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.