• Description
• Independent Project Titles

Description

The SCS4950 Independent Project provides an opportunity for students to carry out an approved project related to social and cultural issues. It allows students to synthesize, focus, and apply four years of interdisciplinary exploration in Anthropology, Folklore, Sociology, and Cultural Studies to a specific issue or question. The final product will reflect students’ growing independence as scholars and serve as a bridge either to further study or to applying your new understandings in varied cultural, professional and social settings.

The Independent Project allows students to make a contribution to scholarly dialogue in one of several ways:

• by researching a new question using primary sources such as interviews
• by exploring the thinking of a new group of individuals on a classic question
• by interpreting secondary materials from a new theoretical perspective
• by synthesizing disparate materials around a central research question

Of utmost importance in this process is the need to conduct original research.

In scope, the final paper will be between 6,000 and 10,000 words of text (25-40 pages, double-spaced), plus bibliography and appendices. Students work closely with a faculty advisor to prepare a proposal, early reading draft, oral presentation, and a final manuscript which will be published in an annual booklet. The topics listed below exemplify the range of interests of graduates in Social/Cultural Studies.  Bound copies of these papers are available at the Ferriss Hodggett Library, Grenfell Campus.

Independent Project Titles

2011

• Messenger, Robin - The Lobster Trap: A Case Study of Economic Uncertainties & Beaureaucratic Alienation among Lobster Fishers on Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia
• Tucker, Danielle - Transient Lines: The Fluidity of Embodied Realities in Film
• Wells, Sarah - Rekindling Our Culture: Functions of Aboriginal Music within the Bay St. George Area

2010

• Bowers, Andrew - "Remixed, Reused, Recycled": Language Issues Faced by Bricolage Artists Course
• Hillyard, Amanda-Marie - "The Gay is Everywhere, You Just Need to Know How to Look": Slash Fanfiction, Heteronormativity, Stigma and Identity
• Hiscock, Leah - Framing Techniques and Deviant Theory in A&E's Intervention
• Whelan, Tara - Gendering Globalization: The Effects of Northern Capitalist Forces on Women and the Environment

2009

• Marks, Andrew - Social Exclusion and Immigration: Puerto Ricans in East Harlem, New York
• Strickland, Deanna - The Consuming Vortex: An Analysis of Cultural Norms which Mitigate against Maintaining a Necessary Level of Global Sustainability

2008

• Benoit, Felicia - Women, Childcare and Employment: A Struggling Juggle . . or Not?
• Hill, Krystle - A Closer Look: Comparing Women's Support Systems in Rural and Urban Communities
• Pike, Candice - Black Tights and Dance Belts: Constructing a Masculine Identity in a World of Pink Tutus - Winner of University Gold Medal in Social/Cultural Studies
• Pitcher, Sarah - Presentation of Self on Facebook
• Randell, Jennifer - Critical Ink: Social Constructions Concerning Women's Tattoos as Determinents of Social Identity
• Randell, Samantha - Age of Children and Foster Parent Preferences
• Rennie, Lori Ann - Aboriginal Child Welfare and Over-representation in Aboriginal Families
• Russell, Megan - "I want you all over me": A Content Analysis of Gender Stereotyping in Magazine Advertisements
• Seymour, Krystle - Advertising Images and their Effects on Body Image: Examples from Cosmopolitan Magazine
• Sharpe, Adam - Views of Sir Wiflred Grenfell College Students on the Facebook Privacy Policy

2007

• Conran, Craig - SUV Culture
• Flavelle, Susan - “I love God just as much as any man [does]”: Identity, Spirituality, and Gender in an Ottawa Catholic Parish - Winner of University Gold Medal in Social/Cultural Studies
• Lavallee, Robyn - Intergenerational Perceptions of the Process and Experience of Menopause
• LeDrew, Jason - Virtual Escape: Virtual Environments and Time-Discipline
• Pittman, Aaron - Just a Game? An Examination of the Formation of Identity in Multi-User Dungeons
• Randell, Sarah - Descent into Violence: A Case Study on the Paris Riots
• Shanahan, Patrick - Globalizing the Common: An Illustration of Water Scarcity in Pakistan
• Warren, Victoria - Direct-to-Consumer Antidepressant Advertising: The Marketing of Medical Hegemony

2006

• Beales, Tracy Lynn. - llicit and Prescription Substance Abuse by Canadian Youth: A National, Provincial and Municipal Study (publ. 2007)
• Dyke, Natalie - Sexual Images in Music Videos and their Effects on Purchasing Habits (publ. 2007)
• King, Lenora - The Disappearance of House Wakes in Newfoundland: The Changes in Funeral Practices (publ. 2007)

2005

• Alpuche, Tamara - The Chalillo Dam and Belize: Flip or Flop?
• Butler, Jennifer L. - Sugar and Spice and All Things Not Nice: Gender Stereotyping in Children's Literature
• Greenham, Rochelle - Student Alienation: Undergraduate Disengagement in Present Day Universities
• Madigan, Tara A. - The Perceived Economic Environmental and Social Effects of the Humber Valley Resort on Humber Valley Area Residents - Winner of University Gold Medal in Social/Cultural Studies
• Ryan, Tara - Stephenville: A Musical Town - The Recontextualization of Music in the Stephenville Area

2004

• Young, Amanda G. - Understanding of and Interest in their Heritage among Mi’Kmaq Youths in the Bay St. George Area (publ. 2007)

2002

• Abbott, Christine E. - Rhetoric, Reality, and Role Strain: Are Baby-Boomer Grandmothers Adhering to Traditional Behavioural Norms in Providing Childcare?
• Greenaway, Vanessa - Proud to be Childfree: Discourse and Disagreement on a Discussion Board for the Voluntarily Childless
• Payne, Deanna - There’s No Future Here: An Analysis of Out-Migration in Rural Parson’s Pond, Newfoundland