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Title: Gender bias in student evaluation of teaching or mirage?
Contributor(s): Bob Uttl (author); Victoria Violo (author); Library OA fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: In a recent small sample study, Khazan et al. [1] examined SET ratings received by one female teaching (TA) assistant who assisted with teaching two sections of the same online course, one section under her true gender and one section under false/opposite gender. Khazan et al. concluded that their study demonstrated gender bias against female TA even though they found no statistical difference in SET ratings between male vs. female TA (p = 0.73). To claim gender bias, Khazan et al. ignored their overall findings and focused on distribution of six “negative” SET ratings and claimed, without reporting any statistical test results, that (a) female students gave more positive ratings to male...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Development, Responsibility, and the Creation of Urban Hazard Risk
Contributor(s): Timothy J. Haney (author)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: Scholarly attention has recently shifted to the creation and redevelopment of urban hazardscapes. This body of work demonstrates how housing is deployed in close proximity to hazards, and how the attendant risks have been communicated—or not—to potential residents. Utilizing the case of Calgary, Alberta, this article uses interview data collected from flood-impacted residents, and looks at their perceptions of development and risk creation. The analyses focus on how people attribute responsibility for development in flood-prone areas, and their views on future development in these areas. Results reveal that many residents argued for more government regulations preventing new development...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: 'Scientists don't care about truth anymore': the climate crisis and rejection of science in Canada's oil country
Contributor(s): Timothy J. Haney (author)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: Recent research in the area of science and technology studies focuses on climate change denial, the spread of misinformation, and public distrust in climate scientists; these beliefs are held especially by those dependent on fossil fuel extraction for their livelihoods. Many of the same individuals who deny the scientific consensus on climate change are nevertheless directly impacted by the climate crisis and environmental disasters. In fossil fuel dependent locations, do people continue to deny the scientific consensus on climate change and distrust climate scientists even after themselves experiencing a catastrophic flood? This paper investigates this question through interviews with 40...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Small samples, unreasonable generalizations, and outliers: Gender bias in student evaluation of teaching or three unhappy students?
Contributor(s): Bob Uttl (author); Victoria C. Violo (author); Library OA Fund (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: In a widely cited and widely talked about study, MacNell et al. (2015) [1] examined SET ratings of one female and one male instructor, each teaching two sections of the same online course, one section under their true gender and the other section under false/opposite gender. MacNell et al. concluded that students rated perceived female instructors more harshly than perceived male instructors, demonstrating gender bias against perceived female instructors. Boring, Ottoboni, and Stark (2016) [2] re-analyzed MacNell et al.’s data and confirmed their conclusions. However, the design of MacNell et al. study is fundamentally flawed. First, MacNell et al.’ section sample sizes were extremely...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: “Good People with Good Intentions”: Deconstructing A Post-Secondary Institution’s Sexual Violence Policy Construction
Contributor(s): Irene Shankar (author); D. Scharie Tavcer (author); Mount Royal University (funder)
Date issued: 2021; 2021
Description: This exploratory study investigates the expertise of committee members tasked with constructing sexual violence policies within a post-secondary institution (PSI) and the constraints under which they complete this work. Our findings indicate that allocated committees prioritize institutional risk management, normalize confusion, and most members have little or no understanding of the intersectionality of violence. These findings contextualize PSI’s failure to address structural violence. Our recommendations urge PSIs to include subject experts, consult with existing service providers, and integrate research on the intersectionality of sexualized violence within their policy and program...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Perceptions of police professionalisation in British Columbia: Police reform study
Contributor(s): Kelly W. Sundberg (author); Tanya E. Trusser (author); Julie Booke (author); Christina M. Witt (author); Melanie Peacock (author); Dan Levinson (author); Lauren Mitchell (author); Aisha Chiakowski (author); Luka Vlahov (author); Graham Abela (author); Heather Spicer (author); Crime Reduction Research Program of the BC Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General (funder)
Date issued: 2022; 2022
Description: This study, investigated the perceptions of British Columbians, police officers, and criminal justice experts as they relate to the professionalisation of policing in British Columbia. To gather data, the study included two province-wide surveys of British Columbians, a survey of BC police officers, and semi-structured interviews with various criminal justice experts. The results of the study showed that most of the public surveyed (≈70%) and many of the police (≈50%) would support the Government of British Columbia establishing a professional college of policing. What’s more, the results of this study also suggest most British Columbians (including many police officers) want the practice...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: “‘God(s)’ as a Comparative Category”
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author); Gardiner Mark Q. (author)
Date issued: 2013
Description: In this paper we argue that, despite the fact that the term ‘god’ may be used effectively as a comparative concept in the study of religion within narrowly circumscribed contexts, the risks of doing so as a broad cross-cultural category outweigh any possible benefits. We advance an account of the kind of meaning that complex concepts, like ‘god’, have. This account guarantees a risk that certain further concepts that are associated with ‘god’ in some cultural contexts will be illicitly transferred to its use in others. The centrality of ‘god’ in western and Christian contexts makes this risk particularly acute, to the point of not being worth the trouble.
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Dāna (Dádiva) em religiões do Sul da Ásia: Pressuposições e o lugar de teorias
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2006
Description: This paper analyzes three influential studies of dāna (‘giving’ or ‘charity’) in South Asian religious traditions. After clarifying anthropological and sociological theories of the gift, it argues that a reliance on these ideas has distorted attempts by these and other scholars of religion to make sense of dāna, and of related South Asian social relations and religious motivations. It concludes by underlining the need for the ongoing reflexive refinement of the categories and concepts used by scholars of religion
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Sentencing
Contributor(s): Tavcer D. Scharie (author)
Date issued: 2017
Description: Sentencing in Canada has remained fairly consistent since formalized courts, at both the federal and provincial levels, were established shortly after Confederation in 1867. Once an accused person is convicted (found guilty) of a crime, the court must decide on an appropriate sentence. Sentencing is one of the most challenging and controversial aspects of our justice system. The public has strong opinions about it, the media reports its perspective, and the written law has its framework. In addition to all of that, there are the individuals affected by the crime—victims and offenders—who also have a broad range of religious, social, cultural, and moral values and views that influence...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: A umbanda e a glocalização
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2011
Description: This paper interrogates a particular globalizing academic move: the appropriation of Afro-Brazilian religion by the academic study of religion in North America as a paradigmatic form of cultural mixture. Specifically, I ask what difference would it make if Umbanda were the key example of Brazilian cultural hybridity, rather than Candomblé serving as a more universal example of religious syncretism. I elaborate the concept of hybridity of refraction, according to which the ritual and doctrinal spectrum of Umbandas refracts the spectrum of social tensions in Brazilian society. Referring to recent theories of globalization, I argue that Umbanda’s internal variation manifests a variety of...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: The Criminalization of HIV/AIDS
Contributor(s): Tavcer D. Scharie (author); Johns Daniel (author)
Date issued: 2016
Description: How has Canadian law evolved in terms of our understanding of sexual assault and HIV/AIDS? We reviewed Canadian criminal cases that involved those who didn’t disclose their HIV/AIDS status prior to sexual activity. We also examined current and empirically valid medical information regarding transmission rates to illustrate the evolving knowledge of the HIV/AIDS viruses.
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Constitutional Secularization: Religious Pluralism and the Canadian Courts
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2011
Description: This paper offers a brief overview of Canadian case law since the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms was enacted in 1982. At the same time that it has more firmly entrenched religious freedom, the Charter has placed explicit limits on the right of religious freedom. Canadian courts have shown themselves willing to intervene in the internal workings of religious institutions. Legal protection has been extended to include not only non-Christian religions but also non-religious beliefs more generally.The cumulative effect of these decisions has been to effectively erode the de facto separation between Church and State that has developed in Canada. The value of increased respect for...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Sexual Assault in Alberta
Contributor(s): Tavcer D. Scharie (author); Trussler Tanya (author); Loutit Keri-Ann (author)
Date issued: 2016
Description: As well as pinpointing gaps in available literature on adult sexual assault in Alberta, this study is focused on identifying the underlying issues that lead to the discrepancies in the number of police-reported sexual assault crimes and the data retrieved from individuals who access victim support services. It is believed that the crime-funnel effect on sexual assault cases, where many cases do not end up continuing through the justice system in Alberta, is a root factor that results in victims choosing not to report the incident; Victims choose not to report the incident knowing that a large percentage of crimes do not proceed to court, do not result in convictions, or the sentences are...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Davidsonian semantic theory and cognitive science of religion
Contributor(s): Gardiner Mark Q. (author); Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2018
Description: This article investigates the extent to which the cognitive science of religion (CSR) and Donald Davidson’s semantic holism (DSH) harmonize. We first characterize CSR, philosophical semantics (and more specifically DSH). We then note a prima facie tension between CSR and DSH’s view of First-Person Authority (that we know what is meant when we speak in a way that we do not when others speak). If CSR is correct that the causes of religious belief are located in cognitive processes in the mind/brain, then religious insiders might have no idea what they are talking about: only the scholar of CSR would have a chance of knowing what they ‘really’ mean. The article argues that the resolution to...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Umbanda and Hybridity
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2009
Description: Scholars of religion continue to talk of syncretism where their colleagues have moved on to talk of hybridity. This paper reviews critiques of the latter concept and argues that ‘hybridity’ can be a useful concept, but only if further specified. I follow Peter Wade in distinguishing between hybridity of origin (the combination of pre-existing forms), and hybridity of encounter (the result of diasporic movements). I propose a third type, hybridity of refraction, in order to highlight the manner in which religiousor cultural phenomena refract social tensions within a specific nation or society, resulting in a spectrum of ritual, doctrinal and/or religious forms. The typology is not meant to...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Umbanda and Africa
Contributor(s): Engler Steven (author)
Date issued: 2012
Description: This article argues that scholarship on Umbanda (a distinctively Brazilian hybrid of Candomblé, Kardecist Spiritism, and popular Catholicism, with romanticized indigenous elements) manifests certain limitations that lead to insufficient emphasis on the religious tradition’s internal doctrinal, ritual, and organizational variation. It compares the complex and ambivalent place of African traditions in Umbanda and Candomblé, highlighting the extent to which Umbanda has been seen as derivative, more distant from Africa. The article also notes other distorting factors such as centros in the southeast of Brazil being considered normative, and scholars focusing inordinately on the question of...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Self-awareness part 1: Definition, measures, effects, functions, and antecedents.
Contributor(s): Morin Alain (author)
Date issued: 2011
Description: Self-awareness represents the capacity of becoming the object of one’s own attention. In this state one actively identifies, processes, and stores information about the self. This paper surveys the self-awareness literature by emphasizing definition issues, measurement techniques, effects and functions of self-attention, and antecedents of self-awareness. Key self-related concepts (e.g., minimal, reflective consciousness) are distinguished from the central notion of self-awareness. Reviewed measures include questionnaires, implicit tasks, and self-recognition. Main effects and functions of self-attention consist in self-evaluation, escape from the self, amplification of one’s subjective...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Pornification: A Study Into Young Men’s Attitudes and Beliefs Toward Dating, Sex and Sexual Assault
Contributor(s): Tavcer D. Scharie (author)
Date issued: 2016
Description: Can young men distinguish between quotes from conventional magazines and quotes from convicted rapists? To what extent do young men agree/disagree with statements about dating, sex, women and sexual assault? The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature about young men’s attitudes towards women and sex. This study is a partial replication of the work conducted in the United Kingdom (UK) by Horvath & Hegarty (2011) combined with a partial replication of the work conducted in the United States (USA) by Lonsway & Fitzgerald (1995) Myths, beliefs and the attitudes of today’s young men toward dating, sex, and sexual assault are also explored in this study. Similar...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing and Teaching Genocide
Contributor(s): Amarasingam Amarnath (author); Basso Andrew R. (author); Burnett Kristin (author); Chambers Lori (author); Cohen Laura Beth (author); Hay Travis (author); Jacobs Steven Leonard (author); Markotic Lorraine (author); Minslow Sarah (author); Mounsef Donia (author); Muller Adam (author); Powell Christopher (author); Sarkissian Raffi (author); Murray Scott W. (author); Scott W. Murray (editor)
Date issued: 2017
Description: Understanding Atrocities is a wide-ranging collection of essays bridging scholarly and community-based efforts to understand and respond to the global, transhistorical problem of genocide. The essays in this volume investigate how evolving, contemporary views on mass atrocity frame and complicate the possibilities for the understanding and prevention of genocide. The contributors ask, among other things, what are the limits of the law, of history, of literature, and of education in understanding and representing genocidal violence? What are the challenges we face in teaching and learning about extreme events such as these, and how does the language we use contribute to or impair what can...
Appears in collection(s): Arts

Title: Why Read?
Contributor(s): Manarin Karen (author)
Date issued: 2018
Description: Why read? What is the point of reading in higher education if students can succeed in their classes without reading? Using Wigfield and Eccles’ Expectancy-Value theory of motivation as a framework, I explore why different instructors think their students should be reading and whether students share these motivations. Instructors and students attribute value to reading differently. Instructors value reading for what it allows students to do and become. Students may value reading but still not read depending on competing factors including time available and assessment tasks required. The essay concludes by asking higher educational professionals to consider what, if anything, should be done...
Appears in collection(s): Arts