when people “do” recovery online, and are helpful models to unpack how recovery is done in concert with others. This thesis provides an alternative narrative about the lived experience of AUD recovery in pursuit of dismantling stigma. By telling stories about AUD recovery, I am promoting help-seeking and manifesting a social context that responds to AUD with compassionate concern.Item Open Access Problematizing GM technology in India: exploring the communications role of Indian scientists in the Bt-Brinjal controversy(2017-12-18) Ritika, Ritika; Einsiedel, Edna; Johnston, Dawn; Keller, JessalynnWhile most research in science communication has focused on media coverage and public understandings of scientific controversies in the past, less attention has been directed to the role of scientists in the public communication of such controversies. In my thesis, I address this gap in the literature by investigating the role of the Indian scientists in the controversial case of Bt- Brinjal−the first genetically modified eggplant in India that was approved for commercial distribution in 2009, but was subjected to a moratorium in 2010 as a result of the ensuing controversy, a status which remains to the present. I particularly focus on the ways by which the Indian scientists communicated the issue by implicating the discursive practices around the identification of problem and their reinterpretations in the public sphere. I specifically draw upon the Foucauldian concept of ‘problematization’ which proposes examining how an idea becomes interpreted as problematic in particular ways. Using critical discourse analysis (CDA), I compare the content of the diverse media platforms in a qualitative analysis to investigate how the Indian scientists classified, framed, questioned and analyzed Bt-Brinjal as a social problem or opportunity. I conclude that the forms of extended participation in the public arena on policy controversies via an extended range of media platforms offer a perspective on ‘deviation’ from scientists’ normal science communication practices that are illustrative of post-normal science conditions.Item Open Access Public pedagogy as border-crossing: How Canadian fans learn about health care from American TV(Taylor & Francis, 2020-01) Jubas, Kaela; Johnston, Dawn; Chiang, AngieThis article discusses a research project about the pedagogical function of popular culture for adult audience members. We used the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy to investigate how American cultural texts cross the national border with Canada to inform what is seen as a distinctly Canadian social policy framework. Using Grey’s Anatomy as exemplar, we posed three policy-related questions that are raised in the show: Who is seen as the good or deserving patient? Which health care services are seen as desirable and viable? How is health care delivery structured or organized? In responding to these questions, we attend to how Canadian fans related the show’s representations and messages to their experiences with and understandings of health care, both in Canada and in the United States. After confirming that Grey’s Anatomy does function as a sort of teacher, we organize the remainder of our discussion into three sections focused on lessons: lessons about Canadian health care, lessons about American health care, and lessons about cross-border similarities.Item Open Access School Wellness Action Research: from an Arts-Based Transformative Activist Stance(2021-01-16) Munroe, Karena; Jacobsen, D. Michelle; Friesen, Sharon; Takeuchi, Miwa A.; Johnston, Dawn; Irwin, Rita L.This study explored educational change that privileges teachers to be co-authors and drivers of school wellness action activated through an arts-based focus on hopeful futures. The SARS-CoV-2 global pandemic added school lockdowns to the context resulting in modifications to the study, primarily the exclusion of student voice and face-to-face participation. Eight participants engaged in discussion and field-testing of virtual arts-lab activities aimed at enhancing school wellness rooted in their realities as educators. Two phases of an arts-based participatory approach to action research generated creative data. Data collection included educator and researcher reflections, arts-lab observations, and my descriptions of participant-created artwork. The results provided the basis for an arts-lab toolkit for educators and an animated video story for the broader community. This participatory arts-based approach to action research was grounded in an arts-lab created from a transformative activist stance (Stetsenko, 2017). It offered opportunities for participants to affirm their control and participation in action critical for change. Second, the arts-lab tool offers participants a means to actively engage in characterizing and exploring their personal values as opportunities for school wellness improvement. Educators endorsed a four-part arts-lab where art-pieces created at every session portray ideas and provide a centrepiece for deepened conversation. Third, arts processes provide opportunities to enable agentive creativity for artists while offering contributions to the school community-in-the-making that encourage connections between the art, the artists, and the audience. The collective development of an arts-lab encourages participants to contribute artifacts to the broader community’s conversation as artists and activists.Item Open Access Spiritual yearnings: an autoethnographic inquiry(2007) Johnston, Dawn; Strong, TomThe following is an autoethnography on the story of the lived experience of renegotiating spiritual identity outside of the Catholic church. Interviews with co-researchers struggling with similar issues were conducted, and used in conjunction with relevant literature, and the author's reflexive look at her own lived experiences, to enhance the meaning of this experience for the author. A literature review, implications for counselling and theory, as well as recommendations for future research are provided. Findings spoke to the role of the Catholic discourse as new hybrid discourses are negotiated, making room for a more spiritual discourse, and voice to speak it. Conclusions drawn are specific to the lived experiences of the author and how she has navigated her own spiritual identity development in the meaning-making process. Insight is offered into some of the various cognitive and emotional processes that such a negotiation may entail.Item Open Access “You’re Just Drawing a Line in the Sand”: Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Persons’ Experiences of Sport and Physical Activity(2021-09) Bosnjak, Eva Howlett; Bridel, William; Din, Cari; Johnston, DawnIn the last decade, transgender and gender non-conforming persons have gained more visibility in mainstream society and within sport. Despite increases in representation, sport is still primarily organized around the gender binary where men and women—who are expected to have different and distinct bodies—are separated. Because of mainstream binary assumptions about bodies, harmful language, discrimination, and ignorance, these environments have been stigmatizing for and exclusionary of trans and gender non-conforming persons. The current body of literature on trans and gender non-conforming persons in the context of recreational sport and physical activity is relatively small, particularly within the Canadian context. My study sought to address this gap by exploring the experiences of trans and gender non-conforming persons within sport and physical activity in Calgary, Alberta at the recreational level. Six trans and gender non-conforming persons participated in one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Interview transcripts were analyzed using critical discourse analysis where six themes emerged: (1) reasons for participation; (2) the safety of individualized activities; (3) the power of allies; (4) the body; (5) changerooms; and, (6) reflections on policy. The analysis revealed the interconnectedness of the six main themes, as well as how discursively constructed gender norms are reproduced and maintained in sport and physical activity environments. The knowledge gained from this project will aid in the creation of a guide outlining policy and programming recommendations to improve trans inclusion and will be sent to the City of Calgary Recreation Department as well as the Active Living Department at the University of Calgary. Future research should be led by trans and gender non-conforming persons and focus on sport and physical activity at the recreational level outside of Calgary.