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Recent Submissions
Unveiling Chinese Presence and History in Quebec City's Lost Chinatown
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-16) Wong, Madeleine Audrey Sze Mun
Chinatowns in Canada are markers of Chinese history and immigration, playing an important role in promoting and sustaining Chinese social networks, community identity and sense of belonging. During the early twentieth century, numerous Chinatowns developed in Canadian cities and towns. Today, aside from those in major cities, they cease to exist with little record of their existence.
This thesis will investigate a widely forgotten Chinatown that once existed in Quebec City’s Saint-Roch neighbourhood during the twentieth century. Emerging in the 1930’s as a small concentrated street of Chinese residents, Chinatown expanded to a network of Chinese restaurants, businesses and institutions spanning Quebec City by the 1960’s. Over the last decades of the twentieth century, urban renewal projects and French language laws pushed Chinese businesses and families out of the city, dispersing into the suburbs and other Canadian cities. Today, there are little physical remnants of the lost Chinatown and little documentation of its existence and characteristics. Many residents of Quebec City, including those of Chinese ethnicity are unaware a Chinatown once existed. Quebec City’s Chinatown is lost, both physically and within the collective memory of the city.
Through interviews with past Chinese residents of Quebec City and archival research, this thesis uncovers and documents Quebec City’s lost Chinatown, its Chinese restaurants and the stories of its community. Chinese restaurants played a vital role in the Chinese population’s formation of a close community, providing spaces to gather and belong. Stories from past residents frame the restaurant as a multifaceted space of community, family, cultural exchange and resiliency. Referencing the importance of the Chinese restaurant, the thesis culminates in an event proposal held at the only remaining Chinese restaurant from Quebec City’s lost Chinatown, Wok n Roll. The event will unveil Quebec City’s lost Chinatown and share the unheard stories of its past residents. The preservation of these narratives and architectural spaces where they unfolded, through both formal documentation and storytelling, is essential to safeguarding the rich history of Quebec City’s Chinese community for future generations.
Building Climate Literacy through a Climate Communication Platform for the Lower Fraser Basin
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-16) Lam, Phyllis
In the age of social media, people are increasingly relying on digital tools as a means of information, education, and participation. There has been growing recognition and discussion regarding the use of social networks to engage communities in climate actions. Many campaigns and initiatives have emerged in recent years which aim to involve individuals closely in the education of this problem. Amid the ongoing climate crisis, the role of climate communication takes centre stage, particularly in the Lower Fraser Basin of British Columbia.
Currently, the Lower Fraser Basin lacks an effective comprehensive platform for public engagement and emergency mapping. The urgency of this matter becomes evident as climate change poses a substantial threat to the southern coastal communities of Canada.
Despite proven scientific research pointing to the anthropogenic influence on climate change, misinformation and politicization has contributed to a divide in the public lens. Surveys indicate that a majority of people are willing to take action on climate change. There has been a growing use of social networks to engage communities in government actions; however, despite increasing awareness of social networks, there are limited applications in relation to climate policy.
This research aims to study climate change communication platforms and its impacts on the dissemination of information, with the aim of building climate literacy. The study will cumulate into a digital communication platform, in which users are able to engage with a spatial toolkit of various infrastructural, meteorological, and community resources in the Lower Fraser Basin through the development of a design framework. Promoting awareness of these strategies will facilitate education on the anthropogenic impacts on our ecosystem, ensuring that communities can continue to enjoy life by the water.
Considering the importance of digital platforms in climate communication, this thesis asks: How can synthesizing data on climate causes, risks, and adaptations with meteorological, infrastructural, and ecological information in a climate communication platform enhance climate literacy among residents of the Lower Fraser Basin, particularly in understanding and preparing for region-specific climate challenges?
Tatreez as Archive: Spatializing the Palestinian Diaspora
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-16) Alqasas, Batool
Despite the extensive research produced on the topic of Palestinian homes and mobility within the Occupied Territories, the experiences of Palestinians living in the Diaspora are greatly underrepresented. More specifically, accurate information in the form of published data on Palestinian immigrants in Canada is unavailable due to their stateless status and global dispersion. As a result, research to record diasporic knowledge of home for Palestinians living in exile is crucial to understand how local contexts and practices reflect embedded memories and past experiences.
This thesis will analyze how architecture and design work to enhance and augment existing Palestinian-led efforts in both a social and spatial sense. It explores the theme of collective memory and the spatial-temporal aspects of diasporic living by mapping the emergence of ‘tatreez-making’ spaces (Palestinian embroidery) in the Greater Toronto Area. The design proposal offers a collaborative approach that re-imagines the existing Palestine House in the city of Mississauga which acts as a living archive and an event space that celebrates tatreez and empowers its users.
Tatreez is a visual language that has been linked to the shifting social, economic, and political landscape. Historically, the landscape was a major source of inspiration for Palestinian women in designing the motifs. As such, each village carried its own expressions, patterns, and thread colours. Following the displacement, tatreez evolved from being a symbol of regional pride to a symbol of Palestinian nationalism, especially for the diaspora community.
Through tatreez as a guiding medium, the thesis proposes new ways of seeing, understanding, and constructing our visual and material environment in relation to textiles, design, and architecture. By analyzing existing Palestinian initiatives, my research aims to address the following question: How might re-imagined architecture facilitate the preservation of Palestinian culture, identity, and knowledge while maintaining connections to local contexts? The objective of the thesis is to push architects to consider diasporic populations in design research in order to record historical data on migration and employ diasporic knowledge within architectural discourse.
Reconfigurable Microwave/Millimeter-Wave Devices Using Liquid Crystal Technology
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-15) Kianmehr, Hassan
In recent years, microwave liquid crystal (LC) technology has attracted significant attention from researchers due to its tunability and low-loss characteristics, extending up to terahertz frequencies. However, existing state-of-the-art LC-based devices face limitations in fabrication processes, resulting in relatively large sizes compared to other available tunable technologies. This thesis seeks to address this challenge by proposing a fabrication process for chip-scale and miniaturized LC-integrated devices. To achieve this goal, an alignment method is adopted for silicon micromachined devices, along with a comprehensive fabrication process for chip capacitors, reflective loads, and reflective-type phase shifters. Additionally, a tunable waveguide filter is designed and fabricated based on a control mechanism using a static magnetic field.
The design and fabrication of silicon-micromachined variable capacitors are presented, utilizing nematic LC technology: shunt and series capacitors with and without integrated bias lines. The LC material enables electronic control over its dielectric properties, offering versatility across a broad spectrum of RF reconfigurable applications that require analog tuning. Measurement and simulation results for the chip LC shunt variable capacitor reveal a measured quality factor ranging from 44 to 123 at 1 GHz. With a biasing control voltage from 0 V to 40 V, the fabricated micromachined capacitor demonstrates an 18% capacitance shift. The LC-based series capacitor, demonstrated with an integrated bias line, isolates voltage control from RF terminals, serving a pivotal role in devices where series capacitors are essential. With a 21% shift in capacitance and a quality factor of up to 45 at 1 GHz, the capacitor’s performance is evaluated comprehensively through measurement and simulation. LC-integrated series capacitors tailored for applications without isolating bias voltage from RF terminals are demonstrated, yielding a notable 24% shift in capacitance and achieving a quality factor of up to 105 at 1 GHz. The demonstrated series capacitors feature a 10 μm thin layer of LC material, contributing to lower control voltage requirements and faster response times. These devices are manufactured through an in-house multi-layer microfabrication process.
The thesis introduces a tunable waveguide filter that integrates LC material within quartz glass tubes, actuated by a static magnetic field. This innovative filter demonstrates a 7% tuning range with minimal bandwidth variation. Experimental validation for a 7.5 GHz filter with a 2.5% bandwidth confirms the concept’s viability. The quality factor of this filter varies between 108 and 288 in the fabricated sample. Tuning of the filter is first demonstrated using both a pair of rotating magnets; then, a pair of coil magnets is used to eliminate moving parts.
Finally, two monolithically integrated reflective loads and two reflective-type phase shifters are presented, employing LC material as a reconfigurable element. The LC material is confined within a micromachined space, and its dielectric properties are controlled through an applied bias voltage. The tunable reflective loads find applicability in RTPSs. Operating at frequencies of 28 GHz and 62 GHz, the reflective loads exhibit phase variations of 113◦ and 118◦, respectively, as the bias voltage ranges from 0 V to 25 V. The 28 GHz and 62 GHz devices demonstrate reflective insertion losses of 3.9 dB and 4.3 dB, respectively, indicating figures of merit of 29◦/dB and 27.5◦/dB, respectively. Employing tandem hybrids at the operating frequency alongside two identical reflective loads has led to two reflective-type phase shifters at 28 GHz and 62 GHz. While the phase shift remains the same as the corresponding reflective loads, the insertion loss increases due to the use of hybrids. The insertion loss is measured at 5.95 dB and 7 dB for the 28 GHz and 62 GHz samples, respectively. Fabrication of these devices is conducted in-house using a multi-layer microfabrication process. To the best of our knowledge, this marks the first time a fully silicon-made, chip-level LC integrated reflective load and RTPS phase shifter is presented.
Enforced Government of the Self: Forced Dependence and Experiences of Sponsored Older Chinese Immigrants in Canada
(University of Waterloo, 2024-10-15) Li, Ivy Zhiyuan
Globalization and global competition have rendered Canada’s immigration regime and governance increasingly susceptible to market forces. Additionally, the pressure of an aging society in Canada has contributed to a significant reduction in the admission of family-class immigrants, especially older people, and in 2014, the federal government tightened and dramatically revised its parent/grandparent (PGP) immigration program by raising income requirements for sponsors, extending the period of sponsorship by offspring, and imposing an annual quota of applications.
Scant literature has explored how the PGP program and its policy alteration affects the later life and well-being of sponsored older immigrants in Canada. Mainly through in-depth semi-structured interviews with sponsored Chinese parents, their offspring and social workers and qualitative analysis of documents, my PhD research explores the experience of sponsored PGPs in Canada; examines the state’s positioning of sponsored older immigrants, especially those from the global South, through a lens of governmentality; and analyses the workings and effects of neoliberal governance through immigration policy in Canada and its implications.
Drawing on and contributing to the literature on governmentality and racism in migration, especially by engaging with notions of “government of the self,” neoliberalism, biopolitical citizenship, and racism and racialization, I construct my conceptual framework by examining the embedded tensions and contradictions in contemporary governance, which I term “neoliberal frictions.” I discuss three forms or levels of neoliberal friction and their manifestations and ramifications in the experience of sponsored Chinese PGPs.
Additionally, taking on the insights of Anna Tsing (2004), I conceive of friction as not only consisting of contradictions, tensions, inequality, and injustice, but also as engendering a location and process of struggle that generates actions, changes, new knowledge, new social and political orders, and new forms of justice. Thus, I explore and discuss not only the challenges and difficulties of later-life immigration, but also how sponsored Chinese PGPs develop various strategies to handle challenges, adapt to new environments, resist dependence imposed by the PGP program, and pursue an independent and meaningful existence with dignity. Hence my approach, built on the concept of neoliberal friction, is consistent with the notion of assemblage (Wiertz, 2020), which accounts not only for situations where life is subordinated to systemic power but also for instances that fracture and challenge this power (p. 5). I prioritize the agency and experience of sponsored PGPs, highlight their struggles, perspectives, and concerns, and underscore moments of dissonance, agency, and resistance.
My findings debunk the misconception and stigmatized portrayal of older immigrants as welfare seekers and reveal that their contributions are ignored and exploited by neoliberal governance in Canada. My study shows that Canada’s immigration regime, though becoming more implicit and subtler, remains structurally raced, classed, and gendered and interplays with dynamics such as ableism, ageism, ethnocentrism, otherness, and worthiness within the state’s power relations. My study reveals a new governance apparatus – dependent biopolitics – that targets sponsored older immigrants, enables the state to download its collective responsibility onto immigrant families, and justifies its othering and discriminatory practices in the name of facilitating family reunification.
My study reveals that intergenerational relations and housing arrangements are the two key factors that affect sponsored PGPs’ satisfaction with life and well-being. It shows that sponsored Chinese PGPs need a mindset or desire for and the ability to realize independence, rather than relying on their offspring, if they are to age well and develop a satisfying life in Canada. My findings reveal that forced dependence by the undertaking/dependence clause of the PGP program, deepens the gap between their desired independence and actual independence.
This research demonstrates that the PGP program, as a tool of government, cannot grant sponsored Chinese PGPs entrepreneurial spirit and facilitate their self-reliance, but instead tends to add hardship to their lives and engender social problems such as isolation, senior mistreatment and neglect, physical and mental problems, poverty, and precarious living conditions, which may use up more social resources and public funds. Accordingly, this thesis recommends a more sustainable PGP program and more supportive settlement policies and services for sponsored older immigrants.
My study contributes conceptually and empirically to governmentality perspectives on the study of immigration policy and the governance of older immigrant populations. It does this by developing an assemblage approach: on the one hand, it shows that neoliberal frictions are embedded in the state’s governance systems and its practices, which cannot foster life for sponsored older Chinese immigrants and can even undermine their quality of life and well-being; on the other hand, it demonstrates how sponsored PGPs can, by performing agency, forming small, informal groups, and engaging with and helping to build community, conduct self-government and resist dependence imposed on them by the PGP program.