Browsing by Author "Irwin, Kathleen"

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Open Access
Celebration Of Authorship Program 2018-2019
(University of Regina Library, 2019) Arbuthnott, Shane; Archibald-Barber, Jesse Rae; Blake, Raymond; Bradley, Cara; Coupal, Michelle; Demers, Jason; Dubois, Brenda; Freddolini, Francesco; Gacek, James; Granovsky-Larsen, Simon; Gregory, david; Greifenhagen, Franz Volker; Hansen, Phillip; Hanson, Cindy; Harrison, Yvonne; Hébert, Cristyne; Melançon, Jérôme; Hillabold, Jean; Irwin, Kathleen; Levit, Tatiana; Montgomery, H. Monty; Nolan, Kathleen; Petry, Roger; Reul, Barbara; Stojanova, Christina; Whyte, John
Open Access
Prairie Audiences: An Investigation and Theoretical Contextualisation of Attitudes and Experiences of Theatre in Regina
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2014-02) Ollenberg, Phillip Richard; Irwin, Kathleen; Watson, Lisa; Pearce, Wes; Camp, Ronald; Durst, Douglas
This study explores consumer expectations towards and intentions to attend live theatre within the context of an urban Saskatchewan audience and in relation to conventionally- defined forms of cinema and television. A gap exists between theory and empirical knowledge as it pertains to this audience. This thesis considers the role of the audience within the performative experience through the theoretical lenses of performance, criticism, consumer behaviour, and marketing; evaluating attitudes towards the three media and how these attitudes influence the behaviour and intention of consumers. Blending theory of spectatorship with marketing and behaviour theory and an empirical research strategy, this study presents evidence outlining audience expectations of these media and how expectations affect consumer intention and behaviour. Results illuminate the perceived role and relevance of theatre in relation to cinema and television within the city of Regina. This research may assist theatre administrators to implement more effective audience development strategies. The audience shares a relationship with the on-stage action in theatre (Bennett 1990). The same is true but to differing degrees in cinema and television. In evaluating the relationship among these media, the following four traits were identified as point of differentiation: 1) liveness; 2) cultural currency; 3) the public/private nature of each; and 3) the accessibility of each. Cultural relevance was also measured. Data collection occurred between October 2009 and February 2010 from 308 randomly- selected households in Regina. The questionnaire collected information on media consumption habits, behaviour/intention, attitudes towards the media, and demographic information. It was hypothesised theatre would rate highly for liveness, cultural currency, and public consumption; low for accessibility and relevance; and that liveness and public viewership would positively impact attendance, while cultural currency and accessibility would impede attendance. Findings on were inconclusive for liveness, showed partial support for cultural currency and accessibility, full support for public viewership, and no support cultural relevance. Behaviourally, social viewership and cultural relevance affected consumer behaviour, accounting for 7.9% variance. According to the findings, more than 50% of households indicated an interest in attending the theatre more often. Anecdotal concerns from producers regarding venue locations and cultural accessibility are assuaged by the fact that these items did not negatively impact behaviour. Further study is warranted to understand what areas of social viewership and cultural relevance specifically impact consumption of theatre, to help drive Regina audiences to the theatre.
Open Access
Towards Ethical Practice: A Narrative Self Study of Discourses in the Drama Classroom
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2013-09) Dueck, Kristopher Ryan; Schick, Carol; Huber, Janice; Perry, Mia; Irwin, Kathleen; Thompson, Scott A.
This self-study explores some of the subject positions that are negotiated, produced and reinforced through discourses that circulate in the high school drama classroom where I teach. By exploring my areas of discomfort in the classroom as well as my self-definition as a teacher, I expose many of the ways I affect and am affected by technologies of power and governmentality that operate within the school. Drawing on a number of self-study research methods, through an interrogation of my intellectual history as well as through careful reflection of my past experiences as an educator, I illuminate some of the discursive practices, events and assumptions that have produced my subject positions. Subjects are discursively constructed through their role within educational institutions that too often reflect and reproduce hierarchical power relations that limit agency. Therefore, in this study I explore ways of gaining a degree of agency by reconciling my practice with my core ethical beliefs about learning. This work is grounded in post-structuralist theory and uses the work of Michel Foucault as a basis for an analysis of power relations in the context of my practice. Working with a group of Drama 10 students during the fall semester of 2011, I begin by charting the discursive practices through which students are produced as subjects. I go on to expose my areas of discomfort in the classroom as a means to identify what prevents me from encouraging students to take a more active role in the planning and facilitation of drama work. I comment upon spatiality or the ways in which the production of social space can act to control the behaviour of subjects. Throughout this work, I take stock of how my body, as the object of research, has been inscribed socially, politically and historically, gaining insights into the ways that it contributes to the subjectivation of students. In order to identify the role my body plays in producing students as subjects, I use reflective journals of my experiences in the drama classroom as my primary source of data collection. Reflecting upon the modes of subjectivity that produce us, I problematize the means through which people are produced as subjects, and therefore explore ways to expand agency by disrupting various subjectivities. This process is informed by my new understanding of ethics and exposes the need for me to refuse certain subjectivities, to challenge my areas of discomfort, and to adopt a kind of ethical and embodied practice that recognizes the connection between mind, body and emotion and which requires agency as a necessary tenet of its own subject-hood. Understanding the discourses that produce subject identity exposes a number of ways for educators to reposition their own practice in order to effectively share power with students in the classroom so that they will gain a deeper understanding of their subject positions and begin to transform their practice in order to develop more reciprocal relationships with students.
Open Access
Undressing an American icon: Addressing the representation of Calamity Jane through a critical study of her costume
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2016-12) McComb, Catherine Mary; Irwin, Kathleen; Pearce, Wes; Belisle, Donica
This investigation studies Martha Jane Canary, known as Calamity Jane, with focus on her apparel, the buckskin outfit of a scout. This thesis looks at Calamity Jane’s costume because it was so seminal to her emergence as an American frontier icon. Unlike one-off costumes such as Dorothy’s ruby slippers or Marilyn Monroe’s JFK birthday dress, Calamity Jane’s costume re-occurred and was the determining factor in her rise to fame. What is innovative in this research is the use of critical costume theory as a methodology to revisit the history of Calamity Jane. This thesis considers Calamity Jane’s garments as a biographical construct, containing conceptual elements and acting essentially as a floating semiotic signifier representing: 1) a woman’s ability to survive in the frontier west; 2) its construction of relative freedom for women from normative social structures and; 3) cultural assumptions around what gender is and does. It is her costume that therefore elevated the figure of Calamity Jane to iconic proportions in western frontier mythology.
Open Access
University of Regina Community Authors 2018-2019
(University of Regina Library, 2019) Arbuthnott, Shane; Archibald-Barber, Jesse Rae; Irwin, Kathleen; Blake, Raymond; Bradley, Cara; Coupal, Michelle; Demers, Jason; Dubois, Brenda; Freddolini, Francesco; Gachek, James; Granovsky-Larsen, Simon; Gregory, david; Greifenhagen, Franz Volker; Hansen, Phillip; Hanson, Cindy; Harrison, Yvonne; Hébert, Cristyne; Hillabold, Jean (pen name: Jean Roberta); Levit, Tatiana; Melançon, Jérôme; Montgomery, H. Monty; Nolan, Kathleen; Petry, Roger; Reul, Barbara; Stojanova, Christina; Whyte, John
Open Access
Walking and thinking: Critical reflections on “Walking the Bypass: A Meditation on Place”
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2022-09) Wilson, Kenneth Clayton; Farrell-Racette, Sherry; Dashchuk, James; Bracht, Kathryn; Irwin, Kathleen; Archibald-Barber, Jesse; Donald, Dwayne
ôma kihci-kiskinwahamasinahikan âpacihtâmakan êsa kwayask itahkamikisiwina taitwêstamâkêmakahk ôma pimohtêwin-êkwa-masinahikêwin kiskinwahamawi-osîhcikâsowin kihci-kiskinwahamasinahikan “ê-pimohtêhk âsokanihk: ê-mâmitonêyihcikêhk ôma itâpatakêyimisowin,” ê-itwêmakahk kwayask âcimowin ôma pêyakwan wîhowin ohci. Nîkân masinahikanêkinohk atamiskawikow ôma atoskêwin, tânisi ê-pimakotêk, êkwa mîna kakwêcihkêmowina: “pimohtêwin cî ka-kî-mêskwacipayin pakwâcaskiy isi ôma kihci-askiy?” êkwa, misawâc ê-kihcêyihtakwâhk, “môniyâwak cî ka-kî-nisitohtamwak ôma ôta askîhk ê isipimohtêcik?”. nîso masinahikanêkinohk pîkiskwêmakan tânisi kâ-pimohtêhk naspasinahikân ôma ê-isi-âniskôstêk isi ôma atoskêwinihk; nôkohcikêmakan nanâtohk âcimowina kâmiyonâkwahk êkwa kâ-isîhcikêhk isi-pimohtêwin êsa ê-kikinikâtêk ôma atoskêwin. Nisto masinahikanêkinohk pîkiskwêmakan tânisi kâ-itahkamikisihk kwayask, tâpiskôc kwayask itahkamikisiwina êwako askiy êkwa kâ-nisitohtamâhk; iyiniwi-kiskêyihtamowin ôma ê-miyoitôtâmiyit askiy êkwa atâhko-kiskinwahamâtowin; êkwa tânisi kâ-nisitohtâsoyahk êsa askiy ohci, ê-mêskwacipayihk itahkamikisiwina, êkwa tânisi kâ-itâpisihkik iyiniwak êwako anima kiskêyihtamowina. nêwo masinahikanêkinohk pîkiskwêmakan kâ-âpacihtâhk êsa atoskêwinihk: masinahikêwina ê-masinahikêhk Willam Least Heat-Moon, Nick Papadimitriou, êkwa Iain Sinclair ohci; tânisi kâ-wîkiyâhk ê-ispayihikoyâhk; pêyako-pimohtêwin; kwayask âcimowina êmiywâsik; êkwa masinâpiskahikêwin. piyisk, iskwêyânihk pîkiskwêmakan tânisi kâ-isiitôtamâhk ê-atoskêyâhk ôma kihci-kiskinwahamasinahikanihk—êkwa nika-kî-itôtênân, kîspin êsa kihci-âhkosiwin êkâ ê-kî-âyimahk ta-atoskêmitoyâhk ôma nîso askîwin aspin ohci. kiskêyihtâkwan kahkiyaw ê-nêstosiyâhk êwako kihci-âhkosiwin, kistêyihtâkwan ta- nisitohtamâhk ôma misawâc ê-miywâsik êtikwê êwako atoskêwinihk, kâ-kî-mêskwacipayihk ayisk kihci-âhkosiwin COVID-19 ê-astêk ôma ôta. This thesis presents a critical, theoretical, and methodological exegesis of the walking-and-writing research-creation doctoral project “Walking the Bypass: A Meditation on Place,” as represented by the creative-nonfiction manuscript of the same title. The first chapter introduces the project, its aims and scope, and its research questions: “can walking turn non-places into places?” and, more importantly, “can settlers come into a relationship with the land through walking?” The second chapter discusses the context of walking art as it applies to this project; it presents accounts of a range of aesthetic and political walking practices that influenced this project. The third chapter presents the project’s theoretical context, including theories of place and space; Indigenous theories of land and cosmology; and object-oriented ontology, affect theory, and Indigenous critiques of those ways of thinking. The fourth chapter explores the project’s methodological touchstones: writing by William Least Heat-Moon, Nick Papadimitriou, and Iain Sinclair; psychogeography; solo walking practices; creative nonfiction; and photography. Finally, the conclusion suggests future directions which this research could take—and would have taken, had the pandemic not made working with others so difficult during the past two years. As much as everyone is tired of the pandemic, it’s important to acknowledge that it may have been the greatest influence on this project, which changed significantly in response to the challenges presented by Covid-19.
Open Access
What You Carry and Surrender No. 40
(Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, 2017-05) Wilson, Kenneth Clayton; Irwin, Kathleen; Handerek, Kelly; Archibald-Barber, Jesse; Pearce, Wes
This critical engagement paper is intended to accompany the play What You Carry and the solo performance text Surrender No. 40. Part one, the introduction, argues that both texts are intended to contribute to the process of reconciliation between descendants of settlers and Indigenous peoples in Canada, by telling the truth about this country’s colonialist history and by making gestures towards reconciliation. Part two outlines the six methodologies employed while writing these two texts: writing and narrative inquiry, autobiography and/or autoethnography, new play development, historical research, walking-as-performance, and solo or autobiographical performance. Part three discusses two theoretical contexts of the two performance texts: trauma theory and truth and reconciliation. Trauma theory has helped me to understand how Joseph, one of the characters in What You Carry, has responded to the abuse he survived in residential school; it has also been useful in thinking about the family violence Gary and Walter experienced as well. While truth and reconciliation is not a recognized theoretical perspective, it was in my mind while I wrote both texts and during the Muscle and Bone performance. My hope is that, in some small way, these two texts can be part of the truth and reconciliation process in this country—that they might help other settler descendants understand something about Canada’s ongoing colonialist history, as writing these texts has helped me to understand that history.