Posters, Politics and immigration during the May 1968 Protests in France

How were immigrants, immigrant issues and their histories represented through radical poster art created during the 1968 protests and strikes in France? The May 1968 protests remain one of the most significant moments in contemporary French history and it occurred during a time when immigrant populations were rapidly increasing. There is a multitude of research, analysis and reflections on the protests and strikes; yet there is very little mention of the place of immigrants during this event. Art collectives that were created during the protests designed and produced posters that later became a symbol of the strike. By using a variety of primary and secondary sources including small press publications, interviews, manifestos, historical and artistic secondary soured this work argues that it is during this social movement that immigrants and immigrant issues entered French social discourse and this can be seen by exploring the messages presented in the posters

Sourcing the Sherds: An Analysis of the Coarse Earthenware Ceramics from Trents Plantation in Barbados

Trents, originally known as Fort Plantation, was one of the five initial plantations established by the English in 1627. Since 2012, three different loci at Trents have been excavated: an outbuilding to the main house (Locus 1), enslaved laborers’ living quarters (Locus 2), and a cave site (Locus 3). Locus 1 is well stratified with clear divides between material dating to the pre-sugar era in the early 17th century and the following period from mid-17th to early 18th century. 18th and 19th century deposits cap this locus. Locus 2 dates from the mid-17th to early 19th century. Distinct floor areas date to the earlier period, but the majority of the data date to the later 18th century. Surface material across the site date from the middle of the 18th century until emancipation in 1838. The material from Locus 3 date primarily to the 18th century. The material culture at Trents displays the economic shift from small plantations to large-scale sugar manufacturing in a British Caribbean colonial context. Changes in the site’s material culture overtime chronicle this shift to sugar. The array of domestic and industrial coarse earthenware recovered from the site constitute an important data set that has the potential to yield significant information about the site and those who lived there from the early 17th to mid-19th century. A standard system of analysis was developed for the study of all of the coarse earthenware. This system identified the basic characteristics of each sherd including paste color, inclusion characteristics, and form type, which allowed for a distribution analysis of the earthenware excavated within the entire site to compare assemblage characteristics between loci. This distribution analysis provides insight to the various economic, domestic, and social usages of distinct spaces within the plantation. Until recently, the combination of the industrial nature of sugar wares and the use of glaze and wheel turned production resulted in interpretations that emphasized a reliance on the importation of European manufactured earthenware. However, recent research in Barbados provides archaeological and documentary evidence that there is a history of on-island coarse earthenware ceramic production since at least the 17th century. Though these potteries mainly produced industrial wares, archaeological research at the Codrington Estate pottery found that as much as 10% of the annual production was for domestic wares (Scheid 2015). This thesis serves as a background study to a series of scientific assessments aimed at determining which ceramic vessels were made in Barbados and which were made in England or elsewhere. Two analytical systems, Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) and Laser-Ablation Inductively Coupled Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), were selected to compare the chemical composition of a representative sample of the artifacts excavated, Barbadian clay samples, and known British ceramic samples. A third analytical system, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF) will be performed on a subset of the representative sample in order to gather chemical information on the various glazes found within the assemblage. This study presents an overall examination of the coarse earthenware as well as a description of the samples that have been sent out for scientific investigation. Upon the return of the data from these external analyses, potential relationships and multivariate groupings of the samples will indicate if the vessels were imported or locally produced

Shifting personal agency during transition from military to civilian workforce

This study examined US enlisted veterans\u27 personal agency during their transition from the military to civilian workforce. Veterans currently working in a civilian corporate environment were involved: 41 were surveyed, 10 were interviewed, and 80 supplied comments to the researcher\u27s LinkedIn request for responses. Participants were asked to describe their sense of personal agency and how it evolved over the time period before, during, and after military service. Participants offered slightly varying descriptions of their transition experience. In general, participants experienced low agency before military service, minimal agency at the start of military service that grew over time, and an unprecedented and sometimes paralyzing degree of freedom and agency after military service. Transitioning veterans are thus advised to understand that the psychological transition process is complex, increase their competencies through cultural immersion experiences and field research, maintain a learning mindset, and build a relevant and committed support team

Innovations from the Margins: Creating Inclusive and Equitable Academic-Community Research Collaborations

How does one build a Request for Proposals (RFP) process that allows for bottom-up participation while simultaneously being pragmatic and adept enough to manoeuvre the complexities of a multi-stakeholder environment defined by differing interests, objectives, mandates, and power dynamics? This article showcases the findings from participatory work with stakeholder groups working in the area of food security in Southern Ontario’s Halton Region. It demonstrates a process designed with the specific intent of increasing the engagement of beneficiaries and service providers in the RFP process. Finally, the article seeks to shed additional light on theory and practice of “participatory approaches” in the context of philanthropy. It is important to be realistic in not reifying participation itself in this context. In both theory and practice, this means adopting lenses and models that openly consider the complex realities, political obstacles, and trade-offs that occur when negotiating participation in this environment

Innovations from the Margins: The Community Ideas Factory community collaboration

This paper explores the importance of building more inclusive, equitable, and mutually-beneficial partnerships in academic-community research collaborations for social innovation. The Community Ideas Factory is a research project that examines food security, affordable housing, employment equity and wrap-around services in the Region of Halton in Ontario, Canada. The project is a unique and dynamic collaboration between researchers from Sheridan College and the Oakville Community Foundation. In recognizing the limitations of traditional, paternalistic, subjective academic-community research collaborations this paper discusses how Participatory Rural Appraisal tools and other community-based problem-solving activities can be used to help communities define and prioritize their own problems, identify resources, and develop practical solutions to the problems they experience. We seek to demonstrate the potential of a new role for the ‘researcher’; one in which she/he assumes a more active and dynamic, yet facilitative, role in community project-building. Drawing examples from our research into food security this examination aims to provide insights, directions, and considerations for scholars, community stakeholders, and granting agencies alike who share an interest in the prospects and possibilities of academic-community collaborations for social innovation research

Community Ideas Factory

The Community Ideas Factory is a community-college partnership exploring social innovations within the charitable sector of the Halton Region. It is a collaborative research project between Sheridan College and the Oakville Community Foundation. The goal of the project is to change the philanthropic granting process in Oakville so that it is more bottom-up, participatory, and evidenced-based. The principle community partner on the project is The Foundation (OCF). A community organization tasked with managing and disbursing donor contributions for philanthropic projects in the Town of Oakville. The Community Ideas Factory is made possible by the College-Community Social Innovation Fund of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Changing How Students Process and Comprehend Texts with Computer-based Self-Explanation Training

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used RSAT (Reading Strategy Assessment Tool) to assess how iSTART changes the relation between important selfexplanation reading strategies—bridging and elaboration—and online comprehension, and how often they are produced. College and high school students received iSTART and were administered RSAT prior to and post-training. Results from three experiments showed that iSTART primarily benefits bridging inferences when self explaining. The frequency of bridging inferences was higher post training than prior to training, but only in the experiments involving college students. Additionally, prior to exposure to iSTART, RSAT bridging scores did not predict comprehension performance, whereas they did after iSTART, suggesting that iSTART may improve comprehension processes by teaching students how to appropriately use selfexplanation to address comprehension difficulties. Finally, the results from this study suggest that RSAT may provide a valuable computer-based assessment of the effectiveness of selfexplanations that could be used in conjunction with iSTART and in future research on selfexplanation

Changing How Students Process and Comprehend Texts with Computer-based Self-Explanation Training

This study assessed whether and how self-explanation reading training, provided by iSTART (Interactive Strategy Training for Active Reading and Thinking), improves the effectiveness of comprehension processes. iSTART teaches students how to self-explain and which strategies will most effectively aid comprehension from moment-to-moment. We used RSAT (Reading Strategy Assessment Tool) to assess how iSTART changes the relation between important selfexplanation reading strategies—bridging and elaboration—and online comprehension, and how often they are produced. College and high school students received iSTART and were administered RSAT prior to and post-training. Results from three experiments showed that iSTART primarily benefits bridging inferences when self explaining. The frequency of bridging inferences was higher post training than prior to training, but only in the experiments involving college students. Additionally, prior to exposure to iSTART, RSAT bridging scores did not predict comprehension performance, whereas they did after iSTART, suggesting that iSTART may improve comprehension processes by teaching students how to appropriately use selfexplanation to address comprehension difficulties. Finally, the results from this study suggest that RSAT may provide a valuable computer-based assessment of the effectiveness of selfexplanations that could be used in conjunction with iSTART and in future research on selfexplanation