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Papers by Emily Channell-Justice

This article discusses Ukrainian feminists’ attempts to “vernacularize” feminism, to use Sally En... more This article discusses Ukrainian feminists’ attempts to “vernacularize” feminism, to use Sally Engle Merry’s term, in the context of the 2013–14 mass mobilizations in Ukraine. Based on extensive participant observation during the entire span of the protests as well as on interviews with feminist activists, I suggest that feminists’ attempts to intervene in the mobilizations faced major challenges because of their consistent marginalization in Ukrainian political society since independence in 1991. While these protests began in order to show support for the idea of Ukraine as part of Europe, they eventually became focused on establishing an idealized, sovereign Ukrainian nation. Feminist activists presented their political discourses as more reflective of a progressive European reality than the majority of protesters did. However, because feminism has long been seen as a threat to national ideologies thanks to its grounding in both socialist and Western development, feminists were unable to make their position relatable to others in the mobilizations. As evidenced through ethnographic explorations of the protest camp, participants drew on specific narratives of historical, militarized masculinity that would support an idealized Ukrainian nation. This notion relied on gender roles that forced women to participate only as either the supporters of men or in militarized women’s self-defense brigades that mirrored those created by men. Ultimately, these limitations meant that feminists shifted their attempts to vernacularize feminism away from Europe and onto more localized initiatives to make feminism and women’s activism legible to contemporary Ukrainians.

Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 2016

Students from universities across Ukraine played an essential role in generating the critical mas... more Students from universities across Ukraine played an essential role in generating the critical mass in what became the (Euro)Maidan protests, the most massive mobilization in the history of independent Ukraine.

North American Dialogue, 2011

Kinship, family, and household have received considerable attention in Inuit studies; this paper ... more Kinship, family, and household have received considerable attention in Inuit studies; this paper takes a comparative social networks approach to these issues. Here kinship connections are represented in network form as a composite of individual kinship dyads of descent, coparentage, or siblingship. The composite kinship network is then used as a standard of measure for the pair-wise distances of exchange/dependency dyads appearing in other social networks within the community (including the country-food distribution network, store-bought-food-sharing network, traditional-knowledge network, alcohol-co-use network, household-wellness networks, job-referrals network, and the housing network). This analysis allows us to gauge the role that kinship (of various distances, including household and family) plays in structuring exchanges across these various network domains. The data used here was collected in Nain, Labrador in January-June 2010. From 330 interviews, we extracted more than 4,900 exchanges and patterns of helping relationships among the 749 current adult residents of the community, and more than 10,000 kinship connections among a total of 1,687 individuals directly linked by descent, marriage or coparentage. The results of this analysis show that past emphasis on kin-oriented exchange in Inuit communities has mistakenly emphasized the nature of the exchange item (traditional versus store-bought (cash) economy) thereby missing important data on the nature of the exchange itself (reciprocal or one-way).

Advances in Anthropology, 2013

Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is generally considered a methodology for recruiting "hard-to-re... more Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is generally considered a methodology for recruiting "hard-to-reach" populations for social science research. More recently, Wejnert has argued that RDS analysis can be used for general social network analysis as well (where he labels it, RDS-SN). In this article, we assess the value of Wejnert's RDS-SN for use in more traditional ethnographic contexts. We employed RDS as part of a larger social network research project to recruit n = 330 community residents (over 17 years of age) in Nain, a predominantly (92%) aboriginal community in northern Labrador, Canada, for social network interviews about food sharing, housing, public health, and community traditions. The peer referral chains resulted in a sample that was then analyzed for its representativeness by two means-a comparison with the Statistics Canada 2006 Census of the same community, and with house-by-house demographic surveys carried out in the community as part of our research. The results show a close fit with available community statistics and our own survey. As such, we argue that the RDS sampling used in Nain was able to provide a useful and near-representative sample of the community. To demonstrate the usefulness of the results, the referral chains are also analyzed here for patterns in intragroup and intergroup relationships that were apparent only in the aggregate.

This paper describes results from a network survey of Naina predominantly Inuit community of ~120... more This paper describes results from a network survey of Naina predominantly Inuit community of ~1200 people located on the northern coast of Labrador. As part of a larger social network research project, we used peerreferral sampling to recruit 330 residents for interviews about food sharing, housing, public health and community traditions. The peer-referral chains were analysed statistically to determine the presence and absence of social divisions in the community. The results of these analyses show that ethnic identification, relocation status and household income were the most significant social divisions in the community, while gender, education level and employment status show little or no effect on patterns of between-group interconnection. We argue that statistical patterns in the presence (and absence) of intergroup links offer novel ways to examine the interrelationship between recent economic development and the historical disruptions caused by Inuit community relocations in the 1950s.

This article discusses Ukrainian feminists’ attempts to “vernacularize” feminism, to use Sally En... more This article discusses Ukrainian feminists’ attempts to “vernacularize” feminism, to use Sally Engle Merry’s term, in the context of the 2013–14 mass mobilizations in Ukraine. Based on extensive participant observation during the entire span of the protests as well as on interviews with feminist activists, I suggest that feminists’ attempts to intervene in the mobilizations faced major challenges because of their consistent marginalization in Ukrainian political society since independence in 1991. While these protests began in order to show support for the idea of Ukraine as part of Europe, they eventually became focused on establishing an idealized, sovereign Ukrainian nation. Feminist activists presented their political discourses as more reflective of a progressive European reality than the majority of protesters did. However, because feminism has long been seen as a threat to national ideologies thanks to its grounding in both socialist and Western development, feminists were unable to make their position relatable to others in the mobilizations. As evidenced through ethnographic explorations of the protest camp, participants drew on specific narratives of historical, militarized masculinity that would support an idealized Ukrainian nation. This notion relied on gender roles that forced women to participate only as either the supporters of men or in militarized women’s self-defense brigades that mirrored those created by men. Ultimately, these limitations meant that feminists shifted their attempts to vernacularize feminism away from Europe and onto more localized initiatives to make feminism and women’s activism legible to contemporary Ukrainians.

Canadian-American Slavic Studies, 2016

Students from universities across Ukraine played an essential role in generating the critical mas... more Students from universities across Ukraine played an essential role in generating the critical mass in what became the (Euro)Maidan protests, the most massive mobilization in the history of independent Ukraine.

North American Dialogue, 2011

Kinship, family, and household have received considerable attention in Inuit studies; this paper ... more Kinship, family, and household have received considerable attention in Inuit studies; this paper takes a comparative social networks approach to these issues. Here kinship connections are represented in network form as a composite of individual kinship dyads of descent, coparentage, or siblingship. The composite kinship network is then used as a standard of measure for the pair-wise distances of exchange/dependency dyads appearing in other social networks within the community (including the country-food distribution network, store-bought-food-sharing network, traditional-knowledge network, alcohol-co-use network, household-wellness networks, job-referrals network, and the housing network). This analysis allows us to gauge the role that kinship (of various distances, including household and family) plays in structuring exchanges across these various network domains. The data used here was collected in Nain, Labrador in January-June 2010. From 330 interviews, we extracted more than 4,900 exchanges and patterns of helping relationships among the 749 current adult residents of the community, and more than 10,000 kinship connections among a total of 1,687 individuals directly linked by descent, marriage or coparentage. The results of this analysis show that past emphasis on kin-oriented exchange in Inuit communities has mistakenly emphasized the nature of the exchange item (traditional versus store-bought (cash) economy) thereby missing important data on the nature of the exchange itself (reciprocal or one-way).

Advances in Anthropology, 2013

Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is generally considered a methodology for recruiting "hard-to-re... more Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is generally considered a methodology for recruiting "hard-to-reach" populations for social science research. More recently, Wejnert has argued that RDS analysis can be used for general social network analysis as well (where he labels it, RDS-SN). In this article, we assess the value of Wejnert's RDS-SN for use in more traditional ethnographic contexts. We employed RDS as part of a larger social network research project to recruit n = 330 community residents (over 17 years of age) in Nain, a predominantly (92%) aboriginal community in northern Labrador, Canada, for social network interviews about food sharing, housing, public health, and community traditions. The peer referral chains resulted in a sample that was then analyzed for its representativeness by two means-a comparison with the Statistics Canada 2006 Census of the same community, and with house-by-house demographic surveys carried out in the community as part of our research. The results show a close fit with available community statistics and our own survey. As such, we argue that the RDS sampling used in Nain was able to provide a useful and near-representative sample of the community. To demonstrate the usefulness of the results, the referral chains are also analyzed here for patterns in intragroup and intergroup relationships that were apparent only in the aggregate.

This paper describes results from a network survey of Naina predominantly Inuit community of ~120... more This paper describes results from a network survey of Naina predominantly Inuit community of ~1200 people located on the northern coast of Labrador. As part of a larger social network research project, we used peerreferral sampling to recruit 330 residents for interviews about food sharing, housing, public health and community traditions. The peer-referral chains were analysed statistically to determine the presence and absence of social divisions in the community. The results of these analyses show that ethnic identification, relocation status and household income were the most significant social divisions in the community, while gender, education level and employment status show little or no effect on patterns of between-group interconnection. We argue that statistical patterns in the presence (and absence) of intergroup links offer novel ways to examine the interrelationship between recent economic development and the historical disruptions caused by Inuit community relocations in the 1950s.