MSVU e-Commons
The MSVU e-Commons is the institutional repository for Mount Saint Vincent University. It allows MSVU faculty, students, and staff to store their scholarly output, including theses and dissertations. Works in the e-Commons have permanent URLs and trustworthy identifiers, and are discoverable via Google Scholar, giving your work a potential local and global audience.
In addition to free storage, the e-Commons provides Mount scholars with an open access platform for disseminating their research. Depositing your work in the e-Commons complies with the requirements for open access publication of work supported by Tri-Agency funding (CIHR, NSERC, SSHRC).
If you would like to deposit your work in the e-Commons, or you have any questions about institutional repositories, copyright, or open scholarship, please contact the MSVU Library & Archives.
Communities in DSpace
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Alexa McDonough Institute for Women, Gender, and Social Justice Celebrating Writing Week Department of Applied Human Nutrition Department of Biology Department of Business Administration and Tourism Department of Chemistry Department of Child and Youth Study Department of Communication Studies Department of English Department of Family Studies and Gerontology Department of History Department of Mathematics Department of Modern Languages Department of Political & Canadian Studies Department of Psychology Department of Sociology & Anthropology Department of Tourism and Hospitality Management Department of Women and Gender Studies Faculty of Education Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection This is a collection of essays MSVU students have written using source texts from MSVU Library's Lesbian Pulp Fiction Collection.Library MSVU Art Gallery MSVU Senate MSVU Theses Nancy's Chair in Women's Studies Open Educational Resources SE space/L’Espace ES
Recent Submissions
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Love as Inquiry: My Autoethnographic Story of Coming Out Later in Life
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024) Flemming, Christina J.
Love as Inquiry: My Autoethnographic Story of Coming Out Later in Life is a PhD dissertation in two parts. Part One is comprised of a collection of autoethnographic stories based on my own lived experiences as a queer woman, mother, writer, and educator. Part Two of this autoethnographic research details process-related elements, ethical considerations, and the non-linear nature of doctoral research with the aim of offering new educational researchers guidance and insight on autoethnographic writing. This work:
• serves as a disruptive force, while striving to unhinge normative narratives,
• reinforces the importance of storytelling within the field of education,
• seeks to honour members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community who may struggle to
embrace authenticity and their own vulnerability, and
• enables future researchers to consider the complexity of the ethical considerations
necessitated by autoethnographic methodology.
At the heart of things, this research is about love: losing love, finding love, maternal love, and romantic love. In using love as both process and product, this research aims to help explore the question posed by Sameshima and Leggo (2013): What does love have to do with education?
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Emotion Regulation as a Moderator for Academic Anxiety in Children of Emergency Services Personnel
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025-08) Dumaresque, Caitlin
Academic anxiety significantly influences children's functioning at school. This study investigated how parental factors—post-traumatic stress, emotional expressivity, and parenting style—influence academic anxiety in children of Canadian emergency services personnel, and the moderating role of children's emotion regulation. Data were collected from 70 parents through online surveys consisting of the CAIS-P, PTCI, EES, PSDQ, and CBCL. High levels of parental post-traumatic stress, authoritarian parenting, and permissive parenting were correlated with high levels of academic anxiety in children. Emotion regulation was shown to significantly moderate the relations between all predictor variables and academic anxiety. Low versus high levels of emotion regulation were also considered in post-hoc analyses. Findings highlight the intergenerational effects of parental trauma and parenting styles, along with the protective role of emotion regulation. Implications for school psychologists include advocating for struggling students and providing family support. Future research should focus on more diverse samples and children’s perspectives.
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‘Playtime with Imena’: Exploring the Importance of Social Play for Children with Down Syndrome – Trisomy 21
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Umuhoza, Lea Danae
This thesis, Playtime with Imena: Exploring the Importance of Social Play for Children with Down Syndrome – Trisomy 21, delves into the transformative role of structured social play in
promoting the holistic development and social inclusion of children with Down syndrome. Inspired by personal experiences growing up alongside Imena, a beloved sibling with Down
syndrome, and later volunteering at Tubiteho—a center for children with cognitive disabilities—this study intertwines lived insights with a robust Constructivist research paradigm. Guided by Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory, it investigates how the microsystems of family and school, supported by community and societal structures, collectively nurture developmental outcomes through social play.
Employing a scoping review, this research synthesizes findings from diverse studies, revealing how structured social play enhances communication, social competence, and emotional
resilience among children with Down syndrome. The thesis identifies a pressing need for culturally diverse, longitudinal studies and demonstrates the critical role of educator-family
collaboration in maximizing the benefits of play. By examining digital tools as bridges between home and school environments, this study shows how real-time parent-teacher engagement amplifies the continuity of developmental support.
The findings offer actionable recommendations for educators, families, and policymakers, advocating for inclusive, culturally sensitive play-based interventions that champion the developmental rights of children with Down syndrome. This work underscores the profound potential of structured play as a vehicle for growth, resilience, and social belonging, aiming to shape practices and policies that empower every child to thrive.
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No Strings Attached: Public Debt and the Transformation of Educational Policy in Nova Scotia, 1993-1997
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Turner, Karl
This thesis will examine the history of Nova Scotia’s public debt and will attempt to argue that the money it borrowed (and continues to borrow) from the bond market comes with conditions that not only supersede our societal interests, but the democratic institutions citizens trust to protect them.
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Frameworks for Freedom: Abolition Work During COVID-19, in Mi’kma’ki
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2025) Avery, Ash
This thesis examines abolitionist responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on decarceration efforts, responses to intersecting crises, and the development of community-based alternatives to incarceration. Grounded in abolition feminist theory and using autoethnography as methodology, I explore the intersections of abolitionist praxis, the non-profit sector, and the transformative possibilities of building care-based systems rooted in restorative justice, transformative justice, and liberatory harm reduction. Through creative methods, including zine-making and art, this project documents the challenges and potential of abolitionist work amidst unprecedented societal upheaval. The pandemic disrupted every facet of society, exposing deep systemic inequities while offering glimpses of transformative possibilities. In carceral systems, public health risks prompted some decarceration efforts but were paired with heightened punitive measures, highlighting contradictions in crisis-driven reform. These actions revealed that decarceration is both feasible and necessary but also exposed the limitations of temporary, reactionary responses rather than proactive, systemic transformation. My findings reveal significant tensions within abolitionist movements and organizations, including the challenges of cancel culture, moral injury from navigating multiple intersecting crises, and the structural flaws of the non-profit sector, which alone cannot achieve systemic change. This work underscores the importance of resolving internal conflicts within movements without replicating harm, fostering meaningful collaboration, and embracing the radical possibilities of abolitionist frameworks. This thesis situates the COVID-19 pandemic as a critical juncture—a moment that demonstrates both the urgent need for abolitionist advocacy and the limitations of crisis-driven change. Through personal narrative, reflexive analysis, and creative expression, this research contributes to abolitionist knowledge and calls for sustained activism and justice-building grounded in equity, care, and systemic transformation.