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Law student wins international e-thesis award
By Robie Liscomb
UVic graduate students can now submit their theses and dissertations electronically and make them immediately available on the web, thanks to a new system implemented by the UVic Libraries and the Faculty of Graduate Studies.
And one of the first electronic theses and dissertations (EDTs) in the system has been awarded an ETD Innovative Award by the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) consortium, an international organization dedicated to promoting the adoption, creation, use, dissemination and preservation of electronic analogues to traditional paper-based theses and dissertations. The award recognizes student efforts to transform the genre of the print dissertation through innovative use of electronic formats.
Performing Law
Lassonde
Julie Lassonde, who received her UVic LLM last November, received one of six NDLTD Innovative Awards in Uppsala, Sweden, earlier this month for her e-thesis “Performing Law.”
Lassonde practises both law and performance art, and her thesis, co-supervised by Rebecca Johnson (law) and Lucy Pullen (visual arts), bridges these two realms. Her thesis takes the form of a website, using text, video and live performance to explore how law is “performed” in daily life through physical acts.
She defines “law” as not just statutes and court cases but as multiple overlapping and conflicting systems of rules guiding social behaviour. Her thesis explores how these behavioural norms are generated, expressed and developed in even the most banal physical gestures of daily life.
Lassonde develops this performative concept of law by enacting narrative situations that explore how people behave toward each other in relation to expected norms. These involve, for example, the gendered space of certain sports activities, how seatmates on a public bus claim their personal space, the negotiating of sexual intimacy, and reacting to annoying or distracting public conversations.
Lassonde is currently running a small enterprise combining law, translation and performance—a direct application of her thesis. Her interdisciplinary practice responds to the need to make law accessible and engaging. Her typical week involves giving popular legal education workshops to community-based organizations, conducting research for NGOs and the private sector, and improvising with dancers and musicians.
To view “Performing Law” on the web, go to UVicDSpace at https://dspace.library.uvic.ca:8443/dspace/ and enter “Lassonde” in the search box.
For information about workshops and upcoming performances, contact Julie Lassonde at julie.lassonde@gmail.com.
UVic’s EDT system
The new ETD system at UVic provides instant availability of UVic electronic theses and dissertations on the web through Google, Google Scholar, and the CARL Harvester (the Canadian Assocoiation of Research Libraries institutional respository search service), and—soon—through the Libraries and Archives Canada Theses Canada Portal. This greatly increases the exposure and dissemination of the research results of UVic grad students.
The use of ETDs also eliminates the need for students to provide multiple paper copies for the library and saves paper and physical storage space in the library.
E-theses are protected using a Creative Commons copyright license.
Further information is available on the UVic Libraries website at http://gateway.uvic.ca/lib/dig/uvthesis/index.html.
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