Roads to Research - Doc Social Science Student Presentations

Roads to Research Doc Social Sciences Student Presentations on Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Ricardo Manmohan
TBD
Sarah Abbott
Media as Menace and Sage: Uncharted Influences on Suicide Factors in Indigenous Communities
Gehan ElSharkawy How Does Quality of Relatedness Affect Egyptian Children's Perceptions of their Well-being and their Experiences of Protection?
Children constitute the single largest population group in Egypt, a country of more than 88 million citizens. Children’s well-being seems to be facing increasing challenges since the January 25th revolution according to the accounts of human rights groups and mass media reports. Some are challenges that have existed prior to 2011 such as physical and sexual violence, female genital cutting, abuse in orphanages, while others are new to a large extent. Examples of the latter include using children for political purposes, detainment (often without charges), and exposure to violence and death in demonstrations. What is not known is how Egyptian children perceive their own well-being and what are possible factors affecting the construction of these perceptions. My intended research attempts to study one possible factor - quality of relatedness - and examine how it affects Egyptian children's perceptions of their well-being. It seeks to find answers to the question: “how does quality of relatedness affect Egyptian children's perceptions of their well-being and their experiences of protection?”. The research is interested to find out Egyptian children's perceptions of their well-being, how these are shaped, how Egyptian children understand relatedness, and what factors affect Egyptian children’s experiences of protection.
Richard Wamimbi
Strengthening Community Systems and Practices to Prevent Violence Against Children in Uganda
Violence Against Children (VAC) is a growing public health and a social development problem recognized globally and specifically in Uganda. The purpose of the study is to explore how formal and non formal community systems and practices can be strengthened to prevent and respond to Violence Against Children in Uganda. The general research objective is to examine how the interaction between the formal and non formal community systems and practices can be strengthened to prevent and respond to Violence Against Children? The study will adapt Phenomenology and Participatory Action Research ( PAR) methodologies of social inquiry that produce unique, in-depth, multi- faceted investigation of phenomena and allow for knowledge integration and personal understanding of individuals and society. Phase one of the study will focus on the general epistemology of lived experiences of children that will allow us to learn more about the inward and outward consciousness of children based on memory, image and meaning in understanding children's perceptions in preventing and responding to violence. Lived experiences are best explored through phenomenological approaches and PAR. The perceptions and perspectives obtained from the children as key actors will be presented to the adults to build their knowledge and work as they move forward in the research process. Phase two will focus on understanding the perspectives of the adults in strengthening systems and practices that are protective of children using participatory action research approaches. A combination of these two methodologies is aimed at building knowledge that can be used to improve community child protection systems and practices that are innovative through the eyes of the children.
Fiona Friesen
TBD
Please bring your lunch. Coffee and cookies will be provided.