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This thesis inquires into the transformative potentials and possibilities of attending specifically to matters of occupation, settlement and development for rearticulating discourses and knowledge relations on homelessness to undermine the projects of separation of land from body. Through an historiographical analysis applied to the National Housing Strategy (NHS), Reaching Home (RH), and Housing First (HF), as contemporary Canadian iterations of housing and homelessness policy and practice, this work critically examines representations, attentions, and omissions to understand, engage, and intervene on considerations of the common projects that constitute discourses on homelessness. This analysis found that contemporary understandings communicate and define the homeless body as an identity of lack, novel to the neoliberal contemporary that omit attentions to homelessness as a colonial capitalist process implicated in ongoing, relational, and severed histories of violence. This work also revealed that NHS, RH, and HF operationalize solutions to ending homelessness through abstracted/eugenic ‘expert’ medicalized, liberalized, and market-based systems/taxonomies of worth that reify/silo/silence/erase knowledges through and by embodied projects and discourses of ‘rights’, justice, care, and help. While NHS, RH, and HF claim ‘housing as a right’ and advocate deinstitutionalization via a discourse of ‘choice’ in a market system, this work revealed these discourses to be part of a redeveloped economic institutionalized politics severed, rearticulated, and managed in the social sphere. These findings are considered as a violence of Land/Body bifurcation possible through and by the imposition of claims on body and land in the creation and maintenance of ideal citizen subjects as settlement subjectivities becoming self-determined rights holders, consumers, tenants, and citizen placeholders in a commodified market for home. Overall, this project aims to contribute to a resistance of the severing violence of occupation, settlement, and development through an ontology of Land/Body simultaneity offering possibilities for transformational intervention into the context from which the ideas of homeless bodies and landscapes emerge. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

This research examines how disability is conceptualized, responded to and experienced by prisoners within the federal prison system of canada , by attending to the constructs of disability and criminality as they relate to racial and colonial hierarchies. Drawing on anti-colonial theory and the concept of subalternity, this research aims to resist essentializing identity in a way that would limit ‘disability’ or ‘race’ to a particular spatial/temporal context. The constructs of race and disability will be attended to simultaneously, while engaging with how these identity categories have been co-constructed in relation to ‘criminality’, for the furthering of colonialism. Accordingly, this research contextualizes the mass-incarceration of racialized/disabled individuals within a broader, historic, colonial project of confinement and removal. I draw on 4 in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted for this study, with individuals who are living with disabilities and have been incarcerated in canadian federal prisons. Throughout this thesis, I couple my analysis of the ‘problem’ in question with attention to ‘how’ the problem is often discussed in dominant critical research and discourse, particularly attending to eurocentric articulations of race, disability and incarceration. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

Intimate partner violence impacts women around the world and therefore does not present itself congruently across cultures or regions (Devries et al., 2013; Sarkar, 2010; World Health Organization, 2012). Many contemporary researchers strive to name, classify and understand experiences of intimate partner violence that are distinct to the South Asian subcontinent and members of the South Asian diaspora (Ahmed-Ghosh, 2004; Bloch & Rao, 2002; Chatterji & Chaudhry, 2014; Jeyaseelan et al., 2007; Mani, 1987; Panchanadeswaran, & Koverola, 2005). Their works contribute to a dominant discourse about violence against South Asian women that often frames cultural understandings and practices to be the cause of harm within this community. A dominant discourse which predominantly utilizes Western feminist understandings of “patriarchy” and oppression primarily serves to further homogenize, Other, and essentialize the experiences of South Asian women which cannot and should not be discussed in contrast to violence in a Western context. The impact of applying a Western lens to violence against South Asian women is that Western scholars take on the responsibility of identifying and prioritizing the needs of South Asian peoples and offer solutions to these issues without considering the systems of support that already exist or asking those impacted how they imagine change. This project engages a postcolonial discourse analysis to examine dominant discourses on violence against South Asian women as they are deployed within the context, literature, and research on intimate partner violence. Through analyzing 75 highly cited articles using a postcolonial lens, this project unearths commonalities across the dominant discourse such as the use of positivistic colonial research methods, the construction of a monolithic South Asia, the technologies of neoliberalism and colonial capitalism, and the archetype of the Third World Woman via white feminism. These reoccurring themes throughout the dominant discourse indicate the existence of an inferiorizing and oversimplified understanding of South Asian people and their experiences which is frequently framed using colonial technologies and the white gaze. Deconstructing these mechanisms can create an intentional space for anti-colonial ways of being and knowing as a South Asian person and discussions of violence in the South Asian subcontinent and diaspora without essentializing, homogenizing, or erasing aspects of these experiences. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

The over-arching goal of this project is to instill hope for activists and social workers, while simultaneously exploring the narrative of my Great-Grandmother, Mrs. Marguerite Emily Cartwright, whose activist story has never truly been told. Through the use of storytelling and thematic analysis, this research will present the reader with an opportunity to explore the tools and strategies that one woman used to make a profound and lasting influence on disability services, the study of disability and persons with disabilities throughout Ontario in the 1940’s and onwards. The Study of Disability, Disability Studies and Social Justice Studies, along with storytelling literature, are both broad albeit unique areas of knowledge. This unique thesis is based on the analysis of my family’s archives of Mrs. Cartwright’s activism, through original journal entries and newspaper clippings, along with letters and personal correspondences Mrs. Cartwright wrote to prominent North American politicians, offering a window into the mind of the activist herself. Through the use of storytelling and thematic analysis, this paper explores how the themes of wielding personal power, inheriting a moral sense of justice, and the history of disability services in Ontario contributed to the telling of Mrs. Cartwright’s untold story. An analysis of Mrs. Cartwright’s activist strategies demonstrated the intersectionality of disability, critical theory, feminism and justice studies, and the use of self in advocacy. Lastly, I discuss how my own sense of social justice, epistemology and practice of social work has been impacted by the telling of this story. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

This critical discourse analysis aims to explore the construction of discourses on mental health inside of Canadian federal corrections through analysis of two reports published by the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC). Simultaneously utilizing Mad and Critical Disability studies as a theoretical framework, I engage with the material to examine the ways that individuals with mental health concerns are constructed in the texts. Results indicate that CSC relies on medical and individual understandings of mental health and (re)produce discourses of violence and risk as well as individual deficiency or otherness within their texts. Ways in which CSC operationalizes these discourses are explored and include violent treatments for those with mental health concerns such as segregation, forced medication, labelling, and restraint or use of force. An analysis of the ways in which CSC maintains their power and domination over discourse regarding mental health concerns in Canadian corrections is examined, including critiques of the ways they ensure erasure and silencing of mental health consumers as well as their lack of attention to historical, political and social implications in their texts. This research reveals how CSC uses negative discourses, namely discourses of violence or risk and medical or individual deficiency, to authorize various violences on those with mental health concerns within federal corrections. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

Relying on the perspectives of critical disability studies and mad studies, this graduate thesis seeks to uncover the experiences of youth with undiagnosed mental health issues who have been streamed into alternative education. Guided by methodological principles of interpretive phenomenological analysis and arts-informed inquiry, the 5 participants in this study were invited to a focus group where they could engage in an arts-based activity, meant to provide the opportunity to reflect on their experience, build rapport with the researcher, express themselves through alternative means, and connect with peers who have shared experience. Participants were then invited to discuss their experiences with the topic in a one-on-one, semi-structured interview. This study reveals the ways in which the system of education, school communities, teachers, and social workers can support youth who are not diagnosed with a mental illness but still experience mental health challenges that impede on their school experience. Supported by mad studies, this study reveals how peer support has become the method of mental health response and treatment through which students feel is most effective. This study also challenges medical hegemony and the ways in which access to services is dependent on medical diagnoses. Finally, this study reminds stakeholders of the value of building trusting and empathic relationships between school staff and students. School communities and school boards are challenged to think about the structuring of their systems, and the ways in which they may present barriers to the success of all students regardless of ability and/or need. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

Through an analysis of 7, semi-structured, one-on-one, open-ended interviews and relying on methodological principles from interpretive social science (ISS) and critical social sciences (CSS) this graduate thesis uncovers the voices of youth who have been suspended and/or expelled from a public secondary school in Ontario. Youth in this study spoke to the impact that being suspended and/or expelled had on school climate through describing the adverse changes that they experienced in regards to their relationships with their peers, and school professionals. A unique contribution from my study is a participant’s description of an experience of suspension, which I interpreted as being caused by, the behavioural targeting of a student living with a disability. Many of the participants also explained how the use of disciplinary procedures that rely on sending a student home from school for x amount of days can affect students’ academic progress and success. Furthermore, the similarities between the treatment of disciplined students in the education system, and the treatment of criminal offenders in the justice system found in this study, included: the use of punitive discipline, increased surveillance, and the involvement of the police in disciplinary processes. The youth in this study recognize that the use of suspension and expulsion does not dig beneath the surface and address the root of the problem, and agree that this approach to school discipline is ineffective in regards to correcting behaviour. Finally, all of the youth in this study suggested the development and implementation of more supportive approaches to addressing and preventing unsafe and inappropriate behaviour in schools that aim to keep students in school while resolving the problem. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

Background: Current social service prevention and interventions in suicidal distress follow a biomedical logic. Recently, critical suicidology and mad studies frameworks have criticized this single-fold approach for limiting the capacity of suicide prevention/intervention to respond to the range of human needs. Aims: The aim of this study was to uncover how people with history of suicidal distress understood their experience of distress, in particular the responses they find helpful and unhelpful. Methods: 4 participants were recruited for semi-structured interviews themed for conceptions of suicidal distress, the experience of ‘reaching out’, and mental health systems change. Results: The findings concluded that participants’ conception of suicidal distress differs from biomedical model paradigms. While practitioner’s responses rely on a notion of suicidal distress as discreet and de-contextual, participants explained suicidal distress as ongoing and based in life circumstances, advocating for a model of suicidal prevention/intervention highlighting the importance of relationships and empathy. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

SARAH ADJEKUM B.A., B.S.W. A Research Project Submitted to the School of Social Work in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Social Work McMaster University 2016 As observed with the ongoing migrant crises, media coverage of refugee and asylum seekers connects the concepts of mental health and trauma to their experiences. The resulting discourse around refugees pathologizes the refugee identity and simultaneously obscures the violence that necessitates their departure from their home countries. As refugee discourse incorporates discourses of mental health, it also legitimizes nation state’s practice social control towards these populations through detention. As the utilization of technologies of securitization is normalized, detention has become increasingly accepted as a response to humanitarian crises. Past research on detention has consistently demonstrated the harmful effects it has on children, adults, and especially individuals with symptoms of mental illness. In particular, research drawing on trauma and mental health discourse has been effective in bringing attention to the counterproductive outcomes of detention. This paper is concerned with the employment of discourses of mental health and trauma by mainstream media as they pertain to the treatment of migrants in detention in Canada. It explores the media’s role in the re(creation) of refugee discourse and purveyors of racial ideology that problematizes people of colour and demands state intervention in the form of mental health aid. Using critical discourse analysis, it contrasted mainstream media coverage of four major publications on detention. This study finds prevalent use of mental health discourse and little mention of violence in several online publications. It also finds that recommendations made in the articles emphasized micro and mezzo focused changes that are unable to challenge federal policy that enables securitization. Nor is it capable of addressing the forms of violence inherent to the mental health system. As such, this paper makes recommendations for a critical examination of refugee and immigration policy that takes into account the states’ participation in the creation of refugee crises. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)

Throughout the early 20th century, eugenics discourse came to colour many facets of social policy making across Canada. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the ways by which eugenics and the mental hygiene movement impacted the practice of child protection during the early 20th century. I argue that the construction and propagation of the term and classification of ‘feeble-mindedness’ was used by child protection workers to exclude an increasing number of children from both care and society. During this period, social workers were complicit in the sorting, classifying and segregating of children deemed ‘feeble-minded’ with the expressed purpose of eradicating certain classes of people from society and moreover the gene pool. Women shouldered the burden of the social reform movement, as they were considered both the solution to, and the cause, of social ills. Controlling women’s reproduction was seen as the best way to ensure ‘race betterment’. Women at the intersection of race, class and ability were often constructed as ‘feeble-minded’ and segregated for fear that they would reproduce ‘their kind’. Initially, the child protection system blatantly excluded those deemed ‘unworthy’ or ‘unreformable’. Under the rubric of eugenics, however, child protection’s role shifted and the system became complicit in the application of eugenic principle to child and family life and women’s reproduction under the auspice of ‘race betterment’ and nation building. Through this exploratory study, it is evident that the normative structures of child protection policy remain unchanged. Extricating children from troubled environments at the least possible cost continues to trump a more insightful look at how policy and resources should engage with structural concerns, such as poverty. Thesis Master of Social Work (MSW)