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 Aging and Family Science 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 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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Incel Communities and the Mainstreaming of Misogyny: A Study of Rhetoric, Persuasion, and Media Influence
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Botma, Emilie
This research project seeks to understand how news media influences the public’s perception of current events and society, centring the example of a specific online community of men who share a misogynistic, racist, and extremist belief system, known as the incel (short for involuntary celibate) community. The work provides background on the incel community, misogyny, incel rhetoric, feminist theory, and analyses news coverage of the incel community and violence committed by individuals within the community. The work examines communication tactics used in news coverage that leverages framing and narrative construction to shape belief systems and behaviors about the current state of misogyny in Western society. The study aims to foreground news media’s consistent failure to acknowledge incels and adjacent misogynistic communities for the threat they pose as a phenomenon exacerbated by the patriarchal structures shaping society, and as a manifestation of a broader social trend/desire to return to “traditional norms” due to increasing anxieties in a neoliberal capitalist society.
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Decolonizing the University: A Critical Exploration of the Rhodes Must Fall Movement and the Politics of Reckoning in Higher Education
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Adeyemi, Oluwasemilore Faith
The longstanding and ongoing liberation struggles for a decolonized African university, a search for a modern African identity, an epistemic citizenship, and an autonomous African development raised the question of decolonization when a Black student hurled a pail filled with human excrement against the Cecil John Rhodes statue at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, sparking the formation of the RMF movement on March 9, 2015. Grounded in both the Decolonial Critical Discourse Analysis (DCDA) and theory of Decoloniality, the objective of this study was to explore the Rhodes Must Fall movement and analyze the politics of reckoning, epistemic justice, and institutional transformation in higher education. The aim was to critically examine how the RMF movement challenged the persistent coloniality within the African university and fostered a pluriverse knowledge system, decolonized leadership, and pedagogy. Through an analysis of speeches, institutional statements, media coverage, visual and symbolic materials, and peer-reviewed journal articles, the study investigated how Black students sought to make sense of their experiences in a Western-dominated university by de-linking from UCT’s Eurocentric curricula and creating their own decolonial frameworks based on Pan-Africanism, Black Consciousness, Black radical feminism, epistemic disobedience and Fanonism. This thesis argues that decolonization remains an ongoing yet unfinished project that requires continuous unlearning of colonial structures and the dismantling of systemic hierarchies. The RMF movement served as both an epistemic and political intervention, exposing the limitations of liberal multicultural reforms that fail to address the deeper, more profound issues of coloniality.
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Exploring Memories of Maternal Food- and Weight-Related Messaging Among Middle- Aged Women with Disordered Eating Attitudes and Behaviours
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Henderson, Megan S.
Background: Increasing numbers of middle-aged women are presenting with and seeking treatment for disordered eating attitudes and behaviours (EAB). Although it is known that mothers often play an influential role in shaping daughters’ EAB, little is known about how maternal food- and weight-related messaging is experienced and interpreted by daughters, or how these messages shape their EAB into midlife. Methods: Guided by feminist poststructuralism, this study used combined arts-informed inquiry and a focus group to explore memories of maternal food- and weight-related messaging among middle-aged women with disordered EAB. Foucauldian discourse analysis was used to examine how mothers and daughters reproduced, negotiated, and resisted dominant food- and weight-related discourses. Results: Through verbal messaging and modeling behaviours, mothers reproduced diet culture norms and practices. These messages were described as influential in shaping daughters’ EAB throughout the lifespan, though they were especially salient during childhood and adolescence. These findings suggest that the mother-daughter relationship operates as a disciplinary space wherein daughters learn to monitor and regulate their bodies in accordance with dominant constructions of health, beauty, and femininity. Conclusions: The mother-daughter relationship is an important site where gendered body norms and practices are discursively reproduced, negotiated, and resisted. This study highlights the broader sociocultural context that normalizes diet culture reproduction within mother-daughter relationships and how this might contribute to the persistence of disordered EAB into midlife.
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Does Social Media Tell the Truth About ADHD? A Qualitative Exploration of Young Adults’ Interactions with and Understanding of ADHD Content on Social Media
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Gordon, Kayla
Social media is being increasingly used as a source for finding information about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and to gain related information about general experiences, symptoms, symptom management, and treatment options. Young adults seeking information about mental and physical health diagnoses often turn to social media due to its ability to provide connection with people who have first-hand experience with the diagnosis. Although social media is highly accessible, the quality of health information varies from post to post. Information on social media related to ADHD is of variable credibility, and many posts contain non- evidence-based information or information that is not specific to the experience of those with ADHD. However, qualitative research as to why young adults with ADHD specifically seek information about ADHD on social media has not been performed. Additionally, no research has determined if young adults with ADHD are fact checking what they see online and how they determine if a source is trustworthy. The present study sought to fill this gap. ADHD content on social media, as well as in person community members with ADHD knowledge, were valued due to the sense of connection they provided consumers. Most often young adults trusted the people and creators they engaged with, with some using web-based sources to fact check what they saw. To help mediate the potential risks of accepting misinformation on social media and beyond, school psychologists may be one group of practitioners who are accessible to adolescents and can help fulfill the need for connection and accurate, evidence-based information sharing.
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Exploring Preidcors of Academic Self-Concept and Social Connectedness in High School Students Impacted by the Cell Phone Ban in Nova Scotia
(Mount Saint Vincent University, 2026-08) Bourque, Madyn
This study investigated how various aspects of personality – agreeableness, openness to experience, and resilient coping – promote academic and social success following the implementation of a province-wide cell phone ban in Nova Scotia public schools. Data were collected from 52 high school students through online surveys consisting of the ASCS, SCS-R, HEXACO-PI-R, and BRCS. Multiple regression analyses were used to determine that agreeableness, openness, and resilient coping collectively account for 16.3% of the variance in academic self-concept and 26.3% of the variance in social connectedness. Several significant correlations were found. Group differences in academic self-concept were identified between those in grade 11 and those in grade 12, and men and women. Post-hoc analyses were completed to examine differences in students with high and low academic self-concepts and social connectedness. Findings emphasize the protective nature of the identified traits for academic and social success during times of change in the learning environment. Implications for school psychologists include a more comprehensive understanding of how personality influences school success and well-being, and findings may inform support at all Tiers of the MTSS model. Longitudinal research that includes objective measures would add to our understanding of how personality promotes school success during times of change.