Mount Allison Sociology :: Current Students

Student Showcase

Students can carry out their own social research while doing their Honours or as student research assistants. Read the descriptions below and see other titles of Honours themes chosen by students in the department by clicking here.

Reinforcing Hegemony: Media Framing Practices Concerning Toronto G20 Protestors

Marlee Leslie
Supervisor: Dr. Fabrizio Antonelli

How the mass media frames protestor's motivations and actions plays a crucial role in shaping public understanding of the protest. Marlee Leslie received a summer research grant to examine the ways in which the Toronto Star represented protestors active during the 2010 Toronto G20 Summit. She looked at discrepancies between data collected through interviews with protestors and the content of articles in the Toronto Star. Marlee found that The Star misrepresented and delegitimized protestors involved in forms of direct action. Those interviewed said their motivations and actions were distorted in the media coverage. This research highlights the relationship between protestors and the media, as well as the role of media legitimation within hegemonic structures.

Marlee presented her research in a poster presentation at Mount Allison University's SURF, Summer Undergraduate Research Fair.

Sociological Research: Knowledge Mobilization and Dissemination

Rebecca Cheff
Supervised by: Vanessa Oliver

Rebecca graduated in May, not only with a Bachelor of Arts in sociology, but with two scholarly publications under her belt. She is also the recipient of the first Berkeley Fleming Award, received for her academic achievement and contributions to the community and to the sociology department.

The honours student completed an independent study project with sociology professor Dr. Vanessa Oliver, entitled Sociological Research: Knowledge Mobilization and Dissemination, that immersed her in the world of academic research. Cheff and Oliver wrote two articles together that are coming out in the journals of Health Promotion Practice and Youth and Society.

“Last summer, I worked with Vanessa on research she had done with homeless young women living in shelters and on the streets of Toronto. I read through hours of her interview transcripts and then together we brainstormed themes, compiled literature reviews, and coded the transcripts. From this work we put together the articles,” Cheff says.

“The sensitivity with which Rebecca handled the data and its analysis was remarkable, and she added a great deal of insight to the larger conceptual analysis,” Oliver says.

One paper identifies the main barriers to reproductive and sexual health for the young women and provides recommendations for better, culturally competent, sex-positive, and non-judgmental health services. The second paper investigated the health implications of belonging and social capital.

“Our aim was to communicate the young women's stories, context, and experiences to a larger audience of health practitioners to improve social and health services for young women living in exceptional circumstances,” says Cheff.

“I am really in debt to Vanessa for being so willing to include me in this project. I love the qualitative, or interview-based, approach and sociological perspective she brings to health research. Her commitment to reaching marginalized groups is really important. She has been quite the mentor.”

Cheff was also a committed volunteer at Mount Allison. For three years she helped organize Sackville Cinema Politica, which hosts bi-monthly documentary screenings and lively discussions. She was also a teacher's assistant for an introductory sociology class and represented students on a hiring committee for a new sociology professor. As well, she was a tutor for Mount Allison’s Meighen Centre, Wellness Centre, and Writing Resource Centre.

“Rebecca’s genuine interest in the health and health-seeking behavior of marginalized communities is a reflection of her greater interest in social justice and health equity,” says Oliver.

This interest has led her to build on the knowledge she has acquired and to pursue a Master of public health degree with a specialization in health promotion at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto next fall.

“The program focuses on the social dimension of health, which is right up my alley,” she says. “I hope to work with recent refugee and immigrant youth to better understand how gender and cultural background influence their health-seeking behaviors and how health promotion services can be improved to support them.”

Resistance, Respect, Resiliency: Experiences of Female College Athletes Who Play Non-traditional Contact Team Sports

Lauren Hutchison
Supervised by: Dr. Erin Steuter

There is a socially constructed notion that girls can’t play sports, but more importantly, that girls who do must only play feminized sports like volleyball or swimming. This research project aimed to understand the experiences of women who play non-traditional, contact sports, and to examine what evidence of resiliency is apparent in the discussion of their experience.

Women from the Mount Allison Women’s Hockey team and from the Mount Allison Women’s Rugby Team participated in this study. After taking part in focus groups, the women revealed the stigmatization and exclusion they faced as women participating in male-dominated sports. It was made evident that although these female athletes experienced social backlash for challenging hegemonic feminine gender roles, they indicated that they in fact felt an overwhelming sense of pride and confidence. Data gathered from the focus groups revealed that these women not only recognized patriarchal gender expectations, but consciously resisted them and agreed that playing non-traditional contact team sports positively benefited many aspects of their lives. Most positively affected was their body image, and almost all participants felt that they were proud of having athletic bodies.

Although this study provided important insight into contact sport as an opportunity for resiliency-building in girls, there are areas for further improvement. Primarily, understanding the consequences of perpetuating patriarchal gender roles will dramatically decrease the negative consequences for those who challenge them. More importantly, it will open up new opportunities for female empowerment, which is greatly needed in contemporary society.

Let’s See How Far We’ve Come: A Content Analysis of Sports Illustrated on the Portrayal of Female Athletes

Breanna Rogers
Supervised by Dr. Fabrizio Antonelli

The inspiration for my study came from playing the role of a female athlete myself. Having played sports such as rugby and hockey, I faced a great deal of criticism and harsh remarks from my peers. After taking numerous courses which focused on gender and inequality, I became curious to find out exactly how female athletes were being portrayed in today’s media. Though I was already aware that female athletes were treated unfairly, I wanted to determine the full extent of the inequalities that they faced.

In order to see how female athletes were being portrayed in the media, I conducted a content analysis of Sports Illustrated magazine from May 1st, 2011 until November 30th, 2011. Through an analysis of both the images and the feature articles within each issue, I searched for major differences in media coverage between male and female athletes.

The results of my study revealed vast differences in how female athletes were being portrayed in comparison to their male counterparts. Results indicated that images and articles featuring male athletes were not only much more prevalent, but they were also often portrayed them in ways that demonstrated strength, power, success, and perseverance. Contrastingly, images and articles featuring female athletes frequently portrayed them in ways that suggested a need for domesticity, femininity, sexuality, and weakness. Despite the increasing popularity of women’s sports, popular media sources continue to represent them unequally.

From my study, I have learned the importance of having an awareness of the media and its potential impacts. The sexualisation and objectification of women and female athletes has become so frequent that it has resulted in normalization. With an increased awareness, the negative impacts of the media may eventually be decreased.

Pride and Prejudice: The Lived Experiences of Social Assistance Recipients in New Brunswick.

Sylvie LeBlond
Supervised by Dr. Vanessa Oliver

My study sought to understand how the stigmatization of those living on social assistance affects their values, life goals, and self-concept. I wanted to understand how people’s experiences and identities were formed based on how others in our society perceived them.

Five women receiving social assistance in New Brunswick took part in this study. Through in-depth interviews the women shared their life experiences through the lens of stigma and discrimination, and, in countering those, through their role in the community. The women consistently talked about feeling stigmatized and judged by other people and that this did, in fact, have an impact on their life opportunities in terms of finding employment and creating social networks. The findings suggest that the participants were aware of the structural barriers that limited their opportunities and access to resources, although they felt that many people blamed them on an individual level. Regardless of the negative stereotypes that they faced, most of the women described the ways in which they contributed in society. Whether it was volunteer work, daycare, or activism they felt that they contributed in a way that was important and that resisted stereotypes and stigmas.

This study also reveals that there is room for improvement, within the social assistance program, in providing individuals with more support and financial security. Furthermore, reducing the so-called “welfare stigma” is necessary to change attitudes towards those receiving social assistance. Through these processes we can create a more inclusive society, develop an understanding of people’s life circumstances, and become aware of the many ways in which they give back to their communities.

Girl Power Camps: A Study of Empowerment in Theory, Instruction, and Practice among Atlantic Canadian Girls

Sarah J. Patriquin
Supervised by Dr. Erin Steuter

“There is a substantial amount of literature that suggests that girls are now in a time of great crisis: a crisis of self-esteem, of leadership, and the overarching crisis of patriarchy which plays a significant and potentially damaging role in the development of girls by reinforcing traditional gender-role stereotypes.

By placing an emphasis on mentorship, self-esteem, and leadership, Girl Power Camps have the potential to present an excellent model of empowerment for social and collective action. I analyzed three Maritime Girl Power Camps.

I found that not all of the camps were teaching the same message of empowerment. One camp focused only on self-esteem issues and the second camp subscribed largely to the Dove Soap brand’s girl power ideal which involved significant promotion of the brand beauty products. The third camp was found to hold values that were truest to the crises at hand and, of equal importance, to the tenets of empowerment theory. This third camp is supported by the Girls’ Action Foundation (GAF), whose model of empowerment most closely follows the criteria of empowerment theory.

It is important that the camps emphasize that there is an end goal to empowerment; social change. The camps emphasize individual solutions to issues of body-image and self esteem without drawing the girls together in any form of collective action. Achieving empowerment itself is irrelevant if the girls are not taught to put this empowerment to work in promoting social change.”

The Social Context of Environmental Change: Sociology’s Role in a Warming World

Andrew Clairmont
Supervised by Professor Berkeley Fleming

Andrew Clairmont argues that sociological and other social science insights would help broaden the public’s understanding of climate change and help with the transition to a changing world. “Climate modeling is plagued by an inability to take human behaviour into account. To be really helpful you need to combine climate data with data from social systems; neither alone can tell us how to adapt to the changing climate,” says Clairmont. “With better information, society can begin the transition to a world that will be very different from our present one, not just in terms of its climate but in its distribution of food, water, patterns of migration, and different distributions of military, political, and economic power.”

Clairmont analysed over 300 articles on climate change as part of his research for his Honours thesis. He looked at five Canadian newspapers with the highest Canadian readership and three online publications with the highest readership internationally. The five print publications were The National Post, the Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, The Toronto Star, and the Gazette, and the three on-line publications were The New York Times, The Times of India, and The Wall Street Journal.

Clairmont found that even when articles talked about social issues, for example how the environmental changes would affect people, the spread of disease, or the disproportionate burden on the poor, the authors were not using social scientists as their experts. The most commonly cited experts for the newspapers were physical scientists, 70 % of the time, followed by economists, at 15% and politicians at 8%. The National Post accounts for half of all articles expressing doubts that climate change was caused by man.

Medicalization, Individualism and Othering: Experiencing ADD/ADHD in Schools

Jinette Comeau
Supervised by Dr. Judith Doyle

When I learned that the number of Ritalin prescriptions to treat ADD/ADHD had increased by 600 % in Canada since 1985, I was immediately interested in understanding how and why so many children were being diagnosed with the disorder. I soon discovered that it was schools which were for the large part singling out the behaviors that are thought to be indicative of ADD/ADHD, and I decided to conduct research on the educational experiences of students diagnosed with the disorder.

I looked at ADD/ADHD from a sociological rather than a psychological perspective, which enabled me to identify structural inequalities operating within schools that work to place certain students at a disadvantage. My research has filled a gap in the ADD/ADHD literature, and I anticipate that it will inform educational policy makers and prevent unnecessary ADD/ADHD diagnoses and Ritalin prescriptions in the future. Conducting primary research and writing an honours thesis was extremely rewarding, and it greatly added to my overall experience at Mount Allison University.